prayers of the people

You may remember that I invited some reflection and dialogue on the three prayers that the three pray-ers that marked the inaugural events, Bishop Robinson, Pastor Warren, and Rev. Lowery.  I continue to think about this and want to point out just two things about each prayer as we endeavor to live faithfully at the intersection of faith and politics in a very interesting time in our country's history.

The way each of them address God reveals something about their respective theologies and worldviews.  Bishop Robinson begins with 'O God of our many understandings.'  Pastor Warren begins with 'Almighty God, our Father.'  And Rev. Lowery begins with 'God of our weary years, God of our silent tears.' 

Robinson represents at least a certain ecumenism, if not a pluralism, in his prayer.  Our differences and perhaps our inability to fully comprehend an infinite God, thus meaning that many of us have many understandings, is highlighted over and against a more historical and foundational approach to praying to the Judeo-Christian God. 

Pastor Warren's prayer is rooted firmly in a conservative evangelical address, calling God, Father.  In the Old Testament, God is LORD or Yahweh, there are at times familial images used to understand the relationship of God to Israel, but it is Jesus, in his prayer in Matthew 6, that has brought the address of God as Father into common Christian use for 2,000 years. 

Finally, Rev. Lowery brought tears to my eyes when in his aged and experienced voice, he said, 'God of our weary years.'  Speaking out of the civil rights movement and a liberation theology that finds its formative story in the Exodus, I heard the labor and pain of millions over hundreds of years in his cracking voice.

In each of the prayers, I had a favorite moment.  Allow me to share those with you. 

Obama, being one of our younger Presidents, is moving young family into the White House.  I'm no President, but I am pretty busy with work and school and church and travel, and I too have a young family, a 2 and 1/2 year old son, a 13 month old daughter, and another daughter coming in mid-June.  I was moved when Robinson prayed 'Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.' 

Warren's closing was among some of the most brilliant public speaking about Jesus in a pluralist society that I have heard.  He closes his personal prayer and invites all to join him in the Lord's Prayer with these words: 'I humbly ask this in the name of the One who changed my life—Yeshua, Esa, Jesus, Jesús.'  Beautiful: saying the name of Jesus in the language of the world's three monotheistic Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, and in the most common language spoken in America after English, Spanish.  I thought this was brilliant.

But by far Rev. Lowery's reinterpration of Isaiah's (and Joel's and Micah's) eschatological image of swords beaten into plowshares was my favorite moment.  He prays, 'Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.'  Tanks beaten into tractors!  I love it!  It captures the economic and ecological implications of God's new creation that the Old Testament prophets, Jesus himself, and Christians for thousands of years have been looking for.  Tanks into tractors.  It makes the think of my two visits to Africa where only a fraction of arable land is used for food production (tractors!).  Corruption, disease, civil war, terrorism, and rebel militia groups hold back a beautiful continent with great people and abundant resources from realizing their economic and ecological potential (tanks!).   Let's beat tanks into tractors.

Comments

[Sarah]

Responding!
I am just so thankful for what America is talking about and praying for in light of this inaguration. I loved ALL the prayers, I was so humbled and pleased to see humility and contrition on the mainstage of this powerful country.

Robinson's was my favorite; I am sure you are not surprised. I loved every minute of it, asking for tears and anger over injustice, and for patience and humility as we pray for heart changes. Perhaps I wouldn't ask for color-blindness, but rather an acceptance of the best from multiple perspectives so that we can all truly work together.

Warren's was so thoroughly evangelical, it made me uncomfortable at times (bias divulged!). I imagined people from certain cultures and traditions may have felt left out, though I appreciated the incorporation of the Shema and words from the Koran in reference to God. I noted his prayer was at times instructional . . . another aspect of evangelicalism? But I loved the litany of forgiveness . . . "when we focus on ourselves . . . forgive us," etc.

I completely agree with you on Lowry, it was like watching a culmination of an undescribably painful history turned into hope. I pray with him that we take the mountaintop with us into daily life. My favorite moment: "Let all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen."