on the walk

We are almost through the gospel of Mark in our search for all that Jesus models and teaches regarding prayer. In all of this my goal is to bring these reflections into immediate action in my life. I hope that a similar goal inspires you. If you want to see the whole series you can click on the category link just below the title of this post.

Today we come to the 12th chapter and Jesus find himself again in conflict with the scribes and Pharisees. This is late in his ministry and by this point, he holds little back.

As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” Mark 12:38-40

Notice this. When Jesus makes a short list of the sins of the these people he includes long prayers. Are showy prayers really a fit parallel to “devouring widows houses”? I do notice that most of the items in this list are about arrogance and pretense. Certainly prayer could fit in that category. But is their some significance to its placement?

In other Gospels, we see that Jesus offers teaching about this problem in a more direct way to his disciples, (it is from this teaching that we get the phrase “prayer closet”) but this is a public teaching, and it is a bold condemnation of the lifestyle of the Pharisees.

So what I am wondering is whether this is also a bold condemnation of my public prayers. Do I “for a show make lengthy prayers”?

I will admit from the get go, that I think public prayer is a very important and very very difficult part of Christian life. At the beginning of a Bible study I attended as a teen the leader always asked, “Who would like to give words to our shared conversation with God today?” She meant, “Who wanted to pray for the group?” Her words have stuck with me. It think that this is wonderful understanding of public prayer. One person gives words to the common prayer of the community. Sometimes it will be a shared praise or a shared plea, or a shared confession or some combination of these, but in every case, public prayer should be one persons words to express the shared longing of the body.

Even though I know this I forget sometime. I have three common mistakes in my public prayers. (The are in order from least common to most.)

1. I forget to prepare (both mentally and spiritually) and consequently my prayers are self-centered and often showy. I forget that I am wording a prayer on behalf of the gathered community and pray only for my own concerns. Public prayer is not the time for personal confession or personal praise.
2. My prayer is filled with stock phrases and does not respond to the nature of the context and the community that is gathered. This has a lot in common with error one but here the issue isn’t that I am selfish it is just that I haven’t actually thought for two seconds about what this community really does need to say together in this communal conversation with God. This error sometimes leads to me using big fancy words.
3. I forget that this is a prayer at all. By that I mean that I forget that I am supposed to be addressing God and I use the prayer time to address the congregation. Let’s say that I wrap-up my sermon with a prayer. (Just for fun, let’s imagine that I forgot to mention the invitation song and to invite people to come forward.) I might end like this, “Lord let us not forget the three important points we learned from the story of the Good Samaratin. Let us remember to Live like a Samaratin and to Love like a Samaratin and to Let Go like a Samaratin and Lord if their is anyone out there today who needs to respond to this message, I just hope that you would speak to their heart right now and let them know that as we sing Nearer My God to Thee they are welcome to come forward and commit to Live, Love and Let Go just like the Samaratin did. They can come down the aisle and there will be some to meet them, Lord. Thanks God for a great day, Amen.”

Lot’s of us at various occasions need to pray publicly. Public prayer is an important gift to the church. Most of us learned to pray that way. So when I am asked to pray publicly I take that burden seriously. In light of what Jesus says about the Pharisees I take it all the more seriously. I hope that you are as I helped as I have been by this call. When you pray publicly, you give words to the shared prayer of the whole gathered body.

on the walk

-Ethan

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