Praying for Others Without Ceasing

Colossians 1:1-14

The Rev. Shelby Ochs Owen at Trinity Church

July 11, 2010

Many years ago I remember my husband Steve telling me that someone at work was really giving him a hard time. It seemed that no matter what Steve did the other person just heaped on his troubles and misery. With my ever ready reserve of pious advice I suggested that he pray for her. Steve quickly responded, “Yeah, I’ll pray that she gets hit by a Mack truck!” (Probably not the best example of praying out of love for one’s neighbor)

So how is your prayer life? Non-existent and gathering dust? Organized and reserved for Sunday mornings from (8 to 9 or) 10 to 11a.m.? Reduced to praying before dinner or bed time when the children or grandchildren are present or only during crises? Perhaps your prayer life is ever increasing and growing as God’s presence becomes more evident to you day by day? Who are we if not people of prayer?

Today’s epistle reading from Colossians is attributed to the apostle Paul and Timothy but actually most likely written just by Timothy. (Most scholars agree that Paul probably did not actually write this particular letter) At the very least it was in the spirit of many of Paul’s previous letters. Anyway, the author just as in so many of Paul’s other letters tells the recipients that he has been praying for them. The author says, “In our prayers for you we always thank God…for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” And then later he says, “For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual knowledge and understanding, bearing fruit in every good work as you grow in the knowledge of God.”

It is out of love that Paul and Timothy pray for their flock in Colossae. It is out of awareness of God’s spirit exhibited in the Colossians that Paul and Timothy are able to pray for them constantly.

A couple of weeks ago between Sunday morning services, one of our altar guild members was putting the hymn numbers on the board. She and I were the only ones in the vicinity, and she told me that her time preparing for a service through her altar guild work was an act of prayer for her. She said that while she did her work around the altar area that she prayed for everyone who would be in that space that day and that they would experience God’s presence in their time here. She prayed that everything she did would allow the people here a fuller and deeper experience of God without anything getting in the way of that experience. She saw everything she did as facilitating that experience. So whether she was putting hymn numbers on the board or polishing a mark off of the brass rail, her work was an act of prayer for her fellow worshipers. She exhibited the beauty that comes from lifting up our work and our service as a prayer for one another.

How do we love one another, how do we love those near and dear to us as well as those who are far off or who we might even consider our enemy? We pray. Author Richard Foster wrote, “If we genuinely love people we desire for them far more than it is in our power to give, and that will cause us to pray. Here at Trinity, each Sunday we pray for all kinds of folks and for all kinds of situations; we pray for people we know and for people we do not know, near and far, friends and strangers, loved ones and those we have difficulty loving. How many of us have wanted to show our love and concern for others when there was simply nothing that we could do for them but pray, like when someone is grieving or hurting? What if we learned that prayer was the most important and substantial thing we could do for them? How can we learn like Paul or Timothy out of their love for the Colossians, to pray without ceasing for others?

One way would be when we hear of others in distress to hold them in prayer and ask God for his loving and merciful care. Another way to pray without ceasing would be to allow our thoughts about people to become prayer, to allow our daily comings and goings to become opportunities of awareness of God’s presence, to allow our work, whatever form it may take to become a lifting of prayer. If you are a teacher can you pray for your students and fellow teachers? If you are a knitter, can your knitting be your prayer for the recipient as you stitch; as you prepare your child’s lunch for his day camp, can you pray for him or her, that God would watch over them in their school day? If you are a doctor, can you pray throughout the day for your patients and fellow healthcare workers? When you are waiting, be it at the DMV, or for a court hearing or in a restaurant, can you pray silently for all those people around you? Sometimes we can neglect in prayer some things that need it most, such as praying for the person who is driving you batty, at home, at work or on the softball field. Think about your life and who God is calling you to pray for. Archbishop William Temple said that “Coincidences seem to occur much more frequently when we pray.” See if he is not correct!

Prayer opens us up to greater possibilities. To pray without ceasing is to become increasingly aware of God’s possibilities and to recognize we are connected to one another through our creator. To pray is to tap into divine resources! To pray for others is to free ourselves from inertia, to empower ourselves by recognizing the infinite power of God, to free ourselves from our sometimes futile thinking. Prayer helps us escape the bondage that weighs us down, the bondage of hatred, of judging others, of worry.

Paul and Timothy prayed for the community in Colossae because they saw the Colossians as God saw them, and this scripture reminds us that we are to pray for one another. As we grow in our prayer life toward others we will find that our relationship with God deepens. It will deepen because we will begin to see others, friends and strangers, loved ones and the ones that drive us batty, through the eyes and with the heart of God.

Let’s end with this prayer: Loving God, you long to be present in every relationship in our lives, help us to turn our hearts and minds to you throughout our day and throughout our night that we might be transformed into your likeness, loving and seeing others as you love and see them. Amen.