It started out as a prayer meeting some forty years before. This prayer meeting was not without its detractors, at least not outside the Church of St. Nicholas in Leipzig Germany. Those who attended the prayer meeting were harassed and threatened on a fairly regular basis. Still, Monday night after Monday night people came to participate in the prayer meeting at the large old cathedral in the former East Germany. The group also started to grow and the police began to take notice. One night following the prayer service several attendees along with the leadership of the group encountered a group of police and were attacked. Still people kept coming and they kept praying. They prayed for their nation, for freedom, and for peace. Prayer wasn’t exactly encouraged in the former East Germany and prayers for freedom and peace would have been absolutely discouraged by the national leadership.
As time passed, and the group continued to grow and then something unexpected happened. The government unexpectedly let people leave the country to immigrate to other parts of Europe and the world. When the immigrants left, their places were taken by people who were determined to stay and work for change. They kept coming back to
church, week after week, sharing, praying, drawing spiritual strength for their struggle, just the way men and women went to church night after night during the Civil Rights marches of the 60s to find the strength to go out and face the struggle again.
The police continued their violent attacks on members of the prayer group. On September 4, 1989 the pastor and a small group with him were attached. Instead of retaliation, the pastor started teaching the principles of nonviolent resistance based on the Gospel as interpreted by Ghandi and applied by Martin Luther King and the group continued to grow and pray. They even picked up a name, becoming known as The New Form which would eventually become the opposition party.
They were a determined group who wouldn’t quit growing. The more they prayed, the more people came. On September 25, 1989 more than 6000 people packed the cathedral of St. Nickolas. There were another 25,000 waiting outside to join the protest march. And the rest, as they say, is history.
So what was the point? Why pray in a nation living under an atheist ideology? Really, why bother? Russia had fallen into this ideology some thirty years prior to East Germany. Nothing there had changed. It might even seem to some, that God had abandoned them. There might even be some people out there who would argue, “who could blame God for abandoning them? In their 20th century history they had been at the root of two world wars and had not only allowed Hitler to come to power, they actually encouraged it.
Most any of those East Germans would probably have admitted they deserved no such help from God but then again, neither do we. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Oh, and just in case you are wondering, that is in the Bible.
The East German’s prayer had actually been pretty simple and they knew God had not abandoned them. They also knew that simple prayers can have the most impact. And their prayers did have impact. Their prayer was for change for their nation. They prayed for freedom and peace. Those prayers changed the world.
Here’s the thing. These folks were praying for God to make changes that were beyond the people’s ability to make. If I have a bad habit I want to give up, I have it in my ability to make such a change. It may not be easy, but it is something I have the ability to do. It might also be easier if God is there and helping me to break this bad habit. It is a change I can make where I may or may not need God to help me out as I try to resolve the situation.
On the other hand, there are things none of us can change. There are things all of us together cannot change. It is at times like these only God can make a way. Only God can make a way when there is no way.
What that East German group was trying to do is the very definition of breakthrough prayer. This morning we are continuing our five part series on breakthrough prayer. This series was inspired by the messages, particularly the second message, of Rev. Sue Nillsen Kibey at this year’s session of annual conference. In this message Rev. Kibey defined breakthrough prayer as prayer where we ask God to break through, doing the work that only God can do.
We began this series three weeks ago and talked about breakthrough prayer in our families. All of us have people in our families who stand in need of things that can only be done by God. It might be healing or repairing a relationship. It could be financial or vocational. It could be problems with kids or problems with parents, or even both. The list of possibilities is endless and that is just within our families.
Two weeks ago we moved on. It was Pentecost Sunday and what better time to talk about breakthrough prayer in my church? Our church is a great portion of the body of Christ. We do a great deal to help our community and on out into the world. We also have areas in the life of our congregation where we could use some help and the kind of help I am speaking of is not help any human can deliver on, at least not easily. We need a God kind of breakthrough. I also gave you a bit of homework. To go out and ask someone you don’t know how to find this church. While some of you did get some positive responses, most of you who have talked with me didn’t fare so well. When Daniel asked people at Polk’s Pick It Up they even said, “I don’t think there is a Methodist Church in town. There is one down 59 in Burke.” That is a problem we could use a God sized break through to help.
