"Upon Further Study: Prayer Changes Things"

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Give us, we pray, O God, thoughts higher than our own thoughts, prayers better than our own prayers, powers beyond our biological possibilities, that we may spend and be spent in the preaching and hearing of Thy Word. Amen.

This is the third sermon in the three part series I have been preaching about prayer. On March 31, the front page of the New York Times contained an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html?ex=1301461200&en=4acf338be4900000&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) which showed the results of a long awaited study on the power of prayer.

I’ve told you about the study before, but that was three weeks ago by now, so I’ll tell you again. What the study did was take 1,800+ patients who were undergoing coronary bypass surgery. 604 patients in group 1 were prayed for by strangers after being told they might or might not be prayed for. 597 patients in group 2 did not receive prayers from strangers after being told they might or might not be prayed for. And 603 patients in group 3 received intercessory prayer from strangers after being told they would receive it.

Patients in group 2, the only group not to receive prayers from strangers, fared best, with 51 percent suffering from complications within 30 days of surgery. Patients in Group 1, who received prayers but weren’t assured that they would, fared slightly worse, 52 percent suffering from complications.

The biggest surprise, and why we’ve been talking prayer, is that 59 percent of patients in group 3, who knew they were being prayed for and were, suffered from complications. Group 3 fared the worst, by a good margin.

So, this sermon series that wraps up today was born from the questions; what are we praying for? And what should we pray for? So, let us go to one of the most famous prayers, prayed by Jesus himself, in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Mark 14.32-39.

They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” ³³He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. ³⁴And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” ³⁵And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. ³⁶He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” ³⁷He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? ³⁸Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ³⁹And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words.

The Word of the Lord…

Thanks be to God.

The old story begins in a typical house, maybe like any of ours. Inside the house is an 8 year old boy on the eve of his 9^th birthday. It so happens that he has an early December birthday, so the house is decorated with the appropriate Christmas fare. Obviously it is a special occasion. The young man pauses to pray before he goes to bed. He thanks God for all his friends who will be coming over for his party. He prays the sweet, heartfelt prayer that sometimes only the young can pray. And then he tells God that he wants a brand new bike for his birthday. He gives God a couple of minutes, and looks in the garage, but to his amazement, no new bike. Back to prayer. Now we are bargaining. You know, the, “I’ll be really good in Sunday School every Sunday if you just get me the bike.” Another check of the garage, but God’s mind is apparently not swayed. The boy then goes into the den, finds from the manger scene the figurine of Mary. He wraps her up in a napkin, and that in a towel. He puts the towel under his bed, and prays again. “Okay God. If you want to see your mother again, bring the bike to the garage by morning.”

Obviously, we don’t pray like that. But there is so much confusion about prayer, and many people will pray to get God to change things. But not Jesus. Not even Jesus prayed to get God to change things. In fact, in the Garden of Gethsemane, I would posit that this is the only time that God actually changes in prayer. And that is because Jesus is divine, and is God. Granted, Jesus, while fully divine was also fully human, so my argument breaks down. Especially with the fact that this prayer is part of the proof that Jesus was fully human. Jesus prays for the cup to be taken from him, which we know it wasn’t. Not even Jesus gets that kind of special treatment. Not even the Son of God gets to pray and have God change the course of things. And Jesus, while fully human, also has the wherewithal to pray right. “Not my will, but thine be done.”

The meaning of intercessory prayer is often unclear to Christians, so it is not surprising that many folks who don’t regularly attend church also get confused about it.¹ The confusion is evident whenever scientists seek to determine whether intercessory prayer has measurable benefits.

The problem I have with the article in the New York times that began this whole discussion is this: it has measured the wrong thing. By measuring results, the study tries to say that prayer is only effective if results are achieved, if fortunes are cast just right, if fate turns out to be what we want it to be. The study assumes that we pray to change events, or to make God do something, or not do something. But that is not what we pray for. We pray for three main reasons, as I have stated over these last three weeks. Week one, reason one, we pray to connect with others, to get outside of our selves and our selfish desires, and to connect as God’s earthly family. Week two, reason two, we pray to connect with God. Therefore as Christians, we understand that we pray constantly, since we constantly connect with God. This week I say that we pray to change things, but we do not pray to change God. We pray to change us.

