Introduction:
We are looking at the topic
of prayer. Two Sunday's ago, we began by pointing out that prayer is
something that everyone can do. There is no limit by age or physical
condition. Sometimes prayer seems to be the most ineffective thing
we can do, certainly not as important as many of the other activities
that happen in the church. We are encouraged to pray, and prayer is
accessible to everyone. Then we saw the necessity of setting aside
time to pray. Mary and Martha story illustrated the importance of finding time to “sit”
at the feet of Jesus. To study, meditate, and pray can refresh our
spiritual lives and help us find focus in our daily life. Today, we
come to the lectionary passage where Jesus disciples ask him to teach
them to pray. Jesus gives us what has come to be called the “Lord's
Prayer."
Three Kinds of Prayer
There are three kinds of
prayers that we often encounter in Christian spirituality. First,
there are “Breath Prayers." We are likely not as familiar with
them in our tradition. Breath prayers have been used by Christians from the most
ancient times. They are used in silent meditation. Often it can be
just one word said over and over again, such as the word “Jesus." Christians are encouraged to sit comfortably, breath in and out and
use a breath prayer. A breath prayer can also be a simple portion of
scripture, a famous one is called the “Jesus Prayer”. It simply
says, “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a
sinner.” One
is encouraged to follow the natural rhythm of the body and to keep
the prayer to about 10-115 minutes time. It is a good way to quite
the mind and center one's self.
A
second kind of prayer is what some simply called a prayer that “comes
from the heart.” Some Christians believe that prayers should
always only come from the heart and do not like written prayers as
they seem insincere. While on the one hand, simply “talking” to
God as we would a friend is certainly the most accessible way to
pray, our prayers can sometimes be very selfish, egotistical and
self-centered. Sometimes our prayers can reflect our own biases, we
can pray in a way that hurts others. This is mostly a concern in
public prayers that are prayed freely from the heart. I certainly do
not want to discourage Christians from praying from the heart, it is
important that we know we can always talk to God whether our talk is
“right” or not. We can express our anger and our disappointment,
as well as our sadness. But in public prayers, it is often best to
go with prayers that have been well known to the church. I am
calling these liturgical prayers.
Liturgical prayers are prayers of the church. They are usually prayers that have been used for centuries, some of them go back to the earliest times in Christianity. Others are simply recognized for their theological insight and pastoral sensitivity. They are instructive prayers, in that they help us to learn to pray. The disciples approached Jesus with a request, "Lord, teach us to pray." The
“Lord's Prayer” is such a prayer. The fact that the disciples ask Jesus “how do we pray?” is an acknowledgement that they do
not know how to pray but are willing to learn and curious about the question. The book of James tells us that “You
covet because you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
You do not have because you do not ask God, when you ask, you do not
receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on
your pleasures.” (James 4:2-3)
The
Lord's Prayer is what I am calling a Liturgical Prayer. It has been
used for centuries and comes directly from Jesus. The original
prayer likely does not have the last addition of the closing “for
thine is the kingdom...”
The prayer is given as a model prayer and as a prayer that we can
repeat in church. It focuses us on a way that we can pray also a
structure that focuses on God, the needs of others, our physical needs and our spiritual needs. Lets look at a brief description of each of the movements of the prayer, to understand how Jesus directs us to think about our lives when we pray.
The
Lord's Prayer:
“Our Father”
The
first part of the prayer begins by address God as “Our
father, who art in heaven, holy is your name”.
This is a reminder that we need to turn to God first, not last.
When we are worried our anxious, when we have a decision to make, we
can approach God. While God seems to us to be unreachable, (we
cannot see or hear God audibly) God remain accessible by faith and
humility. God is not us, and we are not God. We cannot confuse our
thought and our desires with God's. We come in humility. This is not
a false humility or one that denigrates us. Recently I read an
article where the author wrote a plea to Pope Francis to remove the
liturgical phrase, “I am not worthy to come but only say the word
and you will be healed” from the communion liturgy. The phrase
comes from the words spoken by a Roman centurion to Jesus who asked
for healing for his servant. The writer expressed that these words
devalued human life. I think that this is a misunderstanding of the
intent. The Roman centurion was an accomplished man, he was
recognized by the community not just as a man of authority and power,
but one that was generous and charitable. Jesus had specifically
been recommended by the religious leaders to heal the man's servants
because he of all people deserved it. The response of the centurion
was one that reflected his recognition of God's grace freely given to
us not because we deserve it, but because we are beloved children of
God. This is not about inner self hate. Those of us that have
suffered abuse, or live with feelings of powerlessness, those that
are undervalued in society should always be assured of God's love and
the foundational Christian belief that everyone is created in God's
image and have value that is priceless in God's eyes. True humility
recognizes that we need to rely on a power higher than our own to
lead and guide.
“Father”
also emphasizes the parental nature of God. No parents are perfect,
we love our children in an imperfect way, but God loves us as no
parent can. God gives us life and nurtures our life through his life
giving Spirit. God directs and guides us through the life of Jesus
Christ, and provides for our salvation. God is not masculine, and
there are other passages that refer to God as a loving mother as
well.
God nurtures us as a loving parent nurtures their children. We can
and must look to God to orient our lives and to be the foundation
from which we live our lives. We come not in a false humility but in
the same way a child might approach a parent, knowing that their
identity is linked with that of their parent, and that their parent
is a source of support and love, as well as protection and guidance.
Your
Kingdom Come...
This
should be very familiar to us. Jesus always proclaimed God's coming
kingdom and rule. On the “sermon on the mount” (Matt 5-7) Jesus
spoke about a kingdom rule that we are asked to submit ourselves to.
