A prayer and song for this Sunday: Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran

Here’s how we are going to pray for the families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran at our church this Sunday. Feel free to use or adapt for your church context.

We will finish our time of prayer by singing the song that Andrew and Myuran were singing as they were shot, Matt Redman’s ‘10,000 Reasons’.¹

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Good morning.  Welcome to church.

We start our meeting today on both a somber and joyous note.

Somber—two Australians, and six others, have been executed this week in Indonesia. But joyous… because of the promise of eternal life, in heaven with Jesus.

We are going to begin by singing the song that Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were singing with the other six prisoners as they were shot on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning at midnight.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the: “condemned prisoners sang ‘Amazing Grace’ just after midnight. They also sang ‘Bless the Lord O My Soul’ before their song was cut off by the crack of gunfire.”

First we will thank God for saving them, and pray for their families, using the words of the songs that they were singing as they died.

Father God,
We bless you.
We worship your holy name.
We thank you that we can come to you, and that you are in control of all things, even terrible things.
We praise you that somehow, in the dreadful, you are working for the good of those who love you.
We thank you for your grace, for your generosity, for salvation.
We thank you that in your amazing grace—you saved a slave trader—John Newton.
We thank you that in your amazing grace—you saved some drug traffickers.

Thank you that you have worked the miracle of faith and trust in Andrew and Myuran’s lives, that they came to grasp the significance of Christ’s death for them, and for the example of faith that they have been to us, to so many around our country and around the world.
Thank you that we have been able to see in their lives the power of the gospel as they were totally transformed.
Lord we thank you that there are ten thousand reasons to say thank you to you.

“You're rich in love, and you're slow to anger.
Your name is great, and your heart is kind.”

We think of those men, who on Tuesday night sang that song as their end drew near and their time came.
We pray for their families as they grieve the death of their sons and brothers, and nephews.
And we pray that they would take comfort that there will be a day when they will join them… singing your praise unending, for ten thousand years and then for ever more.
We pray in the powerful name of Jesus, who saved them—and us.

Lets sing now, the song that I presume Andrew and Myuran are singing in heaven: ‘10,000 Reasons’.

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul,
Worship his holy name.
Sing like never before,
O my soul,
I'll worship your holy name.

1 J Topsfield, ‘Bali executions: Eight prisoners refused to wear blindfolds as they were shot’, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 April 2015.