TTC Day of Prayer, 18 August 2011

Corporate Prayer Rev. 21:22 22:4

If there is one compelling reason why we need to come together to pray, it is because Jesus Christ himself teaches us to do so. Jesus taught his disciples to pray: Our Father, who art in heaven The prayer is meant to be prayed by the whole church and not just by individual Christians. This is why in some churches when the Lords Prayer is prayed during worship, the members of the congregation hold each others hands, signifying that they are praying in unity as a spiritual family, as members of the same household of faith. In our modern individualistic world, many Christians do not understand or appreciate the nature of corporate prayer. This talk will explore what corporate prayer is so that we can foster corporate prayer as part of our community identity at TTC. I. Corporate Prayer includes being in each others presence The basis of corporate prayer is our being made in Gods image. God himself is not an isolated individual. God exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons eternally in communion with one another. God does not have a physical body, but for us to be in each others presence means to be bodily present. The word corporate comes from the Latin corpus, which means body. To pray corporately is to be bodily present with each other. Im not saying that this is the only way in which corporate prayer is expressed, but it is the most primary way. Bodily presence is the most basic way of expressing corporate life and identity. While spiritually we are all in communion in Christs Body across space and time, yet communion is perfected in face to face encounter. In corporate prayer we seek to realise this face-to-face communion. God did not make us to be pure spirits like the angels. We are beings with both a spiritual and physical dimension. Therefore our fellowship with God and fellow human beings is both spiritual and physical. Full fellowship involves being physically present with each other. E.g., in baptism and Holy Communion God uses physical objects not only to teach us truth about
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our corporate life, but also to effect that corporate life. At baptism water is used to incorporate us into the Body of Christ. In Holy Communion, we use bread and wine. We may say that our communion is concretely expressed by means of bread and wine. True Communion requires us to be bodily present with each other. In Chinese tradition, fellowship often involves eating a meal together. The importance of being together bodily is seen in the following texts: We read in Rev 22:4 that in the new creation, They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Perfect communion is face-to-face communion. Face-to-face communion is desirable even at the human level. I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete (2 Jn 1:12NIV). Where two are three are gathered. (Matt. 18:20). Christ promises to be present with those who are physically gathered together in his name. There is a sense in which Christ is present with us in corporate prayer that he is not in any other forms of prayer. We live in a world where the churchs corporate prayer faces many threats. One of these is the world of the internet. Electronic connection, however useful it is, is not a substitute for face-toface fellowship. I know of a group of Christians in the UK who, having become skeptical about the institutional church, decided that they would have church via Skype every Sunday. A Skype church is a virtual church. If St. Irenaeus were present in the 21st Century he would have regarded such a church as a Gnostic church because it implicitly exalts spirit and demeans the body. Whats the problem? God made us as body-persons. Our spiritual growth is more than just a matter of cultivating so-called spiritual relations. This is why incorporation into the body of Christ involves the use of water, why communion is expressed in eating and drinking. Even in the new creation, there will still be eating and drinking: we will all participate in the marriage supper of the Lamb. In fact, we could say that in the new creation our bodily communion will be realized in an unprecedented way.

