Widening Our Prayer

First, let me say how blessed Barbara and I feel to be appointed as your pastors. Thirty-five years ago, when I was here as a seminary intern, I couldn’t help wondering, “Will I ever be the pastor of a church like this? Could it come true one day that I am the pastor of this church?” And now it has! Barbara and I look forward to many years of working together with you to discern God’s vision for First Church and to be the means by which God’s dream for us is turned into reality.

Now to the main point of this post: Like John McMullen, one of my heroes is Will Willimon, formerly dean of the chapel at Duke University and now bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church. In an article in the April 29, 2009, issue of The Christian Century, Bishop Willimon makes some provocative statements about the current state of prayer in public worship. He writes:

“In many of the churches I visit on Sundays, it is the custom for the pastor, at some point in the service, to ask, ‘Are there any prayer requests?’

“Then cometh the reading of the sick list, mostly a tale of woe about the physical deterioration of the congregation’s senior citizens. There may be pain, injustice and the ravages of nature elsewhere, but for us, the purpose of prayer is purely physical –and it’s all about us [emphasis mine]. . . I was even in a congregation where the bulletin included two pages of ‘prayer concerns’ with the sufferers categorized by their particular ailments.

“This is not prayer as Jesus practiced and taught it. Bread and debts are mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer, but infection and discomfort are not. Prayer in Jesus’ name is noted for his demand that we pray for our enemies, not our illnesses. I’ve recently heard prayers about radical mastectomies, testicular tumors and sprained index fingers but I can’t tell you when I’ve heard a really good intercession for Osama bin Laden. . . .”

To be sure, “The church instigated the first hospitals and has always actively advocated for and ministered to the health of people inside the church and out. But only recently did health become the whole point of the church’s prayer.”

Near the end of the article, Willimon offers this observation: “For Christians, healing, as a gift of God, is always subservient to the gifts of fidelity and discipleship.” [end of citation] In other words, we pray for our own health not as an end in itself, but so that we can be more faithful and effective disciples. Sometimes, God even uses our illnesses as occasions of witness.

Now please don’t misunderstand the point I am trying to make by quoting Willimon. Neither he nor I am saying that we should not include health concerns in our private and public prayers in church. But rather, we are saying that the scope of our prayer concerns should be broader than our physical and personal ailments. In addition to our individual concerns, we should pray for ministries that are going on in the church and decisions it is facing. We should lift up issues facing our local, state, national and world communities.

The Presbyterian Church’s Book of Common Worship puts the point well:

“Across the ages, the church in its worship has prayed for the church universal, the world, all in authority, and those in distress or need. At no other time in its worship is the community of faith more conscious of the needs of the life of the world.

“We pray for the world because God loves it. God created the world and cares for it. God sent Jesus, who died for it. God is working to lead the world toward the future God has for it. To abide in God’s love is to share God’s concern for the world. Our prayers should therefore be as wide as God’s love and as specific as God’s tender compassion for the least ones among us.”

The Book of Common Worship goes on to explain that our prayers in worship take two forms: Intercession. The congregation prays for worldwide and local concerns, offering intercession for:

the church universal, its ministry and those who minister, that the world might believe;

the world, those in distress or special need, and all in authority, that peace and justice
may prevail;
the nation, the state, local communities, and those who govern in them, that they may know and have strength to do what is right.

Supplications. The congregation prays for its own life and ministry, offering supplications for:

the local church, that it may have the mind of Christ in facing special issues and needs;
those who struggle with their faith, that they be given assurance;
those in the midst of transitions in life, that they be guided and supported;
those who are sick, grieving, lonely, and anxious, that they be comforted and
healed;
all members, that grace conform them to God’s purpose.”

So when you come to worship, I encourage you to think about what we need to pray for in the life of our congregation, in this city and state, in our nation and world and to submit those prayer petitions, along with intercessions for physical conditions.

In fact, there is an issue facing our congregation right now that I invite you to pray about: how we can be in ministry with the homeless on our doorsteps in ways that both treats them as our brothers and sisters in Christ and takes into account our own members’ and our neighbors’ concerns about safety and respect for property.

Remember that our mission as United Methodist Christians is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” Karl Barth once said, “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”

Prayerfully,
John