1-getting out what i have been taking in about some of this Liturgical worship stuff I've been hearing(specifically about public prayer) recently and over the last couple of years
2-purposely rattling cages when it comes to pre-scripted prayers
Ok, so I have been thinking a lot lately about using some prayers for us corporately from the "Book of Common Prayer"(Episcopal). I know, I know we at Beacon don't like to put God "in a box", and while I completely agree with that train of thought(and so does scripture, i should mention. Throughout it, specifically the OT we see God as being untamable, and uncontainable) I also think that we are crippling ourselves and not seeing our own "box" when it comes to these kinds of prayers. We seem to have this mind-set that if prayer is pre-scripted, it cannot possibly be useful, and certainly not worthy of our speaking to God. It seems to me that we are blind to our own systems faults when it comes to this area. The very thing that we say we hate (which is basically: legalistic treatment of a certain form to be used in corporate worship) we do when it comes to this. We (maybe not in words, but certainly in practice) assume that because a prayer is pre-scripted it INHERENTLY cannot have meaning, and cannot be from the heart. Hmm...this sounds a bit "boxy"...
This train of thought brings up questions about Spiritual Formation. How are we going to learn to pray? Is this not the same question the disciples themselves asked in Luke 11:1? Jesus did not turn to them and say "whatever is on your heart at the moment". He gave what we know as the Lords Prayer. Now, was Jesus giving them the perfect prayer that they should recite everytime they pray? No, He seems to understand their humanity and understand that it takes us time to learn the practice of anything. He was giving them something formative to work with. Dont forget, we believe that Jesus Himself was fully-human, so how did He learn to pray? He practiced...a lot. How many times do we read about Him going somewhere to pray. He was also a Rabbi, and there are a lot of pre-scripted prayers that He would have learned in His Jewish training, not to mention all of the Psalms.
It seems that we don't mind making things into habits in other parts of our Spirituality, and we dont seem to get so bent out of shape about them. Do we not teach our children to basically say a pre-scripted prayer before they eat every meal? We practice our music making for God and don't seem to think of it as meaningless because we have songs written down. Do we not practice being attentive to hear from God when we are listening to a sermon every week? We seem to be ok with making spiritual habits in all of these areas....as long as we don't call it "Spiritual Practices"
Am I saying that we should abandon un-scripted prayers in our corporate setting? Of course not! But I am asking that we begin to think about how a beautifully written prayer might be something that we can do as a body to help us to practice this area of our spirituality, and when it says something that can resonate with all of us.
One area of our corporate prayer in particular is the area of confession. I believe that we have some work to do in this area. While I fully believe that we are sons and daughters of God, and are fully redeemed before the Father, confession seems to be more for us than God. So much healing can come from us being able to corporately vocalize our doubt, our guilt, and our need for God's love and care. This prayer is a good example:
"Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name.
Amen"
It seems that we always want to put on this face that we are always happy, and never deal with real life sin, and guilt. A prayer like this gives us a chance to see that we are not alone in these issues, and that we can confess them to each other, and find healing in that act.
I hope that this can be a starting point for us to realize that there are treasures hidden in Christendom outside of our tradition of no tradition. I hope that we can begin to "steal" from these traditions to deepen and enrich our own.
Grace and Peace,
Jeff
