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Hosea 1:2-10, Colossians 1:5-19, Luke 11:1-13
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
Much of our reading today is about relationship with God: in faith, in fidelity and in prayer. The prophet Hosea warns Israel in no uncertain terms that their relationship with God is tenuous because of their actions. Yet, if they turn around, repent, they will continue to be called, "Children of the living God."
Paul is at his poetic best in his letter to the Colossians. "God made you alive in him, when he forgave us all our trespasses." Our sins were taken up in the cross of Christ. Therefore, do not fall out of relationship with God. Do not worry about cultic festivals and special diets. What you eat and drink will not bring you closer to God. Do not worship angels, worship only God and Jesus Christ his Word.
You can almost hear the plaintiveness in the disciples request to be taught how to pray. They are with Jesus daily, yet there is that feeling, that need to pray to God. So we have Luke's version of what we call the "Lord's Prayer," the most famous prayer of Christianity. It is the universal prayer of the universal church.
But it is not the only prayer of the church. We are blessed in the Episcopal Church to have several books of prayers to guide us, inspire us and comfort us in times of need. Weekly we say the "collect for purity." In many parishes this is said by the priest. I moved us to have all of us say this. My guess, my hope, is that by now it is part of your life. You could pray it without the words in front of you. You could just live into its words and not read its words. That is the power of written prayers, as we move into the words we pray.
I have experienced St. Stephen's as a community of prayer. When I came the prayers for healing was already well established, by the Rev. Marjorie Black as I recall. We now do them in the chapel for more privacy during Communion. I invite all of you to take advantage of these prayers for any type of healing: body, mind, spirit, self. Prayers are offered quietly and in confidence.
On the last Sunday of each month, today, we have the sustained prayer ministry offered by Judy Carter and Zachary Johnson. This is for sustained, community prayers, often accompanied by a symbol of that prayer, a shawl or lap robe made by someone in the parish: "Outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace." Please feel free to join in this powerful prayer ministry.
A prayer ministry just starting soon will be a prayer chain. People linked together via telephone and email to be reminded to pray for people in the parish and in our lives outside of the parish.
I often visualize this community as surrounded by galaxy of prayers being offered by different people at different times for all of us. Another image I hold is that from Robert Frost's poem, "The Silken Tent:" "...loosely bound by countless silken ties of love and thought."
One reason we list people in the bulletin for our prayers is so we can take the list home with us to pray for them and not just aloud here in church.
With all of these prayers, powerful and beautiful prayers, they still come under the domain of the greatest prayer Jesus gave. He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, preparing for his painful death. What did he pray: "My Father, if it possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want....your will be done," (Matt. 25:36-42).
Prayer is as much about seeking to know God's will as well as our desires of the heart, knowing that the most important piece of prayer is bringing our desires of the heart into God's will. In the older language, "Thy will be done."
This is not easy. This week I prayed several times with two individuals who will never sit in their favorite chair again at home or eat at their kitchen table. Yet, I prayed for God's peace to be with them and God's healing in their lives, all the while seeking to know God's will for them.
When we pray for healing, that does not always mean restoration of health, but rather a healing of mind and spirit and calming of soul to move on. I have prayed for healing for many people and then seen them die a holy and peaceful death. Healing.
When we pray it is a double sided coin. We pray our hopes and intentions. We pray for our ability to accept and see God's will for us and for them. Thy will be done.
"Almighty God, to whom our needs are known before we ask: Help us to ask only what accords with your will; and those good things which we dare not, or in our blindness cannot ask, grant us the for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." (BCP 394)