Sunday in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity– 20th January 2008
Choral Matins – Address
Preached by Lay Leader David Fuller
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Collect for The Second Sunday after the Epiphany
ALMIGHTY and Everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth:
Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Collect for The Unity of All Christian People
O GOD, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace:
Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions.
Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord:
that, as there is but one Body, and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism,
one God and Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul,
united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee;
though Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
PROPERS:
| Old Testament lesson: |
Zephaniah 3, Vv 14-20 |
| New Testament lesson: |
St Luke 18, Vv 1-8 |
This year, 2008, celebrates the centenary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In 1907 two priests within the Anglican Communion began to explore the possibility of providing some specified day on which ecumenical prayers could be said for Christian Unity. The Reverend Spencer Jones, Anglican Rector of the Gloucestershire parish of Moreton-in-Marsh, wrote to his friend the Reverend Paul Wattson, an American Episcopal priest, suggesting that such a day of prayer for Christian Unity might be observed each year on the Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul, on 29th June. Wattson counter-proposed an eight-day octave observance of prayers, sermons and conferences between the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter (formerly kept on 18th of January) and the Feast celebrating the Conversion of Saint Paul on January 25th, a date which, here in Scotland, incidentally, coincides with the birthday of Robert Burns. This Church Unity Octave was established the very next year, in 1908, by Reverend Wattson and Mother Lurana White, co-founders of the Society of the Atonement, a small group of Franciscan Sisters and Friars. They publicly dedicated the days from January 18th to 25th to prayer for Christian unity in their chapel, a chapel dedicated to ‘Our Lady of the Angels’ at Graymoor, at Garrison, in Putnam County, New York State. Mother Lurana later wrote in her diary: ‘I often think that if the Society of the Atonement had never done another thing, this alone is a great work of God, so far reaching in its effects.’ The Sisters and the Friars, along with thirteen lay associates, were accepted into the Roman Catholic Church in 1909. Pope Pius X shortly thereafter gave his official blessing to the Octave and in 1916 Pope Benedict XV encouraged its observance throughout the entire Roman Catholic Church.
In 1967 representatives from the Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches agreed jointly to observe a time of prayer called, as we now have it, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. As a worldwide observance the Week focuses upon the shared yearnings of all Christians according to the will of Christ, and quoting Saint John, ch17: v21, ‘that all may be one,’ Since 1968 the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity have collaborated annually in selecting scriptural themes and helpful material to promote prayer for unity among all Christian Churches. This year, the centenary year, the Graymoor Ecumenical and Inter-religious Institute proposed Thessalonians ch5: v17: ‘Pray without ceasing’.
Prayer is, perhaps, the most important thing that unites all Christians and all Christian churches. But, what exactly is prayer? One American bishop has defined prayer as, ‘the lifting up of one’s mind to God in adoration, reparation, petition, and thanksgiving for the grace given to us.’ He continued, ‘It is not only a duty that we pray, but a necessity, for without prayer we cannot communicate with the Divine Being from whom we are entirely dependant for all things in life’.
We may all have our different ways of praying, both privately and in corporate worship, but God expects us to be vigilant in our prayers and Jesus made it clear that we should be persistent. We also have to consider that God, while he gives us what we need, does not give us everything for which we ask. Furthermore, God does not necessarily give us what we need as a result of our initial, maybe rather feeble, request. God decides, first of all, that what we ask of him will necessarily benefit us. Like earthly fathers and mothers he knows that what we solicit may cause more harm than good. A young child may earnestly ask for a box of matches to play with, but no responsible parent would accede to such a request. So our first point is that God decides what is best for us before he decides to answer our prayers. Secondly, we only have access to the past and the present when we make our supplications known to God – we don’t have any appreciation of what may happen in the future. We don’t know what is going to occur next year, or next week, or even in the next hour. Only God sees the whole picture and thus only he can give us what is best for us in the long term.
If God knows best and he only gives us what is good for us, what, we might ask, is the purpose of prayer? Does God really want to hear our constant pestering? Does a parent really appreciate a whining child? Jesus tells us that, like the persevering widow, of whom we heard in our second lesson, God is happy to listen to our repeated prayers. We may well think that what we ask for is of vital importance and should be granted immediately. How often, for example, has God listened to mortals demanding an end to wars, and famines and natural disasters? Why did God not answer the persistent longings and prayers of millions of good, honest people and terminate the two world wars of the last century before they ran they long courses? God is God and it is not our job to question his judgements. But, could it be that the European ideal that we have today, where the continent is at peace and united in common objectives and endeavours was part of God’s plan throughout the last century? Did God know that millions, often of innocent citizens, would have to die to persuade us that European countries should never have to go to war with each other again? Who can tell? As I said, it’s not our job to question God’s judgements.
If God knows what is best, and if he answers some prayers and not others, what is the point of Jesus’ parable about the judge and the widow? As I mentioned a moment or two ago the important word is ‘persistence’. We must be persistent in our prayers if we really want to believe that our wants and needs for ourselves coincide with God’s wants and needs for us. It can be argued that the persistent prayers of the millions in two world wars were effective – both wars did end, with relatively, satisfactory conclusions. I was taught by a wise old priest many years ago that God does answer all prayers: with a ‘Yes’, or a ‘No’, or a ‘Wait a little while.’
God wants us to be persistent for another reason. Our long-term, Christian ambition must be to gain a place in God’s heavenly kingdom. We have been promised a home there but we have to wait until we die before we can claim it. Our prayers must be accompanied by our actions, always towards that ultimate end. Jesus could be accused of thinking that his return to judge the living and the dead in righteousness would occur soon after his resurrection and ascension, although he did claim that only the Father knew the day and the hour. Saint Paul, certainly in his early epistles, seems to indicate that he thought the Second Coming, the Parousia, would occur in his lifetime. That was the reason why he was so anxious to evangelise the whole world. At the end of the parable about the judge and the persistent widow Jesus is reported as saying, ‘when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ Will we have persistence to be faithful in our wait for the coming of his kingdom?
Through trying to be persistent, we must never grow weary in our prayers. We must always remember that our actions are a concomitant part of our praying. We mustn’t just sit quietly back and do nothing and hope that prayer alone will work. I have heard of people praying that they might find some artefact that was lost. However, while praying that it may be found, they continue to search diligently. This importance of action to accompany prayer has been appreciated from earliest times. Hippocrates, a fifth century BC physician, after whom the Hippocratic Oath is named, is quoted as saying, ‘Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man himself should lend a hand.’
There is a wonderful story told about the man who prayed that he might win the National Lottery. This was in the days before it was called Lotto and became too incomprehensible for simple folk like me to understand! He prayed to God, ‘let me win the lottery and I will give a tenth of all my winnings to my local church.’ He didn’t win. The next week he prayed, ‘let me win the lottery and I will give half of the winnings to my local church.’ Again, he didn’t win. In desperation the following week he prayed, ‘Lord, let me win the lottery and I will give all of the winnings to my local church.’ Then God answered him. God said, ‘I have heard your prayer and I am prepared to meet you half way on this, but you must do something first – BUY A TICKET!’ In our praying we must demonstrate both persistence and activity!
Let us then ask God to help us cultivate our private and common prayer life, not just during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but at all times and in all places. Let us try to follow the theme of the founders of this special ecumenical week and ‘pray without ceasing’, praying especially for unity within and between those many churches, denominations and sects that together constitute the body of Christ.
Copyright © David Fuller 2008
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