To Pray without Ceasing

“Amen,” may it be so, may God make it so, I agree that it should be so, even if I don't fully understand it all just yet, but I trust that the faith of the rest of the church helps to carry me along as well. “Amen.”

“Amen” we say to the long list of persons and causes that are named in the prayer of the Church.

“Amen” to the confession of faith of a person of whatever age, in trust that God's good gifts are given so generously and graciously that we don't worry that there might not be enough for each of us.

And all of these “Amens” bump into each other out here in the aisle on the way to the throne of grace... and it is all fine that they do so.

The whole company of heaven is cheering us on as we do these things.

By the gift of memory and example they touch us and inspire us.

They point us to the living Word, the Lord Jesus, and we know that wherever Jesus is present, things begin to happen.

And so it is that Sunday after Sunday, people step into the aisle with prayer on their lips as they come to the Lord's Table.

We come in anticipation that Jesus' words are true,

that the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, as Isiah says, [Isaiah 25:6]

and that we are invited to that feast.

So with “come Lord Jesus, quickly come” as our prayer, [Revelation 22:20]

we hold out our hands with wonder, and hear the words “given for you.”

And we return our “Thank you” prayer.

Sometimes we walk this way with a slow and heavy tread, and pray in our grief and sadness

when one of our beloved has died.

And we need again the word of John the Seer who quotes the heavenly voice:

“...they will neither hunger nor thirst any more

the Lamb will be their shepherd,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Amen. Blessing and honor be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” [Revelation 7]

And with this news our step is lightened, and our prayer a bit more hope-filled.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, Jesus says in today's Gospel. [Matthew 5]

The fullness of the resurrection is not yet revealed to us,

but just enough, an anticipation, in Jesus word and promise, in his own resurrection.

Just enough for now as answer to our grieving prayer in the aisle.

What is that new society to be like?

We have some hints so that we can begin practicing already.

And so we take the risk and step into the aisle and greet someone “Peace be with you, Jane”

and hopefully hear in reply “And also with you, John.”

Heavenly!

It is a bit of the future brought right into the midst of our meeting in the aisle.

It is more than a pious wish.

It is more than our promise to each other.

It is the promise of the Lord Jesus which is beginning to happen even as we pray it and announce it to one another: “Peace be with you.”

Right here, in the middle of the aisle, the future, God's final future, is beginning to break in!

One day someone told me, rather sadly, about one of her acquaintances who would give the greeting of Peace with hardly a glance, as though looking past to someone else.

Wait a minute!

No one is to be keeping score here; you got ten greetings and I only got eight.

Take the time for eye-contact that can go along with “Peace be with you.”

We're not inventing something here; we are just following the example of the angel's greeting to Mary: Peace to you. Be not afraid.[Luke 1]

Each of us is become God's angel, God's messenger to a person right here in the middle of the aisle.

“God's peace be with you.”

Could you speak a better prayer than those words, for a friend of 50 years, or for a person whom you have just met?

“Peace to you.” Heavenly!

Heaven breaking into the world at the intersection of prayer and action.

Next Sunday we will be stepping into the aisle in procession with the shoe boxes that have been collected and filled with small Christmas presents for a child somewhere around the world.

We'll send them down the aisle and on their way with prayer for the senders, the messengers, and the recipients.

A little bit of ourselves goes with each shoebox gift.

We remember the hymn

Take my life and let it be

Consecrated Lord to thee....LBW#406

and think “Well, I do not feel particularly holy or consecrated today.”

But our boxes flow along in the procession down the aisle anyway...and we discover that as we take part, the Holy Spirit is busy doing his job of making us just a little more like what we will finally be, his holy people.

In prayer and example, the saints have shown us the way.

Sometimes we get discouraged because we know how flawed we are, how far from perfection.

But as we look at the names of the saints that surround us today, the ones that we named in the Litany of the Saints and the ones named on the banners,

we know that they all have had flaws, too.

But in spite of that, they “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”.

It is humanly impossible, and fully God's action upon us., his promise to us.

One final time our persons and prayers fill the aisle as we prepare to leave today.

But we are not the same people who came in an hour ago.

We have been changed

by our prayers that never cease,

by God's promises that always continue,

by our contact with others, and

by the example and memory of the saints.

And to think that so much of it took place right here in the middle of the aisle!

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.