Shema is a prayer?

Mike referenced the Shema Prayer on Sunday. The heart of the Shema Prayer comes from Deuteronomy 6:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

N.T. Wright mentions this, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since, but how the heck is that a prayer? Seriously. We are always taught that prayer involves, for example, petition, adoration, thanksgiving, praise, or intercession. How on earth does this passage fit into any of those? You can twist it and make it fit, but as the words are actually written, how it’s a prayer is beyond me. And yet it’s the center of Jewish prayer services. So it’s making me completely rethink what prayer is or can be, and I’m fairly befuddled by it.

One suggestion Wright makes that I really like is to recite written prayers. Maybe it’s just me, but I assumed that for prayers to be sincere, they had to be my own. But since Wright made me think about it I’ve reconsidered that. Jesus himself, when his disciples asked him how to pray, gave them an example to follow. I’m not sure why originality is so important. So I’ve been experimenting with written prayers a bit. Honestly, I can’t say it’s been super fruitful so far. But it’s at least interesting.