Praying for All - 1 Timothy 2: 1-7

When I have an issue needing prayer – be it something where I need prayer for strength or wisdom or to bless this congregation, I know who I can go to. It’s a small but faithful group who have been praying for me since I traveled to Russia. And I pray for each of them. Daily. While other people might give lip service to pray for me (often because they do not know what else to say) but are quick to forget requests and slow to pray at all – I know that this group really does pray when they say they will. Over the years the group has increased in size, as I’ve found others in my life who were blessed with a life and heart for prayer.

But even out of all of my wonderful prayer warriors, I only know of two of them that pray for those who don’t like them. Those people that some would call their enemies. Can you see the huge gaps forming here? The gap between those who say they pray and those who actually do and then the gap between those who pray for those whom they love and those whom pray for those who don’t love them.

It’s that last category that I want to spend some time reflecting upon today. What marks us out as radical people of faith – those whom only love those whom love us or those who reach out and pray for the people who harm us. Let’s think about 1 Timothy in context. Christians are causing an uproar. No one really understands them – the Jews think they are trying to break off, the Roman government things (at least for the time being) that they cause just as many problems as the Jews, and the Gentiles – well half think they are trying to be converted to Judaism and the others just don’t know what to make of this radical group. We are a few mere years away from the Government swooping down and persecuting Christians in a way that makes what Saul was doing to them earlier look kind.

Hence the radicalness of Paul’s advice to Timothy – pray for those in the government. Pray that they let you lead a quiet life, following the God you love dearly, but pray for them to understand and have compassion. Pray that they have discernment and wisdom and act on the behalf of the people they serve. In essence, pray for the same people who come down on you hard and just don’t get you.

In a way, we as Christians living in the United States today can’t really understand why Paul is telling Timothy and the people he serves to pray. We’ve become co-opted into the belief that this nation is Christian so of course our leader will always act in a Christian way, pray before major decisions, and lead a life of integrity. Further, the history of our country has our president in connection with people like Billy Graham who can pray much more eloquently then we can. Honestly, as Christians we don’t fully understand persecution, but in other areas of our lives I’m sure that we have people who we feel are beating us down to the point where we wonder where God is in a given situation and why God isn’t answering our requests for ourselves.

And for far too many of us, when our prayers aren’t answered we turn to the next best recourse – name-calling, back biting, and rumor spreading. Honestly, we do the same thing with our political leaders when we don’t agree with a decision they made. But what do we do about it? At best – we write to our congress representative. At worst – we do nothing. What would it look like for each of us to take the higher ground – asking God to bless our leaders and redeem poor decisions. That we pray for a leader of strong faith who is not afraid to live it out – no matter what the cost?

Adam Hamilton, Christian author, wrote in this month’s Alive devotional that he cannot tell the difference between Christians and non-Christians when it comes to praying for our leadership, because both just complain.

Paul tells us that praying for our leaders (even when they are cruel to us and those we love) is right in the site of God. Perhaps by our example and willingness to pray for them, despite everything, that they will come to know the God of love and compassion in a different way. If not may we cry out like Jesus saying, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

One of my favorite Christian authors and activists is Shane Claiborne. He has written several books about the radical nature of Christian faith and love. He is realistic when he talks about it – stating that it is hard and we are going to run into opposition, but we still walk the radical path. We are one community – not just this church or our neighborhood this town this state or this nation. We are now a worldwide community and everything we do is political. We each have a vote, every moment of every day as to what we pledge allegiance to. You don’t like the president’s policies concerning war? Pray for him – and then figure out a way that you can act differently. You don’t like the nationalism and manipulation that manifested after September 11^th – you pray and you figure out how to preach a different message, like the fact that

“That the lives of thirty thousand children who die of starvation each day is like six September 11ths every single day, a silent tsunami that happens every week.”

But why do we even bother praying for our leaders, those who do things that we don’t like, and our enemies? Because the more passionately we love our enemies the more evil will diminish. Prayer is truly the foundation of a radical life. We approach God, the one whom we should both love and fear, and have the audacity to pray for a child whom he loves dearly even when we struggle to keep our emotions in check. We put their needs above our own in our intercessions, because they are precious to God.

I have a confession to make. I do not love ALL my neighbors, especially those neighbors in places of power. Yes, I am passionate about most people but there are still some people who really get underneath my skin. Some I have justifiable reasons for disliking but others I don't even know...But by disliking that person am I just perpetuating the cycle of evil in the world? If a place in my heart burns against someone, isn't that a place that is blocking out God? And when I block out God and dislike this person it's really like I am shouting at God "Hey, you screwed up on THIS one". How untrue! God cannot screw up and does not botch up. God has created us each as individual masterpieces. I need to look for God's workmanship inside each person I see. When I find that piece of God I need to claim and affirm it. For when I see God I can no longer hate or even dislike.

This does not mean that I am to be everyone's best friend, or that I need to support foolish decisions, but I at least need to respect who God has made them to be. When we start looking for and finding God's fingerprints on the soul of others, seeing them as children of God, evil MUST diminish.

Today is Christian Education Sunday – which isn’t just about the programs and initiatives of this conference or this church. It’s about teaching each of us to live out the basic values of a Christian life – because we all struggle with them. We let our own lives dictate our prayer instead of the deep groaning of the world that cause the heart of God to ache. We need to pray that God’s Kin(g)dom comes now. And shines through each of our lives so we are a bright light revealing poor decisions in a way that declares peace and love. Paul is not telling us to conform to the decisions of our world leaders, but to pray for their transformation. Because maybe praying for their transformation will transform each of us along the way – into bold people of a faith that is rooted in love. You will know that we are Christians by our love and by our prayers. What do your prayers say about you today?