While God's kingdom has come in Jesus we know that there are still
forces at play. We do not live in a neutral space, the powers of the
evil one are manifested in society, and our own corruption, selfish
and self-destructive behaviors are all too evident in our lives. We
routinely use manipulation, fear, and self-deception to derail our
lives and relationships and deal with the consequences. As
Christians we are not immune to this, sin destroys individual lives,
communities, and nations. This is a prayer that God's life giving
purposes may be claimed on our lives as it is in heaven. That God's
kingdom comes to those that choose humility, (poor in spirit),
meekness, sorrow (those that mourn), peacemaking, mercy, those that
hunger for justice, the pure in heart etc.
Give
us this day our daily bread...
This
part of the prayer reminds us that we do have material and physical
needs. When Israel was wandering in the wilderness, they were fed by
manna every day, and were only to take what was needed for that day.
This is a reminder of God's daily provision in our lives. I don't
believe that this means we should not plan for the future, or that we
should not be responsible managers of our property and money. On the
other hand, neither should be become obsessive with hoarding, or
worrying about the future, and how we are going to protect it from
others. Our trust if it is in God alone to meet our needs. This
also means that we will be generous in our giving and charitable with
others. We have to rely on God's providential care as the source of
our security. There is a very interesting spiritual application to
this as well. Prayer is an activity that has to be undertaken daily.
We really cannot live off the prayers of yesterday, or of the
future. Prayer is the kind of activity that happens in the moment,
and for the day. Our own spiritual nurture like our physical nurture
has to be daily. We take “daily” vitamins. We cannot take an
extra one for tomorrow, or rely on the one for yesterday, in the same
day, each day should be a day in which we find time to be spiritually
renewed even if it is only for a few minutes a day.
Forgive
us our sins...
We don't begin with our 'sin' when we start our prayers, because sometimes I think, if we did, God would remind us that its “not all about you.” We begin with God because this takes the focus off ourselves and places it where it truly belongs. The part of the prayer, however, now turns and reminds us of our need to be honest before
God. Most of us know that in a given day we will do things that we
regret. While we begin with praise,
this part of the prayer reminds us of that we routinely hurt others
and are hurt by others. Forgiveness is hard because we often want to
get back at people for hurting us. Jesus asks us to forgive others
and in so doing, this brings healing into our lives and keeps us from
prolonged anger and bitterness that can eat away at us. Feelings of
hurt, anger, and resentment towards others can only hurt us in the
long run. Forgiveness reminds us that we receive from God love and
reconciliation and a new start, but also that we can in gratefulness,
live to forgive others as we have been forgiven.
Lead
us not into temptation,
Sometimes,
this is translated as “save us from the time of trial”. We know
that God does not tempt us, instead, we are tempted, that is when we either
desire or follow through with actions that are sinful, by the evil
one or by our own selfish tendencies. This prayer is a recognition
that God will be able to bring us through the difficult times in the
wilderness of our lives, safely. God can redeem and restore the
brokenness of our lives, as our Presbyterian Catechism tells us, "nothing in our lives will go to waste". God can take the sin and evil
and bring out of it healing, restoration and new life. We are often
enticed to sin, to go back to old behaviors and ways of thinking. It
is essential for to remember as Christians that God's life giving
Spirit is at work in our lives. We do not have the power in and of
ourselves to change, but when our desire is to live in a kingdom
life, God makes a way for us to grow in the grace of God every day. We can and have been delivered from the evil one. It is said of Martin Luther, that he understood the battle he fought with the evil one and compared him to a changed dog. "Why should you fear? Why should you be afraid, Do you not know that the prince of this world has been judged? He is no lord, no prince any more. You have a different, a stronger Lord, Christ, who has overcome and bound him!"
Conclusion
We
believe that we are children of God because God has given us life and
daily renews our life and has promised us eternal life. As children
of God we have a unique relationship with our world and the people
around us. God is described by Jesus in his prayer as “our
father.” This is prayer is personal of course, but its not
individual. In Jesus day, the idea that the individual is above the
community would have been foreign and strange. We pray as a
community and we pray for each other as a family that needs each
other and cares deeply for each other, even in times of conflict. We
all know how important it is to spend time together. This is how
relationships are built. It is the same with God.
It
is said that President Roosevelt always found time for his kids.
Even while he was building the Panama Canal, in the summer of 1905,
and preparing for his peace talks, he made sure to in the summer of
1905 to take his annual family camping trip. Later, he wrote to his
son, “no matter how things come out, the really important thing was
the lovely life with mother and you children, and that compared to
this home life everything else was of very small importance from the
standpoint of happiness.” The Roosevelt home was known for its
energy. Roosevelt encouraged his kids to play, explore, he taught
his son to shoot, swim, row, ride, and live an active life. It is
said that another parenting lesson comes from President Obama. While
loving his kids, he also provided discipline, “part of that
involves loving those kids to death but also letting them know, “I
am your parent, Im not your best friend. I am not interested in what
your friends are doing. This is what you're doing in our house.”
He also went on to say, that we much as possible, when they were
home, they made it a point to not watch television during dinner.
They turned off their cell phones and had a conversation.
This
is how it is with God too. Sometimes we just need to turn off our
computers, electronic devises, ipods, tv's etc and take a moment for
some family time with God. Whether its reading scripture, sitting in
quite meditation and reflection, journaling, and praying, these are
ways that we build and nurture our relationship with God. The
“Lord's Prayer” stands as a model for us to use when we come to
God to spend time together. Through the working of God's life giving
Spirit, we can become more and more like the image of God and reflect
the best of our heavenly parent.
In
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
