10 Pentecost Year B
7/28/2024
2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145:10-19; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21
Opening Prayer: (adapted from a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals)
Lord, grant us the ability to think with your mind, to hear with your ears, to see with your eyes, to speak with your mouth, to walk with your feet, to love with your heart…so that we can be strengthened to transform our world with your abundant love and blessings, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Have you ever heard the phrase, “be careful what you pray for?”…or how about the “Prayer of Jabez” book series that was released over 20 years ago? Millions of books in this series were sold about the power of praying this prayer from 1st Chronicles which is this: Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!” And God granted what he asked.
We might say to ourselves…surely, I am not afraid to pray for miracles, or to pray for more abundance in my life and the life of those we know and love. But, might we be just a little afraid, just a little hesitant at times if our prayers really did get answered? I’m not talking about the ones when we are asking for healing and comfort for others or the ones when we are praying for those celebrating birthdays or wedding anniversaries… but the ones that would call us out of our comfort zones, the ones that would ask us to be agents of change and instruments of God’s healing and peace in time of such division and chaos…
I think of some of the prayers in our book of common prayer (ones that we don’t regularly hear on Sunday mornings)…and how praying them, and really believing in the outcome…could leave us feeling a little uneasy of the potential outcome…I’m especially thinking of the ones that speak to some potential big changes in our own personal lives… the prayers that are spoken that would invoke a change needed in us or a call to action by us.
For example: The prayer for Social Justice
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the people of this land], that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
What would our world look like, if we believed in this holy and life giving Spirit of God to move our hearts to break down the barriers which divide us, to move our hearts to hate no more, and to truly live as one people – with justice and peace for all. It would take a lot of work and collaboration on behalf of all of us. It would require some radical love and imagination to envision and work towards a world in which this would ever be possible.
What about this prayer: The prayer for the Oppressed
Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This prayer is loaded with a call to action. This would mean facing the people who live on the margins, the ones who are often forgotten, ignored, the ones who live with terror in their lives every day, who deal with death and disease as an everyday occurrence. This would mean acknowledging and reckoning with our part in being cruel to our neighbors, directly or indirectly…And striving to work together to live into God’s dream of beloved community…a community that no longer differentiates between them and us…but truly welcomes and respects the dignity of every human being…
There are so many other prayers you might look to in our book of common prayer section…as other examples of some of the more challenging prayers…For unity of the Church, for peace in our nation, for times of conflict…
Let’s turn to the gospel reading now to help shed some insight and good news to help us with these challenging prayer topics…
IN our gospel reading today, Jesus had a large crowd following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples…perhaps hoping once again, for a rest. As they looked up, they saw that the crowd was coming towards them again…and Jesus looked at Philip and asked him, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not be enough bread for each of them to get a little.” Philip’s first response was that of fear and scarcity, impossibility and perhaps…why are you asking me? What does this have to do with me? What could I do? I think many of us, would initially react the same way, if we saw 5000 people walking towards us, and then having someone asks us to feed them…
Then, we have Andrew speak up, “there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.”
So, at least we have Andrew here suggesting an option – as improbable as it seemed to him, when he asked Jesus “But what are they among so many people?” I imagine Philip and the others rolling their eyes in disbelief at the absurd suggestion Andrew makes.
But, here we come to the point in the story, when Jesus reveals his power to “increase and multiply”. Jesus had the people (all 5000 of them) sit down on the grass, he took the loaves and the fish and gave thanks for them, and then had them distributed among all who were there. They all ate and were satisfied, and there were even leftovers!
Wow! If only miracles like that happened today...wouldn’t that be wonderful?
What if I suggested to you, that perhaps miracles like that are still possible today? Would you look at me strangely and wonder, what?
I go back to my initial thoughts at the start of my sermon – about praying for miracles and abundance…I think about our hesitancy in praying for miracles as we contemplate the implications in our lives if we really believed in the power of prayer…especially those challenging prayers!
We gather together to pray weekly…we use prayers from our “Book of Common Prayer”, we offer free intercessions and thanksgivings, we give thanks and break bread together every week, in remembrance of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Prayer is an important part of our faith traditions.
Prayer has the power to change lives. Do we really believe that when we recite our prayers every week?
Have you ever noticed that we end most of our prayers with “through Jesus Christ our Lord”?
I think that’s important to notice… because the power in our prayers, to change lives, to perform miracles, to increase and multiply, and to bless, is through the power of God, made known to us in Jesus Christ. (not by any strength or power of our ow
It is through the power of God, in the presence of Jesus that any loving action we are called to share and do with our hands and our feet and with our hearts will be multiplied beyond our imagining to transform our world and bring about miraculous healing and an abundant and joyful life for all God’s people…
So, don’t be hesitant or afraid or careful what you pray for:
Pray that you may strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Holy Spirit, Pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, pray that you may have the power to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Closing Prayer/Hymn: Hear Our Prayer, O Lord - Lift Every Voice and Sing II, #249
Hear our prayer, O Lord, hear our prayer, O Lord;
Incline thine ear to us, and grant us thy peace.
Words: George Whelpton (1847-1930). Music: George Whelpton.
Rev. Julie Platson
St. Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska
***Photo by Michelle Kavouras