Thoughts and Prayers - May 16, 2021
Thoughts and Prayers
1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19
1 John 5:9-13
If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
John 17:6-19
”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
Prayer - God of All – as we gather this day we are reminded that your Son Christ Jesus is our mediator. He not only redeemed us but he prays for us even today. Too often when we pray we do so without really thinking about the need of prayer – thoughts and prayers have become our nonchalant response when something happens. Help us to be intentional, help us to speak truth, even if others may not want to hear it; help us to live and act and pray as Jesus did and does – amen.
Whenever I walk into a patient’s room I pause for a moment and say a silent prayer – Lord, help me to stay out of your way, help me to speak with truth and compassion. As my visit comes to close I typically look at the patient or family and ask if they would like a prayer. If they say yes, I always ask what it is they would like me to pray as I can’t assume to know what they may be asking of God in that moment. Honestly a great number of times I am somewhat surprised by their request. For some, their request is for a cure, for a miracle. Others request that I pray for their loved ones. Some request prayer for God’s will, for peace no matter what happens. And every now and then, someone will ask that I pray for all the others in the hospital who are sick and scared and may be dying. Not too different than Jesus’ prayer for his friends during that last meal before he is tried, beaten and crucified. In the midst of his farewell discourse, he prays for them.
Before jumping into the content of Jesus’ prayer, I’d like to pause for a moment to reflect on the act itself. Jesus prays for his disciples; he ‘asks on their behalf.’ To use the traditional theological descriptions, Jesus is fulfilling the office of priest. As he shares his final words before his arrest, Jesus prays for those he loves, those he is closest to.
Each day at the hospital I am asked to pray and frequently I am asked to pray for miracles, for cures, for what I know deep in my brain as fruitless prayers. And I suppose when I invite the patient or family to share a time of prayer I set aside the best I am able those thoughts that despite the best prayer I can offer, at the end of the day, this patient is still going to die, and perhaps with a great deal of suffering. I understand their request because when there is nothing else one can do for a loved one, when they long to do something for a loved one who is seriously ill, and in this helpless state then prayer is all that is left. Love says pray for all your worth to bring your loved one back to a healthy state. This quid pro quo theology may be suspect, but one’s motive at the moment couldn’t be more pure.
Prayer has come under fire as of late. Promises of ‘thoughts and prayers’ feel vapid, condescending, useless. The phrase carries as much heft as ‘take care’ at the end of a conversation, or ‘have a nice day’ from the friendly sales clerk. We are keeping the latest victims of yet another mass shooting this week in our ‘thoughts and prayers.’ We are remembering the millions of refugees in our ‘thoughts and prayers.’ Take care. Have a nice day. So what? The criticism rings valid. But dismissing prayer all together throws the baby out with the spiritual bath water.
While it may be easy to dismiss ‘thoughts and prayers’ as an attempt to delay or ignore the importance of faithful action, Jesus still pauses and prays for his disciples. Jesus knows that action and self-sacrifice will soon come, but prayer is an equally essential piece of this faithful and fateful night. As he prepares to depart from them, knowing full well that betrayal and denial and pain and suffering are within reach, Jesus loves his disciples enough to pray for them.
Have you ever experienced a love like that? Has someone prayed for you in a way that changed your life? I have been the recipient of your intercessory prayer. When I went into the hospital at the end of December with Covid I knew that I may never leave. I knew that I may never see Valerie, my kids or grandkids, or even you ever again. I knew that my very life was in God’s hand. Walking into the ER that morning was truly frightening because I knew what may very well happen to me if my illness worsened. And even as I walked into the ER that morning I knew that friends and family was praying their butts off on my behalf – yes, thoughts and prayers brought me through that frightening time. And I was and am grateful for being cared for by countless people who were praying on my behalf. And I believe that Jesus too was praying for healing for my body.
I have felt the power of intercessory prayer and I trust you have as well in your lives. Even scientists are attempting to demonstrate the power of intercessory prayer – we know that people who have others praying for them recover quicker, have less pain and suffering and receive benefits from those prayers. It doesn’t mean they will survive, but research has proven that intercessory prayer makes a difference whether the recipient is aware or not that the prayer is being offered on their behalf.
