April 30, 2007 — 8:18 PM
The Power of Prayer
Colossians 1:1-14
Director of Vocational Formation and Placement.
Director of Vocational Formation and Placement.
Director of Vocational Formation and Placement.
That's my title. Although that's not always what comes out of my mouth when I'm asked to provide it. I've been here four months now and I still find that I get tripped up when trying to tell someone my official title. It's quite a mouth full.
Unfortunately, the confusion does not stop there. Once I've successfully gotten the title out, I inevitably get asked, "So what does that mean? What exactly do you do?"
As Charles so kindly stated in his introduction of me this morning, my position covers a lot of ground. Mainly I focus on helping the students to navigate the waters of their seminary experience and to find a call that will allow them to use in a meaningful way what they have learn here. In addition to working with the students, I also work with the faculty, administration, and staff helping them to do what they do to provide a good theological education for the students.
When I have explained what I do to my non-churched, non-seminary savvy friends, they have responded, "Oh, you're basically like a guidance counselor." or "Oh, you do HR for God." (I really like that one.) Both of these are right in some ways, but they also are missing important aspects of my work.
When I read the lectionary passages for today, this reading from Colossians really struck me. As I read through the verses, I found myself thinking, "Hey, that's what I do!" It's like the writer was creating the job description for people in positions like mine - especially in verses 9 though 12a. Listen again to those verses:
"For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father...."
So how do these verses describe what I do here? They join me with Paul and Timothy in the ministry of prayer. I feel that my primary calling at SFTS is to pray without ceasing for everyone in this community. And specifically, to pray for the discernment of God's will by the members of the community.
And what a job this is. As the passage goes on to explain, discerning God's will takes spiritual wisdom, understanding, strength, and patience. On a good day we might feel that we have one or two of those characteristics in our lives, but to have all four? That takes something beyond ourselves. That takes God. And that's why endless prayers are needed.
Now, anyone who has visited my office or walked down the second floor hallway of Montgomery Hall will tell you that I am not sitting at my desk all day with my eyes closed and hands clasped praying to God. They'll probably tell you that I am usually sitting at my desk with my little, white Apple laptop open before me. That doesn't look like unceasing prayer, does it?!
It doesn't if we think prayer only happens when we bow our heads, close our eyes, and talk to God. It's easy to simply think of prayer as following the example set forth by Jesus in what we call "The Lord's Prayer." I offer many of these types of prayer for this community every day.
But this is not the only way to pray. I believe that I pray for the community's ability to discern God's call through each individual task that my job requires of me - from setting up workshops on how to deal with taxes as a clergy person, to arranging for professors to give preparation sessions for the ordination exams, to overseeing the writing of the exams and the receiving of the grades of those efforts, to reading and giving suggestions for improving PIFs, to receiving information on ministry opportunities and seeking persons in our community for whom that might be a good fit, to working with professors as they advise students throughout their years in the seminary, to... the list goes on.
Do you find yourself thinking, "These acts are prayers? They are just ordinary busy work that comes with an office job." I wouldn't be surprised if you are. But Henri Nouwen encourages us to think differently about life and about prayer. In his book With Open Hands, he says:
"In the thinking of our modern, active, energetic world, praying and living have come to be so widely separated that bringing them together seems almost impossible. ...The question of when or how to pray is not really the most important one. The crucial question is whether we should pray always and whether our prayer is necessary. Here, the stakes are all or nothing! If we say that it's good to turn to God in prayer for a spare minute, or if we grant that a person with a problem does well to take refuge in prayer, we have as much as admitted that praying is on the margin of life and doesn't really matter. ...Prayer has meaning only if it is necessary and indispensable. Prayer is prayer only when we can say that without it, we cannot live."
Praying and living should not be separated, Nouwen argues, because separating them cheapens prayer and makes it unnecessary. Prayer is powerful. But it is most powerful when it is woven throughout all of our life.
Paul and Timothy believed whole-heartedly in the power of prayer. They must have. Why else would they pray ceaselessly for a community that they had never met. Why else would they care about the work that Epaphras had done in building up these Christians?
They knew that God would provide the wisdom, understanding, strength, and patience necessary for the Colossian people to discern God's will for their lives. They had witnessed it in other communities with which they had worked more closely. And so, with deep faith in God, the giver of all good gifts, they offered these prayers daily as well as through the act of writing a letter to a community they did not know.
You can be sure that all this praying didn't keep Paul and Timothy sitting in a quiet room somewhere - although Paul did spend a lot of time in and out of prison. But the witness of the New Testament to Paul's labors assures us that Paul led a very active life, in spite of his legal difficulties.
I imagine Paul was a great list-maker (a practice with which I am very familiar). Can you picture what his list looked like on any given day?
- Check in with the Corinthian church. See if they are sticking to the teaching I have given them
- Thank the Phillipian church for remaining supportive of me and my work
- Reassert credentials as a true apostle to Thessalonians, well, basically to all the churches because of those darned Judiaizers who keep following me around
- Pray for the Colossian church begun by Epaphras
- Write a follow up letter to the Galatians, see if there is any way to convince them that what I originally preached to them regarding circumcision is really true to the Gospel of Our Lord
- And on. And on.
Paul worked tirelessly to spread the wonderful news of the gospel. And prayer was an essential part of his ministry. He knew the power of prayer personally.
"We have not ceased praying for you," Paul and Timothy said to the Colossians. These words were meant to give comfort and support to a community of new Christians struggling to understand what it meant to be Christ-followers.
"I will not cease praying for you," I say to you. These words are meant to give comfort and support to all of you - whether you are a new student or one about to graduate; whether you work on staff here, are a member of the faculty, or are part of the administration of SFTS.
This is the ministry to which I have been called. My title may say Director of Vocational Formation and Placement, but my subtitle should read, "Supporter of personal development through unending acts of prayer." That would be much too long to fit on any business card, but it would accurately reflect my role in this community.
But I am not the only one God calls to this ministry. I believe that God calls every one of us to see every part of our lives as unending prayer - prayer for ourselves and for others. Nothing we do is insignificant. We never know when even the smallest act can make a huge impact on another person.
God calls us this morning and every morning to follow the example set for us by Paul and Timothy. We are to support one another, and people of faith around the world, through unending prayers - both spoken and embodied in action. And in so doing, may we all grow in our knowledge of God.
Amen.
