On the Road to Emmaus » Prayers

Prayers for Revival – Boldness in Proclaming the Gospel

Richard — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:00:40 +0000

Inspired by 2 Cor. 4:6, Acts 4:2 and Rom. 1:16:

Almighty and Everlasting God, who caused the light of your glory to shine forth in the face of Jesus Christ, cause the light of your gospel to shine through your servants, that with great boldness they would testify that in Jesus there is the resurrection from the dead, thus without shame or hindrance making known the message wherein is the very power of God, through Jesus the Messiah our Lord, who is alive and and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting.

inspired by Isaiah 35 and 1 Cor. 4:20:

Great Redeemer, whose Kingdom is not a matter of talk, but of power: now demonstrate the presence of your Kingdom through the lives of your people, restoring and reviving bodies, minds, relationships and communities, that with great boldness the Gospel of your Kingdom might be proclaimed, heralding the dawning of a new age, in which all things are made new, where everlasting joy will crown our heads and sorrow and sighing will flee away, through Jesus the Messiah our Lord…

inspired by Isaiah 49 and 2 Cor. 5:17-6:2:

Father of Glory, who through poets and prophets of old, announced the coming of a new Day, in which the One who has compassion on us would lead us to the restoration of all things: let the hearts of your people swell with joy and so without reserve announce that now is the Favorable Time, now is the Day of Salvation, if anyone is in the Messiah, the New Creation has come, the old order has passed away and the promised Newness has arrived, so that in the light of this breaking dawn, multitudes might be restored to you by the word of reconciliation committed to us, through Jesus the Messiah our Lord…

Prayers for Revival – Hatred of Sin

Richard — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:09:48 +0000

The problem with sin is not “because God said so.” Sin is a cancerous force which seeks to destroy all that is good, true and beautiful, leaving the wreckage of alienation and death in the wake of its violence.

In his Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, Jonathan Edwards describes one of the signs of a true work of the Holy Spirit in that it causes people to hate sin. So I decided to set my hand to writing some prayers related to the subject. The starting point for my reflections was Genesis 1, the account of God’s original creation. Here human beings are given their initial and original commission to “rule the earth,” (Gen. 1:28) in other words, to be the agents of God’s gracious and life-giving presence on earth. Further, in chapter 2 (verse 15), the human beings are called to “cultivate and keep (i.e. guard, protect)” the Garden of Eden. Here their task is to foster the life that God intended for his creation, to preserve its integrity, and guard it from all harm.

For me, this is the starting place when thinking about sin. I will occasionally run into people who only think sin is wrong because “God said so,” as if God started from absolutely nothing and arbitrarily came up with a list of “good things” and “bad things” to subject us to. Then sin mostly becomes about abstract accounting systems in heaven – how well I have done at doing the good list and keeping away from the bad list and the respective tally that God is keeping. This obsession with “accounting in heaven” is a haunting specter over some places in American evangelical Christianity. The result is people who are much more concerned over their “status” as a “good girl” or “bad boy” than whether their actions lovingly cause life to flourish or instead cause damage and destruction to people.

It further degenerates to a delusional belief that once you ask God to forgive you for your sin, all things are “just-as-if-you-never-sinned.” This near-heresy is essentially a fundamental denial that our actions have real consequences and that there is even something wrong with sin. It is indeed gloriously true that God can and will forgive us when we ask and seek to amend our lives. But the reason we need forgiveness in the first place is because our actions have consequences – what we do really matters. Sin is not wrong because God said so – it is against nature and inherently destructive. Every sin grates against the purposes of love, life, joy and freedom for which God brought forth his creation. Every sin causes hurt and havoc in the lives of real people on planet earth, which does not magically vanish with an apology. When we sin, we cease to be the agents of God’s life-giving presence and rule on earth and rather operate in collusion with counter-forces which produce death, violence, hatred and alienation. God takes this personally, not primarily because we don’t “do what he says,” but because in his immeasurably vast love for us, he is personally affected when we are hurt by others’ sin, when his desire for love, joy and freedom in life are undermined. He is full of compassion and feels the pain of those who are injured (cf. Ps. 34:18; 145:8-9; Isa. 63:9). It is from this depth of love that God is virulent and assiduous in his opposition to Sin and Evil.

It has become my conviction that I need a more powerful motivation for life than my status as a “good boy” and abstract accounting systems in heaven. God has called us as humans to be the representatives of his gracious rule on earth. He has called us to love the life he created and so foster its growth and protect its integrity. He invites us to understand sin as it really is – not simply something on a “bad list,” but the antithesis and nemesis of everything good, true and beautiful, a cancerous presence which progressively produces increasing death. As our hearts are filled with the love God has for his creation, as we participate in his compassionate longing for the full flowering of life on earth, as we rise into our role as those bearing God’s image and his gracious life-giving rulership, our actions take on new weight and our decisions come into new light. Hating sin is not about being a “good boy or girl.” It is about treasuring the life God has created and loves.

