Intercessory Prayer (Psalm 116:1-7, 12-14, Luke 18:1-8)
Today, as I mentioned earlier, we are joining with other Baptist churches around the country to Walk the World – praying for Australia, praying for our neighbourhoods and praying for our world and the church throughout the world.
Prayer is many things. It is praise and adoration. It is giving thanks to God. It is confession of our sins. It is lament. And it is also petition – intercessory prayer – bringing before God the desires of our hearts.
The Parable of the Unjust Judge (also known as the Parable of the Importunate Widow or the Parable of the Persistent Woman – I like that last title) that we read this morning is a strange story about intercessory prayer. It almost reads as though Jesus is describing God as an unjust judge. A judge – or a God – who must be begged and begged and begged and who only reluctantly and out of self-interest does what is right. New Testament scholar, William Loader, describes Jesus’ technique here as “playfully shocking in the way it is prepared to liken God to the judge”, but perhaps it also touches on some of our deepest fears about how God might respond to our prayers – and therefore our tendency to self-censor what we bring to God.
In her book on Christian spiritual practices, Soul Feast, Marjorie Thompson speaks about the taboos we have learned, “about what we are permitted to bring into prayer.” For instance, “that doubt, anger, hatred or despair are inappropriate to express to God.” But we know what happens in human relationships when people cannot really speak to one another. People grow apart. “Intimacy becomes impossible.” In prayer we need to speak, “from the heart with unreserved honesty.”
We do not know, however, what happens when we pray for others. And I like how Thompson deals with this in Soul Feast, by simply listing all the different views, all of which come from the Bible, about what intercessory prayer is about – and she encourages us to think about which best fits our understanding, and then invites us to consider that we might hold several of these views in tension:
- By our requests and reasoning with God, we change God’s attitude and intended action in the world (Gen 18:22-33, Exod 32:11-14).
- By engaging in prayer, we find ourselves changed, marked by our encounter with the living God (Gen 32:24-30).
- In prayer we voice our desires and needs and fears but are ultimately dependant on God’s sovereign will and action (Job 7:11-20, 13:3, 19:7, 42:1-6).
- In prayer we align our love and will with the love and will of Christ Jesus and leave the results to him (John 15:1-11, Rom 8:26-27, Heb 4:14-16).
- In prayer we discover the Holy Spirit already praying in us and try to attune and ourselves to that presence and that inward prayer (Ps 139, Rom 8:26-27).
- When we pray, we simply trust that God will respond with a good and appropriate gift in God’s own time and way (Matt 7:7,9-11)
- When we pray, we are cooperating with God in willing life and goodness for others, yet we remain vulnerable with God to the limits imposed by evil – limits accepted in the freedom that love creates (Mark 14:32-36).
What we do know about prayer, and what Jesus declares in this passage, is that we pray to a good and just and gracious God. A God who hears us. “Will not God grant justice to his chosen people who cry to him day and night,” says Jesus, and that we are called to keep praying. Day and night – we are to persist in prayer. We are to be importunate, persistent prayers.
Because God is not identified with the judge in this parable. God is identified with the widow. God is with the one who cries out for justice. Throughout scripture, God is on the side of the widow, the orphan, the poor and the foreigner. And we are called to persist in prayer – to persist in prayer for the vulnerable of our world – not just because it is right and ultimately, the parable says, because justice will prevail – but because being in prayer – in communion – with them is being in communion with God.
On a scrap of paper in my Bible I have a quote from Desmond Tutu who says, “What I have found is that getting up a little earlier and trying to have an hour of quiet in the presence of God, mulling over some scripture, supports me…even when I exercise…I use that time for intercession…for me the most important of all is that I am not alone – I am not alone. A solitary nun in California once told me that she prayed for me at two o’clock in the morning. In a scientific, materialistic, secular society this would be described as nonsense. For me it brings a kind of confidence that things will be all right.”
Are we that one solitary person lifting up someone who is vulnerable? Are we that one solitary person holding up someone engaged in the struggle for justice? Are we – as a community – praying for and with those who cry out to God for peace and healing and justice – those who are close to God’s heart?
In a moment we are going to start our Walk the World prayer exercise.
And there are two ways that you can do this.
Steve is going to lead a walking prayer group. This group are going to walk to three corners of our church property – first down to the easternmost point (perhaps closes to Parliament House) where you are going to pray for Australia, then along Telopea park Rd to the back of the Community garden where you are going to pray for our neighbourhood, and finally back to church here where you will join in prayer here for our world and the work of the church in our world.
I am going to remain here with a more stationary prayer group. We are going to pray for those three areas as well – Australia, our neighbourhood, and the world and the work of the church – but we are going to do it in here, interspersed with the verses of our next hymn.
And then we will all join in a final prayer together.
But before we move into this time of prayer – let’s pray:
Loving God, we are told that we are not alone, you are with us.
You are as close as a prayer, as close as our heart.
Yet sometimes you feel so far away, God!
Teach us to pray!
For those among us who have not prayed this week;
forgive us for not turning to you,
for prioritizing so many things, and missing something essential.
and failing to find the comfort and wisdom you offer.
For those among us who wanted to pray,
but didn’t know how to pray this week:
show us that we can long for you,
even when there are no words.
For those among us who prayed,
but prayed selfishly or for only our own benefit;
enlarge our horizon to see your big picture,
to see the needs of others and not just our own.
For those among us who prayed,
but felt that you were not listening,
or did not answer the way we wanted;
give us patience, and trust in your timing.
For those among us who are not sure you are even there to pray to;
may the prayers of our community
lead us into your presence,
drawing us into your love and deepest care.
We bring this morning into your love and care, Judith and Richard Bauer. We thank you that Judith has come safely through her surgery and pray for her recover – and for Richard’s ongoing recovery as well.
We pray for Jean Daly and ask that you will be very close to her and her family at this time.
We also pray for Edna’s sister Silvie who has developed this immunocompromised condition and pray for the medical team caring for her, and for Barry’s father in hospital.
We pray for Ana and Philipp – for the time of celebrating their marriage yesterday – and ask that you will richly bless them all their lives.
We pray, too, for your love and your care to be with Seaforth Baptist Church, and their pastor, Christine, and with Hamilton Baptist, and Andrew and Scott, as they respond – and as we respond – to these letters from the NSW & ACT Baptist Association. Help us hear your wisdom and fill us with your grace, God.
Hear all the concerns of our hearts – as we walk now and as we sit and pray – for our country Australia, for those who you call us to be neighbours to, and for the world that you love – that you call us to love. Amen.