The Park Road Pulpit
Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church
Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors
A Gathering for Prayer and Silence
March 20, 2003, 7:00 p.m.
MEDITATION
Prayer is archaic, anachronistic, against the grain of modern life, solitary and often heartbreaking, embarked on without the certainty of fruit. It demands an expenditure of time that sometimes seems like a waste of time, a waste of self. Bill Gates recently pronounced, “In terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on Sunday morning.” Of course, of course. Prayer does not promise fame, money, and the love of beautiful people. It’s working with blind faith, stubborn hope, dumb love.
--- Anita Mathias, “Learning to Pray”
THE GATHERING IN SILENCE
THE CHIMING OF THE HOUR
THE LIGHTING OF CANDLES OF HOPE
For the duration of the war we will light these candles, which symbolize hope in the midst of chaos, in each worship service. We light these as a symbolic prayer of hope, that God’s peace may yet be known in Iraq and in the United States, and with the people of every nation.
THE CALL TO WORSHIP Amy Jacks Dean
*THE HYMN (a cappella) For the Healing of the Nations CWM RHONDDA
For the healing of the nations, Lord, we pray with one accord; for a just and equal sharing of the things that earth affords; to a life of love in action help us rise and pledge our word, help us rise and pledge our word.
Lead us forward into freedom; from despair your world release, that,
redeemed from war and hatred, all may come and go in peace. Show us how through care and goodness fear will die and hope increase, fear will die and hope increase.
All that kills abundant living, let it from the earth be banned, pride of status, race, or schooling, dogmas that obscure your plan. In our common quest for justice may we hallow life’s brief span, may we hallow life’s brief span.
You, Creator God, have written your great name on humankind;
for our growing in your likeness bring the life of Christ to mind, that by our response and service earth its destiny may find, earth its destiny may find.
THE READING OF SCRIPTURE James 1.2-4 Ed Stallworth
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
THE MUSICAL MEDITATION ENDLESS SONG
We cannot own the sunlit sky, the moon, the wildflowers growing, for we are part of all that is within life’s river flowing. With open hands receive and share the gifts of God’s creation, that all may have abundant life in every earthly nation.
When bodies shiver in the night and, weary, wait for morning, when children have no bread but tears, and warhorns sound their warning, God calls humanity to wake, to join in common labor, that all may have abundant life in oneness with their neighbor.
God calls humanity to join as partners in creating a future free from want or fear, life’s goodness celebrating. That new world beckons from afar, invites our shared endeavor, that all may have abundant life and peace endure forever.
THE WORD OF HOPE Russ Dean
MEDITATION
Silence will take pity / On words. There are
Pauses where words must wait, / Spaces in speech
Which stop and calm it, and each / Is like a gate —Richard Wilbur, “Games Two”
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
During these moments, brief prayers will be spoken on behalf of those affected by war. Silence will speak for us all as seek to discern God’s voice of peace amid the clamor of conflict.
A Prayer for Silence: We do not know how to pray O God. Certainly not in such trying times. So let your silence take pity on our words. Pray for us. Pray with us. Pray through us, with sighs too deep for words…
A Prayer for Wisdom: In these anxious moments, O God, we pray for your wisdom. Wisdom in Washington, DC. Wisdom in Baghdad, Iraq. Wisdom in Charlotte, NC. Grant all who call on you the wisdom of peace, we pray…
A Prayer for Leaders: You, O God, have endowed certain of your children with skills of leadership. Some through freedom, others through tyranny, claim these skills and rule over your people. Grant a sense of justice, O God, especially to those who rule in the Muslim world. In the Jewish world. In the Christian world. We pray this night that the peace of God, the salim of Allah, the shalom of Yahweh, might be known throughout the world…
A Prayer for Troops: O God of justice, it might be that the presence of a military, of itself, is evidence that we have failed to live in your divine image. Forgive our violent ways. But in every land, there are those who serve, giving great sacrifice, sometimes even of their lives, in the name of protecting life and defending the defenseless. As darkness begins to lift in the desert, we pray for troops who give honor to commitment. We pray for troops who huddle in fear. We pray for troops who swagger in arrogance. Grant a higher call we pray, to all who serve…
A Prayer for Anxious Parents: The scriptures paint pictures of you, O God our Heavenly Parent: Father who never fails us; Mother who hovers, busily protecting her young. Around the world, O God, earthly mothers and fathers worry this sleepless night over their own brood, for war is always a children’s crusade. Make all parents, your children this night, and give comfort, we pray…
A Prayer for the Children of the World: In the darkness, O God, young children wrestle under beating hearts. For the dreadful sound of war is more than a childhood fear that goes “bump in the night.” For Iraqi children, for Kuwaiti children, for Kurdish and Turkish children, for all who know the sound of war, we pray your comfort. And thousands of miles from any front line, still other children cry for distant daddies; pray for missing mommies; wrestle under their own beating hearts, fearing things which they cannot begin to understand. This night, O God, grant sweet dreams, for your children everywhere…
A Prayer for Enemies: Jesus taught his disciples so long ago, O God, to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us, that we may be children of the heavenly father. Because he commands. And because his costly way demonstrates the reality of such love, we pray tonight for Saddam Hussein. We pray for Osama ben Laden. We pray for Kim Jong Il. Tonight, O God, as war fills our minds, we pray for enemies everywhere – and for ourselves, that we might be no one’s enemy, even if such loving should cost us our life…
A Prayer for Peace: We do not know how to pray O God. Certainly not in such trying times. So let your silence take pity on our words. Pray for us. Pray with us. Pray through us, with sighs too deep for words. And in the sound of this silence, give us your spirit, that beginning in our own hearts, we might know peace. That we might seek peace. That in as much as it is possible with us, we might live at peace with all people… This night, O God, through prayer and silence, make us peacemakers.
May it be so!
*THE SERVICE OF LIGHT
Following our final hymn, we invite you to depart in silence and to take your lighted candles with you. In your home, re-light this candle as you pray for peace. We also encourage you to place a light in a window, expressing solidarity with all who pray.
*THE HYMN OF DEPARTURE Blest Be the Tie That Binds DENNIS
Blest be the tie that binds, our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred minds, is like to that above.