Pray (with an open mind) & WAIT (with an open soul)
PRAY (with an open mind) & WAIT (with an open soul)
1First of all, I encourage you to make [supplications], prayers, intercessions, and prayers of thanks for all people,
2for rulers, and for everyone who has authority over us.
Pray for these people so that we can have a quiet and peaceful life always lived in a godly and reverent way. 3This is good and pleases God our Saviour.
One of the things I inherited from my father is a small plastic ruler with the poem “Desiderata” printed on one side ... you might know this poem, it means “things to be desired.” It’s become part of our 20th Century’s “wisdom” literature along with the likes of “Everything I Know about Life I Learned in Kindergarten” and “Peanuts” cartoons, to name just two. To his dying day my father believed, as it said at the end of the poem on his plastic ruler, that the words were “found in Old St. Paul’s Church in 1692.” A romantic notion for sure which seemed to lend a certain mystique and authority to the poem ... but simply not true ... it was actually written and copyrighted in 1925 by an
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
… something to be desired for sure. Then I remembered
I believe this assigned reading for today affirms for us that prayer is the practice by which people of faith will discover a meaningful life. I get the impression the letter-writer is absolutely convinced that prayer is not optional for a follower of Jesus, but central ... and that prayer, humbly and honestly attempted, does bring peace and purpose to our everyday lives and to the life of the faith community. With that in mind, I invite you to join me in unpacking this text a bit more, so you might choose again today to personally covenant with Molly and me and our whole congregation, to pray for each other in a more tangible way during the season ahead.
So did you notice the 4 different prayer forms mentioned in the opening verse of this chapter ... SUPPLICATION, PRAYER, INTERCESSION and THANKSGIVING? Obviously those are not the only kinds of prayer available to us ... in fact, Eugene Peterson in The MESSAGE translation expands the idea this way ... “pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.” Still, I think for some worthwhile reason we’re asked to consider these four here, probably because they seem to draw us outward toward others, rather than only focusing on ourselves in prayer.
PRAYER itself suggests spiritual communion with God, that sacred conversation in which we share with God the realities of our daily lives. In a way the intimacy implied by this highly personal connection with God makes it feel very private; but what happens, when we risk sharing our prayers with others, can broaden and deepen our connection to God. Speaking of my father, one story he liked to tell was of “a little boy who was afraid of the dark. At bedtime, when it was time to turn out the light he pleaded with his father not to leave ... his father reassured him that he should pray to God who would be with him all night long, and that would help him fall asleep. A few minutes passed and the boy called out to his dad, who came back in and said, ‘just ask God to hold your hand while you fall asleep.’ Another few minutes passed, the boy called again, dad returned and again assured his son that if he asked, God would be with him. The boy replied, ‘Could you hold my hand while we pray, daddy, ‘cause even though I know God’s here, sometimes I just need a little skin.’” Putting ourselves in a prayer conversation that includes God and another trusted person promises deeper intimacy, not only with God but with other human beings as well.
SUPPLICATION is a curious kind of prayer best described as “humble request.” There is frequently a concern about why this kind of pleading with God is necessary, since God already knows our every need long before we ever realize them. Perhaps today it’s enough to say we are not offering these requests to inform God; it’s not for God’s benefit, but for our own self awareness. To me, the important part of supplication is not the requesting part, but the humility part ... not the demanding of God to fulfill our every wish, but, like Jesus, the humble awakening to seek for God’s will, not our own, in life’s circumstances. And when we do that for and with others, we stand by them as partners, sharing with them the humble realization of God’s will in our life together. The way we will stand by and encourage our faith friends here at Orleans United grows out of “remembering each other’s needs in the presence of God” – supplication.
One way, of course is to take their concerns seriously and remember other people’s needs first in my personal prayer with God. This is understood as INTERCESSION ... praying as an advocate for others, seeking their well-being, even above my own. What I find most compelling about intercession is the gravitational pull it has on my life ... the more I pray for another person, the more I’m drawn to that person in love and grace. And this is the essential power of intercession – it has the power to mobilize our own capacity to show God’s love and care for others, to turn humble prayer into gracious action in Christ’s name. Praying for each other personally here at OUC, releases Christ’s love in our faith community, and through our faith community into our neighbourhood and world.
And that leaves THANKSGIVING ... thanking God for each person of this church, and for the unique shape of God’s love their contributions make to our whole community. Raising up our sisters and brothers in Christ thankfully is to acknowledge before God, how much we need each other in order for our church to be all we can be. None of us can be completely fulfilled here until all of us feel fulfilled, appreciated, respected – and giving thanks for every person is the first step in appreciating our church’s full potential. Give thanks for each other by name: pray for the people you talk with today (when you get home try to remember each one and say thank you to God for them); pray for Sunday school teachers and youth leaders, choir singers and committee members, ushers and coffee servers; pray for our Elders and Council members by name ... give thanks to God for them. Then lift your head from prayer and as your “Amen,” as your “so be it,” reach out to these people in a phone call, or a note, or when you see them again, and personally thank them. Watch what a difference that kind of prayer can make to the quality and character of our whole faith community.
So there you have it ... a quick overview of how a renewed focus on intentional prayer could be a vital part of this new season at OUC. You know, when I opened Tom Harper’s book on Prayer to the page marked by my father’s “Desiderata” ruler, I read what he describes as “waiting upon God.” Harper writes: “Prayer, like so much in life, often consists mainly of expectant waiting. If we wait in patience, and focus upon God, there is so much more … for all who seek the path to personal renewal.” Yes, so much more to be shared. And one of those realizations is that when we pray to God with an open mind and wait upon God with an open soul, God will gracefully turn us toward our neighbours until our prayers include them and our lives embrace them. This is a thing to be desired. “This is good and pleases God our Saviour.”
Glen Stoudt