Public Prayers? Whose Name?

At the last City Council meeting in my home town, there was a large debate about the nature of the opening prayers that are said at the Council meetings. At the County Commissioners public hearing concerning zoning the meeting was opened with prayer and it concluded in "Jesus' name, Amen." The Chair of the County Commissioners commented on what a wonderful prayer had just been offered. These comments came about because there have been a number of issues raised in the courts and by the ACLU about the legality of public prayers that are religiously identifiable.

The prayer that become exclusively Christian in its content has been declared inappropriate in some courts recently. Our leaders felt the necessity to bear witness to their faith by declaring that they would continue to open our public meetings with prayers "in Jesus' name."

It is true that the Old Testament has lots of public events where the meetings are opened with public prayer. There are a host of prayers given by King Solomon at the opening of the Temple in I Kings 8. Of course, the King was considered a servant of God and had a religious obligation in the Old Testament. So public prayers to God are abundantly present in the Old Testament. But none of them conclude with "in Jesus' Name" and none of them that I know of end with Amen. If we were to follow the Old Testament examples of prayer in public the Jews and the Muslims could probably tolerate those prayers well.

When we as Christians move into the New Testament and try to learn what Jesus says about prayer, one of the first things we read is that Jesus is not a very big fan of public prayers in the first place. He tells his disciples to go into a closet to pray. Don't pray like those other people on the street corner and in public. Do your praying in private. So I guess the first thing we would have to say is that if we took Jesus' advice seriously we would not have prayers in all these public activities like City Council meetings, Football games, and Chamber dinners. So avoid public prayers and making a show of prayers. Jesus would certainly want to urge us to be a lot briefer than a lot of people are.

Now if we continue listening to Jesus in the New Testament there is his instruction to his disciples as to how to pray. He gives them the prayer we call the Lord's Prayer. In none of the Bibles I have does that prayer end "in Jesus' name we pray." As it is now said by people, it just ends with, " forever and ever, Amen." In fact, different traditions of Christians have different endings to the prayer. At least in theory, that Prayer to Our Father, could be shared by Jews and Muslims alike. So it we were to pray like Jesus taught his disciples we would not have to add that "in Jesus' name" conclusion.

There are the passages which talk about Jesus telling his disciples that whatever they ask in his name, that will be done. But it could be suggested that Jesus is talking to his disciples as a group and that what they ask as "the church" will be done. That might suggest that asking in Jesus' name in a public meeting where it is not automatically obvious that all are disciples that asking in his name is not warranted.

I am among those who believes in the power of prayer and the call to obedience and faithful witness to one's faith, but it does not seem to me that we are witnesses to the graciousness of God and the loving kindness of our Lord when we are offensive, insulting, insensitive and dogmatic in our behavior. "O Holy One, come into this room and bring wisdom and the courage to do what wisdom shows us to do. Amen" That prayer would get it done for me.