Prayer for All, Ransom for All

The 17^th Sunday after Pentecost                                                       September 19, 2010

1 Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-7                                                                      The Rev. Dr. Ross M. Wright          

Church of the Good Shepherd                                                         Richmond, VA

This sermon is the second of a series of expositions on Paul’s letters to Timothy, Paul’s young protégé in the faith, whom the apostle placed in charge of the congregation in Ephesus.[1]  Last week, our topic was “Grace and Gratitude.”[2]  We heard Paul expresses his profound gratitude for God’s amazing grace to sinners, culminating in the following affirmation: “This is a true saying and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost.”[3]  You may be familiar with this verse from the Rite One service of Holy Communion, where they are included in the “comfortable words” spoken after the assurance of pardon and the exchange of The Peace. 

This morning, we turn to the topic of prayer, and more specifically, to the congregation

gathered for prayer in the Eucharist:   

I urge therefore as of first of importance that prayers, supplications, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people, especially for kings and all prominent officials, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and reverence.[4] 

The Book of Common Prayer follows this exhortation of Paul’s almost literally.  Every Sunday, the Prayers of the People invite our prayers for:

The Universal Church, its members, and its mission

The Nation and all in authority

The welfare of the world

The concerns of the local community

Those who suffer and those in any trouble[5]

I believe that God takes this part of the service, the Prayers of the People, very seriously.  And I hope that we will take it just as seriously.   To that end, I want to offer you three snapshots of congregations gathered for prayer in Sunday worship.  I hope these three pictures will help us see ourselves as God sees us and to value the work of intercession as much as God values it. 

The first snapshot is from a little church on a remote stretch of the Puget Sound in Washington State.   It comes to us from the novelist and essayist, Annie Dillard, who spent two years living alone in a simple house, reflecting on “time, reality, sacrifice, death, and the will of God.”[6]  Listen to her description of attending church:

There is one church here, so I go to it.  On Sunday mornings I quit the house and wander down the hill to the white frame church in the firs.  On a big Sunday there might be twenty of us there; often I am the only person under sixty, and feel as though I’m on an archaeological tour of Soviet Russia.  The members are of mixed denominations; the minister is a Congregationalist, and wears a white shirt.  The man knows God.  Once, in the middle of the long pastoral prayer of intercession for the whole world –for the gift of wisdom to its leaders, for hope and mercy to the grieving and pained, succor to the oppressed, and God’s grace to all – in the middle of this he stopped, and burst out, “Lord, we bring you these same petitions every week!”  After a shocked pause, he continued reading the prayer.  Because of this, I like him very much.[7]

I like Annie Dillard’s description because it reflects the challenges of prayer when we gather for the Eucharist: the necessary repetition when praying for the sick; the daunting task of praying for the welfare of the whole world, and the inherent limitations of using written prayers (whether the forms we use for the Prayers of the People, or the written pastoral prayer).  The minister’s exasperation breaks through at the point that he leaves the script and has the honesty to address God directly: “Lord, we bring you these same petitions every week!” 

Now let me ask you: Do you ever find your mind wandering during the Prayers of the People or the even longer Prayer for the whole state of Christ’s church (Rite One)?  Do ever put your brain into neutral and coast for the three or four minutes it takes to read those prayers? Or do you find yourself thinking: “Lord, we pray these same prayers every week!” 

The second snapshot is of the little congregation in Ephesus, the congregation that Paul had in mind when he wrote these guidelines for prayer.  Picture a group of believers gathered for the Eucharist in someone’s home on Sunday.  In socio-political terms, these people are considered inconsequential.  Most are on the fringes of life in that bustling Roman city.  Some are slaves.  But man, can they pray!  They pray for the spiritual welfare of the great Roman city of Ephesus.  They pray for the Roman governor and for the Emperor.  Are they politically influential?  Not in the sense you normally use the term.  They do not organize a political party or run for office.  But through their prayers, they change the world.  If I were to ask you who the emperor was at the time this was written, I doubt if many of you could tell me.  But the world knows of the reconciliation won for us in Jesus Christ.  Only God knows how the prayers of the little congregation in Ephesus influenced history.  But we know that the powers that be complained about Christians: “They have turned the world upside down”[8] 

