INSIPID PRAYERS

Prayer has fallen on hard times, I think. In the wake of school shootings and the sufferings of the world, those who say, “I’m praying for you” are mocked for not doing anything “real” to address the problem. I even hear my pastoral colleagues rail at the “uselessness” of prayer. I suppose there can be some truth in that criticism. Prayer is often an act of desperation in the face of hopelessness. It is even the insipid response to a situation we wish would just go away. We “pray” when we lack the courage, ability, or desire to act. 

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​That said, I’m not convinced that even the most insipid prayer is not still prayer. If there is any small turning of our hearts and minds to God – even in our helplessness and hopelessness – it seems to me that is the Spirit’s work. Paul writes, “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27) 

As people become less and less “religious,” less and less affiliated with religious communities that practice prayer, maybe it makes sense that our prayers seem less and less potent, or even meaningless. We pray, but we don’t know what a prayer is or how to do it. 

Sylvia Plath once wrote, “I talk to God, but the sky is empty.” The inner work of the Spirit drives us to look to a God we don’t know, and so we find nothing. Renowned atheist, Christopher Hitchens, gives voice to the post-modern understanding of prayer that is disconnected from everything but the self: “The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right.” 

Prayer is neither insipid nor empty. It is not powerless or hopeless. Paul tells us it is the very essence of life. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) Prayer is not asking for what we want or changing God. Philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard reminds us that “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” 

First Peter teaches us that prayer is a calling. We are – all the baptized, including you – priests. “Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5) Priests pray on behalf of others, on behalf of the world. 

Each week, part of our worship is to offer prayer, to be the priests of Christ. Each week we follow the same pattern in our intercessions.  

• We pray for the church and its call to be faithful priests. We name our ecumenical partners and mission partners praying with and for them in unity of the Spirit. 
• We pray for the creation God has graciously placed in our hands. 
• We pray for the nations, naming every nation where there are Lutherans around the world and calling for peace and rebuilding where there is war and strife. 
• We pray for those who suffer – the grieving, the sick, the dying, the homebound. 
• We pray for the health and mission of our congregation. 
• We pray for the saints who have died in Christ – both those who have recently died and those who stand in the communion of saints across time. 

This pattern shapes our corporate prayer and our personal prayer as we learn to pray not for ourselves, but for all that needs the healing and grace of God. We pray for resurrection to be revealed amid the suffering world. Only when we have offered our prayer can we be moved and led to act. Prayer is not inaction. It is a heart open to the needs of the world and listening for God’s direction. There is no insipid prayer if it begins in the cry of the Spirit that wells up within us. 

In Christ, 
Tim Olson, Lead Pastor