Prayer as Synthemata

This question has been all the rage ever since Pres-elect Obama chose Saddleback’s Pastor Rick Warren to give the opening invocation for the Inauguration tomorrow. I’ve been following the controversy with some amusement.

Apparently, in the time it’s taken me to write about it, events have overcome the question, as Rev. Warren apparently said yesterday that he would do so.

However, my point is quite simple … it doesn’t matter what words he says. Much noise is made about how he’s going to end his prayer, and whether he will finish with the somewhat-traditional (at least in Evangelical circles) “in Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.”

The question, of course, was whether Pastor Warren might skip that for the sake of the dreaded “political correctness.”

As is so often the case, though, if one looks at the question, one will see that there is no cause for controversy. Jesus never said that we have to chant the right words for our prayers to be heard. In fact, if we spend a moment with what Jesus does say about prayer, then we can move on.

To look at Matthew 6:5-8 (NIV, courtesy of BibleGateway.com):

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

One of the TV preachers that isn’t so bad (sorry, I don’t remember which one — but there aren’t too many from which to choose, so maybe you’ll recognize this trait!) will go along speaking in normal English until the moment that he starts to pray. Suddenly, he seems to turn into a walking King James Bible. In prayer, he speaks to God as “Thee” and uses all of his “Thine”‘s and “Thou”‘s.

I’ve never really understood that, to be honest. I’ve never been able to find the passages in Scripture that call on us to use fancy language when speaking to God. In fact, looking at that passage from Matthew, it looks to me like God wants just the opposite. Don’t go on babling, thinking that using a lot of words or the right words will win God over. He already knows what we need.

I also have a problem with the idea of using prayer to make a statement. The point of a prayer is not to show to others that we’re Christians, it’s not to make some kind of cultural proclamation, and it’s not to try to score points for political showmanship. I look at the controversy and think of the parable about two men praying, from Luke 18:9-14 (NIV, courtesy of BibleGateWay.com):

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about^[a] himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The tax collector (by the way … in 1st century Israel, tax collectors were hated even more than they are today. Not only were they tax collectors, they were traitors, since they worked for the oppressive Roman government, and almost-universally thieves, since there was a lot of money to be made by over-charging people) simply asked for forgiveness. He didn’t have anything pretty to say, he didn’t even go to the right place, and he didn’t do anything except pour out his heart, recognizing that he needed God and didn’t deserve Him.

I think that we’re up against two major problems here. First of all, there is a constant tendency toward Pharisaism. As people, we like rules. It’s always easier to follow rules than it is to live by grace and accept that others are living by grace — unless the way they want to live by grace is also the way we want them to live.

Secondly, there is the popular trend toward pushing back against “political correctness.” All too often, anything that even seems like it might be PC is treated as automatically wrong. In truth, though, that isn’t necessarily the case. Sometimes, what’s PC andwhat’s right might even be the same thing. Certainly, there is room for the two to be acceptable.

There is nothing magical about uttering the words “In Jesus’ Name.” Unless Rick Warren is completely out there, anything he prays will be in Jesus’ Name, because Pastor Warren is a Christian, and he therefore prays in Jesus’ Name whether he says it out loud or not.

Should he say them or not? Frankly, I don’t care. If he does so, on the logic that he’s an Evangelical pastor and that’s what he does, I’m fine with that. If he decides not to do so, on the logic that there are many other faiths among the American population and he’s speaking as part of an American ceremony, not a Christian one, then that’s fine, too.

There is remarkably little said in the Bible about what the invocation of a Presidential inauguration should be. It’s almost like Jesus and the authors of the Epistles were more concerned about what was happening in people’s hearts rather than the words coming out of their mouths.

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