StPaulsSpryfield
Sermon: Let us Pray
Posted on: 05/27/2009 10:07
St. Paul’s May 24, 2009
SERMON: LET US PRAY
“There is something very tempting about escaping from the world,” writes scholar Thomas Troeger. Those in the tourist industry and the entertainment business know this. They spend millions to lure us to escape from the pressures and problems of everyday life to a luxury cruise, a lavish resort, or a fantasy world. Religious faith may intensify the desire to withdraw from the world. “Having glimpsed a vision of what is holy and good,” writes Troeger, “the human spirit may hunger not for the promised splendor of luxury resorts, but for a community and a way of being that avoid the clamor and conflict of the world.”
“It appears that the desire to live apart from the world arose in the community of John,” he continues. “By the end of the first century..., as conflict with the authorities increased, the members of John’s community were understandably attracted to a life of faith that would disengage them from the powers that were opposed to the gospel. How good it would feel to retreat into their own group, to recall the stories of Jesus, to sense his presence in their meals of bread and wine, to enjoy each other’s ... fellowship, and no longer have to defend their beliefs and practices in a hostile world.”
Today’s reading from the Gospel of John addresses this desire to retreat from the world. Jesus stresses that his disciples “do not belong to the world”; that is, the world’s standards and values do not define their identity. But at the same time, Jesus makes it clear that “there is no escape from the reality of the world.” He does not ask that God “take them out of the world,” but simply that God will protect them from evil. Indeed, he is sending his disciples into the world to share God’s word and do God’s work.
Speaking of retreating from the world, I am signed up for a five day directed retreat in June at the Seton Spirituality Centre in TerenceBay. On the recommendation of the Ministry and Personnel Committee, the Unified Board has allowed me to take part of my study leave to go on retreat, to take an extended time away from my usual activities in order to pray, reflect, and seek to deepen my relationship with God. Some might think that to make a retreat is to indulge in that desire to escape from the pressures and problems of the real world. As part of my preparation for the retreat I’ve been reading a book by Margaret Silf called Going on Retreat: A Beginner’s Guide to the Christian Retreat Experience. She says that “to make a retreat is not to escape from the real world, but to be in touch with aspects of reality that are often covered over with noise and busyness.” The purpose of a retreat is to withdraw from the everyday world for a time, so that we can re-engage with new perspective and power. By moving inward in order to draw closer to God, the ground of all being, says Silf, we are empowered “to move out again with renewed energy and vision, to turn our contemplation into action within a wounded world, and to make choices and decisions that will contribute to our world’s healing.”
Scripture tells us that Jesus himself would often withdraw to a quiet place to pray. Through his times of retreat in the silence of the Galilean hills, alone with his Father, he was renewed and empowered to give himself fully for the healing of this wounded world.
Prayer plays an important part in both of today’s scripture readings. In Acts, the church prays for guidance as it chooses a new leader. And in John, Jesus prays for his disciples as he prepares to leave them. Today’s passage is part of the long prayer that Jesus prays just prior to his arrest. Jesus knows that he is soon to return to God, leaving behind disciples who are confused and afraid to carry on his work. He will no longer be with them in body, but he will give them his Spirit to comfort and help them. In the meantime, he prays for them, asking God to protect them from evil, unite them in love, fill them with joy, and empower them to fulfil their mission in the world. His prayer for them is also a prayer for us, for he includes in his prayer all who will believe in him because of their witness.
Jesus was praying for us, and according to scripture he continues to pray for us. The apostle Paul assures us that it is “Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.” Jesus’ prayer in the 17th chapter of John is an intercessory prayer, a prayer on behalf of others. It is meant to be a model for us. Jesus is showing us how to pray, teaching us to pray, not just for our own needs and concerns, but for the needs and concerns of others.
