Every week someone leads our congregation in a prayer. I led last week. I thought I’d post the prayer I wrote. It’s based on the lectionary texts for that week. And, as you will notice, it’s a Mennonite church so the peace witness is important.
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O Lord, you are the Good Shepherd. Yet we roam in fear like sheep without a shepherd. We seek your gift of deliverance. And, God, that’s why we’re here again. That’s why we come together every week as your church. We ask that you would deliver us from our wandering as we follow our selfish desire, our pride, our lusts, our deceptiveness, our idolatry. Save us from our self-destruction and lead us instead into the paths of your righteousness, of your peace.
We come together so we can taste again the wonders of your grace, another sweet taste of your bread of eternal life. Lord of life, we are hungry. Every week we arrive at this building at 5pm and meet together and seek your grace, another word of promise, of hope. We sing your praises, proclaim the good news of your Son, and enjoy one another’s presence. We do all these things because we confess your presence, O Lord. You are here with us, in us, surrounding us in your loving embrace—your presence with us in and through the presence of our brothers and sisters, as the Holy Spirit binds us together with love, the love of Jesus. We are here, God, this evening so we can celebrate the gift of your salvation, the gift of Jesus Christ, our rock, our savior.
God, as we gather to celebrate your grace, we can’t help but ask that you would pour out your love and peace and justice, your forgiveness and reconciliation, on all the earth. Your Son did not give himself just for us, but he laid down his life for the whole world—for friends and enemies. We pray for the reconciling work of your Son to be made evident in India, in Iraq, in Palestine, in Israel, and in Lebanon. God, as you know, there is so much darkness, so much violence, so much death. But we also know that you, Lord Jesus, are familiar with death. And now, this humble group of your followers join our thoughts in prayer as we ask to see darkness turn to light, to see the glimmer of resurrection when hope looks like a life-less corpse on a cross.
God we ask that you would continue to sustain those good works of justice and peace throughout the world, so that all creation may experience your love, your breath of life. Bless those who feed the poor. Bless those who clothe the naked, those who provide houses and shelters for the homeless, those who provide clean water, and those who plant gardens that proclaim life in the midst of despair. Bless the peacemakers who would rather die as a witness of your love instead of killing an enemy.
God, open our eyes and ears this evening, so that we may learn new words, new way of proclaiming the gospel of your Son, the good news of your kingdom. And God, give us eyes to see and ears to hear the manifold work of your Holy Spirit as we leave this place and return to our daily lives. Water our souls today with your living waters. Satisfy our hunger with your bread of life.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Beth Q // Aug 1, 2006 at 8:08 am
Why do you write our your prayers? Shouldn’t those church prayers be more about listening for what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church? And doesn’t that mean that it should be more spontaneous? Don’t get me wrong, your prayer seems fine. But I can’t help but wonder if it is just too machanical when you read a prayer at church. It should be about talking to God right there with everyone else, and no one would write out a monologue when you are planning on having a conversation.
2 Jason // Aug 1, 2006 at 10:12 am
Beth, I can’t speak for Isaac, but I do know that I’ve recently come to appreciate written prayers (some of the best compilations I’ve come across are The Book of Common Prayer and The Oxford Book of Prayer). I grew up in the tradition of spontaneous prayer, but have found that written prayers, whether written by myself or others, have a depth and profundity that I rarely approach when I’m just talking off the cuff. Part of that is probably my lack of eloquence when speaking spontaneously, but another part is also that when I spend the time to write something down I am forced to slow down and put some sense of order and beauty to all my jumbled thoughts.
Of course, none of that is to make an excuse for times when written prayers become a monotonous speech at God instead of the give and take of conversation. But written prayers done well should be an invitation to listen closely for the movement of the Spirit.
3 isaac // Aug 5, 2006 at 4:16 am
Beth, Thanks for the comment. I can hear where you are coming from: prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit and we should make sure we let the Spirit work through us when we pray. I think that’s what Paul’s trying to say in Romans 8 about how the Spirit gives us moans beyond our words. But the trouble with spontaneous prayers is that they usually all sound the same. I grew up in a pentecostal/charismatic church where spontaneity was held in high esteem. But the funny thing happened, every spontaneous prayer sounded pretty much the same—people always prayed the same sort of thing, nothing changed. My church interpreted that as “the work of the Spirit”—the invisible hand that kept us all on the same page. But what I came to see was that our services slowly shifted from the Bible to visions and words of prophecy. Seldom did the pastor exegete scripture.
So, this is what I’m trying to say: Christians are “a people of the book,” and therefore we must find ways to hold our lives accountable to that holy book. Church, as I see it, is about learning the constantly fresh words of the Spirit provided through the Bible so we can receive the call of God for our lives. And we need that every week, at least. That’s why we gather as ‘church.’ And corporate prayer is also about opening ourselves to the Spirit so we can be led into the contstantly openning horizon of faithfulness. And the only way we can know if we are praying in the Spirit, not our own spirits or the spirits of this culture, is is we keep our language accountable to Scripture. Christians can’t just say anything we want. Our tongues must also be disciplined. Faithfulness is also about disciplines speech. And that should definitely be the case when someone prays before a congregation—we must be sure we are leading people into the true, life-giving Spirit of God, not some other spirit.
Writing out a prayer is a way for me to discipline my langauge. I read the lectionary texts and find ways to pray those words I hear. Writing becomes a contemplative practice where I am forced out of my our world, and lose myself in the stange new world of the bible. And then I share that wonderful world with the church when I read my prayer and ask them to join me in this prayer. I think this is a very appropriate way to, as Jason put it, “listen closely for the movement of the Spirit.”
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