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Sermon – July 25, 2010 July 29, 2010

Posted by Teresa Charlton in News.
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The Lord’s Prayer

Based on Luke 11:1-13

It had been a different kind of a day.  Perhaps Jesus and the disciples had found a quiet spot, undetected by the crowds; or perhaps there was some sort of celebration in the local village which was keeping everyone occupied.  Perhaps it was raining, and the disciples and Jesus had found their way to shelter where it was quiet…or at least quieter than usual.  And after a time, one of the disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray”.  Now as good Christians, we would not find this unusual for a disciple to ask of his Christ.  But look a little more closely, and you will not find that the disciples ‘asking questions’ nearly as often as you might think.  Jesus ‘tells’ them a lot.  The people ask a lot.  But the disciples do not ‘ask’ as often as you might think. So I pondered that for a while.  I imagined large crowds gathering daily, surrounding Jesus to get a good look, or to hear what he had to say; rather like when a successful rock star or hockey player comes to town: the crowd pushing inward, the security guards pushing back, and the hot dog salesman off to the side making money left, right and center!  The disciples, I imagined, must have spent a good deal of their time acting like the ‘roadies’ for the ‘Jesus show’: keeping some distance between the anxious crowd and Jesus, looking for food to feed everyone ( you do remember the story of the loaves and fishes, don’t you), or searching out a place to sleep that night.  For as much as we are given an image of Jesus quietly wandering from town to town preaching the Good News, somebody had to be behind the scenes preparing the road for Him, so to speak. And when the questions did come, I hate to say it, they were often the wrong ones: “What do you mean Jesus, how am I supposed to find enough food to feed five thousand men, women and children? Who is the best of all of us, Jesus? Who gets to sit at your right hand, and who gets to sit at your let? And where will the others sit?” Or there were the questions from the teachers of the law and the temple, designed to trip up Jesus in some kind of word play, or trap him into a political tight spot.

But on this day, the disciples asked, “Jesus, teach us to pray”.  And the prayer he gave that day has been with us ever since.  It has changed shaped and wording from generation to generation.  Our Catholic friends finish the prayer as we read this morning, but we Protestant stock add a couple more lines to the end.  Then of course, there is the debate as to whether we should forgive ‘our debts’ or ‘our trespasses’.  But the biggest controversy of the Lord’s Prayer is whether Jesus meant that “you should pray this prayer, this way, and only this way, with these words, and only these words” or whether he meant that “here is an idea about how to pray and what to pray for…that when you pray, you should include things like respect to God, thanks for things given, and requests for things on your mind”.  Can you see the difference?  One method is very rigid and structured; the other is simply a template or a pattern to which you can create your own prayers that make sense for you and your needs at the time. 

So which is right? The first understanding has made the Lord’s Prayer into one of the cornerstones of the church today.  Many churches around town will include some form or the Lord’s Prayer in their weekly services.  And it is the most common public prayer that you will find at funerals, or community memorials of all sorts.  We need this kind of strength in the church today.  And if the Lord’s Prayer helps us to find and remember that strength, then that is a good thing.  The second understanding of the Lord’s Prayer, on the other hand, gives us the freedom to pray as we need to, with the honest feelings that are on our mind: we can cry out our prayer in a locked closet, or silently give thanks for a beautiful day while peeling potatoes for supper.  We can have a quick moment to stop and reflect while blow drying our hair, or spend a half hour at the end of the day in a quiet corner of the house, or on bended knee by your bedside.  We can help our children give thanks for a special treat or activity, or in a light hearted manner tell your neighbour “I’ll pray for you”, when in fact, you both know that there is more going on then just a light moment in conversation.  The reality is, your interpretation of prayer depends a lot on the translation of the Bible you read, the religious tradition you are familiar with, and how important prayer is in your spiritual journey.  So which is right?

Well, perhaps we are not yet ready for that question, because Jesus did not finish his teaching at the end of Verse 4.  It is easy to get lost in the metaphors that follow the famous words of the Lord’s Prayer, but in the middle of them Jesus said in regards to prayer, “ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened”. 

You see, you need to ‘ask’ for what you need in prayer.  And we in North America are not very good at asking for help, are we?  But scripture tells us that we need to approach prayer humbly, thoughtfully, honestly, and ask Christ for what is on our mind.  You need to be persistent in your asking.  That’s what the two metaphors in the story are about.  You need to ask, and you need to ask, and you need to ask again.  And once again, I will say it: we in North America are not very good at asking for help, even to our Creator himself.  We are taught to be independent, self-minded and resourceful.  And our scripture is telling us to throw all that social nicety stuff down the drain and humbly ask God for what you need, and ask Him again, and ask Him again.  Are you feeling uncomfortable yet?  Because we aren’t finished.

There is one final instruction from scripture.  We need to ask in prayer.  We need to persist in prayer.  We need to receive in prayer.  Scripture tells us that our prayers will be answered, but are we ready to receive the answer given?  Or are you like a certain red headed preacher I know, always trying to tell God how you want your prayer to be answered!  Are you ready to receive the answer you are given, and go forward with that answer, even if it is not the answer you were looking for?  Are you feeling uncomfortable now?  Well, we’re almost finished.

For me, there is one last piece missing.  It’s not in scripture, so you can take it or leave it.  But for me, prayer is not complete, without a word of thanks at the end: thanks for prayers answered; thanks for listening; thanks for having the vision to give me what I need, and not just what I think I needed.  A word of thanks, to finish my prayer; to remind me of who really is in charge of my life; thanks for all the many blessings I have in my life, despite my anxiety over some issue at the moment.

So are we ready for the question, now? Or perhaps we should be asking ourselves a different question.  Do we have to choose one kind of prayer over another?  Can our spiritual journey be deepened by having both formal and informal prayers?  Can we pray with our hands in our laps and eyes closed as well as singing a praise chorus with our hands raised towards heaven? What is more important: the words of the prayer, or the process of asking, persisting, receiving and thanking?

`Father, help us to honour your name. Come and set up your kingdom.

3Give us each day the food we need. 4Forgive our sins, as we forgive everyone

who has done wrong to us. And keep us from being tempted.’

(Contemporary English Version)



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