Yesterday in worship I made a Freudian slip that made me glad I wasn’t on a microphone at that moment. While my colleague was presiding and the assisting minister was leading the Prayers of the People, I was participating in the congregation’s response to each petition: (assisting minister) “God, in your mercy,” (people) “hear our prayer.”
One of the petitions was for our congregation’s strategic planning process coming up, a huge endeavor of discernment which involves the whole congregation and lasts almost a year. Apparently I was thinking hard about planning during that petition (or I was just worn out toward the end of our third worship service that morning), because instead of responding “hear our prayer,” I said, “hear our plan.”
After my first reaction–hope that no one had heard my slip!–it made me smile because I thought, how often have I and others prayed that prayer? “God, here’s what I’d like to have happen in this situation. Could you do that, please?”
“O God, hear my plan” comes in many variations in cases of health, discernment, new beginnings, relationships… You name it, and we can have a plan for it! My slip was especially ironic yesterday, because I had just finished preaching (three times!) a sermon about how God’s Word planted in us and in our communities can surprise us. It rarely grows according to our plan.
Fortunately, that same sermon contained the good news that God does not require us to be right, and I trust that covers Freudian prayer responses.
