THE AMAZING POWER OF PRAYER

 

THE AMAZING POWER OF PRAYER 

By the Rev. Canon Dr. Winfred Vergara, Missioner for Asiamerica Ministries in the Episcopal Church (Based in New York City)

Introduction

An acolyte asked his priest, “Father, how do we make holy water?” The priest replied, “we boil the hell out of it.”

Another acolyte said, “Father, can you teach me how to pray effectively?” The priest said, “Ok, I’ll teach you how to pray effectively.” The priest then brought him to a swimming pool and pushed him to the deeper part. The acolyte flapped his arms, kicked his feet to stay afloat and shouted “OMG! Help me! Help me!” The priest then said, “When you pray, pray as if your life depends on it!”

Of course, I would not push any of my acolytes to the pool but it is amazing that a wide spectrum of people today are turning to prayer as a way of keeping them hopeful to stay alive, healthy and safe from COVID 19.

Almost every day, I receive requests for prayers: healing for those who are sick, salvation from hospitalization, comfort and strength for the bereaved, eternal rest for those who died. Sometimes, I receive requests for “last rites.” On Facebook, Twitter and Social Media, there are thousands of people seeking prayers.

The pandemic times have made us ever more aware that our times are uncertain and that we do not have control of our destiny. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us, O Lord, to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” We realize that we are like grass and like the flowers in the fields. The grass withers and the flowers fall. Only God remains forever. He sits amidst the floods, He walks on water. He stands above the circle of the earth.

And so we turn to prayer, hoping to tap the power of God, to change our situations, to protect us from sickness and death, and to keep us free from the worries and dangers of this world, to obtain His blessings of peace, love and joy.

The Gospel

In the Gospel this morning (Mark 1:29-39), Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. She had a fever, a symptom of an infection. There was no report of COVID 19 at that time but certainly the fever had rendered her sick and incapacitated. But as soon as she was healed, this unnamed mother-in-law served Jesus and the apostles including her son-in-law, Peter. Her healing restored her to her proper place in God’s kingdom: she was a gracious host, a good cook and a hospitable mother. (By the way, that gives you the hint that St. Peter, considered by the Roman Catholics as the first pope, was married).

The news spread throughout the whole neighborhood of Capernaum and people brought the sick and the demonized to Jesus. He healed them all and set them free. It was an exhausting evening. Jesus was spent and so he needed to replenish his energy. What did he do? Early the next morning, he went to an isolated place. Alone he prayed to God, alone he communed with the Father. His apostles looked for him and when they found him, they said: “everyone is searching for you.” But instead of returning to the previous site, he said, “Let us go to the other towns also.” And they went about the whole of Galilee healing the sick and casting out demons.

Today, I pray that the resurrected Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit may make a mighty visitation and grant healing to the sick and suffering especially those sick with COVID.

There are three functions of prayer: prayer heals, prayer saves and prayer changes things.

1.  PRAYER HEALS

The power to heal comes from God through prayer. Prayer is the heartbeat of God. God knows our needs even before we ask but we must pray because God loves to hear our voice.

Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find and knock and the door will  be opened unto you. For everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds and everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Much of Christian ministry are on prayers for healing. Healing of the mind, body and spirit---and healing of relationships. I cannot keep a record of how many of my healing prayers have been answered. I wished that all of my prayers for healing are answered in the way I wanted. But as I experienced, our task is only to pray with our best. God is the one who knows best. As my journalist friend said, "we are the authors of our prayers but God is the Editor."

I believe I have been given the gift of healing as every Christian believer has been given. There was a time I even thought I raised the dead. That happened in one church where I was a guest preacher. I spoke from the gospel of Luke 11 where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. I read the portion where Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out!” I had a lapel microphone and to add drama to the words, I shouted at the top of my voice,  “Lazarus, come out!!” From the basement of the church came a scream, “Father, I’m coming out!” It was the janitor of the church and his name is Lazarus! LOL.

Okay, that happened to the apostles of Jesus too. They were taught to pray for healing and to cast out demons. They thought they could cast out the demons by a sheer loud command. But when they did, they could not cast the demon out. When Jesus did it, he was able to cast it out. The apostles asked, “why are we not able to do it?” Jesus replied, “Because of your unbelief.” “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you" (Matthew 17:19-20).

So it is one thing to say “I believe in God” and it is another to really believe what we say. Oftentimes we recite the Creed mechanically. Former Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold said that many of us have simply become “mechanics of the sacred.” But Hebrews 11 says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

So many of us believe only in what we see. We could not see faith beyond our naked eyes. We’re like the doubting Thomas before the resurrection: To see is to believe. That is why, in prayer, we must also pray for the gift of faith. Jesus told the apostle Thomas, "Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe."

