22 Pentecost/Year B
Oct 24, 2021
Psalm 126; Jeremiah 31:7-9; Mark 10:46-52
Pop-up Prayer
A few years back, The Presiding Bishop Michael Curry invited us to become part of the Jesus Movement by adopting a rule of life, based on ancient monastic communities who shaped their lives around rhythms and disciplines for following Jesus together. He gave us a framework to use called The Way of Love: Practices for a Jesus-Centered Life.
It includes seven practices...Turn – Learn – Pray – Worship – Bless – Go – Rest…and it doesn’t need to be followed in any particular order…
We’ve been exploring these practices the past several weeks in our books and conversations gatherings…using the Traveling the Way of Love video storytelling series, that has highlighted several churches and ministries across the United States, engaged in these different practices in their own communities…
This past week at our Books and Conversations gathering, we focused on the practice of Pray, as outlined in The Way of Love: Practices for a Jesus-Centered Life.
It’s described in this way:
PRAY: Dwell intentionally with God each day.
Jesus teaches us to come before God with humble hearts, boldly offering our thanksgivings and concerns to God or simply listening for God’s voice in our lives and in the world. Whether in thought, word or deed, individually or corporately, when we pray, we invite and dwell in God’s loving presence.
We watched and listened to a story about Pop-Up Prayer…a Facebook ministry of “Pop-Up Prayer” that was started up by the Rev Katie Churchwell in the midst of preparing for a hurricane in St Petersburg, Fla, in 2017 when suddenly all the churches, buildings and businesses had to shut their doors in preparation for the storm and everyone suddenly found themselves cut off from the church, and everything that gave them comfort.
Her pop-up prayer ministry on facebook was a mix of simple prayers, short morning and evening prayer services, all offered, from her home, with her family, and at varying times of the day, and without a set time.
As I reflect on her ministry of Pop-Up Prayer, and the description of the practice of Pray…I am struck, how she humbly, and boldly offered this time of prayer, in a great time of need, and clearly in response to listening for God’s voice, in the lives and in the people in her community. Facebook and prayer together was a new and bold offering back in 2017. I’m sure you can all identify with it presently, in this time of the pandemic…as a pretty common way to pray and worship together. And a powerful testimony to remind one another, of God’s loving presence and our connectedness being only a prayer away.
This practice of Pray and Pop-Up Prayer reminds me of Bartimeaus, the blind beggar, in our gospel reading today. He gives us another great visual of what pop-up prayer might look like. He’s just sitting alongside the road, when he heard it was Jesus, who was about to pass him by. He shouted and called out to Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”…And when the others tried to quiet him down, he persisted all the more, and even more loudly, with his prayer, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still. And told the others, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” Bartimaeus sprang up, throwing off his cloak, perhaps the one thing that protected him, and brought him much comfort and security…and he came to Jesus. His pop-up prayer…led him to Jesus…face to face…heart to heart…Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man answered him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.
I wonder how many of us recognize that we’ve probably been engaged pretty regularly during this time of the pandemic in the practice of “Pop-up prayer”. Only we don’t often think of it as that. I know I’ve often talked about our need to set aside time to dwell intentionally with God in prayer, in some times of silence and quiet. So, I am loving this other image of prayer, that reminds us that at any time, and in any place, and in any situation we find ourselves in…when we humbly and boldly cry out to Jesus, to God, in our time of need….our cries for mercy and God’ amazing grace will always be heard…Jesus asks us always what we need, and awaits our response…waits to hear our desires and our hopes….and our faith helps us to trust this, and know this…and to believe that indeed, we are seen by God, we are called beloved…But it doesn’t stop at just knowing this, our faith invites us to respond, to start anew with following Jesus, in the way of love…just as Bartimaeus did….Being showered in God’s love, mercy and amazing grace, it’s a renewed call to GO: witness to the love, justice, and truth of God with our lips and with our lives….
Closing prayer: O Jesus Christ, teacher and healer, you heard the cry of the blind beggar when others would have silenced him. Teach us to be persistent in prayer and give us courage to ask plainly what we need from you, that we might respond in your name by the power of the Spirit through the ministry entrusted to us for the sake of the gospel. Amen.
(Posted on Thematic, Intercessory and Scripture Prayers for the RCL, Vanderbilt Divinity Library. (http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/)
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Music Reflection after Sermon: Amazing Grace - sung by Ali Hosford
1 Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
was blind but now I see.
2 ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!
3 The Lord has promised good to me,
his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.
4 Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
’tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.
5 When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
than when we’d first begun.