Majestic Lord, you possess within yourself the pinnacle of goodness, truth and beauty, and grant all creatures to share in that same splendor: Enthrall us with this radiance and fill your church with a tenacious distaste for all sin, that as you restore the lost splendor of your creation, by the gracious nurture of your Holy Spirit, we would with great determination disavow every thought, word and deed seeking to perpetuate the bondage of Death and the tyranny of Night, whose sway is already fading in the dawn of your resurrection life, through Jesus the Messiah, your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

O God: the heavens of heavens are yours, but the earth you have given to humanity: grant to your Church an inexhaustible love of life, that hating all which compromises the integrity of your creation and fails to foster that society of love for which you called us into being, we would walk before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, treasuring the good, true and beautiful, stewarding your creation as faithful agents of your royal power, through Jesus the Messiah, Your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in glory everlasting.

Lord God, whose heart overflows with the purest delight: help us see and understand the insidious nature of sin, which in the end only steals, kills and destroys, that, hating all which destroys life, and loving that which restores, we might find holiness to be the very fountain of joy, welling up to eternal life, through Jesus the Messiah your Son, our Lord…

Prayers for Revival – Gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:5ff)

Richard — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:58:13 +0000

In general, Jewish people reject Jesus as being the Messiah for one central reason. It is because Jesus did not do what the Messiah was expected to do. Christians speak of Jesus “dying for their sin,” “saving their soul,” or “getting into heaven,” but none of these concepts were anywhere close to Jewish expectation for the Messiah. For them to accept such notions would not be in continuity with Judaism, but would be a completely different religion. As simply as possible, the Messiah was meant to save Israel from their enemies and establish justice on earth. I take the time to mention this because my prayer today was partially inspired by the following two quotations from leading modern Jewish scholars, explaining why they do not accept Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. The first is by Gershom Scholem:

“It is a completely different concept of redemption which determines the attitude to messianism in Judaism and Christianity.. . . In all its shapes and forms, Judaism has always adhered to a concept of redemption which sees it as a process that takes place publicly, on the stage of history and in the medium of the community; in short, which essentially takes place in the visible world, and cannot be thought of except as a phenomenon that appears in what is already visible. Christianity, on the other hand, understands redemption as a happening in the spiritual sphere, and in what is invisible. It takes place in the soul, in the world of every individual, and effects a mysterious transformation to which nothing external in the world necessarily corresponds…The reinterpretation of the prophetic promises of the Bible which applies them to the sphere of “the heart”…has always seemed to the religious thinkers of Judaism an illegitimate anticipation of something which could at best come about as the inward side of an event which takes place essentially in the outward world; but this inward side could never be separated from that event itself.”

The second is by Schalom Ben-Chorin. Note especially the underlined phrase, it will come back later:

Schalom Ben-Chorin – “The Jew is profoundly aware of the unredeemed character of the world, and he perceives and recognizes no enclave of redemption in the midst of its unredeemedness. The concept of the redeemed soul in the midst of an unredeemed world is alien to the Jew, profoundly alien, inaccessible from the primal ground of his existence. This is the innermost reason for Israel’s rejection of Jesus, not a merely external, merely national conception of messianism. In Jewish eyes, redemption means redemption from all evil. Evil of body and soul, evil in creation and civilization. So when we say redemption, we mean the whole of redemption.”

The following prayer is for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are meant to, as Gershom Scholem articulated, take “place publicly, on the stage of history and in the medium of the community.” They do not take place in the “invisible world” but in the “visible.” Contra Gershom Scholem (and contra many Christians), Christianity does not speak of a “spiritual” salvation in which nothing in the external world corresponds. The Gifts of the Spirit, particularly miracles and healings, but the others as well, are the tangible signs of the New Creation coming to birth in our midst, showing that God intends to redeem not our invisible and ethereal “souls,” but our entire lives and world, including all physical, bodily, sensory, emotional, relational, communal and cultural aspects of our being. These Gifts are not meant simply to authenticate the message, as often times in both the ministry of Jesus and the apostles, the sign came first, and the message explained the sign. This is because the signs are functioning as signs. They are pointing to something else, to a reality called the Kingdom of God, the age of redemption when all will be made new. These Gifts bring effects on the visible and historical world, demonstrating the gracious and transformative nearness of God’s Reign. They confirm the testimony of Christ, the proclamation that in the midst of this present darkness, the light of life has shined forth in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, heralding the inevitable restoration of the entire creation. We earnestly desire the gifts of the Spirit because, as the Spirit is the downpayment of our inheritance, the Gifts are tokens, indeed, manifestations of the New Creation’s presence here among us, even now, the initiation of the earth’s re-creation. Contra Ben-Chorin, in the midst of this world’s unredeemedness, there truly is an enclave of redemption — the Church operating in the gifts, fruit and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, doing the works of Jesus.

