The Message, September 21: "Let Us Pray," 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
September 23, 2025

 

“Let Us Pray”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
1 Timothy 2:1-7

            Let us be in the spirit of prayer. May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

            Some of you may have attended churches at which the pastor or preacher began every sermon with that brief prayer. Actually, I used to begin each message with it. However, I stopped that practice at some point because I was afraid that by rote repetition the words would lose their meaning.

            Those words … that prayer … is from the nineteenth psalm, it is verse fourteen, and the words should not become reduced to empty words that we recite mindlessly before we offer the message. Those words should mean something to us. They should offer us a moment of reflection and contemplation. ‘Are my words, are my thoughts, are my prayers acceptable to God?’

            Now, I am not going to ask all of you to raise your hands in response to a series of questions. I am not going to ask you to raise your hands if you pray every day, or twice a day. I am not going to ask you if you pray every other day, and then proceed with queries of decreasing frequency. Because, quite frankly, my responses to those questions might shock you. There are days … I must confess … that I do not pray at all. There are days when I get caught up in the noise, and busyness, and the distractions of life. Thankfully, God is a God of patience and grace and mercy.

[Note: During the Children’s Message prior to the message, I had the children stand in a circle with instruments and noise makers while I had a conversation with one of the youth in the middle of the circle.]

            Getting back to my main point, the prayer from Psalm 19 does not lift up the frequency of our prayers, rather it refers to the content. It is not about how often we pray. Instead, it asks us to consider what we offer God in our prayer lives. “May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God.”

            When we engage God in prayer, when we engage God in that open and honest and intimate conversation, what do we offer? What do we say? What do we think and feel? What is the nature of our prayers?
            Do we say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening?”
            Or do we open up the ‘Suggestion Box’? “Hey God, I have some ideas about the way that the world should work.”
            Do we praise God with prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving?
            Or do we use our prayer time for the airing of grievances?

            What we read this morning was part of the instructions given from a mentor to a protégé concerning the proper practice of a community of faith.

[The general consensus of modern scholarship is this letter penned from Paul to Timothy most likely not written by Paul and not written to Timothy. Most likely both of that had died by the time that this was written, late first century - early second century. However, it was likely written in the Pauline school to those who followed him.]

            As you listened to those instructions, you may have been surprised by the opening words of the first sentence. Reading the words through our contemporary lenses, we might have surprised by the instruction to pray for “kings and all who are in high positions.”

            We have to remember that this letter was written during the earliest days of the formation of the Christian community. Unlike congregations here in the twenty-first century that are looking for ways to grow and thrive, those first communities were hoping just to survive. The kings, or emperors, or rulers in high positions were in general not part of the Christian community. In fact, many of them were hostile to the Christian community. But rather than hold them in contempt, or see them as enemies, they were to be held in prayer.

            This was both a pragmatic matter as well as a theological imperative. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that we are to “love our enemies and to pray for our persecutors.” (Matthew 5:44) That foundational teaching of Jesus teaches us that we are to be imitators of God. We are to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors so that his followers can be children of our Father who is in heaven. That teaching reminds us of our call to offer and show selfless love, and also reminds us that we are to extend the same grace that we have received from God.

            Of course, in the first and second centuries the teaching to pray for the kings and emperors and rulers in high positions also made good sense. The forebearers of those who grew up in the Hebrew tradition had experienced centuries of hardship. The Jewish people suffered a long history of being conquered, oppressed and persecuted. Their history was full of episodes during which pagan kings tried to crush them or destroy them. Again and again and again the people prayed to God, pleaded with God, to overthrow the tyrannical kings on their behalf. “Save us, O God! Deliver us!”

            But the Jewish people also learned the lesson of survival while they waited for deliverance.
In Baruch 1:11, we read: “pray for the life of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and for the life of his son Belshazzar, so that their days on earth may be like the days of heaven.”
            The prophet Jeremiah also instructed to Children of Israel to pray for Babylon.

            As the Christian community struggled to survive, both Paul and Peter advocated deference to the government. Why would they do that? “So that they might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” (1 Timothy 2:2) The call to acquiescence or capitulation may surprise us, even disappoint us. But the reality is that peace benefits all people, especially those struggling to survive.

            So then, nearly two thousand years later, what are we to do with this passage? What are we to do with this instruction? We know all about kings, and emperors and rulers in high positions. When we pray, we can consider those words from Psalm 19. Are our words and our meditations acceptable to God?

            Mindful of the instruction of this letter, mindful of the teachings of Jesus Christ, how do we pray? For whom do we pray?

            We pray for all.

            Again, Jesus tells us: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

            This teaching may be hard for us to hear. It is even harder for us to DO. We do not want to pray for the people that hurt us. We do not want to pray for the people that persecute us, oppress us, or suppress us. We do not want to pray for people that cause us harm or hurt the ones that we love.

            We hear what you say Jesus, we know that should, we know that we must, but it is so difficult.

            When I was in seminary, I took a class on racism. It was not a class about how to BE racist, it was a class about the Christian response to systemic racism. Our instructor had participated in the civil rights marches of the 1960s. He told us that before every march they would gather to pray, but they did not pray only for themselves. They did not pray only for their safety. He said that they prayed for those who were going to shout at them, and spit at them, and throw rocks and bricks at them. He said that they prayed for those who hated them and wanted to hurt them. They prayed as Jesus instructed them to pray. They prayed for their “enemies.”

            Praying for all, praying for everyone, including those whom we consider to be our ‘enemies’ … beyond our capacity to love or show affection … opens us up to possibilities that are beyond us. Practicing the discipline of praying for all opens us up to the possibility that God is working beyond our comprehension. It does not excuse or condone bad or evil behavior. Neither does it say that we approve of or accept bad behavior. Rather, it exposes us to consider what St. Augustine called “carpax dei.”

            Capax Dei is a Latin phrase meaning “capacity for God.” It refers to the human ability and natural longing to know and receive God. It asserts that the human mind and soul are made in God’s image and therefore have an innate potential to be filled with divine grace and love, leading to a deep spiritual connection and union with the divine. 
            They might be lost now – but they can be found.
            They might be ignorant of the Word of God now – but they can be enlightened.
            They might be sinners – but they can be saved. After all, we are all sinners, and we can all be saved.

            God desires that ALL be saved. God is great. And God is benevolent. God is gracious and merciful.

            In our divided and divisive world, we are keenly aware that those who do not love us are probably not praying for us, but that does not mean that we should not pray for them. As we just heard, we should … we must … hold them in prayer. Jesus Christ is our Mediator … the One Mediator between humanity and God. He was clear in his message and his call. Let us love. Let us love everyone. Let us pray and pray for all. In that way we live and pray in the manner that we, as children of God, are called to live and pray.

            When we pray, let us open our hearts, and minds, and souls. Let us listen for the Voice of the One true God. Let us exclude no one from the blessing of prayer.

            Let us pray. Amen.

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