A little over 10 years ago much of Seattle was caught up in Mariner fever–the Mariners were making a seemingly impossible comeback from the bottom of the standings to becoming playoff contenders. They had a series of games against the Yankees that was about as good as it gets when it comes to baseball. Miraculous 9th inning come from behind victories. Refuse to Lose was the slogan of the time-it was headlines in the newspapers, on T-shirts, bumper stickers –Mariner fever was hot.

One Sunday during this series, during our corporate prayer time here at Bethany, I remember the prayer time going something like this:

Someone prayed in a spirit of exuberance,
Thank you God for the fun of Mariner baseball.

Another person then prayed,
Oh God, please let the Mariners beat those damn Yankees.

Then another person fervently prayed,
Oh God, please be with those that make an idols out of trivial worldly pleasures like professional baseball.

I can’t remember how long this prayer battle went on, but it was pretty obvious that the prayer time had deteriorated into a back and forth between pray-ers with different viewpoints about professional baseball. Even our organist at the time let her opinion be known by playing Take Me Out To The Ballgame for our postlude.

Now, I know God hears all of our prayers, but I’ not sure this example should be our model when it comes to corporate prayer.

This morning we are continuing in our series exploring following Jesus together. Last week Dan began the series addressing corporate worship. Today we are going to explore some ideas about corporate prayer.

There are lots of things we could talk about when it comes to prayer, but today we are going to focus specifically on what it means to pray with each other. There are various ways we, as Christians pray together:

• Sometimes it is just with another person.
• Other times it is in a small group.
• And still other times we pray in a large corporate worship setting like we do here every Sunday.

When I’m speaking of corporate prayer today, these are the kinds of prayer settings I have in mind. So here is our question for this morning: How is corporate prayer different from praying by myself? And, why is it important? Even necessary?

When we look at Scripture as a whole, we discover that most of the prayers in the Bible and instructions surrounding prayer are in a corporate context, not an individual one.

Jesus instructs his disciples to pray through teaching the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer meant to be prayed by his followers together.

The community of faith both in the Old and New Testaments had the Psalter as their prayer book. The Psalms were not just read, but they were prayed and they were prayed together. Even when we look at how the Psalms were shaped in Scripture, we see that those that were written by an individual and speak of individual concerns. But they are edited and shaped and frequently have introductory comments that tell us that they were to be prayed in the congregation, as corporate prayers.

Two Sundays ago Steve led us in a responsive prayer time using Ps 136 as our guide. Remember we repeated the line from the psalm “your steadfast love endures forever” in our prayer time together. This was a great example of the kind of corporate prayer that has been within the community of faith for thousands of years.

Even the instructions of Jesus when he says to go pray in a closet, these instructions were because of the hypocrites, the Pharisees who were abusing corporate prayer by drawing attention to themselves. The issue was the abuse of corporate prayer, not that private prayer was better or more important.

Generally, corporate prayer takes precedent over individual prayer in Scripture. Communal prayer is modeled and talked about more than individual prayer. This may come as a surprise, given we tend to read Scripture through our individualistic mindsets. I recently heard author David McCullough speak. He said a society that has a best selling magazine called “Self” tells us something about that society.

But, as Christians, our primary unit is not the self, the individual, but the body of Christ. The New Testament is written with that in mind. Most of the epistles were to a local church body, addressing community needs – corporate life, and the corporate life of prayer is modeled in Scripture.

God desires us to pray together. How come? What makes corporate prayer different from individual prayer? I want to share a few ideas, four to be exact, as to why corporate prayer is important. Why we need to pray with each other.

First, praying with others more fully shapes our prayers. This happens in a couple of ways, I think. Praying is a conversation with God. Praying with others helps us hear God more clearly and helps us speak to God more clearly.

Praying together more fully shapes our prayers by helping us to hear God better. Praying with others can increase our discernment of God’s will. A Biblical example is when the newly formed church was trying to discern who was to take the apostleship role that had belonged to Judas.

Acts 1:24 tells us a group of Christians prayed asking God to show who would take his place. It was after they prayed together that they selected Matthias for that important role.

In Acts 13, the congregation in Antioch prayed together and through this time the church discerned that Barnabas and Paul were to be commissioned to be sent out to proclaim the Gospel.

In both cases, corporate prayer was a necessary part of their hearing God, part of the discernment process.

But we don’t just need to look at the Bible for examples. We can look at examples in our own lives where corporate prayer has helped us discern God’s perspective.

Here at Bethany there are examples of home groups praying for all kinds of decisions. Home groups through the years have very much been a part of the prayerful process of our missionaries leaving us to go work and serve Christ elsewhere in the world. They’ve also been part of the process for some couples in deciding to get married. In the instances I’m thinking of, it is not that folks go to their small group asking for their blessing on a decision already made-the small group is the process through which God’s guidance happens-praying together to hear God.