I can imagine all of us have experienced the power of prayer and not just when we pray for ourselves. We have seen the power of prayer when we pray for others. As disciples of Jesus, our prayers for others begin because we recognize that Jesus prays for us first. We are recipients of prayer. Therefore our prayers begin not with our words but with our hearts. To pray is to long for connection with something bigger than ourselves. It is to recognize that we cannot face the world alone. It is to admit that we don’t have all the answers, all the wisdom, all the grace, all the love, all the care that we need to make it through this day, much less tomorrow, or the day after. To pray is not to convince God to do our bidding. To pray is to change our hearts, to give our hearts, our very selves to God in that moment. Or as William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas write, “prayer is bending our lives toward God.” (Lord, Teach Us)
Jesus prays, Jesus teaches his followers to pray. The oldest book in the NT, 1 Thessalonians, instructs us to ‘pray without ceasing.’ Saints through the ages have followed that mandate and I don’t know many people of faith I want to emulate who don’t pray with regularity. Power, God’s power, accompanies prayer. Thoughts and prayers, when actually thought and prayed, carry the weight of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit speaks, intercedes, accompanies and advocates for each and every one of us.
As a chaplain I know that the ‘thoughts and prayer’ I share don’t necessarily determine the fate for the patients and families I offer pray with and for. Honestly, those prayers of ‘oh please, oh please, oh please, God,’ don’t always result in the ending they tenaciously want. And yet, I do believe that those very ‘thoughts and prayers’ matter. I believe every prayer that others, that you, that I have lifted to the throne of grace matters. Not because they are answered, but because they are uttered.
When we can do nothing else, when we feel utterly helpless, we can pray. And yes, I get it – we can’t only pray, we must also act. But our actions may be better ordered and in line with God’s if we pray before, during and after we act. Prayer puts us in our place, after all. Prayer reminds me of our created-ness and our limitations. Praying reveals relationship, with God and with each other. A posture of prayer engenders humility, connection and perhaps most importantly hope.
In the spring of 1998 when I was working at MCV Hospital in Richmond, VA, we had four victims from a mass shooting come into our ER that morning. I was covering the ER and watched as two of the four victims died in our trauma rooms. Two men had walked into a Bank of America and opened fire with AR-15 guns, guns made for military use and not for citizens. Having witnessed how hard our trauma teams worked on a teller and the security guard, I was angry, angry at how easily people can get weapons never intended for citizens to have in their possession. I wrote letters to our state and federal legislators inviting them to come spend a Saturday night in the ER with a chaplain who bears far too much witness to the deadly nature of an automatic weapon. I received responses of ‘thoughts and prayers’ from several and only one said he was willing to take me up on my offer – and he did.
In the spring of 2009, I was working at a hospital in my hometown in NC. A similar incident occurred where a single person saw a ‘rival’ at an intersection, jumped out of his care and pulled out an AR-15 and opened fire. His rival suffered a minor wound while two other people who were at that stoplight died from their wounds, innocent bystanders if you will, one of which was an 18 yo who was returning a rented movie at the convenience store on the other side of the intersection. I was angry once again and wrote letters to the state and federal legislators begging them to do something about the public health nemesis of gun violence. Again I got several responses of ‘thoughts and prayers’ for the victims, but not a one was willing to act on the epidemic of gun violence that continues in our nation today.
I honestly believe that prayer aligns us with God – it is good for us. And prayer aligns us with those who God loves. This leads us to pray for others, from personal needs of family and friends to the biggest issues that face our entire world. Sometimes praying is all we can do. And knowing that others are praying for us can be very meaningful. Thoughts and prayers can be powerful – but often there is more that we can do. And in those situations, ‘thoughts and prayers’ becomes a banal excuse for not embodying those prayers in action.
I do believe that prayer builds solidarity with those who are suffering. Prayer is a way of practicing empathy. Each Sunday when we offer the prayers of the people and hold up the poor, the hungry, the sick, those in the world and community and in our own congregation we are reminded that this is something that matters to us a Christians, as people of faith. Prayer provides an initial way to respond in faith, and hopefully becomes the first step toward action. This is especially important when hearing about something distant or overwhelming that we really can’t do something about, at least not immediately. While the ‘first responders’ were being called out at the beginning of the pandemic, our first response was to offer our pain, our fears, our worries to God, then God began to illuminate what we could do to help – stay home, wear a mask, socially distance. It kept us from being stuck even when we were stuck at home.
Praying leads us to action, but it doesn’t substitute for it. If we pray for victims and their families because of gun violence, how might we concretely act? Are we willing to work for legislation that makes sense that would reduce gun violence as a way to live out our prayers? If we pray for someone who is sick, are we willing to go sit with them or bring a meal as way of practicing what we pray?
A shallow practice of extending ‘thoughts and prayers’ with no self-reflection and no commitment to action is no prayer at all. Embodied, emboldened thoughts and prayers can be a powerful movement that follows Jesus in aligning ourselves with God’s concern for all people. My hope, my prayer is that you, me, all of us are about more than thoughts and prayers – God is depending on us to act and not just pray – may we do so – thanks be to God – amen.