Disruptive Prayers

Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-7

The 1850’s was a time of upheaval and uncertainty in the United States.  Political polarization was high, and the issue of slavery was a divisive powder keg that was primed to blow up.  The country was changing rapidly.  East Coast cities were in the midst of the industrial revolution, and millions of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and China were making their way to these shores in droves daily.  The Second Great Awakening, which saw a spreading interest and zeal in Christianity, had largely wound down-especially in the costal cities.  All these changes and a dwindling of Christian conviction troubled many disciples during this time.  One of them decided to do something about it.  At the age of forty-eight, Jeremiah Lanphier felt called by God to be a lay missionary to a rapidly changing Manhattan.  He attempted to start a prayer meeting that would meet at noon so that merchants and other businessmen could pray for the city.  Lanphier created and distributed flyers for the gathering all over the city.  The first prayer meeting occurred on September 23rd, 1857.  No one showed up, at least at first.  After half an hour praying on his own a few people filtered in for a total attendance of six.

That was enough for Lanphier to continue.  The second week there were closer to twenty in attendance.  By the third week this had doubled to forty.  The attendance continued to climb so the weekly prayer meeting became daily. Within two months, the prayer meeting had grown even more to the point that there were three simultaneous prayer meetings in different parts of the church building. The desire for prayer was so great that it began to spread throughout the city.   At one point a large theater began opening its doors daily for the prayer meeting and it would be filled with over 5,000 people.   This spread across the country.   Prayer became a daily ritual in places like Washington DC, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.  This prayer gathering is considered to be one of the catalysts that kicked off the third great awakening in American history, and the revival of 1857 is remembered as a time of great evangelical success.  It all started with six people gathering in an old church to pray. 

In this morning’s scripture Paul urges Timothy to embrace the power of prayer.  Prayer truly has the power to change the world.  While many of us probably believe that on some level, I am not sure if we are ready for what we claim to believe.   Change is rarely smooth, it is seldom predictable, and it is nearly always disruptive.   If we take this morning’s scripture to heart and we pray the way that Paul encourages Timothy to pray, then we will be praying disruptive prayers. 

This morning’s scripture once again comes from 1 Timothy.   As Paul traveled around the ancient world, he inspired people to come alongside him, travel with him, and be a co-worker in sharing the good news of Jesus with others.   Timothy was one such person.   At one point Timothy had traveled with Paul around what is now modern-day Turkey and Northern Greece.   At the time that Paul wrote 1 Timothy, Paul had essentially charged Timothy with leading the church in Ephesus.   In 1 Timothy Paul switches back and forth between encouraging Timothy and giving him practical instructions about leading a church.   This morning’s scripture is related to leading the church, and Paul attempts to convey to Timothy a lot of wisdom in just these few verses.  There are a couple of points that Paul made for Timothy that continue to be relevant for us today. 

The focus of Paul’s writing in this morning’s scripture is on prayer.  I appreciate that on the topic of what to pray for, Paul encourages Timothy to pray for people.  Prayer is communication with God, but it should not always be focused on just ourselves and God.  This scripture makes it clear we are supposed to pray for other people as well.  This scripture states that we should make petitions, intercessions, and thanksgiving.   Petitions are when we ask God for something, this is when someone has a prayer request, and we ask God to grant it.  Intercessions are when we pray on someone else’s behalf.  We intercede for someone, not because they asked us to, but because we want God to be at work in their lives in some way even if the person we are praying for has not expressed that.  Finally, in thanksgiving we give thanks to God for people, because every person is fearfully and wonderfully made.  Every person has been created by God, and for God every person is someone worth caring for, so it is appropriate in prayer to give thanks for God for the unique creations that God has made.  Right off the bat Paul tells us we are to pray for people through petitions, intercession, and thanksgiving.   Paul also makes clear we are not supposed to be picky about who we pray for. 

Some people are easy to pray for.   It goes without saying that most of us pray regularly for the people we love the most.  Other people though require us to be a bit more intentional about lifting up in prayer.   As an example of this, Paul lifts up “kings and all of those in authority.”   Now at first glance, this might appear as an appeal to a civic duty to pray for those in position of power.  That is not quite what Paul is advocating for.  Throughout his ministry Paul’s relationship with those in authority was rocky at best.  On more than one occasion he was arrested, imprisoned, he was put on trial, and he was physically punished.

