Our Prayer
Last week we talked about private prayer and what goes on in our heads in prayer. Today we are going to talk about prayers that we share, that is, the talking to God we do together. For some people who aren't normally reflective, public prayers may be the only kind of prayer in their lives.
What goes on then, when we pray together? Whether you are listening to me pray for us or whether we are praying together, there are often some similar things going on. Some good, some distracting.
We analyze.
Most people are independent cusses. When the prayers aren't coming from our own spirits, we tend to hold them at arm's length a bit. Prayers that originate outside of us could be based on things we don't agree with or use language we frankly don't understand. It's not really that we are judging each other, although I won't rule out that possibility, It's more that there are ways of talking and thinking that are different than the interior discourse we have with ourselves, and so seems at least strange.
The human mind is normally associative. When I say the word 'dog,' it is nearly impossible for you not to bring to mind a complex puddle of pictures or names or experiences that is uniquely yours.
So let me ease our fears about this. There is no prayer I utter or lead that I expect mindless, unreflective participation with. Even public prayers that have migrated into our personal devotional life have a rich association that will be different for each of us. So don't worry if your experience of public prayers still seem unusually focused on yourself.
That being said, one of the main purposes of us praying together is to gain a broader perspective. God has chosen to relate to us not only as individuals, but mostly as a people. The very prayers we speak and the bible we read is brought to us by the agency of the church. God is revealed in the forms of creation, and for the consciousness of human beings, that means the forms of culture and language and experience.
Although it is a common idea that people can be spiritual without being religious, it is rarely possible to understand and integrate complex holy experiences without a language or a symbolic context provided by a religious community. Even though there are plenty of numbers of things in the world, it is difficult to imagine someone understanding mathematics without schools. In short, while God is everywhere, we need each other to be able to understand or even articulate what this might mean.
If we were spiritual geniuses, we could go out on the golf course on Sunday morning and not need any help in coping with our sojourns in the rough or our shots out of bounds. We would make a point of calling around before we went out so that we would know about the conditions of the people around us for prayer. We would bring a bible with us to help us in the creation of deeper prayers. We would gather our foursome on the eighteenth green and share prayers of thanksgiving and intercession for the people who took care of the course. Gosh. It would be easier to come to church.
Our common prayers are our primal attempt to develop our corporate relationship with God. It is important enough that the prayer books of our denominations are some of our most cherished religious touchstones. It is important enough that the disciples asked Jesus how they should do it and he taught them.
Prayer brings us to a common perspective and an emotional connection that can keep the community in balance and help us to keep our role in the scheme of things straight. This common perspective usually involves our corporate need for humility in the face of our failures as a people, our thanksgiving for the blessings shared, and our desires for wholeness.
The emotional connection sensitizes us to the joys and pains around us and generates a sense of mutual care and the urgency for forgiveness.
Corporate prayer can save us from ourselves and reinforce that we are all in this together. We can hang together in prayer or be stuck with our own hang ups.
There was once a shy young woman who had never really got into religion. Her parents didn't go. Her aunt tried to encourage her. The woman was married by a justice of the peace and had a baby. The experience of having a child exhausted her and exhilarated her to such an extent that she was able to recognize that something was missing in her life. Even though she had a great baby and a fabulous husband, she was still feeling. . . alone. She started coming to church but found the words strange and had no reference or understanding for most of them. She was shy and didn't want to let on that parts of church were simply crazy to her. The words about the life we share in God eventually meant something to her when someone brought over a plate of cookies. The prayers about love made sense when someone called her up when she was having a bad day. One Sunday she said the Lord’s prayer in church and all of a sudden she heard something completely different. She heard not a devotional prayer she could say at bedtime, like ‘Now I lay me down to sleep,” but a prayer that was all about the people around her. She wasn’t alone anymore. She heard our prayer.
Our father, in heaven
Our common creator and nurturer, above all ambiguity and compromise. You who made all of us in your image and called us good.
Hallowed is your name
Holy is your very identity. May we together respect every representation of you.
Your kingdom come.
May your plan for all people, your kingdom, arrive. We long for a day in which all people are secure and have justice. We work for laws and governments that embody your caring for your people and your justice.
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
May your complete vision for all creation be fulfilled through us. Beyond just a kingdom, may your will for all of earth: its creatures and its plants, its substance and its nature, be acted out in our lives as it is in your mind.
Give us today our daily bread
Not only meet our individual needs, but give to all of us the daily sustenance that relieves our anxieties about the future.
Forgive us our sins
As a church, as a nation, as a family, in all our groupings, we have conspired to be selfish. Forgive us for the shortsighted wars we have waged against other groups. Forgive our judgments against others, our fear mongering. Forgive us for punishing individuals for the sins of our culture.
As we forgive those who sin against us
Our prejudices and our fears cause us to respond with thoughtless defensiveness. Nations and forces have wounded us as a people. Help us to embody graciousness and help a new day arrive.
Save us from the time of trial
We know that we are frail as a group as well as individuals. Corporations and cities often do the easiest thing rather than the best thing. We wish we never had to face the challenges that will come, but ask that you would save us when they do.
And deliver us from evil.
Save us from the evil one. Rescue us from the Evil that is aloneness, that hides in secret lonely places. Deliver us from the evil one that is selfishness. Save me from myself.
For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours now and forever.
It is not all about me.