This prayer was inspired by the preceding ideas as well as language from 1 Corinthians 1:4-9.

Almighty God, who calls your Church to bear unceasing witness that Jesus the Messiah died for our sins and rose from the dead on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures: so now confirm the testimony of Christ in our midst; may your Church never be lacking in any gift of your Holy Spirit, that the signs of creation’s restoration may abound among us, joyfully affirming to the world, that, in the midst of this present darkness, an enclave of redemption indeed exists, bearing the seeds of resurrection life, while eagerly awaiting the full revelation of our Lord at His coming, Jesus the Messiah, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

—————–

Both quotations came from Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ (London: SCM Press, 1990).

Prayers for Revival – Healing

Richard — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:43:07 +0000

Inspired by Isaiah 35 -

O God, who causes the wilderness and the dry land to rejoice, and whose very presence makes the desert blossom and burst into song: let that same power for the restoration of life overflow with compassion through your people, making the bodies of those sick well, those injured whole, those impaired strong, and those imperiled sound, that amidst the wilderness of this present age, streams might break forth in the desert, causing your creational intent for the experience of human life to rise to its fullest expression, through Jesus the Messiah, your Son, our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Inspired by 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Corinthians 5 and Revelation 21:

Creator God, by raising your Son from the dead, you have caused the firstfruits of the resurrection to burst into flower: even now, by the exceeding greatness of that same power, grant your Church to be the righteousness of God in Him, agents of your restorative presence, bringing freedom and healing to bodies oppressed by the powers of Sin and Death, that as the very Body of the resurrected Lord, we might bear witness to your triumph over darkness, testifying to the day when death will be vanquished in victory, and crying, mourning, sorrow and pain will forever cease, through Jesus the Messiah, your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Inspired by Isaiah 61 and John 20:

God of tenderness and patience, whose Son was anointed by the Spirit to bind up the brokenhearted and make the wounded whole: let this ministry never be lacking in Your Church but rather let it abound through your gracious favor, that we, being conformed to the image of Your Son, being sent as he was sent and indeed doing greater works than he, may see signs of your Kingdom’s nearness as lives are restored in anticipation of the new creation of all things, through Jesus the Messiah, your Son our Lord…

Prayers for Revival – the Fire of Love and Holiness

Richard — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:36:34 +0000

Inspired by Isaiah 42 and Zephaniah 3

O God, who does not break a bruised reed, nor extinguish a smoldering wick: so breathe upon the embers by your great mercy sustained within your Church, that renewed in zeal and holiness, we might become an unquenchable flame, by whose light and love, the world might be consumed in the fire of your passion, through Jesus the Messiah your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayers for Revival – The Spirit of Prayer

Richard — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:05:45 +0000

The central Biblical text I look to for understanding the “spirit of prayer” is Romans 8. In verses 19 and following, the entire creation is depicted as convulsing under the pains of travail, longing for freedom from the bondage of decay and death. All that lives remains under the domination of eventual decay, death and destruction, filling our world with the woeful consequences of sin. In light of this suffering, Paul pictures the Christian not as one either detached from this suffering or standing in scornful arrogance over it, but as one who compassionately identifies with it by groaning within themselves. Rather than disconnecting or deriding, we respond with prayer resounding from the innermost depths. Our sympathy and love manifests itself in the disconsolate longing of prayer for the world’s redemption and restoration. This ache, we find, is from God’s own presence through the Holy Spirit, who does not remain at an untouchable distance from the world’s pain, but is present in the midst of it, also groaning in compassion, enabling the Christian to pray from God’s very heart and will for the liberation of humanity and the whole created order from the pangs of sin and death.

