1Timothy 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers,
intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful
and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and
to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5
For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings, Christ
Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave
himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the
proper time. 7 And for this
purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle--I am telling the truth, I am
not lying--and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.
Of all of the things that we
do when we come to worship... sing hymns, respond in the liturgy, listen to a
sermon, receive God's good gifts in the sacraments, it would seem that Paul
ranks congregational prayer among all other activities. The phrase first of all as found in vs 1 comes to
us from the Greek word "proton;" which means of first value; highest
importance. A new testament era scholar
such as Richard Bauckham would probably say that this is due to the early
Christian ethos of defining itself--the Church--as the new "Temple of
God." Remember Jesus said in Matthew 21, regarding the Temple, "My
house is to be a house of PRAYER, but you have turned it into a den of
thieves." Prayer.... and the act of coming together in prayer is to be a chief characteristic of God's people on earth.
In this
brief passage St. Paul unpacks that idea in two important ways. Way #1 has to
do with the various nuances of prayer. For most of us prayer is a mystery. How
do we do it, or more importantly, how do we do it well? But also, WHY do we do
it? If God knows what's in our heart at every moment of the day, why is it
important that we verbalize this in prayer? Paul begins to get at some of this
when in verse 1 he uses four distinct words:
PETITIONS; PRAYERS; INTERCESSIONS; and THANKSGIVING. Going through them
one at a time, PETITION (deesis, Gk) means
to entreat; to address a perceived need; to ask. When Christians attempt to
pray, it is almost always in the form of a petition: "Dear God, please
help me buy a new car; give me good weather today so I can mow the lawn; and
help me have a good day at work. Amen." PRAYERS (proseuche, Gk) in the Biblical sense harks to the synagogue liturgy
with set prayers for morning or evening, etc. etc. These would be the
"proper liturgical prayers" of the day for this time of year, this day
of the week, etc. These give us the outline and structure whereby the rest fits
in. It can be safely assumed that the Lord's Prayer would feature regularly in
the Christianized Prayers of Paul's house churches. INTERCESSIONS (enteuksis, Gk) literally means a
"falling in with;" a "meeting/coming together." In our
modern language we often talk about how someone "went to bat" for
that person. That's intercession. When we hold up a specific individual at the
point of their need to God, we're engaged in intercessory prayer. The specific
uniqueness about intercessory prayer is that it is on behalf of ANOTHER.
Finally, THANKSGIVING (eucharistia, Gk). This
is the same Greek word that we get our word [holy] Eucharist from. In its
general sense it means that when we pray we thank God for his many benefits and
blessings that he showers upon us.
The
second way that Paul unpacks the role of prayer in congregational life is to
tell us WHO we should pray for. He does this in vs 2: for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and
quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. What's fascinating to consider
in this verse is the question of WHO the 'kings' are, and WHO all is in
authority. The maniacal emperor Nero is on the throne; persecution of
Christians in Rome has begun. Not many years ago a radio preacher in Arizona
received his 15 minutes of fame when he prayed that President Obama would die.
For all I know there may have been similar 'prayers' offered up regarding
George W Bush by Christians of opposite political views. Such 'prayers' are not
biblical; they are not Christian; they are not God-pleasing. They are a
TRAVESTY to our calling. The goal is that we as believers be allowed to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness
and holiness. This is not accomplished when we pray for the destruction of
our enemies. One of the earliest church fathers, Justin Martyr, argued that the
empire should not be afraid to have Christians in its midst; that indeed, such
a fact was a blessing for any land and empire, as Christians would be regularly
engaged in the pursuit of praying for
their government to the one true God.
In this
sense, the idea is that of a CALLING. As believers we are CALLED to intercede
for our nation and government in our prayers. This isn't something just the
pastors do; it's not something that the really spiritual grandmothers of the
congregation do; it's something that we're all supposed to do. It doesn't mean
that you have to like our president or even agree with all of his decisions (to
say nothing of our Congress!). It does mean, however, that this godly pursuit
is above petty politics.
For me, I
think this boils down to questions about "making a difference." So
many people feel disenfranchised; so many people feel as though their vote
doesn't count, so why bother, etc. Here we have a passage in God's holy word
that assures us that regardless of who is "in power" down
here....whether Nero, Obama, or even Hafez Al Assad in Syria, Christians have
an important calling to answer.
Cheers,
TM
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