For What Shall We Pray?
To All,
Perhaps it’s because of the times we live in, I found myself struggling with some of the words we hear from Jesus in our Gospel reading for Sunday (Matthew 18:15-20). After Jesus gives a kind of procedure to follow if one member of the community sins against another, He also says, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
My struggle is not with the last sentence that Jesus says. It is with the one right before it. I cannot believe, for example, that if two members of the KKK, or the Proud Boys, or some other similar group, decided to pray before they did violence to some person or persons that God would grant them their request. If I am right about that, then there has to be something that guides the prayer on which the two agree. And for me, that direction comes from that last sentence: “For where two or three are gathered in my name (italics mine), there am I in the midst of them.
That promise of Jesus is a great comfort and an assurance that Jesus is with us and that our prayers are heard. But it is also a challenge. It is a challenge because it calls us to consider what we pray for and what kind of church we are called to be.
It can be tempting in these times to pray that God enforce our judgments of others. We can be tempted to pray that others may be forced out from us (which, by the way, is the last resort, not the first response, of what Jesus says to do when a member sins). Some might even pray for the destruction of their enemies. But is that praying in Jesus’ name? No! I can’t see how it could be.
Jesus says, “…whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” A long time ago, I either heard or read an interpretation of this which has stuck with me ever since: It is not so much a matter of us binding others, it is a matter of us letting ourselves be bound. In other words, when I get caught up in hate or fear or resentment or vengeance, I get bound, and I carry that bondage until I repent and I am willing to let it go.
These are uncertain times. But we cannot let anxiety lead us to pray for hateful things. Instead, we can trust that Jesus is indeed in the midst of us. We can pray for the strength and the grace to love and to welcome those who are hurting and those who are searching. And even when it may be necessary to exclude someone, we still do it in love and mercy. As we come together in love, God will surely answer our prayers.
I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.
In Christ,
Phil, CP
