When the Praise
Stopped
Revelation 8:1-6
Over the years our
mid-week service—called “Prayer Meeting” in our church and in hundreds of
other Baptist churches—has heard lots of prayer requests, some repeated for
weeks and months. Of course, given the casual
atmosphere of our meeting, there have been other things repeated as well. We have repeated stories, jokes, political
observations, and complaints about the weather.
I don’t know if this happens in other small church prayer meetings but
we’ve also returned again and again to the notion of prayer being a mystery.
Years ago, I heard
a favorite professor begin his chapel message by saying, “I believe in prayer
and I’ve been known to pray at times.”
Given the setting, it was funny.
But it still resonates with me.
“I believe in prayer.” There,
I’ve said it. The great heroes of the
Bible and Christian history were people who prayed and encouraged others to
pray.
Moreover, “I’ve
been known to pray at times,” though probably not as much as you might think
the average pastor prays.
If I were to be
perfectly honest—another trait that pastors aspire to but don’t always
attain—I’d have to modify that professor’s words to become, “I believe in
prayer and I’ve been known to pray at times, even though the whole process is a
mystery to me.”
Even in the Bible
there are matters regarding prayer that are puzzling. We believe God rules in history and his word
is certain. Yet, we have stories in
which God says, “I’m going to punish those people.” Then some devout person prays, “Lord,
don’t’.” And God says, “Okay, I won’t.”
I’ve long been
suspicious of those who attempt to reduce prayer to a simple formula. I’m not one but there are certain
Fundamentalists I admire. One of these
is John R. Rice. Decades ago Rice wrote
a book called Prayer: Asking and
Receiving. One modern writer called it the best book on prayer ever
written. I read it and it’s an
encouraging book but it evades some tough issues. Rice argues that prayer is
simply asking God and then waiting to receive what you ask for. Yet, that doesn’t quite seem to fit our
experiences. (By the way, Rice also
wrote a book called Bobbed Hair, Bossy
Wives, and Women Preachers that is less inspiring.)
Then there are
those good people who say, “God always answers our prayers. He either says ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ or ‘Wait.’” Now, it seems pretty clear when God says
“Yes,” but how do you distinguish between “No” and “Wait.” We can’t help but wonder how many dear saints
have prayed and held on to the notion that God is saying “Wait,” only to
realize after years of hoping that the answer was really “No.”
And, don’t get me
started on those people who say, “Be careful what you pray for or you just
might get it.” What kind of benevolent
God works that way? Years ago in a New
Orleans grocery story I overheard a dialogue between a mother and her son who
was about seven or eight. He kept asking
her to buy a bag of candy; she kept saying no.
But again and again he asked, and she finally grabbed the bag, tossed it
into her cart, and said, “I’m going to get it but you’re going to have to eat
every bit of it.” The boy said,
“Really! I can?” Can we wear God down like that; persuade him
to give us something that’s not good for us just to get us to shut-up?
And, of course,
there is that question so many ask: “If God already knows what I need, why do I
need to pray?” There’s probably no
simple answer to that. Certainly the
Bible tells us that God heaps many things on us, good and needful things that
we never ask for. So, the balance is
always likely to be in God’s favor. Could
it be we must ask God for things he already knows we need so we can be clear
how much we need them? Would we ask for
forgiveness if we weren’t confronted with our own sin? When confronted with another’s need, would be
we tempted to be lackadaisical if we thought God would take care of it, that we
don’t need to be concerned? At the same
time, when we do pray for another’s need are we more inclined to be God’s
instrument to bring the help he sends their way? Is it possible we are to ask God for what he
already knows we need so we will be clear about the source of the
blessings when they come? Of course,
none of these really answer the question.
I’m sure you have
some prayer-related questions I’ve missed.
Maybe something like, “If we’ve already prayed for the food once, do I
need to pray for leftovers?” In truth,
the answer to that might be linked to the age of the leftovers.
Questions or not,
I come back to the fundamental statement—“I believe in prayer.”
In the mysterious
Book of Revelation, John encourages us in such a belief. So, let’s look at this episode to hear what
it has to say to us.
But remember, it
was first addressed to people who had a lot more to worry about than what to
wear on an October Sunday morning.
The church was on
the cusp of the first imperial persecution, the beloved John had already been
exiled on Patmos. Other Christians were
already beginning to experience the first assaults of an enraged empire where the
simplest of confessions “Jesus is Lord” was seen as a threat to order and
peace.
John’s book was
written to give hope and encouragement to these beleaguered people. So, John encourages them to pray. There are three insights about prayer in this
picture.
GOD WELCOMES OUR
PRAYERS.
Silence is not how
we imagine heaven. Isaiah’s vision
pictures heaven as a great throne room filled with the continual praises of
Seraphim who call out to one another.
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord of Hosts
The whole earth is
Full of his glory.
Or maybe you
remember John’s description from a few chapters earlier. Again fantastic celestial creatures are
present; creatures that “day and night…never stop saying ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is
the Lord God Almighty….”
No, we don’t
picture silence in heaven. Yet, when the
seventh seal is broken there is silence in heaven.
Most commentators
believe this image reflects a Jewish tradition which says the praised of heaven
cease for a while so God may hear the prayers of his people. Obviously,
no one means heaven is too loud for God to hear; it’s simply a picturesque way
to say God welcomes our prayers.
Of course, the
entire Bible supports the truth that our prayers are important to God.
In a culture like
ours that values activism, keeping busy, the thought of pausing to pray seems
too much to ask. So, John reminds us of
two more truths about prayer.
WHEN WE PRAY, WE
OFFER WORSHIP TO GOD.
John’s readers may
have never visited the temple in Jerusalem but many of them would have heard
the stories of offerings were brought to the great altar to worship God. That’s behind the imagery here.
And another angel came and stood at the
altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the
prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke
of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand
of the angel.
Worship involves
acknowledging God for who he is and what he has cone. Earlier John pictured the worship of the God
the Creator.
The people of God “put their crowns down before the throne and
say:
‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
because you made all things.
Everything existed and was made,
because you wanted it.’”
Then he pictures
the worship of the Lamb—Jesus Christ.
Voices throughout heaven sing “a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its
seals
because you were
killed,
and at the cost of
your own blood you have purchased for
God
persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation.”
**************
“Worthy is the lamb who was slain
to receive power and wealth
and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and praise!”
Then I heard every
creature-in heaven, on earth, under the earth, in the sea, and all that is in
them- singing.”
Giving God praise for
creation and redemption is an understandable expression of worship. So, too, is prayer. Prayer begins with seeing God as benevolent
and as the source of the good things we seek.
It recognizes our dependence upon him and our limitations.
So, our faltering,
ill-formed prayers, born out of our desperation are welcomed by God as acts of
worship.
It is an
encouragement to pray but John takes it further. He lets us know that PRAYER MAKES A
DIFFERENCE.
The scene ends as “… the angel took the censer and filled it
with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of
thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”
The people facing
pressure for their faith needed to know they weren’t wasting their breath. Richard Mouw tells about a tourist visiting
Jerusalem. The tourist met a man praying
at the famous “Wailing Wall.” He stood
bowing back and forth toward the wall as he cried out his prayers. When he finished the tourist ask what he had been
praying about.
The man said, “I
was praying for peace for Jerusalem, for Israel, and for the middle east.”
The tourist asked,
“Have your prayers been answered?”
The man said, “No,
it’s like talking to a wall.”
John’s vision
tells us that praying is not like talking to a wall; God hears our prayers and
God responds. Things like “thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning,
and an earthquake” are powerful. In the same way our prayers can have an
earthshaking impact.
In the context,
the prayers John is talking about are prayers for justice. All around the world people are living with
injustice. This vision offers the
comfort that some day God will act to right the wrongs they have suffered.
In a larger sense,
prayer can change the world in other ways.
Craig Keener tells of how in the early 1990s Christians began meeting to
pray for the Islamic nations on Friday nights, the traditional night for Muslim
worship. Though the Muslim nations were
considered “closed” to evangelism, word began to trickle out to those leading
the prayer meetings that all across the Muslim world men and women were turning
to Christ. Prayer was changing an
unchangeable world.
In the late
eighteenth century, American culture was chaotic as men and women announced
their independence from God. Drunkenness
and lawlessness marked much of the new frontier. Yet, across denominational boundaries
Christians began praying for an awakening.
They prayed for years; then, the Second Great Awakening shook the
nation. Thousands came to Christ and the
culture changed. It was the product of
prayer.
Conclusion:
Sometimes we seem
surrounded by threats. We look at a map
and wish for the days when the ancient mapmakers honored the stuff of myths by
noting on the far corners of those maps “Here be monsters.” But we know the treats we worry about won’t
stay in the far corners of the world and they aren’t myths. We call them by different names; instead of
dragons or sea-monsters we say Ebola, ISIS, urban violence, extremism, and
sheer evil. It’s enough to make an ACLU
sustaining member apply for a conceal-carry permit. We watch TV programs about zombies to comfort
ourselves that things could be worse.
Like once despised “nerds,” we feed on stories of super heroes because,
ultimately, we feel we have no power.
The beleaguered
band that first read John’s story of the praise stopping in heaven had no
weapons, no political clout, no friends in high places. There were no journalists pleading their
cause in daily editorials. No legal aid
society stood with them in the courtrooms.
All they had was prayer. They
changed the world.
In the end, I
believe in prayer. Despite all the
mystery, all the unanswered questions, I believe in prayer. And, because of that, I’ve been known to pray
at times. Maybe you do too.
