DID I SAY THAT? I PROMISED TO SUPPORT THE CHURCH BY MY PRAYERS
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
January 10, 2010
Matthew 5: 1-16
Luke 11: 1-13
Tony Campolo is a sociologist who is also a Baptist minister who is also a best selling author who is also an incredible Christian. His life and ministry have inspired millions of people. If you ever hear him speak you will never forget it!
He tells a story about when he was in Honolulu to speak. Late one night he couldn’t sleep. So he went to the local greasy spoon at about 3 a.m. The waiter has a dirty apron on, and Tony orders bad coffee and a doughnut. The waiter who is also the owner slaps it on a plate and then wipes his hand on his apron. Not long thereafter several women come into the diner. Turns out they’re prostitutes who work the streets around the diner. They sit on either side of Tony, some 8 of them sitting on stools and they start talking as if he isn’t there.
The one to his left is named Agnes. The woman on his right is teasing Agnes. Agnes makes the mistake of saying that tomorrow is her birthday. "No big deal" says the other person, "we all have them." Agnes says "Yeah, you're right no big deal. I've never had a birthday party anyway." Eventually the women get up and leave.
Tony asks the owner-- "Do those women come in here every night?"
"Yep", says Marty the owner, "why do you ask?"
"Well, what would you think about having a birthday party for Agnes tomorrow night right here, same time? I'll go get the cake in the morning."
Marty calls he wife in the back-- "Hey Louise, this guy thinks we should have a birthday party for Agnes... what do you think?" Well turns out they both think it’s a nice thing to do.
Marty says to Tony: "But no way are you buying the cake. I'm making it."
"Fine" says Tony, "I'll get the balloons and stuff."
The day comes and goes, and Tony shows up at 3 again. They decorate the diner, and out comes a nice sheet cake with “Happy Birthday Agnes” on it and lots of candles. These women are all in their late 30s and 40s. Sure enough they show up at 3:30 sharp, and Tony and the owners say "Surprise Agnes", and start singing Happy Birthday, and bring out the cake.
Agnes is stunned, having never had a birthday celebration before. Marty says, “Well, come on Agnes, blow out the candles."
Tony interrupts and says "Wait, if you don't mind I'd like to say a prayer first for Agnes." And so he does--- thanking God for Agnes’ life and saying that she is a person of sacred worth created in God's image.
There is an awkward pause, and then Marty says again "Blow out the candles and cut the cake will ya, Agnes!"
But Agnes is crying and says, "Could I wait just a bit on cutting the cake? I'd like to take it down the block to my Mom's and show it to her first."
"Sure," says Marty, "It's your cake."
No sooner does she leave then Marty says to Tony, "Hey I didn't know you were a minister. You didn't tell us you were gonna get all religious. What kind of church do you belong to?"
Tony responds, "A church where prostitutes are welcome."
"Nah", says Marty, "There's ain't a church like that, because if there was I'd go there because I'd feel welcome too.
"Honest" says Tony, "You could come to my church. Jesus loves everybody and accepts them and starts with them where they are."
Church. Friends, the Church founded by Jesus Christ is not like any club to which we might belong. When we are living life together as Christ wants us to as Church, we not only throw parties for prostitutes, we champion those who are meek. We hunger and thirst for right-living, for God’s justice. We strive to be peacemakers above all else. We prize mercy not retribution.
This is who we are. Who we are called to be. Or at least striving to be. And, when, people don’t like us for being this way, or when we might even be persecuted for being this way, then Jesus says we’re even further blessed for eternity.
Friends, the Church is not like a club. We are different. Very different. Or ought to be. Crazy, some would say. Subversive, some would say. At the least, counter-cultural. Imagine: giving a prostitute a birthday party.
And, whether or not you fully realized it when you joined this church, you have agreed to everything I’ve just put forth about the church when you took the vows of membership.
Last year I preached a series of sermons titled, “If We’re Really Serious,” meaning if we’re really serious about being the church of Jesus Christ we would do certain things. And, in certain ways, we’ve begun doing some of the things we need to do if we’re really serious about Prospect Church’s future.