The third snapshot is of us: Good Shepherd, the beautiful little brick church on the corner of 43^rd and Forest Hill Ave.  Here we are – about 65 people on average, 80 on a good Sunday.  We may not think of ourselves as particularly influential.  But as we engage in the Prayers of the People, suddenly, the world is at our doorstep.  In intercessory prayer, we draw near the Presiding Bishop, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and those who make decisions affecting the course of the Anglican Communion.  We draw near to each other, as we pray for sick and the suffering.  We draw alongside the President, members of Congress, the judiciary, and those who shape public opinion.

But for what purpose?  To what end?  Why are our prayers important to God?  What purpose do they play in God’s overall plan to redeem the world?  To answer that question, I invite you to look again at our text: 

This [intercessory prayer you offer in the Eucharist] is good and pleasing before God our Savior, whose will it is that all people be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth.    

For there is one God,

and one mediator between God and men,

the man Christ Jesus,

who gave himself as a ransom for all,

the testimony at the right time.[9]

Notice how Paul moves from rather mundane directions about prayer to the supremely important theme of reconciliation in Christ and God’s will for all people to be saved.  The mission of the Church of Jesus Christ is the ministry of reconciliation: of the world to God in Christ and of people to one another.[10]   This is the chief concern of any congregation worthy of the name of Christ.  This is our mission at Good Shepherd. 

And here, we arrive at the point to which the passage has been moving along: the confession of Jesus Christ as the one mediator between God and humanity.  We are all familiar with mediation.  Two parties are at loggerheads.  It may be a dispute in the office, a conflict in a family, or an impasse in labor-management relations or negotiations between Israel and Palestine.  Whatever the case, the two parties recognize that, on their own, they cannot do anything to move closer together.  There has been too much history, too many bad feelings.  A chasm has opened up between them and they cannot cross over.  So a mediator is called in to help reestablish communication.

            Jesus Christ is that mediator between God the Father and us. Karl Barth said that “[t]he love of God always throws a bride across a crevasse.”  Jesus Christ is the love of God expressed in the form of a ransom payment, thereby creating a bridge between us and God.  Now we can have communion with the living God.  We have access to God.  There is movement across that bridge – from God to us and us to God. 

Let me repeat: this mediation is an expression of the love of God, and not a mechanical transaction.  Jesus is not some disinterested expert who flies in for a meeting, is paid, and flies off, never to be heard from again.  Our mediator is the Son of God who gives himself in love for us.  On Good Friday, he absorbed our hostility and prayed for us: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  Today, he is still representing us to the Father.  He is still praying for us: “Father, accept them because I have called them my friends; accept them on the basis of my life, death, and intercession.”  That is why St. Paul can say triumphantly:

Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? – can tribulation, distress,  persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sudden and violent death? . . . . No! In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.  I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.[11] 

Now that is a mediator!

“. . . the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.”  Notice the repetition of the word, “all” in this passage.  Paul urges that prayers be offered “on behalf of all men;” and that it is the will of “God our Savior . . . that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth;” and most dramatically: “for there is one God and one mediator between God and men. . . who gave himself a ransom for all.”  The good news of reconciliation is not just for Christians, it is good news for everybody. 

            But not everybody has accepted this gift of reconciliation.  And here we find the ultimate purpose of our prayers and intercessions.  The will of God is “directed to the salvation of all people in intention, and sufficient for the salvation of all in power.”[12]   In other words, Jesus’ sacrifice is universal in its power to save.  But salvation must be received by faith in the Son of God who lived, died, and rose again for us.  The Church is that happy band of travelers who have said: Yes to Jesus Christ.  The Church now exists to serve the world, to pray for the world, and to urge the world to say Yes to the God who has already said Yes to the world in Jesus Christ.  And we can never rest as long as there is anyone who has not Yes to Jesus Christ.  We offer prayers for all people, because Jesus Christ is the ransom – for all!