Corporate prayer challenges us to a deeper level of relationship and fellowship in Christ. A purely spiritual fellowship where we dont interact directly with one another is in fact much easier, but at the same time it will not help us to deepen personal growth. E.g., maintaining good relationship with your mother-in-law who lives 1,000 miles away is far easier than living with her and seeing her everyday. But it is in learning to live with a person that we begin to discover our true strengths and weaknesses. There is no better way to mould our character than learning to live with another person. But having stressed the importance of corporate prayer, we also want to emphasize that it is not a substitute for praying alone. II. Corporate Prayer complements praying alone. Corporate prayer and individual prayer are like the two wings of a bird. Having one without the other is like trying to fly by flapping one wing. Well never be airborne! Thus Bonhoeffer warns: Let him who cannot be alone beware of community and Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. When we pray alone without praying with others, we can become individualistic, even narcissistic. At the same time if we only pray with others without learning to pray alone we become a parasite to the community. We will only feed on the strength of others without contributing anything to the larger body. But when we learn to pray alone, we will be effective in praying with others; and when we learn to pray with others, we will avoid falling into the trap of self-preoccupation when we pray by ourselves. Personal and corporate prayers are mutually dependent. The Holy Spirit who indwells the church ensures a healthy interplay between the personal and the corporate dimensions of our prayer life. This is seen in his role as the Gift of God and the Giver of gifts. As the gift of the Father the Spirit unites the church in one body through baptism (1 Cor 12:13), and as the giver of gifts he diversifies his operations in each member of that body, giving to each one (hexast) a distinct charism for the common good (1 Cor 12:711). I hope that we all learn to pray alone, we need to cultivate the personal discipline of daily prayer in the privacy of our homes. But when we organize a communal event like this Day of Prayer we want to pray together as a community.

The interplay of corporate and personal prayer highlights another feature of corporate prayer: III. Corporate prayer includes praying for each others personal needs Corporate prayer does not mean that we confine ourselves to praying for corporate needs: needs of the church, the world and the TTC community. In corporate prayer we still seek to bear one anothers burdens as well (Gal. 6:1f.); in fact we become more acutely aware of the needs of each other. In praying for each other we foster deeper community in the Body of Christ. Our care for one another should begin with prayer for each other. To pray for one another is in effect to confess that we share a common life in Christ. Again, to cite Bonhoeffer, true fellowship is never a direct fellowship; it is always in and through Christ. Christ not only stands among us but also between us. We are priests to one another because Jesus Christ is our great high priest. When we say to someone, Brother/sister, I will pray for you we are in effect acknowledging that my bearing you before God is made possible by Christs bearing all of us before the Father. As we pray for each other, we deepen our fellowship in the Body of Christ. In many liturgical traditions, unfortunately, the General Intercessions have become all too general. They often cover events and concerns the worshippers would have read in the newspapers . While we should not neglect these concerns, we should not also neglect what goes on in the local parish and individuals who need our prayer. The corporate intercession should include the naming of specific individuals within and outside of the local assembly who need the support of the whole community. The Orthodox Church offers a good example here. In the Orthodox service, part of the work of the priest in preparation for Holy Communion is to name every member of the church. IV. Corporate prayer grows out of corporate worship Perhaps one reason why we, modern Christians, dont fully appreciate corporate prayer is because we dont really understand corporate worship. We pray corporately because we belong to the one Body of Christ which, as one Body, worships the Father through the Son, in the Spirit.

Many modern Christians do not really understand corporate prayer because worship for them is not a corporate event. They tend to see the church as a collectivity of individuals. Worship, then, becomes a gathering of individuals where each person worships God individually. This is seen in the predominant use of songs that express the individuals feelings about God in the so-called contemporary services. If we are to pray corporately, we need to learn to worship corporately. Learning to worship using the traditional liturgy is an important part of learning to pray corporately. Praying the common prayer of the church makes us aware that we are not individuals but members of the body of Christ. As the church fathers frequently remind us, unus Christianus, nullus Christianus (one Christian is no Christian). E.g., when we pray the Lords Prayer in the liturgy, we are joined by saints named and unnamed throughout the ages, and to the apostles themselves to whom this prayer was first taught by our Lord. Summary What does it mean to pray corporately? 1. First, corporate prayer means being bodily present. Face-to-face communion with each other is an anticipation of face-to-face communion with God in the new creation. Corporate prayer teaches us what real communion with God is like ultimately. 2. Second, corporate prayer does not exclude praying alone. Solitude, in fact, complements corporate prayer. We should therefore learn to cultivate both if our prayer life is to be sustainable. 3. Third, corporate prayer includes praying for each other, including each others personal needs. 4. Finally, if we are to pray corporately we need to strengthen our corporate worship. May the Lord grant us the grace to pray corporately. Amen