Recently, the below prayer was said as an invocation at a NASCAR race:
Hearing this prayer, and seeing some of the reaction to it, got me thinking about prayer in general. Here’s my thought: for whose benefit do you think that Pastor Joe Nelms is praying? Or let’s ask the question this way: is this how he would pray in a room by himself? Certainly, he’s making a joke, and is no doubt well aware that his invocation won’t be taken seriously. Nonetheless, it’s a public prayer that got me thinking.
I have always been a little bit uncomfortable with public prayer. You might think this is strange, me being a priest and all. Before I was a “professional” Christian, I never wanted to pray out loud; I never thought my prayers would be good enough to be out there, side by side with the prayers of the truly (poetically) spiritual. You know the people I mean. After I became a pastor and become more comfortable speaking in front of people and more confident in my ability to think on my feet, I became less worried about the ability to pray in public and more worried about the theory behind it.
I mean, aren’t we supposed to be praying to God? Certainly Pastor Nelms has gotten some notoriety for his church, and probably boosted attendance a little bit, but could anyone argue that his prayer was truly intended primarily for God’s ears? Or is it more likely that he wanted the gathered assembly to know that his wife is “smokin’ hot?” Perhaps he’d just seen Talladega Nights the evening before?
In a worship service in seminary, during a public prayer time, someone prayed a thanksgiving for the beauty of God’s creation. It was autumn, and prayer thanked God for the beauty of the changing leaves, for the reds, yellows, and browns of the season. When that prayer ended, someone in a different part of the church piped up and said, “And the oranges.” Now, I don’t want to disparage either of those people (I don’t remember who they were), but that occurrence made me wonder exactly who we are praying to. Are we praying for the benefit of those around us, or are we praying to God? What are we to do with Matthew 6:6, wherein Jesus tells his followers that when they pray, they should go into a room and close the door? Jesus seems to be regularly at odds with public displays of religiousness.
Certainly, we pray communal pray-ers…as an Anglican, I believe that a general confession (said together) takes the place of individual confession (to a priest). But confession is a kind of prayer that almost cannot help being personal: surely we have our own sins in our minds as we confess, and aren’t really even aware of the content of the prayers of those around us.
So what do you think? When we pray in public, are we beholden to the pressures of “quality?” Is there a component to communal (yet individual) prayer that is missing from prayers said to God, alone? Who are you praying to and for when you pray out loud in a group? Or do such concerns prevent you from praying out loud in groups at all?
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6 responses to “Who Are You Praying To?”
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I think praying for others to hear as long as it is to the glory of God.In John 14,15 ,16,and 17 Jesus is no longer going to a quiet,private place but praying for the benefit of the disciples to see and hear about God and the relationship that the Holy Trinity has for Gods glory and our relationship to our God and our neighbors.Do you love me Peter?Feed my sheep.
I share your discomfort with this practice. I don’t like to pray aloud and I don’t really care to listen to others do it.
I’ve heard someone say somewhere that you can tell a person’s denomination affiliation by the way that they pray aloud.
Despite my discomfort, I do think that it can, and should be, done.
For me, set prayers are the best (see Luther’s Small Catechism for some great ones).
I used to think (in another life) that they didn’t “allow room for the Holy Spirit”, but now I see that they in fact turn the focus from us and our prideful scrambling to say the right words, to God.
I have come to appreciate set prayers for the same reasons that I love the liturgy.
On the other hand, when I pray with my children before I go to work, or if we are praying for a sick relative, short spontaneous prayers are great…
I don’t really understand why anyone is praying publicly at sporting events.
The Lord’s prayer: I personally think you can’t go wrong with that one, either in public or in private 🙂
Great post Nick. My wife and I had a relevant experience this past Sunday. A visiting pastor from Haiti spoke at our service. Afterward he was asked to pray for the church in his native Haitian Creole. It was quite wonderful listening to him pray, as I didn’t have a blasted clue what he was saying. But I knew to Whom he was saying it. It was the first time I’ve been fully passive while being prayed for; normally I can’t shut off my analytical self – I’m constantly weighing (judging) what the person is saying. Last Sunday, I just trusted this man was asking our Father for His will to be done in our little congregation.
what a cool example! Thanks for sharing, D.
I think one can usually tell when a public prayer is heart felt verses scripted. The heart felt prayers tend to be defined by, whether it is said or not, HELP! The scripted public prayers in my experience usually wide up one of two ways. The first, like the NASCAR pastor, tell me something from the world around me, letting me know the person is praying is informed for example, “lord we thank you for high performace tires and blinker fluid” or “lord you know the problems with Ghadafi in Libya.” The second, and this is the worst, is a prayer at me. I had a room mate in college who one time in a prayer meeting pray, “Lord, you know that Jacob doesn’t do the dishes like he should, help him be a better steward of his time that he would get his chores done in a timely fashion.” He was totally right, but the prayer had nothing to do with God!
I have tons of these stories and as a minster I see it all the time.