"If no one has linked you to a prayer chain, count your blessings."

So runs the headline of a recent Wall Street Journal article. This story sounds rather strange, if not sacrilegious. But it invites us to consider the case of a certain Church of Christ missionary from Dallas named David Allen.

David Allen picked up a parasitic infection while stationed in Thailand in 1997. For about a year, he couldn't eat much except soda crackers, and his weight dropped from 172 pounds to 139. "I am in constant pain," he told four colleagues in a lengthy e-mail.

His message, with details of messy symptoms and frank admissions of despair, was meant to be private. But it was forwarded to several Internet sites that solicit prayer on behalf of those in need. Some people posting the messages embellished the facts, and added a diagnosis that Allen would "apparently die within two months" without divine intervention.

He was deluged with 10,000 e-mails and 2000 letters in the first six months alone. And now, even though he has recovered, he continues to get responses. (Barbara Carton, "If no one has linked you to a prayer chain, count your blessings," The Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2001, A1)

There seems to be a point at which prayer chains become a problem. If not a complete pain.

This is not to say that there's anything wrong with prayer. Or even with the Internet, which is clearly the quickest and cheapest channel for shooting a message around the globe. We have an online prayer list here at church, and many of us have been receiving prayer requests by email since last week's terrorist attack. An online site called Beliefnet.com has over 1,000 prayer chains which invite people to pray for women with breast cancer, folks with financial concerns, people living with chronic disease, adolescents with developmental handicaps, divorced moms, families with sick children, the mentally ill and their families, and bereaved parents who have lost a child.

But is all this really necessary? Is this what the Bible means when it talks about praying for one another? Will the sheer NUMBER of prayers offered somehow spur God into action? The prayer-chain assumption seems to be that God's going to listen more carefully when 10,000 people pray for you, but if there's only one poor person praying ... well, the message just might not get through.

The danger of prayer boards, prayer chains, prayer circles and prayer request lines is that they turn the practice of prayer into a popularity contest. Or, even worse, a kind of a talk show. Invariably, the most dramatic concerns get the most attention, just as the most outrageous guests on Jerry Springer draw the biggest ratings. You can bet that the announcement that "a missionary may die within two months without divine intervention" is going to inspire more prayer than "a mother of three is having trouble making her mortgage payment."

And yet, God is as concerned about a mother as he is about a missionary.

Instead of going to the Internet, let's go to today's passage from First Timothy, where Paul teaches us how to pray. The apostle keeps it simple: "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in authority," he says (2:1-2). Note that prayers are to be made "for everyone" -- not just for folks with the most dramatic concerns. The key word here is "all," notes biblical scholar James Dunn. Prayers should be made for all, for God wants ALL to be saved, and Christ Jesus gave himself as a ransom for ALL (vv. 1-6).

What's the key for Paul? God's concern for all. (James D. G. Dunn, "First Timothy," The New Interpreter's Bible [Nashville: Abingdon, 2000], 797)

"I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone," writes the apostle Paul. For EVERYONE. Not just for Americans, but for all the people of the world. Not just for our own president, but for United Nations officials and kings and despots and all who are in authority. Not just for particular names that come to us via e-mail, but for the nameless and faceless multitudes that struggle with disease and disaster and the destruction of war every day.

You see, the point is not to get 10,000 people focused on one needy soul. Instead, it's to get each one of us praying for 10,000 needs. For it is only when we open our hearts and minds and spirits to the far-reaching needs of the world that we begin to see the world as God does. And when we see our planet from the Lord's perspective, then we stand a chance of getting ourselves in line with the will of God.

Prayer doesn't change GOD, after all. Prayer changes US. It makes us more compassionate, caring, and good-news-sharing. It turns us into people with hearts for the very same world that Jesus lived and died to save.

Maybe it's time to replace prayer chain pain with something new: Replace it with a chain of prayers for a hurting world. That's a chain that stands a chance of linking us to God, securely. And it's a chain that stands a chance of pulling us out of the danger we face in the world right now.

The one who makes this possible is Jesus. Since Paul reminds us that Christ is the "one mediator between God and humankind" (v. 5), the number of people praying for a particular concern is not going to push that need any closer to God. Every prayer from every single individual goes straight to the Father through the Son. Our challenge is to offer a chain of prayers for all the people of the world, day in and day out, a chain of prayers that links us to God and to each other in a spirit of peace and love and concern.

We can certainly rejoice that missionary David Allen has been healed of his parasitic infection. The supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings offered by so many have been answered.

But let's not let particular prayer chains bind us too tightly, and keep us from lifting up concern for all the people of the world. Amen.