Pray for Me, a Sinner
Pray for Me, a Sinner
By Maija Kaldjian
A well- known bio-ethicist, having said good-bye to a younger, less well known colleague who wanted to make his acquaintance at a conference they were attending, then turned around and said, “Pray for me, a sinner.”
Now this is not a greeting commonly used in our church circles but maybe it should be. Deep in our hearts we know we are sinners, and sorely in need of each other’s prayers.
There is one particular kind of prayer, taught to us in the Scriptures but neglected in most protestant churches, though we certainly are as sinful as those who belong to churches obeying this teaching more literally. As I grow older, I am more and more conscious of my past and present shortcomings and failures. “Our sins rise up against us,” the old hymn says, describing my condition.
It has long been my dream that our pastors could post on the doors of their offices the times when they will be there, available for care of souls. “We have a general confession and absolution in every church service,” most of us would object, content to have a comforting band-aid applied upon festering wounds in our souls.
Often however, there is more personal and more radical help needed, and the Church is richly equipped to give this kind of aid. Why don’t we make use of it? Are we so used to the sly and slimy sins such as self-centeredness, envy, pride, despair, and anger that we think there is no balm in Gilead for these? The most recent Father Tim novel (In the Company of Others) has the light touch in true Jan Karon style, yet it deals effectively with “our desperate need to be heard, to confess, and the reconciliation that comes with confession.” Anyone who has walked the narrow road of self-examination, repentance, confession, and forgiveness given and received, knows that Father Tim’s experiences are not mere fiction. For:
There is a balm in Gilead that makes the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead that heals the sinksick soul.
Pray for me, a sinner.