Less than 2 weeks ago I met with a friend who, with her husband and 3 kids, are soon to move to the Midwest. Her husband has a new position in a parachurch ministry that is a wonderful fit. When I met with her, about a month before this, she was excited about the different job possibility in Bellingham, thinking God was opening up doors there. Folks from their small group were praying for them and had hesitations, but she and her husband were excited about the idea.

Unfortunately, their praying community never did think Bellingham was a good fit. And told them so. Because of this, my friend and her husband turned down the opportunity, trusting their community was hearing God. They went through about 1-2 weeks of grieving the loss of this opportunity–they’d even picked out a house to buy up there–when out of the blue came a new job offer from the Midwest. Not only were they more excited about this new surprise offer, everyone in their praying community believed this was a much better fit for them, and encouraged them to accept the offer. They did, and are moving this summer.

My own praying community, my home group, as been a big help in decisions like where to move or what house to buy. They’ve also been part of the discernment process surrounding vocational and parenting issues.

We hear God more fully through the Christian community. God has given us this wonderful gift to help us live faithfully, discern more fully God’s will, and we miss out of much of what God would have for us when we don’t take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

Not only does praying together more fully shape our prayers to hear God, praying with others can also more fully shape what we are saying to God.

Praying with others helps us speak to God. As others offer their prayers to God on our behalf, different perspectives emerge that are often harmonious. You can think of corporate prayer like a symphony. When we pray by ourselves, our prayers might be more like the melody. But when I pray with others, the prayers offered together provide harmony, added dimensions that make my prayer now more like a symphony-the prayer request is now much fuller, much richer. It isn’t that the prayer request is now answered, but the prayer concern more accurately speaks to the desires than what Iwas able to express only by myself.

Our home group has a time each week where one of us shares what we think God is up to with us, and shares prayer requests along those lines. After listening to the individual in the “hot seat” as we call it, we pray silently, and then ask clarifying questions. After that we lay hands on the person and pray for him or her, both silently and out loud. What usually happens in that time is that an original prayer request is more fully formed, more completely spoken to God. For example, it might look something like this:

I bring to the group my frustration that my back hurts and I want God to heal it.

During the prayer time, someone might pray that God would make me aware of how I might hold tension in my body.

Another person, hearing this, is prompted to ask God to speak into my anxieties.

Still another is led to pray that I could surrender the areas in my life I find so hard to let go of and trust God with them.

Whereas I might have come with the simple request for healing of my back, others prayers brought up much more that was part of the concern, but unarticulated until others spoke it out to God.

Praying in community more fully shapes our prayers, both in our hearing God and in our speaking to God.

Second, praying in community also builds Christian community and does so in lots of different ways.

When we join together in prayer for concerns that are very near and dear to us, concerns that touch the most vulnerable places in our lives, we grow closer to each other. Simply by lifting up these tender places to God together, intimacy between the pray-ers occurs. I’m sure most of you have experienced this.

When you are praying with someone else and the concerns are about serious issues in their lives, you can’t help but be touched and drawn into their pain. In this time, not only are we connecting with God in prayer, having a vertical connection if you will, there is also a horizontal connection–a connection with each other.

A very poignant example of this was at a memorial service for a young man here last November, after he committed suicide. The sanctuary was filled with a number of us from Bethany that know the family. When we were praying together for the family, there was no detachment – we were all united in bringing them to God, and, in the process, I was very aware of how connected we were as we prayed. The intimacy was obvious.

We also build Christian community not only with those currently around us, but also with Christians down through the centuries, especially when we pray prayers that have been prayed for years-be it the Lord’s Prayer or text from a Psalm. When I pray these prayers, I am reminded that there is a “great cloud of witnesses,” as referred to in the book of Hebrews, cheering me on in my walk with Christ–folks that have gone before me in the faith, prayed the same prayers I am praying, and now are in a place to offer their prayers for me.

The awareness of this mystery (and it is a mystery) also increases my awareness of connectedness with Christ’s body. One of the writers on prayer I read said “prayer is personal but not private.” I like that description. Yes, prayer is very personal, vulnerable and intimate, but it is not first and foremost solitary. It is to happen in connection with the Christian community.

Over and over, as I’ve read others ideas about corporate prayer, I’ve also heard comments like this one from Philip Sheldrake, a Reformed theologian:

“Individual prayer emerges from, dwells in, and flows back to community.”

Prayer is first a corporate act and secondly an individual one. Even our individual praying, especially when we pray the prayers used by other Christians over the centuries, connects us back to the community.

And I think there is still another way praying together serves to strengthen community, but it happens a bit more indirectly. Being with the praying community carries us when we can’t pray. I think there are times in all of our lives where we are in an emotional, spiritual, physical place where we just can’t bring ourselves to pray. Sometimes I’m too exhausted, too devastated, too weak to pray. During these times I need simply to sit and be with other Christians as they pray, as they pray for me.

As one Benedictine sister says in Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk,

“In the really hard times when it’s all I can do to keep breathing, it’s still important for me to go (be with others as they pray)...I feel as if the others are keeping my faith for me, pulling me along.”

