Amen
As the Von Trapp children (reluctantly) leave the party to go to bed, they sing a delightful song filled with different ways of signaling that the evening has, for them, come to a close. So long, farewell, and goodbye all mean slightly different things, yet each is used to indicate that one is taking his (or her) leave of someone else. As you quietly hum tunes from The Sound of Music (whether you want to or not), think about how we usually say goodbye at the end of a phone call, how we end our letters with a carefully chosen closing, and how we end our prayers with amen.
Because amen comes at the end of prayers, we might be tempted to think of it as a way of signing off, a kind of goodbye, but that would be a wrong assumption (which is what we get for allowing ourselves to be tempted). When I was in high school, CB radios took hold of popular culture, insinuating themselves into movies and television and music so that everyone, whether he or she actually had ever used one of the devices, became familiar with them--and especially with the code-talk employed by CB users. Thus, everyone knew that ten-four was a way of saying that the message was clear, a way of signifying that the speaker had comprehended what was being said. Amen is sort of the same thing.
Any time we use words with someone else, we have usually have to use some kind of cue which says to the other person that we are finished. That is why we use closings in letters and why we say goodbye on the telephone. When we end a phone conversation, we say goodbye to mark the end; it says that we are finished and we are signaling the conclusion. After the click from the other end of the line, we know it is over and we go on with the next thing. (All of this, of course, is moot if the phone call happens to be one of those of the true-love adolescent variety that drags on ad nauseum with the "no, you hang up" kinds of verbiage, usually delivered in sticky-sweet tones and accompanied by coos and giggles. Note that here, adolescent does not refer to a particular age, as many so-called adults have been known to engage in such behaviors.) Amen is not goodbye.
We need to understand that when we talk, some words are for the benefit of the listener and some for the speaker. We usually assume that what we are saying is all for the listener, but that is not always how it works. Amen is a word that we use mainly for our own benefit: God already knows what is in our hearts and what is in our minds, so our prayers are put into words so that we will focus on our own words. Amen tells us--not God--that the prayer has concluded.
A Hebrew word that was adopted into Greek by the early church and then disseminated throughout Western languages, ending up in English by way of Latin (probably), amen shows up not just at the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer, but at the end of most all Christian prayers. We have latched onto the word and held on for life. Nothing wrong with that, but as with all the other words, we have to think about it and not just let ourselves say syllables that we do not understand. The word means "so be it," "truly," "verily." In essence, we are telling God (and ourselves) that we endorse these words, that we believe these words, that what we have said is sincere. It is like using sincerely as the closing in a letter.
The reason we need to be aware of the difference between amen as sincerely and amen as the end is simple: we have to remember that, while we might see ending a prayer as somehow like hanging up the telephone at the end of a conversation, it is actually much more like being on the end of a baby monitor. God does not stop listening to us just because we say amen. He is still there. He is still aware of what is going on in our hearts and in our minds. We might forget about God, forget about his being there, but He never forgets about us.
Prayer is important. It is vital. It is essential. We have to pray. We have to take time out of each day--and preferably take time more than once each day--to speak with God. The amen is a marker for us, a way for us to focus our thoughts toward God. God is still with us after amen, and that is one of the greatest blessings in our lives.
Because amen comes at the end of prayers, we might be tempted to think of it as a way of signing off, a kind of goodbye, but that would be a wrong assumption (which is what we get for allowing ourselves to be tempted). When I was in high school, CB radios took hold of popular culture, insinuating themselves into movies and television and music so that everyone, whether he or she actually had ever used one of the devices, became familiar with them--and especially with the code-talk employed by CB users. Thus, everyone knew that ten-four was a way of saying that the message was clear, a way of signifying that the speaker had comprehended what was being said. Amen is sort of the same thing.
Any time we use words with someone else, we have usually have to use some kind of cue which says to the other person that we are finished. That is why we use closings in letters and why we say goodbye on the telephone. When we end a phone conversation, we say goodbye to mark the end; it says that we are finished and we are signaling the conclusion. After the click from the other end of the line, we know it is over and we go on with the next thing. (All of this, of course, is moot if the phone call happens to be one of those of the true-love adolescent variety that drags on ad nauseum with the "no, you hang up" kinds of verbiage, usually delivered in sticky-sweet tones and accompanied by coos and giggles. Note that here, adolescent does not refer to a particular age, as many so-called adults have been known to engage in such behaviors.) Amen is not goodbye.
We need to understand that when we talk, some words are for the benefit of the listener and some for the speaker. We usually assume that what we are saying is all for the listener, but that is not always how it works. Amen is a word that we use mainly for our own benefit: God already knows what is in our hearts and what is in our minds, so our prayers are put into words so that we will focus on our own words. Amen tells us--not God--that the prayer has concluded.
A Hebrew word that was adopted into Greek by the early church and then disseminated throughout Western languages, ending up in English by way of Latin (probably), amen shows up not just at the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer, but at the end of most all Christian prayers. We have latched onto the word and held on for life. Nothing wrong with that, but as with all the other words, we have to think about it and not just let ourselves say syllables that we do not understand. The word means "so be it," "truly," "verily." In essence, we are telling God (and ourselves) that we endorse these words, that we believe these words, that what we have said is sincere. It is like using sincerely as the closing in a letter.
The reason we need to be aware of the difference between amen as sincerely and amen as the end is simple: we have to remember that, while we might see ending a prayer as somehow like hanging up the telephone at the end of a conversation, it is actually much more like being on the end of a baby monitor. God does not stop listening to us just because we say amen. He is still there. He is still aware of what is going on in our hearts and in our minds. We might forget about God, forget about his being there, but He never forgets about us.
Prayer is important. It is vital. It is essential. We have to pray. We have to take time out of each day--and preferably take time more than once each day--to speak with God. The amen is a marker for us, a way for us to focus our thoughts toward God. God is still with us after amen, and that is one of the greatest blessings in our lives.
posted by Rodney Rhodus | 12:50 PM
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