Following are brief reflections on prayer, used as part of worship service on these verses in 1 Timothy.
REFLECTION “PRAYERS,
PRAYERS, PRAYERS”
There is a well-known and well-worn
adage in the real estate business. If
you ever sold a house, you have heard your broker speak it knowingly. If you ever trained to become a real estate agent,
it is one of the first things your mentor taught you. The saying is, of course “location, location,
location.” The most important thing when
it comes to selling a home is location.
The author of this first letter to
Timothy, the pastor of a small first century church in Ephesus, whom we met
last week, attaches a similar importance to prayer. The author tells our young pastor that he
ought to be exhorting his congregation to engage in – literally - a “regular
exercise” of prayer.
The advice to Timothy then is not
“location, location, location,” but rather “prayers, prayers, prayers.” The most important thing when it comes to
one’s relationship with God is prayer.”
In fact, if we were to look at the
Greek language, which is the original language of this letter, we would find
that, because Greek uses no commas or other punctuation marks, these words of
advice simply ran together – in this case, I believe,
adding more power to their meaning. So,
when Pastor Timothy read this letter, what he would have seen would have
sounded – to us - like “prayersprayersprayersthanksgiving” – all one, long
word.
For the author of this letter, prayer –
both personal and in the context of the church community – is important. It is so important, in fact, that the author
tells us that we cannot do too much of it.
We can never pray too often.
Prayer is first and foremost.
First of all, he says, is prayer.
Biblical scholar Christian Eberhard puts it this way: “A more appropriate translation (he
writes)…would be “above all” or “the most important thing is that ... ” (This
opening phrase) introduces an appeal to be persistent in prayer.”
The author of our letter refers to four
different types of prayer, and we will have an opportunity to experience each
one during worship this morning. We will
do a lot of praying here today.
But remember, not all of our prayers
need to be formal and spoken. Our hymns
and songs can be prayers. We can – and
will – pray a psalm. Even when we are
silent, that silence we create and the halting phrases that fill it that are
hardly words but that are directed to the Holy One, even those moments are
times of prayer as well.
Let us then prepare ourselves to be in
the spirit of prayer this morning by singing together our congregational
response.
REFLECTION “CONDUITS
OF POWER”
One form of prayer that the author touches
upon is general prayer, which can take many forms. Most often, it is prayer that is an appeal to
a particular need – perhaps for courage in the face of difficult times or
forgiveness if even the remotest possibility of reconciliation looms large.
I wonder though if general prayer might
also be the words we say when we bless our Sunday School teachers and Youth
Group leaders. Surely, as we raise our
arms in the ancient sign of blessing, our heartfelt wish that they will find
the good humor, strength, and patience to effectively work with our children
and youth this coming year. And I think
that, in the end, our words are directed not only at our teachers and leaders,
but also at God, thereby becomin words of prayer.
When we pray in this way – with arms
outstretched in the ancient sign of blessing - even our bodies invoke God’s
grace. You see, when we raise our arms
upward and outward, when we pray words of blessing, we become living conduits
for God’s power. It is as if the good
humor, strength, and patience that we pray for pours from God through us into
our teachers and leaders.
When we pray or
bless in that way, we truly offer our utmost support to these people who have
chosen our children’s ministry as one of their contributions in our
church. I invite our teachers and
leaders to come forward to be blessed – children, come too!.
REFLECTION “PRAY FOR EVERYONE – AND THAT MEANS
EVERYONE!”
This next form of prayer mentioned in
the letter to Timothy is supplication, a big word which means an appeal for a
particular need. That is the kind of
prayer that characterizes the moments we set aside for community prayer each
Sunday. We ask for surgeries to have
good outcomes and for healings to be complete.
We ask for safe travels and for new jobs to go well. We ask that our children not be bullied in
school and that they have good years. We
raise up the names of people we know and love to the God we trust.
The author of our letter knows that this
type of prayer can be very exclusive because we most often pray for pray for
people we know – our families, neighbors, co-workers. However, Pastor Timothy is challenged to pray
“for all people” – not just the ones he knows, not just the ones he likes, not
just the ones he trusts. And so it must
be for us.
The author urges Timothy to get his
congregation praying for “kings and all others who are in authority.” For Timothy’s parishioners, that would mean
praying for (not to, but for) the Roman Emperor, for the one who down through
the ages had persecuted their fathers and grandfathers.
As Lutheran pastor, Mary Hinkle Shore,
wrote: ““Everyone” is a lot of people,
some of whom could hurt us, some of whom may even want to destroy our way of
life.” However, the author clearly
states that “everyone” for whom we offer “supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and thanksgivings” includes people powerful enough to hurt us as
well as those we love.
Imagine offering an intercession for
(Bashar al-Assad, who allegedly used chemical weapons against his own people in
Syria).….Could you give thanks for the current president of the United States?
For those in the Tea Party movement? What would happen if you offered
supplication for drug dealers in your town? (Shore reminds us that) you don’t
have to pray that God prospers their work, but you do have to pray for them.
Sometimes “everyone” is even harder as
it moves closer to home: the guy who fired you, the friend who dumped you, the
lover who, you see now, never cared about you at all. Pray for all of them.”
UCC pastor, Kirk Moore, puts it this
way: “We like to pray for everyone –
(everyone) with our own agendas. We dress them up with non-agenda sounding
words, but I think that when we pray for others, we pray that they will
ultimately see things our way – which is of course God’s way, right? (We pray) that the ones we are praying for
will think like we do.”
