July 24, 2022 Sermon
Sermon title: "Lord, Teach Us to Pray"
Scripture: Luke 11:1-13
(Other lectionary choices include Hosea 1:2-10, Psalm 85, and Colossians 2:6-19.)
Luke 11:1-13
The Lord’s Prayer
1He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." 2He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."
Perseverance in Prayer
5And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' 8I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. 9"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
After I write a sermon, I send it to Tami, and she prints it out in larger print than what I send her. Then, after I have delivered it here on Sunday morning, I send it out to others who ask for it. One of those is a high school friend in my hometown of Columbus, Indiana - and the reason I mention all this is that my longtime high school friend gave me an idea after he read last week's sermon, which, if you remember, was about Martha and Mary. In the Scripture for last week's sermon, Jesus says, "There is need of only one thing". My friend asked me what that "one thing" was, and I thought it could be one's relationship with God. There are other things that are important, of course......but the most important thing is one's relationship with God.
I say all that as a sort of preamble to today's text, in which the disciples ask Jesus how to pray. Again, I think the author of Luke put these two accounts together: in last week's Scripture, Jesus says that only one thing is needed, and I'm assuming that "one thing" is one's relationship with God. How does one establish a relationship with God? One PRAYS! Well, look what we have today: Jesus is seen to be praying, and the disciples say, "Lord, teach US to pray", which is the title of this sermon!
The version of the Lord's Prayer which we heard today from Luke's Gospel is slightly different from what we find in Matthew, but the gist is the same. By the way, the version we say every week in church is the one from Matthew's Gospel, not Luke's. Why? "TRADITION!" Seriously, I don't know why. But we can be sure that every Christian service everywhere in the world says some version of the Lord's Prayer. And why not? Jesus taught it to us! I guess the thinking is that you can't go wrong if Jesus said it!
Let's take a look at the Lord's Prayer. Let me say at the outset that I think Jesus was giving us a boilerplate of what to say. We have taken his words literally, but what I personally believe is that Jesus was giving us an example of what to say or how to pray. And look how he begins: Recognize God first: Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. First, THAT's probably a radical change from what the disciples had heard before: God is a loving FATHER, even DADDY, which is what "Abba" means. God is our Dad, our Father, our Pop, someone to love and who loves us, NOT someone to fear! Pretty radical. eh? Well, that's Jesus for you! He trusted his Father, and he urges us to do the same: Our FATHER, who art in Heaven, not O GREAT SCARY ONE, who lives in Heaven. God loves us, like a loving parent loves us. Next, recognize God's holiness, God's total OTHERNESS, to paraphrase the theologian Karl Barth. Give a little glory and respect to the One who deserves glory and respect. After that, Thy Kingdom come and Thy will be done. In other words, Lord, please let happen what you want to happen, and let ME be a part of making your will happen. You will recall Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying that GOD's will be done, not HIS (Jesus's) will. Okay, that's enough about God! Now we pray for US! I am kidding, of course - but in a prayer, try to remember that it is GOD first, not you, not me! And that is SO Old Testament thinking, the only Bible Jesus had, remember. It's about GOD, not you, not me! The sovereignty of God is what is first and foremost - and Jesus recognizes that in the Prayer that he taught. Our Father, who art in Heaven, HALLOWED be Thy Name, the first line of the Prayer Jesus taught. It's you, Lord. First and foremost, it's about YOU.
A moment ago, I said that now we pray for us, and that's true: after recognizing God FIRST, we tell him what we need.....which we know that he already knows, as Jesus says elsewhere. Nevertheless, recognizing our reliance on the grace of God, we say, "Give us this day our daily bread." Jesus is down to earth here. He knows we need to eat every day, and he urges us to ask God to remember our needs. I guess food is the most basic need, but we also need a place to live, or shelter from the elements. We also need a job to be able to earn enough to live - so in my opinion, Give us this day our Daily Bread means more than food. It means our other needs, too. And then look what happens: Jesus urges us to pray that we are not led into temptation. Again, Jesus knows what it's like to live our lives. He was one of us, you know, and so he knew how temptation lurked around every corner! And lead us NOT into temptation. Jesus knew that temptation then and temptation now are very real threats.
