Like a Guitar

The Morning Prayer, or the Pastoral Prayer as is called in some places, is like playing the guitar.  As one who played around with learning how to play the guitar back in younger days, I learned that the guitar is a good musical instrument that is easy to play badly.  So, it is with the Pastoral Prayer which takes place in many sanctuaries on Sunday morning.  It is a good prayer that is easy to offer heavenward badly. 

 

There is nothing wrong with this particular part of the ritual.  The Pastoral Prayer is an opportunity for the preacher to eye ball the congregation and pray.  Before any preacher offers this Sunday morning prayer a good long look across the gathered crowd would be a good thing.  There are people present whom the preacher needs to see.  In the seeing there is an opportunity to see the needs different folks have brought with them.  To look for a moment is to see people suffering with things that have been shared, but also suffering with things that are unseen, unspoken, and, perhaps, even unknown to everyone, even the preacher.  With the Pastoral Prayer the preacher has an opportunity to gather up all those needs before the Father in heaven. 

 

If it sounds like an impossible situation, it is.  Yet, it is still what the Pastoral Prayer is all about.  It is that special moment of gathering together the hurts, the needs, the struggles, the joys, and the celebrations of the gathered congregation.  Given the nature of what the moment is all about, it is sad when the preacher approaches the moment as just another routine moment in the ritual.  There is nothing routine about it.  It is not a moment for praying like last Sunday because every time the congregation gathers, it is a different congregation with a different set of needs.  If struggling to preach a sermon keeps the preacher awake at night, how much more should struggling to pray in that moment filled with such hope.