All People?
“All People?” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning. Today’s text is about prayer and whom we should pray for and why. I know that prayer is an important part of Christian life, and an important part of many of your lives: I share requests for prayer on our One Call Now notification system and during Sunday morning worship, we pray together as part of worship, I hold you in prayer and many of you hold me in prayer. Thank you; I can attest to the comfort of knowing I am held in prayer, and I hear from many folks at Creekside how important the prayers of this community are to them. This all seems pretty straightforward to me. But I believe that part of the power of prayer is its ability to shape the pray-er. I referenced this last week in terms of individuals and households being shaped by memorizing and reciting and living with the Word of God on a daily basis. This text from 1 Timothy chapter 2 is instruction from the Apostle Paul, or someone writing in Paul’s name, to his friend and mentee Timothy. And it raises, at least for me, some interesting questions about prayer.
“First of all, then, I ask that requests, prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made for all people.” That’s verse 1; fair enough, right? God bless everybody, no exceptions. Let that sit for a moment while I share verse 2, “Pray for kings and everyone who is in authority so that we can live a quiet and peaceful life in complete godliness and dignity.” I have to stop there and confess some ways in which that statement makes me uncomfortable. I have been shaped by the Anabaptist and Brethren tradition which grew out of civil disobedience. The church of the Brethren began with act of adult believers being baptized, and that was against the law of the state, and the church and the state were the same thing. The forerunners of my spiritual heritage through their reading of the Bible came to the conclusion that in order to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ, they had to take action which went against the civil and religious authorities of the day. And not just on this issue: conscription for the military, the death penalty, abortion, treatment of the mentally ill — Christians have not always fallen in step with civil authorities. This is true in the United States, but especially in countries where the government is hostile to Christian belief and practice. Praying for all people in all situations becomes increasingly complicated. Should we be asking God to bless people who are working against our interests, our faith, and possibly our lives?
I’d ask you to take a moment to consider a question I don’t think I’ve ever asked in church before. Who are your enemies? Are they specific people you know or know of — family members, co-workers, political figures? Or perhaps they are groups of people — extremists, criminals, immigrants, or terrorists. I’m not here to judge who you consider to be your enemy; I hope I’m not on your list. Maybe you don’t consider anyone an enemy, but surely there are people you dislike, or who annoy you, or you’d just as soon avoid if you could. All those people are part of the group of all people. Perhaps this passage is more complicated than offering comfort and encouragement to the people we care about. I’d like to consider prayer as an act of resistance and radical discipleship. Buckle up.
All prayer is, or should be, and acknowledgement that there are things in life which are beyond our understanding and our control; prayer is acknowledges that God’s wisdom and power are trustworthy and true — and they are also beyond our understanding and control. Prayer is putting our desires into God’s hands even though that what we want may be imperfect or misguided, but we still need to trust and remind ourselves that God is God and we are not.
As you know, the psalms are full of prayers which go like this: God I am miserable and in trouble, my neighbors scorn me, my enemies surround me, the mountains are falling into the sea, the whole world is falling apart, and yet O Lord, I will trust you, for you are my help and my Redeemer. You probably also know that there are a number of imprecation, or cursing psalms. Not profanity, but wishing ill on our enemies in sometimes graphic and specific ways — we don’t use these in public worship very often, but they are real and they are raw. Read Psalm 58, 59, 69 or 83 if you want to hear cries for vengeance. It isn’t pretty, but it’s honest, and we have to trust that we can be honest with God.
Mark Twain wrote a short story called “The War Prayer,” which highlights the irony of asking a loving God to punish our enemies: in this case, in time of war. Here’s a portion of the way a character in that story prayers for his enemies:
For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is our ever-faithful refuge and friend.
I would never advocate using this prayer, but I remember a wise person who told me praying for our enemies or even those we disagree with does not mean asking that they prosper, or that they succeed; praying for our enemies means asking God to change their hearts, and perhaps it includes praying that our hearts could be changed as well. It is better to pray — repeatedly — for someone, even if you can’t wish them well or ask for their good, than it is to simply hate them, and assume that they are out of God’s reach and that change — them or you — is impossible. Remember, prayer is not just ranting at God about what we’re unhappy about, it is opening ourselves to the possibility that there are things we don’t know, or have been mistaken about, or that we have put our trust in some authority which is not God. Kings aren’t always right; I think it’s appropriate — actually, I think it’s vital — to pray for the wisdom and courage to follow Jesus Christ and pray that kings will see the error of their ways.
Prayer may not be an act of sedition, but it can be a form of resistance to the injustice we see in the world; even the injustice which we ourselves are enmeshed in. 1 Timothy 2:3-5 says “[Praying for everyone in authority] is right and it pleases God our savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of truth. There is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the human Christ Jesus who gave himself as a payment to set all people free.” All people. Those words get used 3 times in this short passage. We pray for all people because Jesus came to set all people free. Maybe we have not heard the whole truth about Palestinians or immigrants or our neighbor or whomever it is that we’re wishing ill. If we can pray for all people — the people we love and the people we don’t especially like and the people we can’t understand and the people we can’t stand and the people we’re sure are out to get us — with the conviction that Jesus gave his life to set them free, that will go a long way in shaping the people we are. That will go a long way in making the earth a place where God’s will can be done as it is in heaven.
I want to close with an Irish saying. I thought it was a prayer, but the internet says it’s a curse. I’ll let you decide — I find some truth here:
“May those who love us, love us;
And for those who don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles,
So we will know them by their limping.”Friends, we all have times when we are limping — sometimes in ways which other people can see, sometimes in ways which are not so obvious. May our prayer be that God turn our hearts, and may we experience God’s grace so that we can extend that grace to others. Amen.