Last week we moved on and talked about praying for God to break through in the lives of our friends. Our friends have the same kinds of issues our family members have. In addition, there are folks, friends, family and beyond who have no relationship with God. At various times, we have all had difficulty in our lives. None of us are exempt. I can’t fathom trying to navigate the waves and swells of life on my own, without the help God gives to me.
Today we are moving on and talking about breakthrough prayer in our city. I know the story I told in opening this message is about breakthrough prayer in a nation and not a city. Perhaps I should have used the title “Breakthrough Prayer for My Government” but I really want our congregation to focus on our local community. I think we will discover there is more than enough here to occupy our attention.
In the year I have been here there has been a great deal of talk around town about the ways Diboll has changed and little of that discussion should be called good. I’m not sure it is really anyone’s fault. Things just happen. The world changes whether we like it or not. Since Temple has sold people seem a more apprehensive about our collective futures. What happens of Georgia-Pacific were to decide to close up shop and head out of town? And that is just the first in a long list of questions.
It seems to me, putting an answer to that question is more than any of us can do. It isn’t in our power to create a solution. I am not sure who the folks even are who would have the authority to make that decision. What I do know is One who has the power to overcome any setback we may face, individually, as a congregation or as a city, a community. But, for these things to happen we’ve got to talk about the whys and hows and even the issues themselves and I don’t mean with each other. We all need to be in prayer for our city.
To be in prayer for our city involves what Paul refers to in our lesson today as supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings to be made for everyone but he specifically points out leaders, kings and all who are in high positions. We don’t have kings today, at least not in our little part of the world. But, we do have people who are in high positions. When it comes to our local government, we are talking about the mayor, the city council, (the city manager), the police and fire chiefs and others. All these men and women make decisions that affect all of us. That friends, is a great deal of responsibility and pressure.
They need all the help they can get and to ask God to break through in their public life, to break through for our city to bring about the kind of change Diboll needs from today, moving forward. And, if we are truly people of the Word, we should seek to live out this kind of discipline as a real habit.
I would submit to you that needs to start today. Each week I have asked you to take out your cell phones and set an alarm for 8:12 P.M. so all of us, together can enter into a few minutes of prayer for the various things we have talked about over the past few weeks. When our alarm goes off, we stop what we are doing and spend a few minutes in prayer for our families, for this congregation, for our friends and now for our city. You can pray for any or all of these at other times too. In fact, I certainly hope your prayers for the day don’t just exist from 8:12 to 8:22 as it were. I hope you pray at other times of the day too.
We also have a prayer clock here. It begins at 6:00 P.M. on July 3rd and ends at 6:00 P.M. on July 6th. During that time we would ask that you spend one hour or several hours over the course of the weekend in intentional prayer. I know it can be difficult to pray for an hour straight so we will give you a prayer guide to help you along the way. I also know it is a holiday weekend and many of you will be traveling. That is OK. I understand. But, what I also know is, no matter where you are, you can always take the time to pray.
I have given you homework assignments the last couple of weeks. Today is no different. I would ask you to prayerfully consider the issues Diboll faces and what this church might do to help solve them. Send me an email or drop me a note telling me what you are thinking. Change can happen but it starts with breakthrough prayer.
There was significance to the banner hanging above the crowd on that October day in 1989. It said Wirdanken dir Kirche (Faredahnken dare Keerkeh). Translated: We thank you church. People from all over Leipzig and probably by that point all over East Germany had come to know about those prayer meetings. That breakthrough prayer had changed the lives of many.
We are about to come to the Lord’s Table, as we have every Sunday this month. With coming to the Table it is again an opportunity to be in prayer for God to break through in the lives of people and places we love. Take a moment at the rail and pray that God might break through.
When those first Christians prayed together in East Germany, would you have predicted that their prayers might have actually come true? Providence comes to those who pray.