2.  PRAYER SAVES

Years ago, I was riding a bus on a winding road to Baguio City, in the Mountain Provinces of the Philippines. It was raining heavily and the road was slippery. As the driver was carefully and fearfully navigating through the winding road, many of us were praying. We successfully passed the precarious area where so many fatal accidents happened. Many buses and cars had fallen headlong down that cliff and many had lost their lives in those instances.

In another instance and in another trip, our bus actually slipped down the muddy side of the road. We were saved only by a big tree that protruded by the cliff. As the bus was unable to back-up due to the front tires caught in the branch of the tree, the driver decided that we abandon the bus. He shouted that all passengers get out of the bus as speedily as we can. Almost everyone was screaming and praying and calling on Jesus. God heard our prayers and everyone including the driver and conductor were able to get out of the bus before the tree gave out and the bus fell down the cliff.

That was quite an experience. For a moment, we all feared for our lives but were thankful. I believe it was our desperate but united prayer that saved us. The Bible says in Romans 10:13, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Those of you who are in the hospitals right now and are sick with COVID 19, I say call on the name of Jesus and you will be saved.

3.  PRAYER CHANGES 

Prayer changes things because God changes things. When we pray, we move the hand of God to heal, to save, to protect and to set us free, even from death.

But the change that prayer accomplishes is not only in our physical safety but the change from within. I once shared with you that one of those which moved me to become a priest was my experience of being healed and being saved. When we are healed, when we are saved, when we are delivered, there is always a purpose.

One of the great saints in history was once a terrible sinner. John Newton, who composed the song, “Amazing Grace” was an English slave trader. He was one of those wretched, blasphemous white supremacists in the 1750’s who profited from buying slaves from Africa and selling them to Europe and North America.

In one of their voyages, they met a strong storm in Buncrana, Ireland which beat up their ship. Captain Newton, at the helm, almost lost his life. His salvation from the storm and from a severe illness changed his life. He abandoned the life of a slave trader and became a champion against slavery, a remarkable turn-around. He preached, taught and wrote many abolitionist views saying “ It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders…The blood of many thousands of our helpless, much injured creatures is crying against us, “ he stated in 1797. “The pitiable state of the slave survivors who are torn from their relatives, connections and their entire land must be taken into account.”

So transformed was John Newton that he so influenced William Wilberforce, one of his acolytes. Wilberforce later became a great parliamentarian and lawmaker in the British Parliament who worked hard for the abolition of slavery. He drafted England’s Anti-Slavery Law which was successfully enacted in 1807.

John Newton (Wilberforce's mentor and pastor) died in that year having seen the amazing result of their labor. Slavery was abolished. His change of heart helped change the world. God saved his wretched life for a holy purpose.

288 years after Newton wrote its lyrics in 1773, “Amazing Grace” became the ballad of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, it was sung at many Martin Luther King Jr. rallies by Mahalia Jackson.

The 21st century witnessed the first African American politician becoming President of the United States, President Barrack Obama. It also witnessed the first African American clergy becoming the first Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry. Both are descendent of the African slaves. The United States emerged as a nation following its struggle for independence from Great Britain. The Episcopal Church emerged as the first and independent Province from the Church of England. Amazing stories of how God changes things.

Both Obama and Curry love "Amazing Grace." It was sung at the Inaugural Prayer Service of President Barrack Obama in 2009. Barrack Obama himself sang “Amazing Grace” during the funeral for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the South Carolina state senator who was one of those killed in the 2015 Charleston Church shooting, Bishop Curry himself once remarked, "I cannot sing 'Amazing grace' without reliving my recovery and my stunning discovery that grace—God’s unmerited love for the lost—is for real." How a song composed by a former slave trader could become the favorite song of even the descendants of the slaves is itself an "amazing grace."

CONCLUSION

“Amazing Grace” was also sung when the Berlin Wall which divided Germany for a long time was finally broken down; it was sung during the time when the nation was mourning the tragedy of 911. Today, it is sung by the whole world as a song of hope for the end of COVID pandemic and as prayer for the renewal of our lives to be a better world and a better people.

It is a testimony of how prayer changes thing and how it can change the world. It is a prayer of faith that even in darkness, there is light; in the midst of despair, there is hope; and in the midst of death, there is life. The changed life of John Newton and of everyone who was changed by prayer reverberates in each and every line:

“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!”

 “Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come. Tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

The Lord has promised good to me; His word my hope secures. He will my Shield and Portion be. As long as life endures.”

“When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days, to sing God’s grace. Than when we first begun.” Amen.