I made my debut tonight.
Thrilling stuff.
Perhaps most interesting was debate as to whether our (state) school should continue to say the Lord's prayer on assembly. It is said every week. To put it in context, the school creed is also recited, the flag and queen are saluted, and two school songs and two verses of the national anthem are sung, (I think there is also an additional school prayer said sometimes.) Overkill? Yes.
As a Christian, I don't care either way. I think that saying the school prayer in this context has nothing to do with God or Christianity. It's a thing of tradition, positioning us on the conservative end of the spectrum, preparing our kids for private high schools and jobs as right wing politicians (like daddy).
Any thoughts?
I went along because I'm establishing and chairing a music sub-committee this year. I needed to say something to the group and felt a little nervous. It's a very high powered p&c I've not been on a committee like this before, and wondered if I'd be able to speak. After 2 hours of tedium, I realised this was just the same as all the other committees I've sat on. I know how these things work. I know I've stuff to contribute. I know I present okay. I'll never be intimidated by these people again (except when I visit their three billion dollar homes.)
I agree with you. I couldn't care about the prayer either.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind getting rid of it out of most of our church gatherings (after all, we're not supposed to babble like the pagans).
ReplyDeleteI'm less worried about the P&C.
hilarious Stuart.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was the prayer that Jesus taught people to pray so they wouldn't babble like pagans, even if they are pagans. That is, the prayer has real content (word of God) that our God can use even against the intentions of the speakers of it.
ReplyDeleteWell, my comment was (a little) tongue-in-cheek. But I'll come back anyway :P
ReplyDeleteIn context, I think Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray. He's doing so in opposition to the negative example of religious people — Jewish and pagan. As such, I don't think he's providing pagans with a mantra or a magic spell (which seems to be how it's often used, culturally). I'm not saying God can't use it, but God can use anything — I'm not sure this is in a special category.
Further, I think Jesus was giving us a form of prayer: that is, "Here's the kind of thing you should pray for," (God's glory, his will done on earth, the grace of forgiveness and everyday needs), and, "Use straightforward requests, rather than flowery or repetitious language."
Sadly, many of us fail on this latter point. Moreover, the mechanical way the prayer is often recited means it can lack all thought and meaning. (Perhaps I'm unfairly extrapolating from my own inattention.) This to me seems equivalent to 'babbling like pagans'.
I'm all for following the form (i.e. getting people to pray along the same themes and in the same straightforward style of language). I'm less sold on repeating the same words, week in, week out. And if people want to use the actual words occasionally, then that's probably not a bad thing — the novelty might then cause us to think about what we're asking God to do.
Hi (it's the ukulele player here -- for some reason I can't post with my wordpress account -- I'm the Anonymous one above). I'd be happy for teachers and kids to recite the prayer Jesus taught (once a week? -- better if it were in modern English) simply because it possibly is the only exposure to the Bible many of them have. It might be that moves to remove it from assembly is because it is Bible and it addresses the God who is.
ReplyDelete