For the next three weeks I’m going to be preaching another series of sermons. I want us to think really hard about the vows we take when we join a United Methodist church. That is, we promise to support the United Methodist Church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service and our witness.
This latter promise to support by our witness is new. The last General Conference in 2008 added it. Only two classes of new members who have joined here have been asked this question although if you were here when they joined or if you were here when we’ve had a baptism you have said together in the congregational response, thoughtfully, I hope: “Together with you we reaffirm our promise to support the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service and our witness.”
So, yes, I sneaked it in. But, what in the world did you think you meant when you promised to support the church by your witness? Come in three weeks and find out as I devote a whole sermon to that promise.
For today and the next two weeks, however, we’ll talk about the first four promises: prayers, presence, gifts and service. Today, we have time left only to talk about what it means to support the church by our prayers. Next week it’s presence and the next “gifts and service.” Then, “witness.”
I would imagine that everyone here has a basic idea what it means to support the church by your prayers, and I would imagine you’re not wrong. But, let me proceed as if you didn’t know anything. What does it mean to promise to support the church by your prayers?
Here is what Presbyterian minister and popular author Frederick Buechner says about prayer in general: “We all pray whether we think of it as praying or not. The odd silence we fall into when something very beautiful is happening, or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of us as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the skyrocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else’s pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else’s joy. Whatever words or sounds we use for sighing with over our own lives. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to ourselves but to something even more familiar than ourselves and even more strange than the world.”
Have you ever thought of prayer quite like that? That anything uttered or thought or felt that you direct consciously or even unconsciously to God is prayer? That sometimes it’s experienced as a profound emotion. Sometimes it’s a question. Sometimes it’s a plea for help for oneself. Sometimes it’s on behalf of another person – or today we say on behalf of a church.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson is famously quoted as saying: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” Clearly, prayer, talking with God and listening to God, is at the heart of the Judeo-Christian religion. You may remember that the prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer was given by Jesus in response to the request of the disciples: “Lord, teach us to pray.”
I’m certain most everyone here has prayed. It’s also possible that because the whole idea of prayer has seemed so confusing that except for being in church, likely some have never prayed personally.
Others, I know, pray a lot, every day; some more than once a day. And, some, likely pray without ceasing, as Paul put it. That is, they feel constantly in conversation with God.
Truth is, even for the saints, one’s personal prayer life is often one of times when one frequently prays and times when one doesn’t. It’s like being in love with someone: at times you speak much; at times you don’t speak much. But your love doesn’t change.
So it is with God. Except. Except. If we don’t consciously try to relate to God, then, unlike a human who we will see from day to day, we can easily come to basically forget God. Forget to ask God to lead us. Forget to ask God to bless us. Forget to ask God to bless others. Forget to ask God to bless Prospect Church and its mission in the city and the world. Etc.
In the New Testament book of James we read: “You do not have because you do not ask.” Or as Methodism’s founder John Wesley expressed the same truth: “God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.”
Why is this so? I don’t know for sure. I think it has something to do with God’s training us to involve God with every action of our lives. If we ask God for help; if we ask God to help another person; if we ask God to help our church – God lovingly rewards our faith which encourages us to have more faith and involve God more and more in our lives.
The Lutheran Church founder, Martin Luther, put it this way: "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness."
God’s dreams for you, for all of us, for this Prospect Church as well as for all the Church of Jesus Christ in the world is a big dream. But, for whatever reason, God waits to act until we pray.
And so it is that we have promised to pray for our church.
Now, do you suppose it might be that Prospect Church has been languishing in recent years because people have not been praying specifically for it? Could it be that we are not reaching prostitutes and more ESPN executives and more school teachers and more retired persons and more young people and more neighborhood folks because we have not been praying specifically for Prospect Church?
If John Wesley and Martin Luther and James are correct, we have not in Prospect Church because we have not asked.
If every day you have been praying and remembering to pray for Prospect Church, on behalf of everyone, thank you. We are as strong as we are because of you.
If you have not been remembering to pray for Prospect Church, all I can say is that God may be waiting on you. God may be waiting on you! And Prospect Church is definitely waiting on you.
Will you pray for Prospect Church? Every day?