 This all happened as a response to Paul preaching the truth of Jesus.  Despite being mistreated by those in authority, Paul says to pray for them anyway.   To really drive this point home, at the time Paul wrote to pray for kings, Nero was the emperor of Rome.   It was Nero who set off the first persecution of Christians.  Nero is the man who gave the order to have Paul executed.   Paul encouraged Timothy to pray for the very man who would eventually have him killed.  This is in line with what Jesus himself said, when he taught, “You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” 

In our modern world, this is extremely important to keep in mind.  It does not matter what side of the political aisle you find yourself on, we should take the call for prayer to heart.  It is too easy in our current culture to vilify those who we disagree with.  And yet, this morning’s scripture encourages us to pray for those in authority.  This does not exclude the people we didn’t vote for.  It is hard to belittle and demonize those who you pray for.

  It is also too easy to disengage completely and to be jaded, assuming the worst of all those in authority and regard the whole thing with disgust.  And yet, prayer has the power to change to change the world.  Prayers have the power to be disruptive and bring about transformation.  So, if you want leaders to lead with compassion, if you truly want liberty and justice for all, then pray for it.  Pray for all our leaders, even those who you disagree with or even view as an enemy, because prayer is more effective than despair, hope is more transformative than hate, and God still has the power to change even the hardest of hearts. 

  We are not to exclude who we pray for, but from a practical standpoint all of us cannot pray for “all the people” all the time, but we all have people we can pray for.  When it comes to living out this scripture one of the struggles in praying for all the people, is knowing what to pray.   On one hand, praying for others can be easy because we just pray for their health.   We tend to be really good (like really, really good) at praying for people’s health.  The bible does say when someone is sick, we should lift them up in prayer, but it seems far too often our prayers get stuck on illness and injuries.   We can struggle with lifting people in prayer, when they are healthy, or when we cannot see the battles that they are fighting.  One of the reasons why we may not be more diligent in praying for more people, is that we are not quite sure how to pray for them. 

In this morning’s scripture Paul gives us some direction on how we can go about praying for people.  Verses 3 and 4 state, “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”   Praying for the salvation of others is always in the will of God.   In our Methodist expression of the faith we believe strongly that it truly is the desire of God to be reunited with all of God’s people.   After all it was because God so love the world, not just a few, that God sent Jesus to be the mediator between God and humanity.  It was because of a great love for all that Jesus gave himself as a random for all people, not just the elect.   Because God seeks to be reconciled with all people, then praying that all people will come to know the life changing love, the forgiveness of sins, and the everlasting life made known through Jesus Christ is always an appropriate prayer.   There are so many people with testimonies of how the good news of Jesus has disrupted their lives.  How faith led them into a new path and new life.   More often than not, the starting point for that transformation is because someone prayed that the person’s who life has changed would come to Jesus. 
 
Prayer has the power to bring about transformation, and transformative prayers can often be disruptive.  However, we should be prepared that when we pray the greatest transformation will be in ourselves and the greatest disruption will be in our lives.  There is a quote that is regularly misattributed to Pope Francis that states, “You pray for the hungry, then you feed them.  That’s how prayer works.”  When we pray, we are asking God to intervene in the world.  We are asking God to work, to move, and to change the current reality.   If it is our desire that God be willing to do that, then we must be willing to be the agent through which God is going to work.   This means if we are going to care enough about the hungry to ask God to provide for them, then a love that arises from Christian character should compel us to do what we can to provide for them.  It means that if we want there to be less hate and more peace in the world or in our country, then we must be willing to be peacemakers who strive to build bridges of understanding to those who have a different perspective.  It means if we want some to come to know Jesus then we must be willing to tell them about Jesus.  God answers prayers, but there are times when the way the prayer is answered is through being led by God into action. 

​In this morning’s scripture Paul urges Timothy to make petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving for all people.  Paul puts forward the idea of having a prayer life that has an emphasis on praying for other people.  As the revival of 1857 illustrates, these kinds of prayers have the power to be disruptive and change the world.  Yet, that only happens when we let those same prayers change our hearts and disrupt our lives.   So may we be a people who pray for other people.   May we be willing to let God change our hearts as we pray and may be open to how God might use us to be an answer to prayer.  May we pray  disruptive prayers and may we act so that disciples are made and the world is transformed.