Praying for the Church (2)
Vol. 57 No. 31 | Fourth Sunday after Trinity | June 28, 2026
The Church in the World
One of the striking features of the Prayer for the Church is how quickly it turns our attention away from ourselves. In the opening petition, we ask God to unite his Church in truth of God’s Word and in the love of the Spirit. Yet the purpose of this unity is not self-preservation. The Church does not exist for itself. It exists for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. That conviction appears at the very beginning of the prayer: “Almighty and everliving God, who by thy holy Apostle hast taught us to make prayers, and supplications, and to give thanks for all men…” The Prayer is alluding to St. Paul’s first letter to Timothy: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men” (2:1).
The phrase is easily overlooked, but it is remarkable. Christians are not taught to pray only for themselves, their families, their friends, or even fellow Christians. They are commanded to pray for all humanity. Why? Paul immediately supplies the reason. God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (2:4). Christian prayer is the alignment of man’s will with God’s – and that means with the universal scope of God’s saving purpose. This universal concern distinguishes Christianity from every merely tribal religion. Ancient peoples commonly prayed for their own nation, city, or clan. Their gods belonged to a particular people. The God of Israel revealed himself as the Creator of heaven and earth. The Father revealed by Jesus Christ is the God of all mankind. The Church, therefore, cannot be content with concern for “people like us.” The gospel continually pushes us beyond the boundaries of family, class, race, language, nationality, and political allegiance. The God who created “all men” has sent his Son for “all men” and therefore we pray for “all sorts and conditions of men”.
This universal mission follows naturally from the central confession of the Christian faith. Paul continues: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Modern people often assume the opposite. They imagine that if Christians believe there is only one God and one Mediator, then Christians must be narrow and exclusive. In reality, the New Testament draws the opposite conclusion. Because there is one God, every human being stands in relation to him. Because there is one Mediator, every human being is invited to come to him in faith. Because Christ died for the world that did not know him, the Church’s mission extends to the same rebellious world. Christianity combines what appears at first to be a paradox: an exclusive faith and an inclusive mission. The Church confesses one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Yet precisely because it does so, it seeks the salvation of all.
This outward orientation explains the next petition of the Prayer for the Church: “We beseech thee also, so to direct and dispose the hearts of all Christian Rulers…” Modern Americans often find this surprising. We are accustomed to thinking of religion as a private matter. Yet Scripture repeatedly instructs Christians to pray for those entrusted with civil authority. Not because rulers are sacred or human governments infallible – and certainly not because the Church seeks political power. The reason is much simpler. When Paul instructed Christians to pray for kings and rulers, the Roman Empire was not governed by Christian emperors. He was not seeking a confessional state (though that would arise in Christian Europe). He was asking God to grant conditions in which Christians might “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” The Church’s mission can best be carried out where law restrains violence and upholds property rights, where justice is administered impartially, and where freedom permits the gospel to be preached openly.
The American Prayer Book inherits this biblical concern for the organizing structures of human society. In line with the Founding Fathers, it acknowledges the mission of the state to uphold justice. Though freedom of religious conscience prohibits legal establishment of religion, it does not seek a public square in which religion has no place. Rather, it assumes that the authorities of church and state, though separate, have a common interest in the moral well-being of the people they serve, and to supporting the conditions where religion and virtue can flourish among them. The Church prays for rulers not because politics is ultimate, but because politics is not ultimate. Earthly governments cannot save the world. Yet they can either hinder or help the conditions under which the gospel is proclaimed and Christian life is lived.
In the end, however, even this prayer for rulers serves a larger purpose. The Church’s horizon is always the world that God loves. The Church gathers around Word and Sacrament, but never as a closed circle. Every Sunday, we are reminded that Christ died not merely for us but “for the sins of the whole world”. The Church is called out of the world, but it is sent back into the world. It receives the truth so that it may bear witness to the truth. It receives mercy so that it may become an instrument of mercy. It receives the gospel so that the gospel may be proclaimed to all nations.
That is why, before we come to the altar, the Prayer Book teaches us to lift our eyes beyond ourselves. The Church that prays only for itself has forgotten its mission. The Church that prays for all mankind remembers the heart of God.
(Continued next week.)