And now he closes out his Prayer, asking that God deliver us from evil. Perhaps temptation and evil are related, so Jesus puts them together. Boy, it's as if we have to be on our guard every single moment of every single day! Again, Jesus knew about temptation and evil. We know nothing, other than the account of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness. But maybe when he worked as a carpenter he was tempted to do shoddy work and still charge the same price! Maybe he was tempted by a certain female client to give her a good price and maybe she'd give him something else! Please don't be offended. If Jesus was fully man as well as fully God, he was tempted in all ways that men are tempted. And I believe Jesus knew about THAT kind of temptation, too. Elsewhere he says that even if a man LOOKS lustfully at a woman, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now how could anyone say such a thing if he hadn't experienced something similar himself? I didn't say he SUCCUMBED to temptation; I'm just saying he knew what it was. I am reminded of a supervisor I had years ago when I worked as an airline ticket agent. He was British, so perhaps his Britishness added to his sense of humor. Anyway, before I told a certain joke (which I won't tell here!), I asked him, "Mr. Woodbury, are you familiar with a vasectomy?" He said, "I'm not familiar with it, but I know what it is!" Perhaps WE can say that Jesus wasn't familiar with temptation, but he knew what it was!
Did you notice? I forgot to put in..... "And forgive us our debts (or trespasses) as WE forgive our debtors....." I really did forget! And it is SO important to remember that Jesus knew we are not our best selves every minute of every day! So, we need to be aware of our shortcomings and we need to ask forgiveness. But something else just as important: we need to forgive OTHERS! And I admit, that's a hard one. But there it is in black and white: "Forgive us our debts or sins, as we forgive those who sin against or trespass against us." And the thinking is this: if God is our loving Father who wants what is best for us, the loving Father who has given us life and all our blessings, and the one who forgives us even before the time of Jesus....Listen to this from Psalm 103: {{Read Psalm 103:1-5: 1Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits – 3who forgives all our iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.}}. The idea is that if the Father of mercy forgives us, saves us, redeems us, how do we pay him back? We can't, of course, pay him back. But we CAN pay it forward, if you will, and forgive others, give others a second chance, just as WE have been forgiven, just as WE have been given a second chance. Again, it's hard, I admit, because I can think of plenty of people who - I believe - don't DESERVE a second chance, and I'm sure you have your "favorites", too, who - you think - don't DESERVE a second chance. But let God decide that. God has already forgiven YOU for a multitude of sins. Don't you think you can forgive some jerk who has crossed you?
That's the idea. That's the IDEAL. But I know that some of you have extenuating circumstances, and I'm not going to tell you what you SHOULD do. That's between you and God.
The last phrase we Protestants say is, "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever." But that's not in the Roman Catholic practice; so, if you ever attend a Catholic service, you'll notice that the Prayer stops with...."and deliver us from evil." Why? I have no idea! But if you think about it, that last phrase isn't really needed. We said it all up front. We have already said, "Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, etc." I know, I know: we all have Albert Hay Malotte's song in our minds: "For Thine is the kingdom, etc." And it's a nice musical ending!
I should have closed right there (!), but I'll leave the last word to Bishop of Durham N. T. Wright, who says, "The idea of God as Father goes right back to the time when Israel was in slavery and needed rescuing. 'Israel is my son, my first-born', declared God to Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron; 'so let my people go!' From then on, to call on God as 'Father' was to invoke the God of the Exodus, the liberating God, the God whose kingdom was coming, bringing bread for the hungry, forgiveness for the sinner, and deliverance from the powers of darkness - all themes....that Luke has drawn to our attention." And Wright goes on: "The 'Lord's Prayer', as many call it, is therefore not just a loosely connected string of petitions. It is a prayer for people who are following Jesus on the kingdom-journey.....He had provided bread for the journey, and 'the breaking of bread' was to become the sign of his presence in the church, and the bond between his followers.....This is a prayer which grows out of the mission of Jesus himself. It has been ideally suited, both as it stands and as a framework for wider praying, for his followers ever since." Amen.
Pastor Skip
