What it takes to be church - prayerful

Text of the Week:  I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Welcome to today’s services and a special welcome to any who are worshipping with us for the first time. Today is one of those occasions when themes planned long ago seem to come together and connect with what’s going on in the world around us. In our series looking at what it takes to be church we arrive at the call to be Prayerful. And in our Bible Reading notes, Fresh from the Word, we arrive at 1 and 2 Timothy. Our text for this week urges us to pray “for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions”. How vitally important such prayer is at a time when we have been so aware of political decisions driven by fear, hatred and the demonising of other people. At our Explore evening on Tuesday there’s a choice of activity: a craft evening in the Dining Room. And in church we shall be welcoming Paul Clarke who last year spent three months in Jerusalem as part of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. He will be telling us the story of his time in Jerusalem and the West Bank and prompting our prayers. There’s an invitation to share in prayer on Wednesday morning from 9-30 to 10-30 and again on Thursday evening from 7-30 to 8-30. Do remember to fill in your Highbury Change Survey and as you do that remember all we do as a Church in your prayers as well.

Welcome and Call to Worship

342 Let all the world in every corner sing

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Lord, teach us to pray

Tell the story of Jesus from Luke’s gospel chapters 1-10 – highlighting how much Luke notices Jesus praying – when he is healing people, when he is teaching people, when he calls together the 12 who become his ‘team’. It’s as if the followers of Jesus notice the difference prayer makes in his life. They want to learn how to pray.

Go through the Lord’s Prayer

Reading Luke 11:9-13

Be thinking – in what way is prayer important to you.

A Hy-Spirit Song

Activities for all over 3

Called to be Prayerful

We’re exploring what it takes to be church here in this place at this time in Highbury Congregational Church. We are called to be Christ-centred, Spirit-filled, Bible-based, Inclusive and Open to All, Worshipful and today we remember that we are called to be ‘prayerful’.

Prayer at the heart of our church life individually and together as a church. What is it about prayer that makes it so important to you?

A Time to Share

It’s more than just asking God.

It’s more about opening up that sense of God’s presence and the strengthening that comes from that presence of God with us. Tapping into the strength we need – plugging in to the energy source.

Prayer makes a difference as we quieten ourselves, focus on God, give thanks and praise to God – the value of quietnesss, focusing, mindfulness that focuses on the present moment and sees in that moment the presence of God.

There’s a value in meditaion, stillness, quientness, centring. And somehow a sense that that presence of God is with the person praying for.

Prayer makes a difference in ways that can be seen and in ways that cannot be seen. Not just in the ‘answers’ to prayer. But in that sense of God’s presence making a difference

It also shapes what we do – if we pray for others who are lonely it prompts us to care for those who are lonely, if we pray for those who are sick it prompts us to do what we can to help them in their need.

There’s a real sense that we become the answer to our prayer.

Sometimes it comes easily. Sometimes it can be difficult. I take heart from the fact that those first followers of Jesus felt in need of some training – Lord, teach us how to pray.

I have a feeling that it’s something for us to learn and to explore and to grow with and into – a couple of hymns and a poem somehow capture prayer for me.

Prayer, the Church's banquet, Angels' age,

     God's breath in man returning to his birth,

     The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;

Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tower,

     Reversèd thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

     The six-days' world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear:

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

     Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

     Heaven in ordinary, man well dressed,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

     Church bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,

     The land of spices; something understood.

The hymn is by J.Montgomery.

1          Prayer is the soul's supreme desire
            expressed in thought or word;
            the burning of a hidden fire,
            a longing for the Lord.

2          Prayer is the simplest sound we teach
            when children learn God's name;
            and yet it is the noblest speech
            that human lips can frame.

3          Prayer is the secret battleground
            where victories are won;
            by prayer the will of God is found
            and work for him begun.

4          Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
            the Christian's native air,
            our watchword at the gates of death;
            we enter heaven with prayer.

5          Prayer is the church's glorious song,
            our task and joy supreme;
            we name our Lord in every tongue,
            and praise is all our theme.

6          Jesus, by whom we come to God,
            the true and living way,
            the humble path of prayer you trod,
            Lord, teach us how to pray.

Jubilate Hymns version of Prayer is the soul's sincere desire James Montgomery (1771-1854)

372 Prayer is the soul’s supreme desire

James Montgomery was a prolific hymn writer and an interesting person. A Moravian minister, part of that tradition was one of deep spirituality and the importance of prayer: it influenced Charles Wesley.

For many years he edited a local paper in Sheffield – he campaigned against slavery, he campaigned against the introduction of a national lottery to fund the Napoleonic Wars. He was imprisoned for the views he expressed..

He sought to apply his Christian faith to the world around him even when that brought him up against the authorities.

Today is one of those occasions when themes planned long ago seem to come together and connect with what’s going on in the world around us. In our series looking at what it takes to be church we arrive at the call to be Prayerful. And in our Bible Reading notes, Fresh from the Word, we arrive at 1 and 2 Timothy. Our text for this week urges us to pray “for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions”. How vitally important such prayer is at a time when we have been so aware of political decisions driven by fear, hatred and the demonising of other people.

Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-7

How do we shape our prayers – what should we pray for our leaders?

I go back to the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name

Heaven is not so much the place to get to when you die. In the Bible it’s where God’s way prevails, where his will is fulfilled fully, where all is well, where good prevails and evil is vanquished.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

God’s rule involves God’s will being done.

Heaven is where God’s will is done, where God’s rule is complete

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

We need to seek out what God’s will is.

To the prophets – that speak of justice, righteousness, care for those mot in need, welcome for the stranger, justice, mercy.

Go to the sermon on the mount – love for God, love for neighbour, love for enemy too.

Go to the Beatitudes – hunger and thirst for righteousness, peacemakers.

My prayer is that God’s will be done – for justice, for care for those most in need, for love for neighbour whoever that neighbour might be, for love for enemy too.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

We become the answer to our prayer as we then take a stand.

The proud boasts of doing horrible things to women, the cruel mimicry of someone who is disabled – these are things to speak out against and disqualify from public office. When in public office the hatefulness the sneering, - these are dangerous things that are to be resisted. His blanket ban on those seven countries is to be opposed because there is an imperative to welcome the stranger – and a practical concern that it actually does the opposite – it fuels the very terrorism it purports to oppose.

Coupled with that political dimension to praying comes a prayer for the church – prayer for people prayer for what we do – what is our prayer for church.

There’s one wonderful prayaer I want to hold on to. It is the prayer for our church here at Highbury … but it is also the prayer for us all in the response we make to the world around us, in the way we seek to shape that world.

Reading: Ephesians 3:14-19

At our Explore evening on Tuesday there’s a choice of activity: a craft evening in the Dining Room. And in church we shall be welcoming Paul Clarke who last year spent three months in Jerusalem as part of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. He will be telling us the story of his time in Jerusalem and the West Bank and prompting our prayers. There’s an invitation to share in prayer on Wednesday morning from 9-30 to 10-30 and again on Thursday evening from 7-30 to 8-30. Do remember to fill in your Highbury Change Survey and as you do that remember all we do as a Church in your prayers as well.

What prayers do we share today?

In twos or threes. Jot down in writing a prayer request

For ourselves

Healing and Wholeness

For our Church

For leaders of our nation

For leaders of the world

Through our lives and by our prayers

Your Kingdom come

223 When morning gilds the skies

Words of Blessing

Retiring Collection