From the minister... 

Dear friends

It’s funny how an occasion from the past can somehow come back to you, as if from nowhere, appearing from the deep recesses of your memory. This happened to me recently, when I found myself thinking about the first time I met a monk. I was 15 years old and said monk had come to give a talk at my school Scripture Union. He explained to us what monks do and then it was time for questions from his audience.

Perhaps I’ve suppressed this memory out of an embarrassment about the question I posed. I asked him why he spent so much of his time in prayer, cloistered away from the rest of the world. It would surely be better, I suggested, to be alongside people, helping them and doing practical things to resolve their problems. Please don’t judge me. Bear in mind that I was 15, and hence in possession of an unshakeable certainty about my right to weigh in on such issues!  

Many years have passed since that first monastic encounter. I’m a lot older and hopefully a bit wiser. I’ve had the privilege of spending time in monastic communities and been enormously blessed by the peace I’ve found there, and the wisdom spoken into my life by those who have sacrificed so much in service to God, his church and the world. The most memorable experience of last summer’s sabbatical was the week we spent in the Taizé Community, and we’re eagerly looking forward to a return trip later this year. As I write these words, I feel enormous gratitude for the brothers of the community and a sense of reassurance and peace as I think about how their rhythm of prayer carries on day and day. Morning and afternoon and evening they gather, bringing to God their intercessions for a world in need of reconciliation. 

But I feel even more thankful when I remember the many prayers that are offered here in Selsdon. One of the privileges of my role as minister is the time I spend in the homes of members of our church family who are no longer able to join us for gathered worship. I have lost count of the occasions when people have told me, almost in a tone of apology, that they can’t do much these days apart from pray. My guess is that this sense of ruefulness speaks of the desire we all have to feel like we are making a difference to the people around us. So can I take this opportunity to express my thankfulness to all the intercessors in our SBC family? There is no greater gift you can give anyone than the assurance of your prayers.

The book of Revelation offers a stunning vision of the difference such prayers make, the perspective of heaven itself. John writes:

¹ When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ² And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. ³ Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. ⁴ The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. ⁵ Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Revelation 8:1–5

Can you imagine it? Silence in heaven for half an hour, and then the prayers of the saints rise up with incense before the throne of God. The American New Testament scholar Walter Wink offers a powerful commentary on these verses: ‘The silence is shattered. The heavenly liturgy is complete… The unexpected becomes suddenly possible, because people on earth have invoked heaven, the home of the possibles, and have been heard. What happens next happens because people prayed.’ 

Can we grasp this? That the biggest difference of all is made by those who pray, who make time to bring before God their hopes for their friends and neighbours, and their longings for the church and the world. Reflecting on this wonderful truth fills me with an even greater thankfulness for those who intercede so faithfully on our behalf. You are never ‘just praying’ or ‘only praying’, instead you are protecting us and speaking new possibilities into being. And for this we are profoundly grateful. 

Wishing you God’s grace and peace, Trevor

Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers, p299.