Image of the “Adoration of the Holy Trinity” painted by Albrecht Dürer taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Trinity.
Today’s Church seems afraid to learn how to pray. I think that’s a net which casts wide across forms of Christian piety: people who tend toward or exclusively practice “spontaneous prayer” (articulating one’s prayer to God with original language) or people who tend toward or exclusively practice “traditional prayer” (articulating one’s prayer to God with language which one has inherited). On the one hand, many of our prayers stand under Jesus’ prohibition, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7). We seem to resist the fact that there’s a certain way God wants us to pray. On the other hand, many of our prayers stand under Jesus’ prohibition, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others” (Matthew 6:5). We seem to resist the fact that God wants us to internalize this way he wants us to pray. These are likely two sides of the same coin (see 1 Corinthians 14:13-15). Prayer has been assimilated, relativized within the framework of our own projects. It’s become a cog in the machine of our feelings, our thoughts, and our ambitions. We’ve learned how to puppet churchly language to make ourselves feel better, to think through things, to position ourselves higher in our own eyes or in the eyes of others. We haven’t learned how to pray, though. Too often, our prayer revolves around us and what we’re doing, rather than revolving around God and what he’s doing. Too often, our prayer is about our goals, rather than God’s mission. Here, it’s important to remember that prayer doesn’t start with us.
In Jesus’ birth, we have the single thread from which the whole tapestry of God’s people’s prayer is woven. It’s the nest from which the birds of our prayer take flight and to which they return for safety. The psalmist writes, “Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name’” (Psalm 66:3-4). Our prayer responds to God’s words and deeds, reacts to and is directed by the course of what he’s doing in the world. Prayer is situated. It’s situated within the context of God’s mission; it’s situated within the community of God’s people; and it’s situated within the light of God’s victory. Prayer attunes us to the situation we’re in before the coming Christ. Luke’s account of the Annunciation to Zechariah emphasizes this point clearly. Zechariah is commissioned with the priestly responsibility to represent God’s people at the temple’s altar of incense. While “the multitude of people were praying outside” (Luke 1:10), an angel of the Lord appeared to him and foretold John the Baptist’s birth. It’s important to see here that, while it’s Zechariah’s prayer that “has been heard” (Luke 1:13) and therefore Elizabeth will bear a son, God’s hearing this prayer is completely integrated into what God’s doing, the victory he’s accomplishing: “he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17). It’s not that God is uncaring to Zechariah’s personal plight for a child, nor that John is merely a utility to accomplish God’s plan. Rather, the point is that Zechariah’s prayer is brought up into what God’s already doing, is united with the whole prayer of God’s people (its answer is, in a very important sense, an answer to God’s people’s total prayers and its effects reach the totality of God’s people; see John 1:6-7), and is answered in reference to God’s victory.
Today, I’d encourage you to be unafraid to learn how to pray. Your prayer is God’s word which he has given to you, which he has taught you personally, so that you personally can get in on what he’s doing in you. Your prayer is also God’s word which he’s given to us, which he has taught us collectively, so that we collectively can get in on what he’s doing in us.
Further Reading: Psalm 66; Isaiah 11:10-16; Revelation 20:11-21:8; Luke 1:5-25
Written by Guest House Theologian, Tim Morgan. These reflections are a complimentary addition to our Advent Blend Coffee Bags. Scan the QR code each day to read the most recent reflection.
More Advent reflections can be found here.