Barth Journal Entry #10: On Prayer

Karl Barth looked at theology through a Christocentric lens, meaning that Christ is at the center of everything, not humans.  This would mean that communication with Christ, i.e. prayer, would be a central tenet of theological practice, because one cannot study the practices of the Church, or study Christ, without faith and clear communication with Christ himself.  Barth would say also that one can't study theology as an educational discipline only.  Faith is necessary in order to truly study, and vice versa.  It is part of the Christian vocation to have faith, to study, and therefore also to pray.  He addresses this specifically starting on page 882:

As is perhaps fitting, we begin (7) with prayer.  The community works, but it also prays.  More precisely, it prays as it works.  And in praying, it works.  Prayer is not just an occasional breathing of the soul, nor is it merely an individual elevation of the heart.  It is a movement in which Christians jointly and persistently engage.  It is absolutely indispensable in the accomplishment of the action required of the community.  It cannot possibly be separated from this action.
Prayer is a basic element in the whole action of the world community.  "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  Hence prayer- we are reminded of the first person plural in Lord's prayer- is a work of the community.  In and with the community all the members can and should also pray individually.
Prayer includes in inseparable union both thanksgiving and intercession: the one in relation to the past for the free grace of God already received in it; the other in relation to the future for the same grace which will be needed in it.  Prayer is, therefore, the acknowledgment that the community which exists in time, as it has performed and does and will perform its ministry, has lived and does and will live by the free grace of God addressed to it rather than by the inner meaningfulness and power of its own action.  If God had not freed it for this action, and were He not to do so again, what freedom or ability would it have?  In praying, it acknowledges that its whole action can only be a ministry of witness which as such is totally referred to its confirmation by the One whom it has to attest, to His good-pleasure to which it has no claim, which it has not deserved and cannot deserve, which in past, present and future can only be His free gift.  Yet both as thanksgiving and as intercession prayer is offered in the certainty of being heard, and therefore in a humble but bold bid for divine good-pleasure which will give meaning and power to its action.  Hence in prayer as its confession of God's free grace we do not have a purely subjective exercise of piety with only subjective significance.  Such an exercise might well lead into the void.  In prayer of the community keeps God to His Word, which is the promise of His faithfulness as the Word which call, gathers, upbuilds and commissions it.  It keeps Him to the fact that its cause is His.  Appealing to His free grace, it expects quite simply that He will let Himself be kept to His Word and therefore that its cause which was His yesterday will be His again to-morrow.  In its thanksgiving and intercession it thus enters without doubt or hesitation, not hypothetically but confidently, into the dealings with which God has initiated between it and Him on a becoming an active partner in the covenant which He has established.  Hence prayer is no mere gesture of elevation.  It creates in the world a fact which has this significance and which speaks for itself, whether it is heard and accepted by the world or not.

Prayer has a big place in the world.  According to this passage, the Church does not acknowledge that its power comes from Jesus without praying.  We have no power without prayer.  We are to be humble but bold we ask for God's good pleasure and assistance.  It is through prayer that we hold God accountable to us; that we claim that God is how God acts, that we claim that it is God's work and God's world, and that it will be forever.  It is through prayer that we claim that we are incorporated as partners and as agents in God's work.  Prayers are significant, and they stand alone as ritual, whether we choose to acknowledge that or not.

This is very important for ministry, both inside the church and for seeking Christians.  First of all, we need to acknowledge the importance of prayer as a discipline.  It is not cultivated in congregations as much as it should be.  Furthermore, most seeking Christians I know, whether they claim to actually be Christians or not, do pray in times of stress and tribulation.  This is important for two reasons: God can work on them through their prayers, and lead them to Himself, and Christians can open a conversation about what prayer means in relationship to being a Christian, for the purposes of showing them Christ's love.  Also, we should remember the importance of praying for each other, and praying for those who are not yet Christian, especially those who are actively seeking God and have not yet met Him.