Welcome to the Knox Talks blog. Here you can find recent and past sermons relating scripture to a wide variety of topics. I would like to thank Shelley Rose for transcribing my notes into text for the blog.
“Ask Andrew” is an annual opportunity for Knox members to ask question that might make for good sermons. Here’s the second one for 2024.
Ask Andrew (2024) 2:
How, When and Why Should a Christian Pray in Public?
Scriptures: Romans 8:26-27 Matthew 6:5-15
How, when, and why should a Christian pray? (With sub-questions: Are only trained clergy qualified to lead prayer? Do we only pray in church? Can kids pray?)
This is the third Ask Andrew to deal with prayer: others were in 2011 and 2017; each question had a different emphasis.
This one came with a long explanatory note. One of the main concerns raised was that people were often uncomfortable leading prayer at church events such as meetings, meals and other gatherings. In many cases people were happy to ask the minister to pray but uncomfortable to be called on to pray themselves.
I’ll start with the sub-questions in reverse order, since some of them are pretty basic.
Can kids pray? Absolutely! Even if it’s only a “now I lay me down to sleep” sort of prayer, I encourage having children learn to pray. Prayer is communicating with the greatest power in existence, and that doesn’t just happen. We have to learn to open ourselves up to that kind of communication, to that relationship. And as always, it’s easiest to learn if we start as children. It’s like learning a language. That’s why I try to model prayer at the end of each children’s time in worship, so the kids can practise. I’m really glad that the grown-ups are now joining in!
Do we only pray in church? I hope not, although church is a good place for prayer. We can pray anywhere, anytime. I discovered this on a patch of black ice in my Dad’s old Pontiac Acadian on the Trans-Canada highway in Quebec. Prayer has no boundaries.
Personal prayer and group prayer share some things in common:
- All prayer invites us to reach beyond ourselves and focus our thoughts and feelings on a power beyond ourselves that we traditionally call God;
- All prayer invites us to express our needs and also to consider the difference between what we need and what we want. Prayer is not a chance to state a Christmas list, it is not an invitation to be selfish although, sadly, it is used that way sometimes;
- All prayer is an invitation to consider the needs of others, to pray for “us” and not just “me” and also to pray for “them” and to seriously consider the needs of someone different. It is an invitation to real empathy; to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes.
Praying alone, by yourself, can be very meditative, intensely personal, where the Spirit has to intercede, with groans too deep for words as Paul gives us that wonderful expression. And it can feel very much like a conversation, with spaces of silence left for God to fill in our blanks and for us to listen for that still, small voice of God that can whisper clearly only when we make space for it.
Leading prayer for a group, or any kind of public prayer makes us nervous. The warning from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount just before the Lord’s Prayer, warning us NOT to pray in public, has helped us to the conclusion that public prayer is best avoided.
Context matters, though: Jesus was speaking to a culture where most worship happened at home and you can be sure that a family member led those prayers, not some priest or Levite. In Jesus’ day blatant public prayer on a street corner was a way for people to show off their piety, to demonstrate how holy they were.
In other words, it wasn’t about prayer, really or about connecting with God; it was a kind of bragging: very selfish.
In the Reformed Tradition of the church we have believed for 5 centuries that every Christian gets to pray, to connect directly to God without some official Christian acting as an intermediary. We have declared that Christ is the only intermediary we need.
Our worship often happens in groups and is supposed to include prayer or some other worship focus, to prepare us for the work we do together. Ideally, any person in the church should be able to do this, but people are very timid about it so I will share some pointers:
Leading prayer for a group isn’t about personal issues; that can feel like an abuse of a leadership position, like the public prayers Jesus warned against. So, if you are in the position of leading prayer for a meeting, or a meal, or other activity, it is important to remember the situation and the needs of the whole group.
If you find yourself called on to lead prayer and are at a loss, sharing in the Lord’s Prayer is always a good option or one of those shared graces taught at church camp works well for a meal.
But for a deeper experience it is best to try and pray by asking yourself first: Why are we gathered? What do we hope to accomplish?
The Lord’s Prayer is a great template for any prayer: it starts by acknowledging our relationship with God, God’s higher perspective and our vision of making God’s plan actually happen in this human world; not bad things to remember and it might make us think twice about pushing our own perspective; it might make us more able to listen to others and try to hear if God is speaking through them.
It might also lead us to ask for wisdom, or inspiration, or insight or guidance; all good things for the church as it gathers.
Asking for daily bread is a request that our needs be met, which might help us consider what our needs truly are, rather than our wishes.
Forgiving trespasses is a reminder that we don’t always get it right; not a bad reminder as our society gets more and more polarized and people become accustomed to the language of trolls. It’s also a reminder that we need to forgive each other; another good reminder of our purpose as we try to bring people together.
Leading us not into the time of testing is a reminder that we aren’t in control of the world, that there really is a higher power and that’s who we are talking to in the prayer. So what’s wrong with asking for help?
Look at all those elements:
- acknowledgement of God and God’s purpose for us which could include saying thanks for things we appreciate;
- acknowledging our own limitations and our need to be patient with others, accepting of them;
- asking for what we really need, including material necessities and spiritual gifts; and
- asking for help for others and ourselves.
These are all great options to include.
Not every prayer has to include every bit. Saying grace at a meal should focus on thankfulness for the food itself, and for the sharing and fellowship. Praying to open a meeting should focus on why we meet including our overall purpose to be faithful people and specific purposes of the group or committee meeting.
The very act of praying is a reminder that God is here. It can bring us back to our purpose and draw us closer to each other.
The language should be plain and direct. Jesus specifically warns us against heaping up empty words. So, forget about “thees” and “thous”. Just speak as if you were talking to someone you respect and love and remember that you are connecting with God for the good of all who are gathered.
You can do it. Anyone can.
Amen.
Knox United Church Nepean 