And so some of us will struggle to pray
for President Obama. Others of us find
it very difficult to pray for Governor LePage.
“What if we simply prayed (Moore continues) for everyone – where our
only agenda was love? What if, when we prayed for everyone, we sought God’s
blessing for everyone?... Don’t pray that they start thinking like you do.
Truly wish them the best and let God set the agenda.” How difficult to do – and perhaps well nigh
impossible – but surely something to strive for! Let us pray together….
Prayers
of our Church Family
This next form of prayer that Pastor
Timothy is taught is called intercession.
It is when we make our bold and earnest requests and appeals to God –
bigger prayers than safe travels, bigger even than healing.
In their book entitled, Built to
Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Jim Collins and Jerry
Porras coined the phrase “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” (BHAG for short). A BHAG is an organizational goal seen
externally as unachievable but internally as far-reaching, but not an
impossibility.
The kid of prayer we are talking about
now is BHAG praying. It is when we put
into words our dreams and visions for the world. It is when we pray for all the bowls of the
hungry to be filled, for the earth to survive for our children and
grandchildren. It is when we pray for
swords to be made into plowshares, for spears into pruning hooks.
In thinking about BHAG prayers this
past week, it occurred to me that, of all the BHAG prayers that we could pray,
the Lord’s Prayer is perhaps the best example.
Listen as this prayer is prayed
because, in bold and urgent ways, it touches upon the truly big things in life.
Meister
Eckert was a 13th century German Christian theologian, philosopher,
and mystic. He wrote, “If the only
prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that would
suffice.” I do not think that I need (or
can) say much more than that. And so
let’s have a time of meditative prayer to lift up to God all the things we are
grateful for, using some thoughts of Jesuit priest James Martin:
“I'm grateful, God, for so many things.
Now, I know I'm not the most grateful person you know, God, so let me take some
time to tell you what I'm thankful for.
I'm grateful, God, for the gift of
life. Without you I wouldn't be here. Without you nothing would be here.
Without you nothing would be at all.
I'm grateful for my parents, God. Even
if they weren't perfect, or completely functional, they loved me the best they
could, and they worked hard to make sure that I had enough to eat, that I was
clothed and that I had a place to sleep. I'll never know all that they did for
me, like the things they did for me when I was a baby, but I can be grateful
for the things that I know….
I'm grateful for my friends, God. Even
if I have only one good friend in my life right now, I'm so grateful. God, you
show your love for me through my friends in ways that I sometimes overlook.
They give me advice, sometimes when I need it, sometimes when I don't, which in
both situations is a sign of their care for me. They listen to me complain,
which I do too much, and they celebrate with me, even if things aren't always
going well for them. They help me to laugh. And they help me to laugh at
myself. That alone is reason to be thankful..…
I'm grateful for my family, God. Yes, I
know that all families are a little nutty, and mine is no exception. Even
Jesus's family tree had its share of complications. But I'm thankful that, even
with the nuttiness, I'm part of a family that has helped to make me the person
I am. I know that they try to love me the best that they can…
I'm grateful for my job, God. It's not
always a bed of roses, but at least I have a place to work and I am able to make
ends meet. That's more than many people have. And I know the people I work with
can drive me crazy, but they are doing their best, too…
I'm grateful, God, for all the things
that I know many people in this world don't have. And that's a long list. So I'm
grateful for food. And clean water that is easily available. And clothes. And
heat in the winter and air conditioning and screens in the summer. I'm grateful
that I can go to the doctor and get a check up and even get shots to help me
avoid illness. That's a lot more than most people have. Help me to be grateful,
and help me remember that I can help those who have less by being generous.
That's one way of thanking you.
Did I mention how much I appreciate all
the things you created? For the color of orange autumn leaves against the deep
blue sky? For the smell of the sidewalk after a thunderstorm on a hot summer
afternoon? For the way that the frost makes crazy patterns on windows in the
winter? For the amazing smell of daffodils in the springtime? While I'm at it,
I'm also grateful for the beach (that's a pretty great thing you created), the
mountains (also great) and sunsets (really great). And hamburgers, too.
Most of all, God, I'm grateful for your
presence in my life. You're everywhere, and if I remember to pay attention I
can see your invitation to meet you in every moment of the day.
I know
that it is you who turns my mind to thoughts of gratitude. And when I'm tempted
to focus only on the problems and worries and fears, I know that I'm being led away
from you.
Now, I'm not always as thankful as I
should be, but today I am. Today I will try to be grateful all day, since you
are generous all day to me, like you are every day.”
Let us share in our
morning offering.
REFLECTION “KEEP
AT IT”
As Frederick Buechner once observed, when you
pull together all of the New Testament passages about prayer, it seems that the
bottom line is always "Keep at it." Truth is, most people testify
that they have no choice. Even those who have been the most bitterly
disappointed by prayer in the past find they cannot prevent future prayers from
welling up within them. So we keep at it. As Buechner says, "We keep on
beating the path to God's door, because the one thing you can be sure of is that
down the path when you beat with even your most half-cocked and halting prayer
the God you call upon will finally come, and even if he does not bring you the
answer you want, he will bring you himself. And maybe at the secret heart of
all our prayers that is what we are really praying for."
By Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond VIllage Community Church UCC, Raymond, Maine
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