Praying For God’s Mission: Pt One
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009Praying Missionally
A friend recently sent me this note:
I’ve been thinking for the last couple of weeks about something. I
hate that I don’t feel an ounce of being comfortable when it comes to
the pastoral prayer time in worship. In our community I still see the
value of praying for people, for the Spirit to lead us, and for us to
be Christ’s body in our community, but something doesn’t seem quite right about it. Some of it may be that I try to do too much
extemporaneously and that gets me to thinking about this question: if I at least sit down to pray and outline my pastoral prayer during the
week, how might I lead our church in praying missionally? I’m
constricted by time to do anything out of the ordinary but at the same
time I want to think thoroughly about pastoral praying in this way:
not just the “how” that connects with our folks but the “what” that
might get them to pray at home differently.
What does it mean to pray missionally?
I think that we can begin to wrap our minds around this by starting with the biblical prayer that often ends the pastoral prayer in many communities of faith-The LORD’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13):
Here is my translation of Matt 6:9-13 -
Our Father, the one who is in heaven;
Let your name be holy.
Let your kingdom come.
Let your will become [reality] on earth as it is in heaven [already].
Give to us today our food for the day.
Forgive us our debts just as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors.
Don’t lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
If we want to break open this prayer, we need to ask some key questions:
What does this text assume to be true? What does this prayer suggest about God? What does this prayer believe to be true about us?
Our Father:
Assumes that prayer is a community activity. This does not mean that one always has to pray in the company of others (Jesus’ instructions in 6:5-8 suggest both individual and corporate prayers), but it does force the pray-er to reflect on the meaning of “our.” God is never simply “my father” or “his father” or “her father” or “their father”; God is our father.
Assumes a relational framework. Many of us are turned away from addressing God as “father” because of our own experiences within our families. But Jesus’ model is supposed to be read as an invitation to participate in God’s family. We embody this ethos when we value community and experience authentic relationship with God.
The One who is in heaven
God doesn’t merely relate as “our father”. God relates as “Our father who is in heaven.” In other words, this clause distinguishes God as unique among fathers.
This address is then followed by three petitions addressed directly to God. All of these are requests for God to usher in fully the promised new reality of an age of salvation. Yet implicit in each request is a bold and daring shift in the pray-er’s own allegiance. To pray each petition is to invite God to work in our lives so that each pray-er begins to embody the values of God’s reign that adumbrate the new age that is coming through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.
1) Let your name be holy.
God’s name is holy. This is a request for the day in which God’s holiness and majesty will be fully and rightfully acknowledged by all creation. It is a commitment to show God’s name holy in the present through the sort of life that we live.
2) Let your kingdom come.
Jesus came to announce the age of salvation-the kingdom of heaven (4:17). This is a plea from a pray-er fully aware of the frailty of the present age. Jesus has ushered in the first fruits of the future, but there is more to come. It is a prayer for God to consummate his kingdom in its totality. As this petition is prayer, the pray-er is also committing himself or herself to the values and ethos of the kingdom as taught and lived by Jesus. Jesus’ followers are to live as people from the future who leave clues for those longing for a better life.
3) Let your will become [reality] on earth as it is in heaven [already].
This request fill outs the previous two. What does it look like for God’s name to be recognized as holy and for God’s kingdom to come? God’s will and intentions will be manifest in the totality of his creation. The ethos of the Kingdom of heaven will be the ethos on earth. Of course, to pray this line is to commit oneself to living out God’s will in the present in anticipation of God’s decisive action.
The prayer ends with three requests on behalf of the pray-er. These serve as prayers for persons whose lives involve the mission of God. Implicit in each request is profound trust in and recognition of God as the source of life, protection, and salvation. Also each request is also a commitment to embody the very thing that it requested.
Give to us today our food for the day.
This is a simply request for food for the day. Life starts and stops here. We begin to embody this value however through becoming generous people. To receive from God is to give to others.
Forgive us our debts just as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors.
Forgiveness is the key to community and maintaining genuine and life-changing relationships. It is vital to read this request for forgiveness from God as a commitment to practice and model forgiveness within the community of faith as well as toward those outside of the community.
Don’t lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
To follow Jesus is to participate actively and fully in God’s mission. Jesus did not come to create a static or stationary institution. He came to unleash a movement that would embody the ethos of God’s kingdom and carry its message to the ends of the earth. To live this way is to live dangerously. Thus, one must pray a prayer of protection for deliverance from the evil one (the Devil) and from temptation.
Why do we need to pray this prayer with audacity and faithfulness? Because God desires to imprint his character on us so that we can leave his fingerprints and handprints in the world to serve as clues for others?
I think that this begins to give us a starting point for praying missional prayers. Perhaps a message or teaching on the LORD’s Prayer can serve as the ground work for a shift in the emphasis in the pastoral prayer.
What do you think?
© 2009 Brian D. Russell