Repetition and Spiritual Flourishing

We wrote recently about “Five Ways We Can Engage in Worship.” The point we wanted to make in that post is that when we gather for Sunday worship, each of us must be fully engaged. When we sing, we sing with our hearts. When we are led in prayer, we pray along with the one leading us in prayer. When we hear the sermon, we listen with our hearts as well as our minds.

In the past year PPC has added an element to our Sunday morning worship. At the end of the pastoral prayer, we pray the Lord’s Prayer together. Each week, as we pray those words, are we praying that prayer or merely reciting it? Is praying the Lord’s Prayer every week the “vain repetition” that Jesus warned us about (Matt 6:7-8)?

Which is better in worship: spontaneity or repetition?

This is partly a matter of personal preference. I grew up in a free-flowing worship tradition, but some prefer highly structured liturgy, replete with the recitation of ancient creeds, regular Scripture readings, responsive readings, and prayers that are not improvisational but written and read aloud.

Our fellowship is somewhere in between; our worship services are not formal, but they are for the most part predictable. There are some things we do every week, some things we do every month (Communion, first Sunday of the month), and some things we do occasionally (baptism).

Should we worry about repeated elements like the weekly Lord’s Prayer, the use of the psalms in our pastoral prayer, and the use of the catechism in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper? Does our occasional reference to the ancient creeds indicate a drift toward formalism?

This brings us to a larger question:

Does repetition enhance or detract from my spiritual formation?

That is largely up to me.

When I taught high school, I used a living object lesson to show that it’s easy to multi-task when we’re at worship. I asked a student to recite the Lord’s Prayer while buttoning a sweater. I wanted to show that the words of that famous prayer are familiar enough that most of us can “recite” it without thinking about what we’re saying.

But who will decide whether I am reciting or praying the Lord’s Prayer each week?

I will.

Moment by moment as I move through that prayer, I will either engage my mind and heart with the words given to us by our Lord, or I will let my mind wander. If I drift into meaningless ritual, it will be because I allowed myself to disengage.

Jesus concentrated a lot of significant content in a prayer of fewer than 100 words.

This model given to us by our Lord can be a powerful vehicle for expressing our hearts to our Father: our desire to see His Name honored (“hallowed”) and His will be done in our lives and in our times, our petition for Him to provide what we need (our daily sustenance, His forgiveness of our offenses, as well as the grace to forgive our offenders), and our desire to be protected from evil and temptation.

The next time we pray Jesus’ model prayer together, let’s pray those words, let’s resolve to concentrate our minds to hear and say those precious words with our hearts and not just our lips.

Persevere.
Paul Pyle
Pastor of Discipleship