Devoted to Prayer
I shared a meal this week with friends, in their home. As the food was set, I folded my hands and bowed my head, expecting a prayer. But this is what I heard (and hear I play the YouTube recording of an acoustical version of the Doxology). I had never prayed this way before at a table fellowship. It was quiet, simple, and powerful. It also expanded my own experience of what it means to pray.
Today, you may have that same sensation—of expanding your spiritual horizons, of enriching your devotional practices, of learning a new way to devote yourself to prayer—as I speak about another of the nine gospel practices: prayer lifting.
I take as my text one of my favorite in all the New Testament. It describes what it meant to be a follower of Jesus in those early years. “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles, to fellowship (koininea), to the breaking of bread (eating together), and to prayer. Each of these four practices is worthy of a sermon today, but I am led to contrate on just this one: prayer.
When we come together, we pray. Jesus said, quoting the Hebrew bible, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.”
Today, I want to use the events of this week to urge us to be a people of prayer.
I.
Last Sunday, I met with the Church Council and the Sanctuary Task Team. We talked among ourselves about the momentous issues facing our little congregation: shall we partner with St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church of Hendersonville? How shall we move forward with our Worship Meal? What must happen to strengthen and enlarge our own congregation? How shall we respond to the generous and surprising offer from somebody to provide $30,000 to create a new entrance and exit into our sanctuary?
We talked about all of these things, and several people will report of our actions in the congregational meeting today following this worship service. But the whole experience pushed me to prayer, then and now and in between.
Those first century believers needed to pray about the opportunities that faced them and also about the opposition. We also must pray about the opportunities that face us and also about the complications, the uncertainties, and the challenges that face us.
I don’t know the answers to these questions. I felt very much the need to pray and wait and listen and pray some more. This must be a matter of our public prayer when we gather for worship. While we are listening to the gospel teaching from this pulpit, we must also pray; while we enjoy the fellowship with one another when we gather in this place, we must also pray; while we prepare the dining table for ourselves and for our weekly guests, we must also pray. Help us O Lord to know what to do, where to go, and how to respond to these surprising opportunities.
But God had more to say to me this week.
II.
On Thursday, I traveled to Atlanta to participate in the 38th annual Martin Luther King Jr. College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College. Morehouse is one of the great colleges of our country. It was founded 1867 to educate newly freed black men of the South. Today, it is strong, and successful, and well-respected; it is famous because of its great graduate, Martin Luther King Jr.
There were many dignitaries there, some of whom I knew and others I met. The keynote speaker was Dr. Gary Dorrian, of Union Seminary and Columbia University of New York. He has just completed his three-volume series of books on the social gospel of the black church tradition. He issued a stirring call for the black academy and the black church to work together. “Theology needs the church,” he said in a half dozen ways.
How does an impressive national conference like this impact a small church like this? This was my thought as I drove back to my parish, this congregation, our arena of gospel work. What role do we have in the great call of social justice. That same day there appeared on my Facebook feed, this prayer. It was posted by my good friend, Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman, dean and professor of Hebrew Bible of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. It spoke to me and gave me the words I needed to pray:
Help me love my neighbor more than I love my Bible, defend the oppressed more than I defend my theology, and love humanity more than I love my religion.
We want to love the Bible, hold to our understanding of the gospel, and exhibit the very best of our religion. These are good things, but the better things are to love our neighbor, liberate the oppressed, and care for all people. This is what Jesus meant when he went to his home worship center in Nazareth, took the scroll of the sacred writings, and found the place where it is written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. How do I know? God has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the prisoners, sight to the blind, and liberty to the oppressed. God has sent me to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor—the year of Jubilee.
We also are called to proclaim the year of Jubilee; not just proclaim it but enact it, embody it, and make it happen. Pray that this will happen! When we gather, it is not just the sick who need prayer for healing. It is the prisoner who needs liberty, the oppressed who need opportunity, and the poor who need a way forward. We are that kind of church! We want to be that kind of church!
Let us pray for vision, and strength, and courage as we seek to be the church God has called us to be, as we strive to be the church this county needs, as we cooperate to be the kind of church that makes a difference in the world. We need to pray!
III.
On Friday, I drove home from Atlanta, had ten minutes to unload my daughter and her things in my house in Travelers Rest, and head on up the mountain to have lunch with the pastor and his friend Christopher from St. Gregory the Great Orthodox Church. Hunter Hale had purchased and prepared our meal in Providence House, and we will report on our conversations at the congregational meeting in just a few minutes. But let me provide this headline:
The Orthodox want to work with the Baptists, and the Baptists want to commune with the Orthodox. Wouldn’t that be a surprising turn of events?
You recall that they approached us last year with an offer to buy this building. We have been in prayer and in conversation with ourselves ever since. I said to them on Friday: Buying our building will be financially hard on you and selling our sanctuary would be emotionally hard on us. Can we fashion a way to work together in ways that do not involve selling our much-loved sanctuary?
This is what we will report on, but let me say that they are eager and ready to join our Worship Meal ministry, to create their own serving team, and take up their place in the weekly rotation.
Is this not an answer to our prayers? Just three weeks ago, Glenda and Phil said to me, “We must pull back from our work at Providence House.” We wondered who would take their place? We asked, Is there somebody else in our church who can take up their work? It must be a matter of earnest prayer. But here, perhaps, from the most unlikely source, we may well have an answer, at least a partial answer. Who would have thought?
Who can imagine how God will answer our prayers!
This morning our dear Reggie sang for us this wonderful prayer, this plea for help, this call to God to come to our aid.
Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand. I am tired, I am weak, I am worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home.
It was written more than 90 years ago, by the great Black musician, the father of gospel music, Thomas A. Dorsey. It was written for us. It is a prayer for us today. It is a prayer for you today.
We today will continue the gospel practices of that first Jesus community. They gave themselves to the preaching and teaching of the gospel, and so shall we. They gave themselves to fellowship, to loving and caring for each other, and so shall we. They gave themselves to eating together, and so shall we, because we find so often that our table fellowship makes possible the Lord’s Supper. And they devoted themselves to prayer, and so shall we.
In my newsletter article, I proposed a congregational discernment meeting on Pentecost Sunday, May 19. But I also issued a call for us to gather in our homes in the weeks and months prior to Pentecost to pray together for the flourishing of our church, for the faithfulness of our people, and for the future of Providence Baptist Church. May God make it so.
