Prayer works!

What’s special about Highbury for many people has to do with Prayer and Worship.

Praying Church – Relevant – Peaceful – prepared to problem share – Christ centred

Over Easter weekend a survey was published about people who go to church … I guess it’s about us.  As I was listening on the radio reference was made to the survey and how it highlighted the weakness of the church.  That’s our weakness.

In particular the presenters who gave a throwaway comment immediately after more serious reference had been made to the survey were scornful.  I cannot remember exactly the figures but only 30% of church goers felt prayer worked.  Well, was the implication of the scornful tone of voice, not much hope there if only 30% of those who claim to believe prayer to be special think it works.

As you can imagine my hackles were raised.

I wondered what the questioners were getting at when they asked the question.  Does prayer work?  I wondered what the people on the receiving end of the survey took that question to mean.

I have a feeling that prayer is one of those things that has about it a far greater sense of mystery than can be contained in any survey aimed at reducing things to a statistical analysis.

Two moments from the very first Holy Week and the very first anniversary of  Easter struck me forcibly this last couple of weeks.

It is the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus is seen in prayer.  It is agonising prayer.  Pray that you may not come into the time of trial, he said to his disciples.  How would they have replied to the questioner?  Jesus prayed ‘Father, if you are willing remove this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.”  How would he have replied to the questionnaire?

Prayer isn’t like that.  It cannot be reduced to that level.

Something happens as all that prayer is going on.  And Luke describes it in a way that for me immediately brings with it a sense of mystery and wonderment.

Just as Jesus is at prayer we read in Luke 22:43.  ‘Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength.’

Something happens in that time of prayer that does not mean all the problems are solved and all the issues being prayed about dissolve into thin air.  Something happens in that whole praying that brings strength.  Strength from beyond.

Whether or not it is the first anniversary of those momentous events in Holy Week and Easter or second or third is difficult to  be precise about.  But that it is at the anniversary time there can be no doubt.

Herod rightly perceived first John the Baptist, then Jesus, then the followers of Jesus as a threat to the System, the powers that be.

So King Herod did away with John the Baptist.  But Jesus took up the mantle of John the Baptist and continued to threaten the  System, the powers that be.

Herod waited three years before he could do away with Jesus.  But Jesus lived on to threaten the system, the powers that be, not least in his followers.

Herod waited another year and determined to do away with Peter.  Acts 12:1-4 describes the way Herod planned to do at that Passover with Peter exactly as he had done with Jesus.

But the followers of Jesus did something else in the face of all that threatened their very existence.

While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.

What I notice in that story is that once again what happens as Luke describes it has that sense of mystery about it.

‘Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and alight shone in the cell.’

For me, what that says, is that there was a strength from beyond, a sense of God’s strengthening.

Angel can be a heavenly strength, something of  God breaking into the everyday world,   It can simply mean a messenger – maybe another person.   I think of it as a strength from beyond ourselves.  I link it with that strength Jesus promises from the Holy Spirit – unseen, yet very real, a strength from God.

What do we look for in prayer?

Mystery, something we cannot explain.  Something that cannot be reduced to statistics.  It has to do with that imponderable mystery that is God’s presence, God’s strength from beyond ourselves.

I unpick from Peter’s story here in Acts 12 some thoughts I feel precious.

Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his wrists. The angel said to him, ‘Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.’ He did so. Then he said to him, ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.’ Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.’

In prayer, light breaks in on our darkness.

Prayer is not an alternative to action – but involves action.   Peter is tapped on the side, Get up quickly, fasten your belt put on your sandals.   Focus on prayers for other people prompts continual action in helping others

Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.

Prayer brings with it, arouses within us a sense of God’s protection.  The cloak wrapped around us to guard and protect us.

Prayer leads us on a journey.

There is in prayer a very real sense of the power of God’s presence to go with us and to work with us.

What is fascinating about this prayer is that this is shared by the whole church family.  How important for us to grow as a church family in the prayers we share together.