Prayer

I want to tell you a story about something that happened a few years back.  The main character in the story has given me permission to share this story in the past so I am assuming that I still have that permission. 

Anyway, someone I’ll call Bob was in church one Sunday shortly after his wife was diagnosed with  ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.   Bob usually sat pretty close to the back and was usually one of the last people to kneel down at the rail for communion.  Because Bob’s wife had been ill for some time--- though not diagnosed—Bob was usually in church alone.  Often Bob’s friend Jim, one of our organist would get down off the organ bench to receive communion with Bob.    That particular day Bob and Jim were the the last two people at the rail and had the rail the entire rail themselves. 

And as I placed the bread into his hand  you could just see how the weight of the world on Bob’ shoulders.  After I gave them bread— something came over me—probably the Holy Spirit saying do something  so I asked bob if I could invite the community to pray for him and Sandy right then.  .    Bob agreed.  So I put the paten back on the altar and said to the congregation—if anyone would like to join me to pray over Bob please come forward. 

Slowly people got out of their pews and made their way forward—one by one the entire church 70-80 people made their way forward and crowd around the altar rail to surround Bob.  At one point Bob who was kneeling with his back to the congregation waiting for me to pray and kind of looked at me like “What’s the hold up buddy-- w.”  I looked down and said something like their all coming.  The entire church engulfed Bob and prayed and we cried with Bob for a few minutes that Sunday. 

Now that prayer and the hundreds that came after—from all I can tell did little to stem the progress of Sandy’s disease—not too long after she would be dead—there were fervent prayers throughout her illness but no physical restoration came.  Often it doesn’t seem like prayer works—often we pray for healing and it never ever comes.  I don’t know exactly what happened in our prayers that day—but I can surmise some things.     The prayers that day—said to Bob and to Sandy---we your church have  your backs—we are going to be in this with you through thick or thin--  It put the congregation on notice that we have a role to play with this family.

And I don’t know if this happened but it might have—maybe in that prayer Bob got a bit of strength—to go forward from the moment to face the rest of his day with a bit more energy or maybe Sandy got a bit of strength to stare  the monster of ALS in the face and say you might steal my body, but I’m not surrendering my spirit. 

I truly believe prayer works—maybe not in the ways we envision, but something good always  happens when we draw close to God in moments of prayer.    Isn’t that what prayer is connecting with God and with each other in some way—binding ourselves to the creator of heaven and earth  and  binding ourselves to the people we pray for.

It’s quite obvious from James today—that prayer is important— he spends the last words of his Epistle exhorting his congregation  to pray in good times –praise God -- in bad time pray ----he reminds his congregation and us that it is our vocation to be people of  prayer- both as individuals, but also as a Christian community—the church has a vocation to be lifting the world to the gates of heaven in prayer.  The message from the bible about prayer is loud and often challenging —Paul says pray without ceasing.  Jesus challenges us to pray for our enemies and those who persecute us. 

This week I want to send you away with a little prayer challenge--  we are coming to the end of our time in James- we’ve spent the last few weeks being challenged by James many many exhortations to act out our faith—or as James says to be doers of the word not hearers. Today the exhortation is prayer.   three weeks ago we were challenged—to be people of integrity that our behavior should match  our Christian beliefs—and 2 weeks ago we were reminded  that the words that come forth from our mouths they  matter and last week to be people with an alternative vision—drawing close to the heartbeat of God.

I don’t know about you but all that has gone on in our nation this week has shown me how much more I need to be a person of prayer- not that it might change things beyond me but the need I have to draw close to the calm steady rock of God in the midst of the chaos.    

Now I want to offer a few suggestions…

If our vocation as a church is to be people of prayer-maybe this week we get out our church directories and pray our  way through it—imagining our fellow parishioners and all the trials and travails—some we  know about and other travails that will remain hidden from us.

Maybe something communally based—take a prayer walk through the neighborhood.  Pray for neighbors by name –often we never know where and how those prayers will be answered.  Or maybe you take a really difficult challenge— praying  for the enemy the person who’s persecuting –the difficult co-worker –the other student at school —how would saturating that person and that situation in prayer change us and our responses.  

Draw near to God with your word and with your prayers.

AMEN