All three of these prayers for the “spirit of prayer” are inspired by these themes from Romans 8:

Gracious Lord, who saved us in the hope of the resurrection: fill us with your Spirit, that we who live in the time between the breaking of dawn and the fullness of day, encumbered with much weakness, not knowing how to pray, may find help as the Spirit intercedes through us with groans too deep for words, united to the suffering cry of all creation, believing we will see your goodness in the land of the living, through Jesus the Messiah our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

O God, who created heaven and earth by an overflow of your tender, faithful love: as the entire creation suffers in hope that it will be set free from the bondage to decay, may we who by your Spirit have a foretaste of the freedom of the glory of the children of God, by that same Spirit groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly, identifying compassionately, praying fervently, with and for the redemption of our bodies and the resurrection of life, that your will for the fullness of life would be brought to birth on earth as it is in heaven, through Jesus the Messiah, your Son, our Lord…

God of hope: give us grace to perceive the depth and reality of suffering which pervades our entire age and the entire creation. Then so clothe us with the Spirit of love and compassion, that crying out from the depths we would not remain silent, praying that your will for the restoration of all things would come to pass, even in our own day, through Jesus the Messiah your Son our Lord…

Prayers for Revival

Richard — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:08:57 +0000

Revival means quite literally, “to come to life again.” If there is anything more desperately needed in our individual lives, relationships, communities, nations, the Church or the world, it is the life-giving, life-renewing, life-regenerating presence of God – the God who spoke all created life into existence, breathed the breath of life into human beings, resurrected Jesus the Messiah from the dead, and thus destroyed the power of death; gave the Spirit of Life to the Church, and is even now renewing the face of the earth by the same gracious nearness that will one day make all things new.

In accordance with my conviction that (1) prayer is the primary means through which such a resurrection of life will happen; and (2) pre-written prayers are of great value for the life of prayer, I have set my hand to writing prayers for revival. My intention is over the weeks and months, to post prayers that draw from Scriptural concepts and images as well as incorporate the theology of the Holy Spirit, inaugurated eschatology, new creation, and Trinitarian relationality that I have been developing here and elsewhere. They will in general be modeled after a long standing 4 part format used for brief prayers over the centuries in Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican traditions: (1) an address to God, giving a description of his nature or actions; (2) a request; (3) the reason or purpose for the request; (4) an ending, frequently Trinitarian.

If these prayers help you pray in a more focused way for a greater experience and expression of God’s life-giving presence in the Church and the world, I will be more than thoroughly pleased.

This first prayer draws imagery from Ezekiel 37 and concepts from 2 Corinthians amongst other sources:

O God whose zeal is not deterred when Your Church seems more like a valley of dry bones than a living witness to the resurrection of Jesus: Breathe the breath of life into your people once again. Renew us by your power and love. Cause us to remember the redemptive purpose for which you called the Church into being, that we might again be your people for the world; agents of reconciliation and resurrection life, through Jesus the Messiah your Son, our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer for New Creation #1

Richard — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:04:23 +0000

I’ve decided to write a prayer for each of my “New Creation…Starting Now” posts. We’ll see how it goes…

Creator God, who is ever faithful to finish the work he started: so now continue through us the great harvest of new creation and expand through us the renewed humanity of reconciliation, that we might share with you in the joining of heaven and earth; by Him who is the first fruits of the resurrection and the firstborn from the dead, Jesus the Messiah our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

A Prayer for Revival

Richard — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:39:19 +0000

Gracious Lord, whose generous hand is open to every living thing: send forth your Spirit according to your promise, that, in the overflow of your liberality, all creatures would find new life, and the earth itself experience rebirth, through the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Advent Prayers (2)

Richard — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:21:39 +0000

Advent 1

Blessed are you, Sovereign Lord, God of our ancestors:
to you be praise and glory for ever!
You called the patriarchs to live by the light of faith
and to journey in the hope of your promised fulfilment.
May we be obedient to your call
and be ready and watchful to receive your Christ,
a lamp to our feet and a light to our path;
for you are our light and our salvation.
Blessed be God for ever.

Advent 2

Blessed are you, Sovereign Lord, just and true,
to you be praise and glory for ever!
Of old you spoke by the mouth of your prophets
but in our days you speak through your Son
whom you have appointed the heir of all things.
Grant us, your people, to walk in his light
that we may be found ready and watching
when he comes again in glory and judgement;
for you are our light and our salvation.
Blessed be God for ever.

Advent 3

Blessed are you, Sovereign Lord, just and true:
to you be praise and glory for ever!
Your prophet John the Baptist was witness to the truth
as a burning and shining light.
May we your servants rejoice in his light,
and so be led to witness to him
who is the Lord of our coming Kingdom,
Jesus our Saviour and King of the ages.
Blessed be God for ever.

Advent 4

Blessed are you, Sovereign Lord, merciful and gentle:
to you be praise and glory for ever!
Your light has shone in our darkened world
through the child-bearing of blessed Mary;
grant that we who have seen your glory
may daily be renewed in your image
and prepared like her for the coming of your Son,
who is the Lord and Saviour of all.
Blessed be God for ever.

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