Prayer from Sunday

I do not think that I am a good prayer, especially in church. There is a lot of pressure to do that pastoral prayer to get it just long enough but not too long and not leave too much out but not be too specific. It is like walking on a stick of butter.

Anyway I get asked for copies of what I pray on the Sunday's I get to do the pastoral prayer and each time I forget to make copies. I am tired of tired of not having copies. So I am just going to post a prayer anytime I get asked for a copy of it so that I will have a place to direct people.

This was last Sunday's prayer asked by a few people.

Constant God of Grace we have gathered in this place to give thanks and sing praise for the gifts and graces we have in our lives. For the strength to stand up this morning, we give thanks. For the food that came to us and will nourish us this day, we give thanks. We even give thanks for the breath we just took and the breath we are taking right now. Your presence not only makes life possible but it makes life worth living.

But life does not come easily sometimes and often due to the actions of ourselves and our sisters and brothers. Just as we recognize that it if your presence that makes life available to us, we recognize the times when we have taken life for granted. Our self-centeredness manifests in many different ways from greed to envy, from passive aggression to active violence. Forgive our self-centeredness in all its manifestations so that we might be able to become the people of reconciliation and grace living without guilt, shame or fear.

We seek these things not for ourselves alone, but for the world. We live in a world were guilt is plastered on television, shame is on the cover of every magazine and fear is sold to us in the evening news. While the culture moves to generate guilt, shame and fear so that people might be exploited and marginalized, you have called your Church to be a people moving to generate a different culture. A culture built not on guilt, but forgiveness; not shame but dignity; not fear but faith. We know we cannot build this culture, your kingdom, on our own. You have given us models to guide us: prophets, poets, mystics and sages. These saints have shown us so many paths which bring us closer to you and your desires. And while we are not there yet, we continue to move in that faithful direction. So give us the strength to stand in the morning and the food to nourish our bodies and the breath to keep our hearts burning for the peaceable kingdom. For these prayers, spoken and unspoken, we join our neighbors, our fellow sinners and saints in the prayer which our Lord taught us to pray saying, Our father…

Is confession needed before we come to Christ???

Prior to the UMC's communion liturgy we have these words that says, "Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another."

We then have a prayer of confession which is said as a community.

No big deal, right?

However, I was in class last week and one of the professors said there was a scholar she read who says something to this effect:

What makes Jesus different from other teachers of his day is that Jesus does not require people to repent prior to being in his presence. When someone wants to see him or be healed, Jesus does not require that person repents and then that person can eat or becomes healed.

This idea was powerful for me to consider how we "do" communion, conversion, and evangelism. We require that people first repent of their sin - the prayer in a communion liturgy to the "sinner's prayer" on a Biblical tract. Then AFTER repentance are you in communion with or move closer to Jesus.

But is this backwards?

Requiring people to repent makes the Christian life look like a religion of requirements in order to get grace. Rather than a religion which promotes grace and out of grace we repent.

When that person encountered Jesus, that is encountered grace from God, they repented out of that experience. Perhaps that repentance meant more to the person as it was a response to the overwhelming grace they experienced even as a person who is "unclean", "sinful" or "outcast".

I don't know, but what would it look like if the prayer of confession in the UMC communion liturgy came after communion rather than a prayer of thanksgiving?

Reflection on a Mother Theresa prayer

Mother Theresa of Calcutta:

Make us worthy, Lord, to serve your children throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them, through your hands, this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give peace and joy. Amen.

The opening words, “Make us worthy to serve” stick out to me.

It seems to that in order to be worthy to serve the poor I need to have a relationship with the poor. I think the voice of loved ones is more “worthy” than the voice of a stranger because I have a relationship with them. I understand that in order to be worthy to serve someone I must be in relationship with them.

But how do I get in relationship with someone? I spend time with them.

I spend time with them to become worthy and in becoming worthy I am able to serve others. And the more I serve the more time I send with others and the more time I spend with others the more the relationship becomes worthy.

It is a paradox.

I think it is a chicken and egg paradox, what comes first the relationship or worthiness?

Just because we have we think we have an obligation to serve others. This does not mean that we are worthy of service. Otherwise the prayer would say something like, “Allow us to serve your children” and not “Make us worthy”.

In America when you graduate you are not given a job as you walk across the stage.

A job is something you have to earn. You build a resume, gain experience, and solicit references all in an attempt to prove you are worth to gain employment.

Just because you and I have fish on our bumpers, crosses around our necks and give an hour of worship on Sunday doesn’t mean we are worthy to serve the poor.

Christianity is built on paradox. God said to Moses, I am what I am or I will be what I will be. Jesus said faith as a mustard seed can move mountains. Jesus also said, gain your life and loose it, loose you life and gain it. Paradox runs throughout our faith and it is dominate in this prayer.

How do you and I become worthy of serving the poor? The next line says it – we go and work with the poor.

Only in working with the poor do we become worthy enough to work with the poor.

It is a paradox. What comes first?

We do not sit and wait for a divine moment which confers on us the privilege to work with the poor. We are worthy only in serving, and we serve to gain worthiness.

Paradox.

The question that has stayed with me is, “Are we worthy to serve the poor?”