Sunday Service 21st September

Prayers of Intercession

21/9/25

Call to worship

Hymn 144: I love the sun

Time for all

Hymn 803: We will walk with God my brothers

Reading:  John 17: 6-22 Liz

Prayer

Hymn 557: O love that wilt not let me go

Sermon

Prayer

Hymn 192:  All my hope in God is founded

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 21^st of September.

We are continuing our series of types of prayer.

This week we are looking at prayers of intercession, prayers for others.

Who should we pray for, how should we pray for them?

We will be looking at that after our prayer and reading from Liz

Sermon

We are looking today at prayers of intercession; prayers for others.

Can I start with saying something a bit controversial?

Why do we bother?

I know that the gut instinct is that praying for others is meant to be a good thing,

that praying for others stops us from being inward thinking all the time, because there is a temptation, even in our faith, to be selfish.

Like prayers of protection. In the Bible there is a huge prayer of protection given by Jacob, coming home and scared of what his brother may do because years earlier he had conned his brother Esau out of the inheritance..

So he prays a prayer of protection and God tells him that he will be looked after.

And what does Jacob do?

Does he use that blessing to risk talking to his brother and sort out their problems?

No.

He sends over the river a huge bribe in the hope that placates his brother.

Then he sends over his wives and children believing that if the bribe doesn’t work then the screams of his family being slaughtered will give him enough warning to escape.

So even in our faith we can be unbelievably selfish and self centred...

and praying for others needs may help us to think of others, empathise with others more, and that can only be a good thing

.

But do you ever wonder if those prayers make a difference to the people we are praying for?

I know I struggle with that question at times.

I struggled to even think of what to say today about praying for others.

Once you get by the ‘praying for others is a good thing,’ then what are you meant to say?

And then I read the passage for today, probably one of the few examples of prayer Jesus gave...and it is a prayer for others.

Which in itself is strange when you look at the context of the prayer.

Jesus has finished his last teaching to the disciples at the Last Supper.

They have travelled to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus knows that soon Judas will act and betray him to the local authorities.

So at this crucial point in his life, Jesus decides, rightly, that he needs to be in communion with his Heavenly Father.

Jesus could have talked about anything.

He could have talked about how he could still do so much.

He could have talked about revenge or lashed out at the injustice of it all.

He could have given in to self pity and pleaded that things change.

He could have prayed for courage to go through with what was ahead.

I could write a sermon justifying any of those things.

But instead, at this crucial moment...instead of thinking of himself, he thinks of others.

In fact more than that...

His prayers of intercession have a specific theme.

They are not like our normal prayers of intercession.

Our prayers of intercession usually follow the theme of

praying for peace in different parts of the world,

maybe for healing for other people,

that political leaders are influenced by servanthood rather than greed.

And there is nothing wrong with any of those prayers.

But Jesus doesn’t follow those themes.

He doesn’t pray for either the stability and peace given by the Roman Empire,

or the destruction of the Roman Empire so that the Jewish Nation can rise,

he doesn’t pray for any political group or situation at all. 

There is no mention of Herod or Caesar making decisions that serve the empire or the people.

But also he doesn’t pray for healing of anyone either; either the physical healing of a friend, or maybe healing of relationships between people.

And he doesn’t pray for disasters that would have been happening around the world at that time or for anyone suffering grief.

And it’s not because any of those prayers weren’t need.

I am sure that there were political situations at that time that needed prayer,

sure that there were people with illness that needed prayer,

sure that there were famine and floods that needed prayers.

But Jesus never mentions any of them.

And that made me think.

What is so different about Jesus’ prayer?

And can that teach us something about how we pray?

I read the passage again and again because it is wordy and a bit convoluted.

But basically it falls into basic patterns.

Jesus talks about his relationship with his Father and how he has tried to show the disciples that relationship by giving them that same relationship.

As the Father has loved him, so he has loved the disciples.

Jesus prays for the disciples to have the same relationship with the Father that he has.

Jesus talks about his purpose, his message, for the world.

That he came to tell the world of that love, and show the world that love.

And Jesus prays that as he was sent out into the world to share that message, so his disciples would be sent out into the world to share that message.

And then he prays for those that come after the disciples.

That as his relationship of love is felt by the disciples, so that relationship if felt by those who listen to the disciples, and then those that listen to those followers...that generation after generation after generation have the chance of feeling that experience of love.

