ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 29, 2022
A few folks have asked my opinion in regard to the recent Supreme Court ruling on prayer at a football game. Am I in favor of prayer? In most cases, yes! Yet my use of the word ‘most’ should probably be a hint that I have some concerns. I see this getting messy, but maybe that’s just my cynicism. Who on the coaching staff gets to lead prayer? Is it the Head Coach? What if the Head Coach is an atheist, and the Assistant Coaching Staff includes a Southern Baptist, a Unitarian Universalist and a member of the Baha’i faith? Do we have a Pray-Off? Trust me when I say that these three prayers are going to be dramatically different, each of them potentially offensive to the other two. Why do I see a Reality TV show in the making? What if the Women’s Basketball Coach practices Wicca? I’m guessing there will be a few parents who might raise a concern. How about one of the Christian traditions that believes only 144,000 are going to heaven? What does the prayer sound like if the coach believes he is the only one on the team who is among the chosen?
I guess the deeper question for me is a question of purpose. What is the purpose of prayer? In Jesus’ best-known sermon, he spoke on the topic of prayer, including saying:
“When you pray, don’t be like hypocrites. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so that people will see them. I assure you, that’s the only reward they’ll get. But when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees what you do in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:5-6).
In today’s world, would Jesus add “stadium” right after “street corners”? I’m not specifically calling out the coach who was central to the Supreme Court ruling, as I know very little about him or his faith. But I do want to know what his goal might be. Is he hoping to achieve something, and if so, is it necessarily in the best interest of his players? When I was in college, we used to go to small towns in Oklahoma on Friday nights and provide what we called a Fifth Quarter Event in the local Disciples of Christ churches. The students invited their friends, being very specific about what they were invited to. Yes, we prayed… along with some games, pizza and small group sharing. Yet the praying was usually in the context of small groups where youth had offered personal concerns or specifically asked for prayer. Prayer was about helping form a relationship between those young people and God, a relationship of openness and intimacy. At the 50 yard line, it feels more like a show than a relationship.
With all that said, and in light of the fact that it will happen, I pray for the best outcome for everyone involved. And mostly, I hope prayer isn’t used to cram one form of religion down the throats of those who may not be in a place where they are interested or maybe in a place of vulnerability where the underlying theology of the prayer can be damaging or even damning. Let’s be clear, every prayer makes a profound theological statement, no matter how poetic or pious it might sound.
Holy Spirit, fill my heart with your immeasurable love. Make within me a receptive heart so I too can be a carrier of that love to others who yearn for it. Amen.