Others do keep our faith, pull us along when we can’t pray. When that happens to me, I realize, once again, my dependence on the Body of Christ. Our interconnectedness in this way strengthens Christian Community.

Praying together more fully shapes our prayers to God and builds Christian community.

Third, praying together also re-orients our perspective, from life being all about our concern, to life being about God. Last week Dan shared how corporate worship moves our focus off of ourselves and puts our focus more on God. The same is true for corporate prayer.

Being in the ministry of spiritual direction, I have lots of opportunities to pray with other people. Often a person will come to me with an issue and simply be unable to see God in the situation. I will suggest that we pray silently together. During our silent prayer time, through no input from me but our silent prayer together, a perspective shift occurs. The person I’m meeting with gets a picture of God in her situation. For example, where someone felt abandoned by God, now she has a picture of God holding her. Again and again, it seems that praying together increases our awareness of God in life.

One of the best examples, I think, of how this perspective re-orientation has played out in the faith community over the years, is found in the Psalms. As I mentioned earlier, the Psalms were used by the church as a prayer book to be prayed together in a corporate worship setting.

The Psalms invite us to see God at the center of life, no matter what the circumstances. It’s not that the Psalms ignore all the messiness of the human condition. Quite the contrary. Calvin called the Psalms the “anatomy of the soul”. When we pray the Psalms together, we are being very honest about who we are in all our highs and lows, our complaints and joys. But when we pray the Psalms, how we are isn’t the last word. The last word is about God. God is at the center of life.

Hear from Psalm 13:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Now notice the perspective shift later in this Psalm:

But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Although David’s circumstances haven’t changed, the focus is now less on his concerns and more on who God is.

When we pray the Psalms, this perspective re-orientation happens over and over. By praying the Psalms, we can change from being a people overwhelmed by our concerns to a people focused on God.

We see this in the New Testament as well. Paul writes to the Church body at Philippi (that’s the book of Phillipians) and encourages them to pray. Notice what he says will happen when they pray together. I’ll read from The Message:

Don’t fret or worry.
Instead of worrying, pray.
Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.
Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good,
will come and settle you down.
It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Praying together re-orients our perspectives from life being all about our concerns to life being about God.

Praying together more fully shapes our prayers, it builds community, It re-orients our perspective, and finally, and perhaps most importantly, we pray together because God delights in it.

God by nature is communal, and desires us not only to live in community but communicate with him corporately.

Psalm 149 states “God takes pleasure in His people”.

Jesus says in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three are gathered, there I am in their midst”.

God enjoys the company! Yes, God loves to dialogue with us one on one, but I think there is special delight in the communal conversation.

Now I love an intimate dinner for two as much as anybody (regardless of what my husband might have lead you to believe a few Sundays ago….) but there is something special of a gathering of family and friends over dinner where the conversation flows smoothly–where there is laughter one minute, and loving listening the next. Where there is room for both joy and sorrow. Where it just feels so good to be together and there is a welling up of thankfulness for such a rich time. I think that is what God has in mind with us joining together in corporate prayer.

As I was thinking about this, I thought of the Eucharist, Holy Communion–the fact that the sacrament connected to a communal dinner time together. It fits that God welcomes us to the communion table together. God likes the gathering of us all. May we satisfy God’s delight by joining together in prayer.

Praying in community:

• shapes our prayers more fully
• builds community
• re-orients our perspective,
• delights God with our fellowship

I’ve shared 4 reasons as to why we pray together, I’d like to end by quickly giving some practical suggestions for praying as a community.

• Remember when we pray corporately, we are praying as a body, not a bunch of disjointed parts. Don’t tune out what others pray, going along in your head praying your own way, or thinking of the paper you need to write or wondering what you’ll fix for lunch. As best you can, focus your attention on the prayers.
  
• When you pray out loud, please realize you are praying with the body of Christ, not just by yourself–so, for instance, pray loudly enough for us all to join in. Now, if you are quiet, we can still certainly offer you up to God, but it makes it easier if we can hear you and join in.
  
• Make sure you have places in your life where you are praying with others within the body besides what happens in Sunday morning worship. We all need smaller groups of Christians to pray with to fully understand the significance of corporate prayer and hence grow to understand more of who God is in our lives and what it means to follow Christ.
  
• When you pray with others, especially in a small group setting, be open to letting others’ prayers help shape yours. Don’t just see corporate prayer as all of us separately bringing a to do list to God. Be open to what The Holy Spirit might lead you to pray, given what another person has prayed before you.
  
• Finally, for practice in understanding corporate prayer, pray the Psalms. Don’t read them, pray them. Even when you pray them by yourself, remember that you are praying words that have been prayed by others of the faith for centuries – all with the same emotions, issues, and responses to God that we have. By praying the Psalms, we join in the larger community of faith, praying what God has given us in Scripture to pray corporately

Now, in all of this we need to remember that praying together is not an end in itself. It is a means through which God has given us to grow in our understanding and practice of following Jesus together.