So, intercessory prayer is common sense. The Lord Jesus taught us to pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This is the Lord commanding us to expect God to move in the world. It is God telling us, in the imperative, that we are even responsible for God's beauty goodness and truth being manifested by our words and deeds. Beauty, Goodness, and Truth is the philosophical way to describe the ministry of Jesus, all this God stuff. He healed people, absolved sins, blessed children as infinitely precious, provided earthly and heavenly food, rebuked storms, loved the unlovable, called and commissioned well-intentional fools, and reconciled humanity to Father God. This is the kingdom, the reign, the power, the authority of God, in heaven splashing down on earth.

When we say intercessory prayers, we forget ourselves long enough to concentrate on the presence and will of God in a particular situation. We are asking God to be sought and found, honored and even obeyed by the people in the circumstance. This is not tugging the strings of a marionette until we get the right one and a limb moves; that's mechanics. We are telling God (it takes time) that we love the people for whom we pray such we bring them, spiritually, into the fellowship of trust we possess with God; that's mystery.

This is what Jesus did once and for all on the cross for all of humanity. Intercessory prayer is an echo of the Lord's once and final sacrifice restoring us to the Father. It ventures into the unseen realm where angels and demons still battle for souls. It repairs the frays and tears of the spiritual fabric uniting creation. It tips the scales of providential justice towards goodness, healing and peace.

Have you ever walked into a social situation in which two people were speaking alone and your appearance changed the conversation? This is especially true if the two people are only acquaintances or strangers to each other yet both know you in common. You become their link. You bring welcome, familiarity and light to the mix. Your presence relieves anxiety, humanizes the strangers and can even elevate the company.

Maybe this observation gives us a glimpse into the mystery of intercessory prayer. We come to the Father in Jesus' Name. We face the painful gaps caused by the world, the flesh and the devil. We stand in these gaps. We offer to God all the disparate pieces under his loving gaze. We hand over the disorder and place the brokenness into his presence. We ask that his will be done in his good time.

Here is a cautionary note. Such prayer usually involves pain, confession of personal and communal sin, lamentation for the lack of beauty, goodness or truth for which we pray. This is a burden and a privilege. In the Name of Jesus, we defy the gravity of sin. We offer up the people in their struggle to the light of the Lord. We hold them up and out until some shred of grace is detected and honored, eventually amplified by someone noticing and obeying. This requires patience. Most of all, it requires love. I mean love for God and the indomitable desire to see God move in people's lives and souls such we a claim a victory in a battle of the war the Lord has already won on the cross. Make good on the Lord's call to pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done." Theologian Karl Barth gives us a pithy insight, "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."

---The Rev. K. Brewster Hastings is rector of Saint Anne's Church, Abington, PA