We pray ESPECIALLY for...

During worship at the church we attend, when it's time for the Prayers of the People, the liturgist will often say something like this:  "We pray for those who are ill, especially those with cancer."  Those who are undergoing cancer treatment are also highlighted in the prayer list in the bulletin.  Why is cancer the darling of diseases that gets all the attention?  Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, yet I've never heard anyone pray, "especially for those with heart disease."

This puzzles me, even irritates me.  Maybe it's because I've had surgery to remove a malignant tumor, along with the follow up radiation and chemotherapy.  So far, I'm surviving cancer.  Maybe I don't like to be reminded every week.  But honestly, when I was going through all that stuff, I never once thought that I should be singled out for special attention.   I was showered with cards and gifts and flowers and all sorts of well-wishes.  However, I'm sure that's because I was the pastor of a congregation (and pastors always get more attention than they deserve!), not because I had cancer.   There were always many others in the congregation who faced more difficult battles than the one I did.

All this is a lead-in to an article in the April 21, 2009 issue of the Christian Century that made a lot of sense to me.  William H. Willimon is the United Methodist bishop in North Alabama and was well known before that appointment when he served as the Dean of the Chapel at Duke University.  He always writes and preaches with an acerbic wit.  He tells about an unpleasant accident he had with a chainsaw a few months ago.  Lifting out a few sentences does a gross injustice to his article (Accidental Lessons), but with his forgiveness (for which I did not ask) I want to share some of them with you, hoping that you'll seek out the article and read it for yourself.

When people asked him if his accident caused him to do a lot of praying, he'd answer,  "Not really.  I did a fair amount of cursing my stupidity during my nights in hell, but I offered few petitions to heaven.  It's not that I lack faith in God's ability to heal ... so why was I, cast into extremis by a chainsaw, reluctant to pray?

"For one thing, I hoped that God would be busy with the mess in the Middle East and wouldn't find out about the mess I had made of myself with a chainsaw...."

He then talks about the long list of ills that are often shared before the congregation's prayers -- a dreadful occurrence that I encountered more Sundays than I care to remember.  It's not that people's ills are unimportant, but why do we pray especially for those who are sick?  Too often, especially has come to mean only.  I led worship services for over 40 years and I seldom heard individuals express concern for God's world and especially lacking were prayers of thanksgiving.

Willimon continues:  "This is not prayer as Jesus practiced and taught it.  Bread and debts are mentioned in the Lord's Prayer, but infection and discomfort are not.  Prayer in Jesus' name is noted for his demand that we pray for our enemies, not our illnesses.  I've recently heard prayers about radical mastectomies, testicular tumors and sprained index fingers but can't tell you when I've heard a really good intercession for Osama bin Laden.

"We've given ourselves over completely to obsession with physical health.  People who otherwise never see their pastors do see them when they're sick.  Sickness has become the most interesting thing that happens to us, that which gives our lives significance -- and prayer is a remedy of last resort when other methods of treatment have failed. God, though lacking credentials, is reduced to being a member of the health-care-delivery team...

"Health is always temporary.  Some get better, some get worse; none is fixed.  The Creator has decreed that no one gets out of this alive.  So before you pray, consider the sort of God whom you address and the possible cost of asking this God, 'How then shall I live, now that I'm sick?'"

That is a pertinent question for each one of us for who among us is not sick?  All have sinned and fall short of God's glory!  (Romans 3:23)  Just two more sentences from Willimon and then you can take on the rest of your day:

"There was a day when health didn't mean just freedom from pain and physical soundness -- it also meant wholeness, even holiness.  For Christians, healing, as a gift of God, is always subservient to the gifts of fidelity and discipleship."