Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Prayer-Part 2 To Whom?


In this blog we’ll look at a host of additional prayer issues, beyond stained glass, paintings, statues and icons. These range from praying to dead people (saints and others), to praying directly to God, to confusion about the direction and object (the “to whom”) of our prayers. Odds are there are ways of praying that we all misunderstand and misjudge. We’ll look at four key areas.

1. Praying to Saints for Their Personal Assistance

In some Christian traditions, people believe each saint has specific areas of interest and power, and can respond to prayer to them by acting on our behalf. Other traditions find this incomprehensible and wrong. But before we reject this outright, let’s consider some of the testimony of Scripture that seems to support this concept.

Angels

Angels are not humans, nor are they humans who have died and been sent to earth by God on special missions (as TV and many movies would have us think). They are another order of creation altogether, and they carry out God’s will, including communicating with people, performing supernatural acts and fighting battles, both against other supernatural beings and on behalf of humans. While we may think of God always being the One who acts—since He is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent—Scripture regularly shows His actions as flowing through others, who themselves have free will and choose to act as He has instructed, or not. Angels are a prime example of this.

Prophets, Disciples and Apostles

We also see God using people in this way. Recall Moses and the plagues against the Egyptian Pharaoh, Elijah calling down fire from heaven, Paul healing a man crippled from birth and Jesus sending out 70 disciples with the authority to heal, or the Twelve to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons.

Believers

God also uses believers – that is, people we wouldn’t normally think of as “saints,” but who are followers of Jesus, who can and do act on God’s behalf. There are many places in Scripture where power of God flowing through people is demonstrated, but probably one of the most obvious is in 1 Corinthians 12. Here it lists the gifts of the Spirit, the ways that God works through believers to both build up the Body of Christ (that is, the Church) and to reach out to the world. These gifts include supernatural wisdom and knowledge, prophecy, healing and miracles. That is, supernatural things happen through people.

Animals and Thing

God acts and touches people supernaturally even through animals, inanimate objects and, well, other weird stuff. A dove brought an olive branch to Noah to signify the end of the Flood, a bush burned in front of Moses without being consumed and God’s voice spoke out of it, a pillar of fire and a cloud of smoke led the Israelites through the wilderness, Balaam’s donkey spoke, and fingers appeared out of thin air and wrote on a wall. Peter’s shadow healed people, as did pieces of cloth that Paul had touched.


2. Praying to a Saint as an Intermediary to God

This is a slightly different idea than praying to a saint for their assistance (believing they each have areas of special power). Here the idea is that a given saint will more or less be the conduit to God through which our prayers flow, and through which then flows the power of God back to us, to help us in our time of need. The saints are, in effect, agents or messengers of God, much like angels, and act to carry our needs to Him, and then act to carry out His will. That, at least, is the idea.


3. Praying to Ask a Saint to Be an Intercessor

This is probably the least-known concept for Western Protestants, and yet perhaps the most common understanding of the role of saints for believers in the Orthodox Church: The dead saints of the Church can pray with you or pray for you. They can intercede. Does this make any sense at all?

As a 21st-century Protestant, if I am sick, or out of work, or worried about something, I believe it is perfectly fine to turn to a friend and say, “Joe, would you pray for me? Would you intercede about something?”

Does anyone, Protestant, Orthodox or Roman Catholic, think this is wrong? No, we think it is perfectly legitimate. We encourage such prayerful intercession for each other!

Here’s the thing: Roman Catholic and Orthodox tradition sees heaven as only a tiny distance away, separated by a thin veil. They believe that those who have died and gone into God’s presence are still fully aware of us, though we can’t see them. They know what we are doing and can hear us just as easily as if they were here, standing nearby.

Hence these traditions believe it makes perfect sense to ask a family member who has died, a saint, or even Mary the mother of Jesus, to pray for us. It is simply intercession. That is how it is understood, and up until recent centuries was the normative understanding of the Church. And still is, for most Christians worldwide.

4. PRAYING DIRECTLY TO GOD HIMSELF

Well, then, do we need to go indirectly, through saints, or Mary, or sweet Uncle Harry? Or can we go directly to God Himself? We might think this is simple—we go to God, of course! Why not?!

Remember, Moses saw God face-to-face in some (apparently) limited way, but in a later encounter he only saw God’s back, because to see Him directly, in all His glory, would have killed him. God said so to him. Uzzah died just by touching the Ark of the Covenant. The high priest, going into the Holy of Holies once per year, would die in God’s presence there if he had not first been purified. Yeow!

Maybe this indirect prayer, through the intercession of someone in heaven, isn’t such a bad idea! At the very least, it is understandable. But is it necessary to be indirect in our prayer to God?

What Hebrews says is that each and every one of us, because of Jesus’ sacrifice of on the cross, has permission to go into the Holy of Holies—where previously only the great High Priest could go, and only after he had been purified. The curtain that divided the Holy of Holies from the common people has been split in half, and now we have the right to go into to the very presence of God. Jesus gave us direct access.

What Scripture tells us is that we don’t have to be afraid of talking directly to the Father, directly to the Son, or directly to the Holy Spirit. Jesus did that for us. That was a gift He gave us by His sacrifice on the cross.


Conclusion

Asking a friend for intercession, or praying to saints, shouldn’t be used as a replacement for talking to God directly yourself. The most important person who can pray for you is … you! You can have every person on Earth praying for you, or for someone you care about, but if you’re not doing any praying yourself, something’s wrong. It’s basically asking everyone else to go to bat for you but never bothering to join in.

Isn’t this why we have prayer—because it's an opportunity to talk with our Creator? It’s the means to build an intimate, two-way personal relationship.

Consider God's view—what would He rather have? You, coming personally to talk, or you, always “sending a messenger” in your place? The choice should be obvious! Pray to God.


In Christ,

Pastor George

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