The Unlikely Evangelist

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Ordinary 17 Year C
Luke Chapter 12 verses

In my last post, 'Vision4Life - a first reflection' I comment that of the three themes of Vision4Life, Prayer is the area where I am least confident or comfortable. So imagine my delight when I discovered that this weeks lectionary seemed to be all about prayer. However, as usual, spending time searching the scriptures with others, produced some simple, surprising and helpful results.

The Lord's Prayer

An examination from the Gospel reading of what we most commonly call 'The Lord's Prayer' led us into a wider discussion about how we pray in worship. Being a good Reformed worship leader, schooled in the 'Hymn Sandwich' model of Sunday worship, I do follow the prayer structure of ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) in both our Family Friendly and Traditional Worship services each Sunday, which will be common in very many churches. I was a little surprised therefore in this weeks Bible Study groups, that only those who lead worship themselves were familiar with this model, (and even more surprised that only one knew something of the reasons for this order). Most only had a vague idea of the order and that the last prayer in a service is always praying for others, but that was about it.

But non of this is the important bit! The important bit was, how helpful people found it all when the reason for the order was simply explained, using different words.

WOW! Sorry, Thank-you, Please

- When we meet together in worship, in the presence of God, how can our first response not simply be WOW!

- Once we've said WOW, recognising our own faults in God's presence, we are compelled to say Sorry.

- Having said Sorry, and received God's forgiveness and grace, the natural response is to say Thank-you.

- Then having acknowledged God's grace to us, how can we not pray for the same salvation for others?

I'm sure this won't be new to many of those reading this, and I'm sure many will have more accurate and technical explanations for the order of how we pray in public worship, but I just post this to highlight how helpful people found it. It seems to some extent how we pray in worship had become a lifeless formality, this simple explanation has for some, restored it as a living tradition again, one which gives expression and meaning to our way of worship, and one which can be simply shared with others.

Personal Reflection

I still recognise in myself that in preparing worship, the Sermon and hymns, for me, are always of much greater importance. (That is if the time I spend on crafting a sermon or selecting suitable hymns as compared with grabbing 'Roots' or the Worship Book to find a prayer that fits, is any indication). But maybe it's OK, good even, to use the talents of those more skilled than I in writing prayers for public worship, I just need to spend a little more time and care in the choosing!

Ask, Seek, Knock.

The lectionary reading concludes with Jesus talking about Ask, Seek, Knock. Again very familiar words, but something struck me for the first time. As this is a passage about how to pray, ask, seek, knock is saying something quite different, that prayer is active on the part of the one praying, not just God. It's not a case of asking God and sitting back for the answer, searching for the answer is our next prayer act. But neither does it end there, the searching needs to result in knocking on a few doors, trying a few handles and pressing the bell.

For me this has been very helpful in understanding my own prayer life, or as some would see it, lack of one. I've never been one for sitting down and thinking, "right I'm going to pray now". (Though I do occasionally). I've always regarded prayer as space to think, and I create this space for myself in lots of different ways all the time. Sitting and praying has never been enough, if not accompanied by active searching and experimenting with new ideas and potential solutions.

The challenge for our local church is then, is how do we break the practice in many of our churches of Prayer Meetings/Circles being little more than a sharing of pastoral news/gossip/list of ill people?

For me, it's not so much about a 'Prayer Life' but 'A Life of Prayer', constantly living, asking, searching, exploring with God and others, for the answers to life's questions.

This is the Vision4Life for us all to pray, search and strive for.

Mike
The Unlikely Evangelist