Monday, May 22, 2006

Questions from left field

Last night as we were cleaning up after the concert and picnic, (a great time was had by all - thanks Matt and m28 - and it was great to see you John and Jennifer), one of my parishioners said she had a question for me... It seems that her friend, who attends a non-denominational church - told her that their pastor has been teaching them that "Our Father/The Lord's Prayer" is an individual prayer and not for corporate worship. It didn't make sense to LeeAnn, who was raised Catholic, and she asked for clarification...

I was so surprised by the question that I didn't give her a very good answer... I basically muttered about how it is definitely a prayer for us all to say together, as well as in private...I don't think I said anything disparaging about the other pastor...but it makes me wonder what is going on out there...geez - aren't we all on the same team? Don't we have at least a few basic things/traditions/beliefs that cross all 'flavors' of Christianity? I am having a running disagreement with someone about whether Mormons are Christian...I guess we, the universal American/Western we, just don't know much about what we believe and why we believe. Sure makes it harder...

Maybe there should be a seminary class on how to engage these discussions with witty repartee...there are days when I feel so unprepared. On the other hand, I am so thankful that LeeAnn asked, and that we had a place outside of worship to visit, and that she and her friend are even talking about their church and their faith and what they believe!

4 comments:

Matthew Johnson said...

Ugh ... I hope it's not the church I think it is. Maybe the greek is different (no, I'm not looking it up!) but the OUR and US are landmarks that have plurality to them. The disciple also didn't say "teach me to pray."

Scott said...

Matt...those are the royal "we"...right? We never think of anybody else when we pray our Lord's Prayer.

Matthew Johnson said...

Right ... we are legion.

This is just another example of how many churches appeal to individualistic and consumeristic needs in order to appeal to a selfish generation of Americans. "You mean this is MY special little prayer with God? Wow! I can take him fishing with ME and to the race track with ME ... cause I have stuff to do, and Jesus can do it with ME. Super."

[puke] bleeeeh [/puke]

Thanks for pressing my sarcasm button, Scott.

Deborah Coble said...

it seems that no matter how faithful we are there are so many forces (contextual, cultural and just plain evil) against the gospel message that it makes us seem dreary, hypersensitive or like doomsayers...all which don't seem like much fun to be around.

Appreciate the sarcasm...thanks for letting me rant.

By the way Matt, I think the church is in Lena - tho it may be in Freeport...