Lent: 3/16/09
March 16, 2009
Genesis 44:18-34
1 Corinthians 7:25-31
Mark 5:21-43
“Give Her Something To Eat”
He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. – Mark 5:41-43 (NRSV)
Throughout my ministry I have become curious about many things. At the top of this list of odd practices of the churches that I have served is the moment of the service known as the “Joys and Concerns” or “Prayer Request”.
The first curious thing about this portion of the service is how much time it can consume in the service and how much reluctant weight it is given. Left on its own the “Joys and Concerns” can take longer than the sermon, but it is not prolonged for content but for reluctance to share and ineffective communication. Usually, this begins with the Worship Leader sharing a few concerns in the church such as those who have been sick or hospitalized in the past week. This usually takes about thirty seconds, but then there is an invitation offered that is followed by periods of awkward silence that will continue until the prayer is about to begin. Then someone will interrupt with what is obviously rehearsed request for prayer that is spoken so fast and low that it usually needs to be repeated several times and often moves into an interview in order to get sufficient information for the congregation to know what the concern actually is. Then the invitation for request is repeated and other cycle begins… this will continue until the congregation has completely forgotten the purpose of the exercise and often reverts back to announcements and local news.
The second odd thing is how few of the people or situations lifted up for prayer I actually know or was aware of until that moment. If Mrs. Soandso has been in the hospital for four days and is upset that nobody has come to see her why hasn’t anybody been told that she was in the hospital even though the surgery had been planned for weeks? This is also a great time to brush up on that community genealogy project as you discover the name of Mr. Whatshisnames’ friend’s second cousin that lives somewhere in Tennessee!
The Third strange thing to me is that the persons named are almost never present. It would be nice to have the folks requesting prayer to come forward so that the congregation might lay hands on them and pray with them (I think I read about that in the Bible somewhere), but they are almost never there.
But by far the most peculiar aspect of all this to me is that there is no plan for further action. After the prayers have been offered they are almost immediately forgotten. Nobody is interested to going to the hospital after the service to see Mrs. Soandso. Nobody tries to get the address for Mr. Whatshsinames’ friend’s second cousin in Tennessee so that cards might be sent. And even when there is a subsequent praise report on the condition of Mr. and Mrs. Neighbor, they still are not there to offer praise and testimony about what God has apparently done for them (I think I read that in the Bible too).
What is the purpose of praying for people that we do not intend to feed? What is to be gained in praying a family through a hard time only to forget them as they voluntarily disappear as soon as the crisis has passed only to resurface the next time something goes wrong? Why do we divert so much time from the worship of God to focus on people who want to get better but have no intention of being made whole?
Today let us meditate on how we can make this portion of our worship services more efficacious.
How can we provide leadership to our congregations to move them from talk to action? How can we move from just asking God to speak, touch and heal toward doing a little speaking, touching and healing ourselves? It is my experience that if you ask God for something, you had better be prepared for the work that comes with it. If we ask God to heal, shouldn’t we be ready to do something too? Trust in the power of God to heal, but be ready to give them something to eat.
Let us pray…
O God,
You are more willing to;
hear that we are to speak,
heal that we are to ask,
forgive than we are to repent.
Forgive us when our prayers sound too much like gossip,
and when we offer them as a means of passing off responsibility.
Help us to offer words and actions that bear witness to your goodness.
Help us to learn to pray with our hands and hearts as well as our lips… Amen.
