At first I thought it was a joke - but sadly, it wasn't. A theological faux pas was committed last week at our nation’s capitol during the opening prayer for the 117th Congress. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, an ordained minister and former mayor of Kansas City, ended his opening prayer with the closing words “Amen and A-Woman”. Cleaver said he “concluded with a lighthearted pun in recognition of the record number of women who will be representing the American people in Congress during this term.” This disturbing use of a nonsense word “A-Woman” at the end of a prayer followed by the subsequent defense of it as a “lighthearted pun” should stop Christians in their tracks. It should anger and concern us for two reasons. First, someone who is a minister and praying before our greatest legislative body in the land has no concept of the true meaning of the words he is using in a prayer and second, he has no concept of the gravity that a conversation with almighty God should possess.

Many Christians over the years have used “amen” at the end of their prayer with complete ignorance of its meaning. For many, it just serves as a final period to indicate to those around you that the prayer is complete and you can now “play ball” or “dig in” to your dinner. However, the word “AMEN” is actually a transliteration of an ancient Hebrew word אָמֵֽן found in the Bible. For over 3000 years, it has been pronounced in a similar way in a variety of languages. Throughout all that time, the meaning of the word has been generally unchanged. It’s meaning shows agreement, concurrence, or a sense of determination or certainty for an idea that has been expressed. It could be translated into something like “let it be so”, “truth”, “so be it”, or “it is so”.

Ignorance is not always bliss. In our gender-sensitive culture, the fact that a syllable of the word happens to be the same as our plural word for the male gender should give us no excuse for putting our own ignorance on display. Words are designed to convey meaning and within the context of a prayer, those words are translating the desires of our hearts and conveying them before a Holy God. We must choose our words wisely and know what they mean.

Perhaps the greater chastisement of this gaffe by the congressman is not his ignorance of the meaning of the word, but rather his ignorance of the gravity of prayer. I teach my children to pray for supper at a young age. It is a good training exercise. Sometimes my young children will pray for nonsense things or try to make jokes in their prayers in the hopes that they will make another sibling snicker. Sometimes when we pray in a group we can find ourselves beginning to preach or make political commentary. For some, prayer has become just another tool to use for rhetorical purposes. None of these uses of prayer are appropriate. Prayer is a conversation with the God of the universe. We must not allow it to become a soap box, bully pulpit, or an opportunity for stand-up comedy.

So, let’s use this poor example from the congressman as a means to learn something about prayer. Prayer is our lifeline with God on high. It is something we need in our homes, schools, churches, culture, and our government. We need to fall on our knees, beg forgiveness for our sins, and call on God to restore us and revive us again. This only occurs through a proper use of prayer and it will begin only when we call out from our hearts for God to intervene. Know what you are praying – and pray with heartfelt meaning! … and to that we each should say “AMEN!”