And that as the responsibility of that message is felt and shown by the disciples, so the responsibility of that message is felt by those who follow...that generation after generation after generation give that message of love in word and action.

It is all summed up in the last sentence of the prayer,

‘I made you known to them, and I will continue to do so, in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and also that I also may be in them.’

Jesus’ prayer for others was very simple, that what he had in his heart may be given to others.

‘I made you known to them, and I will continue to do so, in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and also that I also may be in them.’

I wonder if our prayers for others would be more committed if we followed that example.

There is not one person listening to this that God hasn’t put other people in their lives.

They will not be our disciples the way Jesus had disciples.

But we care for them and love them and are concerned for them the way Jesus cared for his disciples.

What if we prayed for them the way Jesus prayed for those he loved?

That we prayed...that what God has given us...that they have?

I think that would cause both an inward reflection and an outward reflection.

It would be like breathing; in-out, in-out.

First may come a concern for others, we inhale that, we bring it close to our heart...

then we let out that concern with prayer action; what can we pray for them that God has given us, that we want them to have?

I want to repeat that

First may come a concern for others, we inhale that, we bring it close to our heart...

then we let out that concern with prayer action;  what can we pray for them that God has given us, that we want them to have?

How would that work?

I have a child just now who is struggling, she is going through a bit of a crisis and she is not too sure what path to take going forward, or if there is a path going forward.

What gift has God given me...can I pray that she has?

Because the God who loves me, is the same God who loves her, even though she may not feel it, or know it, or understand it, or acknowledge it.

It doesn’t stop it being true...the God who loves me, is the same God who loves her.

The God who has helped me so often, is the same God that wants to help her.

So what has God given me...that I would want her to have?

So I could pray that God gives her the assurance that no matter what she is facing that she is not alone.

I could pray that what she is facing will not define her, that she can come back from it, whichever way things turn out.

I could pray that no matter what happens, that God could use that to help her grow and learn and be better.

And here’s the thing, having prayed that prayer, I want her to feel it, to experience it...

As Jesus said,

‘I made you known to them, and I continue to do so...’

So every time I meet her I am assuring her that she is not alone, that she will be given the support she needs to get over this, that she will grow.

And that makes a difference.

I started off with four questions about prayer...

Why do we bother?

Because we care for others as God cares for us.

Do we make a difference to those we pray for?

Yes, because we are bringing God and ourselves into their lives so they do not face life alone.

What is so different about Jesus’ prayer for others and can we learn from that prayer?

Jesus prayed that what God had given him, that others might have, and he continued to show that was possible in how he treated those people.

Maybe as we pray for others, we learn to do the same thing, to understand what God has given us...because the God who loves us is the same God who loves them.

The God who has helped us is the same God that wants to help them...

And then in our actions and words, we can seek those gifts to be given to those we have prayed for.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father

you invite us to keep reaching out to you, to pray without ceasing and to not lose heart.

To give you what is in our heart no matter how unrealistic or hopeless that request is.

More than anything else, to be honest, and trust that our honesty is enough.

We are encouraged by the prayers of Jesus who was always honest with you,

who knew your presence was with him in the times when miracles happened,

and the times when suffering needed to be faced,

and always believed that your presence never dimmed whatever was ahead of him.

So we come to you with our prayers.

We come with the prayers we are comfortable with

We pray in hope that the many wars ravaging our world just now will cease,

that countries will accept peace offerings and end violent, revengeful attacks.

We pray in hope that people will share their plenty, that we will be protected from the temptation to horde and lose our fear of what may happen, trusting in your promises to protect us.

We pray in hope for the health of this planet,

for clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink,

for humanity to lovingly care for this fragile world, not just for our sake, or even our children’s sake, but for the sake of all our children..

We pray in hope that relationships with you will be strengthened

within your church and within our communities,

that your kingdom will be visible among us and that we may receive it as a little child.

We pray in hope that you deliver us from the hand of the unjust

and keep our own hand from being unjust to others.

And we pray a prayer that is maybe a bit strange to us...

We pray for someone we care about, someone who is struggling just now.

And we pray that a gift that you have given us, may be given to them...

So that the love we feel may be the love they feel.

The care we have felt may be the care they feel

This we ask in Jesus name.

Amen