Praying Gone Awry

People can get to be predictable.  I remember one of those who listened to me preach those ten years while I was pastor of the Vidalia Church telling me how many times I said, "To be sure" in a sermon.  While we both had a good laugh in the moment of the telling, it became one phrase I intentionally never used again in a sermon.  "To be sure!"   I suppose it is hard for those of us who preach not to show our predictability.  It just happens.

 

But, one place where predictability should not appear is in the Pastoral Prayer offered in most places in some form or another during Sunday morning worship.  It is never a good thing when those who are eavesdropping from the pew are able to speak the words the preacher is praying before they are spoken.  It would seem the Pastoral Prayer would be a moment when the heart of the praying preacher is revealed to the people for whom the praying is offered.  But, the sad truth it is often so routine that any evidence of passion is hard to hear. 

Some preachers write their Pastoral Prayers.  Perhaps, such is the way to avoid the problem created by the routine.  However, a read prayer sounds like a read sermon.  A read sermon puts people to sleep and to read a prayer when people already have their eyes closed is bound to introduce the sound of snoring in the sanctuary.  While some have a gift for reading sermons or prayers, it is not an art most preachers are able to master.  A Pastoral Prayer does not have to be a completely spontaneous experience, but when it becomes something so predictable no one, including the preacher, is listening something has gone awry.