Jesus was deeply troubled going into the garden. We read in Mark in verses 33 and 34 that Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.”  So Jesus prayed openly and honestly, but still letting God be God. “Not what I want, but what you want.” And while he was grieved, even to death, I think in his prayer he was changed and found the strength to do what came next.

I think the theological confusion comes when people think that God, or God’s mind, can be changed if we pray enough, piously enough, or get enough people to pray, or get the right people to pray, or whatever.² See, that would put the power to decide things up to us humans. If it is important, we should put the word out, and get more people to pray. If it’s really important, we’ll pray more. But that slope leads to a God who is at our disposal, and prayer is a lever we use to nudge God in a specific direction. A God who is at our disposal in that way would not be God, by definition, would not be the God we need, and fortunately for us, would not be the God that is.

Intercessory prayer is important, however. I therefore think it is important to correctly understand it as the way that Christians consciously bring others into God’s presence with, key word being with, themselves. If God is everywhere, and we affirm that God is, no one is not in God’s presence. But in intercessory prayer we acknowledge that we are together in God’s presence. In prayer we see others as creatures loved by God and in need of, while also deserving as much as we do, God’s grace. In prayer, we realize that others are just as important to God as we are, and that is a big and important change realized in us.

In putting others in God’s hands, we begin to see them clearly. Dietrich Bonhoeffer echoed the mainstream Christian tradition when he posited that intercessory prayer is intertwined with Christian community. And I think it is noteworthy, by contrast, how this latest medical study of prayer was indifferent to community; the research mad no reference to whether the patients wanted prayer or were part of a community of prayer. Such elements would only skew the results.

Bonhoeffer goes so far as to say that intercessory prayer is the “heartbeat” of community, and his reason is clear: “I can no longer condemn or hate other(s)…for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they may cause me. In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died.” Prayer, in this view, undoubtedly works and causes change, on the individuals and communities who pray.³

So, if what we pray for is to bind us together, to connect with God, and to change us and our community, again I will say that it is imperative that the people we are praying for know it, and approve of it. Otherwise, at best we might be taking someone unknowing before the presence of God. And at worst we might be taking someone unwilling into the presence of God. And even worse, if that isn’t a concern, then we are using people so that we can feel better about ourselves, and enact the change we want in us by using them.

Prayer is powerful, powerful stuff. We connect to each other through it, we connect with God in it, and we get changed, along with those for whom we pray, if they know we are praying for them and how we are praying for them. And one of the ways it works best is by changing us into more caring, more aware, more outwardly concerned people. Therefore, it seems obvious that when we pray for specific people, we should talk to them about it, find out how to pray for them, and talk with them, following up how their situation is going.

See, there’s a difference in praying for specific people and general people. Specific people are Fred, Myron, Shirley, or Kaitlyn. They have first and last names, and they have specific lives. General people are different. General people are folks with job issues, folks undergoing chemo, victims of oppression, etc. Which is to say what I think a good thing to do is this. Let’s say I know Myron. Good friend of mine. Doesn’t go to church with me, but we talk about church stuff. Myron mentions to me that his job situation is stressful, and he thinks he may be downsized. I say how sorry I am, and is there anything I can do. We’ll be alright, he tells me. But I can’t let it go, out of my heart. So when I bring it up on Sunday, I’ll pray something like, “We pray for all who are undergoing difficulties in their job situations, for all who continue to search for work, and for all who make the decisions on who will be employed.” That connects me to Myron, while not outing him to the community. And it doesn’t make him the reason I’m getting closer to God. What it does is change me. It opens my eyes to all the situations. There are folks who have been looking for work for a long time, and whose next mortgage payment is unsure. There are people who hang signs that read, “Will work for food.” If I just pray for Myron, I’m loosing out on all these others that I need my heart to be changed to orient towards.

Or, I’ll talk to Myron before Sunday. I’ll check in, see how he is doing, and ask if I can pray for him in church. What I’ve done there is connect deeper with Myron, and have been changed thinking of my friend more.

We get changed when we pray, and so do folks that we pray for, in some ways I think. Don’t you want people to ask how they can pray for you? If not, you don’t mind if people pray that you hate your mother and father and sister and brother and children in line with the Biblical witness to what Jesus said in Luke 14.26.

So, prayer is a potent and strong thing, that can connect us to each other, to God, and can change us. Let us, like Jesus, have the power to pray, and to do so in accordance with God’s will. Amen.