Mike's musings

12-10 (and some theology, at last)

There's a classic theological dilemma about whether it's right for Christian nations to pray to God for them to beat their enemies in war (everyone does, of course), but it's hard to see how people _can't_ believe in God when he sends a result like today's by England against Australia in the Rugby World cup. I can see that if you're Australian, you might take a different view.

On a serious note, though, this brings questions about what it's right to pray for. I _didn't_ pray (well, not consciously, at least!) for a win over Australia, though it's bl**dy marvellous, but that's not the point. Even praying for a parking space - which is likely to mean that someone else will be deprived of one - is an issue which has come up recently (after the Church of England published a se of prayers for commuters and travellers). I think this is one of those areas when we have to give up our prayers to God: in two ways. The first of these, of course, is to direct our prayers to God: that's what prayers are about, certainly prayers of intercession. The second is about realising that God knows better how to answer our prayers than we do. Here's the great prayer of St Chrysostom (as used at Mattins and Evensong in the Book of Common Prayer:

Almight God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise, that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests; Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting.

The key phrase here is "as may be most expedient for them". Our knowledge is finite, and time-limited: God's, on the other hand, is limitless and outside time. So, is it OK to pray for things that we know may have a (negative) impact on other people? Here are my off-the-cuff guidelines:

• assuming that the prayer is heartfelt, then yes
• assuming that the prayer is not motivated by malevolence, then yes (e.g. when we actively _don't_ want somebody else, whether that person is a particular person or not, to get that parking space)
• assuming that we're willing to allow God to decide how to answer the prayer
• assuming that we're happy to accept God's decision

These may be difficult things to do, certainly all at once, and we're human, broken and fallible, so we might not managed them, but I hope (and believe) that God will understand and accept prayers offered in the spirit that I've outlined above.

Labels: prayer, rugby, theology