Again and again, as he prepares to leave them, Jesus has reminded them of the new commandment: “‘love one another as I have loved you.’” “We talk about how difficult love is,” writes John Killenger in his book Bread for the Wilderness. “Perhaps that is because we don’t pray. When you pray, you can’t help loving. In fact, praying is loving. It is loving the world and loving God through the world. It is even loving the self, for in prayer the self is seen as God sees it, tenderly, redemptively, joyously.” Intercessory prayer is a way of loving others.
I bet you’ve been wondering what we’ve been doing in that group called Experiment in Practical Christianity. One of the most practical things we’ve been doing is learning to pray, and, in particular, to pray for others. We began with a daily experiment called Seeing People Real. The idea was to picture, one by one, each person in the group, including yourself. As each person comes into focus, you simply hold that person in love, reflecting on the questions, “How does God, the God whom Jesus embodies, look at this person?” and “What would it mean for me to embody God’s love for this particular person?” When we pray this way we don’t have to figure out how to pray for another, or worry about what to pray for. We simply hold that person in love before God.
Later we extended this experiment to a wider circle. We were invited to make a list of all those people for whom my life makes a real difference: family, people at work or school, neighbours, friends, enemies, fellow members of our congregation, of our community, of other organizations we belong to, distant relatives. Every day we would begin with those closest to us, the ones we need to pray for every day, and then systematically take a couple of names from each category on our prayer list, trying to see each person as God sees them, and pondering what it means for me or you to love that person as God loves them. I haven’t finished my list yet, but it’s getting longer. Every morning when I have my prayer time I find I get several “nudges” to pray for a certain person, or even to give them a call or go and see them. Others in the group have said that this experiment has led to a more fruitful prayer life and a deeper relationship with God.
“As we deepen our personal relationship with God, we strengthen our relationship with all of God’s creation,” writes Jane Vennard in The Praying Congregation, the book we used for a Lenten Study in 2008. “Our prayer does not isolate us; rather it connects us to sisters and brothers around the world, to the creatures of water, sky, and land, and to the earth itself. As we grow in intimacy with God, we see others and the world as God would see them - with love, mercy, and compassion - and are often moved to acts of charity,” social action, or eco-justice. When we pray, “God interacts with us with us, supporting and encouraging us, to bring about [God’s] intention, to bring harmony and wholeness into our lives and the life of the world.”
So “prayer is not an escape from the world,” writes Vennard, but rather calls us more fully into the world.” “My experience,” she says, “leads me to understand that prayer and action flow into one another, that they form a circle in which each completes the other.” Prayer empowers us for creative action in the world. Prayer is opening ourselves to God as a flower opens itself to the sun, so that God can open us to others and to the world; so that God can act through us and others to change the world.
As you know, we are in the process of creating a website for St. Paul’s. I read about a church which decided to include a place on its website where people could write in prayer requests. From the very first week they were swamped - “dozens, then hundreds of prayers and requests for prayer, pages of human need, prayers for healing, for relationships, for children in need, for the world.” Two people in that congregation who were devoted to prayer offered to pray every day for every person and need submitted.
At the seminar I attended last week called Creating Disciple Making Communities I talked to a UnitedChurch minister serving in P.E.I. who started a group called Table Grace. Once a week, a small group of people who feel called to pray meet at the church at noontime to offer intercessory prayers and share communion together. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a prayer group at St. Paul’s? Maybe noontime wouldn’t work, but we could meet at the church in the evening once a week to engage in a ministry of prayer for our congregation, specific concerns, and local and world situations. I know we have at least one person at St. Paul’s who is eager to be part of such a group. And in the book that the Unified Board is using for a study, Becoming a Blessed Church, there’s an appendix titled “A Guide to Creating a Prayer Group.” I think I’m getting one of those nudges we talk about in Experiment in Practical Christianity - those little hunches, small impulses that just might be the prompting of God’s Spirit. And maybe, if you’re attentive, you might get one of those nudges too - maybe to become part of a prayer group or to participate in Bible Study, maybe to take on some specific form of service in the church, or to engage in some particular ministry of social action or eco-justice in the world.
Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can hope for or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever.
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