Efficacy of "Thoughts and Prayers"

 

PROPERS:          7 EASTER, YEAR C    

TEXT:                JOHN 17:20-26

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2022.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The potential efficacy of prayer is to change hearts, thereby changing circumstances.

 

            I must admit that I could have a crisis of faith.

 

            Prayer is a central part of my faith. For many years I was cynical about it – that’s just being honest. A priest cynical about prayer?  Yes, it happens.

 

            Then, many years ago, I came under the sway of the Reverend Tom Ward.  He was rector of a large downtown church in Nashville, and I was a young priest at a huge, wealthy congregation in the Bell Meade area of the Music City.

 

            Tom and I had grown up only a few blocks from each other in Meridian, Mississippi.  He was six years older than I, so we really didn’t know each other then.

 

            But during my brief time in Nashville (I have said that I “stopped for a cup of coffee”), Tom became my spiritual director. And he gave me a great gift that yields benefits to this day:  He taught me about the contemplative process known as Centering Prayer.

 

            I have been grateful ever since.

 

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            This past week, I have been thinking a lot about what prayer means.

 

            You can guess where I am going with this.

 

            Time-after-time, we hear professions of thoughts and prayers after events such as the massacre of 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.  We heard those same professions after Newtown, Parkland, Buffalo, El Paso, and countless other mass murders.

 

            I wonder if prayers are getting above the ceiling.

 

            To be sure, there is a sickness… an evil… loose in the land.  There is no other way to describe it.  A process known as root cause analysis would certainly identify many reasons behind the carnage. 

 

I do not know what the answer is, but it has got to be more than thoughts and prayers – at least in the form in which they are normally understood.  An effective response needs to be from multiple directions, addressing the sickness that grips this culture.

 

            But wait.  The issue of the efficacy of prayer is not just about mass shootings. I faced that same question as Nora and I stood at the bedside of a dear, dear friend as she died unexpectedly and prematurely.

 

            I face that same question every Wednesday when I lay hands on those seeking healing through Holy Unction here at St. Paul’s.

 

            I face that question, too, as I watch the news on a daily basis and see the destruction that is unfolding in Ukraine.

 

            You fill in the slot.  I suspect you’ve got your own questions. But they all boil down to the same question.

 

            What good does it do?

 

            Seldom do things change.

 

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            The gospel lesson today is from the portion of the High Priestly Prayer by Jesus at the close of his earthly life.  A central petition by our Lord is that the church he leaves will be one as he and the Father are one.  The church may be one as Jesus and the Father are one.  Think about that.

 

            As I was preparing to enter seminary, I was invited to have lunch with Dr. Sam Hill, a professor of religion at the University of Florida.  He had authored a book, A Handbook of Denominations, which described the various denominations in the United States.  A book!  Literally hundreds upon hundreds of denominations.  Just in the United States!

 

            That we may be one as Jesus and the Father are one.

 

            Clearly, my question about prayer is not a new one.

 

            But in all these years… and through thousands of prayers… I have learned something to which I cling this day… even in moments of utter darkness.

 

            If prayer does not change circumstances, perhaps it changes the one who is praying.

 

            That is my hope:  As I pray, and if circumstances do not change, I hope that at least I will change.  I hope that I will change in the way I act, in the way I respond, in the way I hope, and the way I approach a problem that recurs, again and again.

 

            I pray that the church may be one – in spite of what I see.  I pray for peace – and that it may begin with me.  I pray for reconciliation – that I may be the reconciler.  I pray for healing – that I may see the presence of God even in illness.  I pray for action to heal brokenness – and that I may be one who binds the wounds. Thoughts and prayers.