Tuesday of the First Week of Lent – Feb. 23, 2010
Matthew 6:7 – 15
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'
For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
How have we gotten prayer so turned sideways? Depending on the translation you read, Jesus says not to babble, use vain repetitions, or empty phrases when you pray.
Simply put, the picture is almost comical, as if someone who wanted to pray observed someone else praying and then merely repeated that person's language, rhythm, posture, and voice inflection. As a pastor years ago, I learned how to use vocabulary, tone, and volume to make my public prayers sound like they were connecting with God. That they seldom made that connection mattered less to me than that people thought I was offering a holy prayer. I hope God laughs about those days more than weeps.
While prayer is more caught than taught, the words and images of prayer are meaningless if they are not my own. From years of praying the Psalms, I’ve learned that a chief ingredient in any authentic experience of prayer is honesty. If I can’t be honest in my prayer with God, then I’d be better off spending my time reading a magazine. If the Psalms are anything, they are honest expressions that erupt from the depths of men and women who struggle to make sense of God, the world, and their own lives. You’ll find few “empty phrases” or “babbling” prayers in the Psalms. You will find gut-level authenticity.
The other piece often missed in Jesus’ words is that prayer doesn’t depend on the words we say. I spend a lot of time helping adults unlearn their notion that prayer is all about the words we say to God. While speaking to God is a part of prayer, a better definition of prayer understands it as communion with God. In other words, there is a sense of being with God in prayer in ways that may or may not be put into speech.
For many of us, “silent prayer” suggests a time to take a quick siesta; yet, silence is an essential part of the spiritual life. We cannot pretend to live connected to God if we never engage God in prayer or if we do all the talking to God. Through the centuries our best spiritual teachers have reminded us that the first language of God is silence. Somehow we must develop the spiritual art of listening to God in the stillness, tuning in our spiritual antennae to hear the promptings and nudgings of God’s Spirit within us and in our world.
This kind of listening really is possible. It is a part of the vast resource, largely unnoticed by the Church, known as contemplative prayer and practice. These contemplative prayer forms tend to be quieter, more inward, and intended to help one open his/her life at ever-deeper levels to the voice and action of God.
Maybe there is a time and place for babbling prayer. Prayer, though, as Jesus taught it, is so much more. We are invited to honesty and to silence as indispensable elements in our connection with God.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'
For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
How have we gotten prayer so turned sideways? Depending on the translation you read, Jesus says not to babble, use vain repetitions, or empty phrases when you pray.
Simply put, the picture is almost comical, as if someone who wanted to pray observed someone else praying and then merely repeated that person's language, rhythm, posture, and voice inflection. As a pastor years ago, I learned how to use vocabulary, tone, and volume to make my public prayers sound like they were connecting with God. That they seldom made that connection mattered less to me than that people thought I was offering a holy prayer. I hope God laughs about those days more than weeps.
While prayer is more caught than taught, the words and images of prayer are meaningless if they are not my own. From years of praying the Psalms, I’ve learned that a chief ingredient in any authentic experience of prayer is honesty. If I can’t be honest in my prayer with God, then I’d be better off spending my time reading a magazine. If the Psalms are anything, they are honest expressions that erupt from the depths of men and women who struggle to make sense of God, the world, and their own lives. You’ll find few “empty phrases” or “babbling” prayers in the Psalms. You will find gut-level authenticity.
The other piece often missed in Jesus’ words is that prayer doesn’t depend on the words we say. I spend a lot of time helping adults unlearn their notion that prayer is all about the words we say to God. While speaking to God is a part of prayer, a better definition of prayer understands it as communion with God. In other words, there is a sense of being with God in prayer in ways that may or may not be put into speech.
For many of us, “silent prayer” suggests a time to take a quick siesta; yet, silence is an essential part of the spiritual life. We cannot pretend to live connected to God if we never engage God in prayer or if we do all the talking to God. Through the centuries our best spiritual teachers have reminded us that the first language of God is silence. Somehow we must develop the spiritual art of listening to God in the stillness, tuning in our spiritual antennae to hear the promptings and nudgings of God’s Spirit within us and in our world.
This kind of listening really is possible. It is a part of the vast resource, largely unnoticed by the Church, known as contemplative prayer and practice. These contemplative prayer forms tend to be quieter, more inward, and intended to help one open his/her life at ever-deeper levels to the voice and action of God.
Maybe there is a time and place for babbling prayer. Prayer, though, as Jesus taught it, is so much more. We are invited to honesty and to silence as indispensable elements in our connection with God.
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