“WHEN YOU PRAY, SAY…”

Lectionary 17 Pentecost A 2007

Luke 11:1-13

              As far as I can tell by studying the scriptures, there is only one thing that the disciples explicitly asked Jesus to teach them  - that is, how to pray.  It seems a bit strange to me that the disciples would ask this of Jesus.  Surely they must have known what prayer was all about.  They must have engaged in prayer themselves many times.  Certainly, they saw Jesus go off by himself to pray as our text this morning tells us.  And yet, something must have been lacking in their lives and in their own practice of prayer. Maybe it isn’t such a strange request after all, for there are many Christians, perhaps even you, who find it hard to pray as you ought.  Michael Foss, author of Power Surge, has written extensively on prayer, identifying daily prayer as “the first mark of a disciple.”  He writes about one experience, “Frankly, I was stunned.  He approached me after worship and said, ‘I have really enjoyed the sermon series you and the other pastors have given on prayer.  And I really feel called to pray more.  The only problem I have is that I just don’t know how.”  Like the first disciples, we, too, may be asking, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

              So, what is prayer?  That was the question asked by our Men In Mission breakfast group this past Wednesday.  Prayer, I think, is communing with God, talking to God about one’s life, about the lives of others, about the world we live in.  Prayer is entering into God’s presence, thanking God for our creation and the many blessings of life, calling upon God for guidance and strength, comfort and peace in life, asking God for what we need from day to day, sharing our cares and concerns.  Prayer opens us up to God so that the Holy Spirit may mold us and change us into the kind of people God wants us to be. Prayer connects us with God, making room for God in our hectic, busy lives.  Nothing is too big or too small to bring to God in prayer.  In fact, Jesus is quite clear when it comes to prayer.  He says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”  Jesus wants us to pray, because, as our text points out, God has something to give us.  God wants to give us “good gifts,” that which will benefit us and others, blessings upon blessings that will enrich our lives, not so much in material things as if God was a Santa Claus, but rather spiritual things that comes from having a relationship with Jesus Christ.  The gift that Jesus is so willing to give us when we ask, search, and knock is the Holy Spirit, God’s enduring presence and power.  God desires so much to have a relationship with us and that comes directly through our praying.

              In answer to their request, Jesus gives to his disciples a model for prayer, “The Lord’s Prayer,” a prayer used by the community of believers in worship, as the word for “you” is plural, as in “you all.”  But it is also a prayer that can be used in personal devotions by individuals, as Martin Luther would use every morning and night. 

              What strikes me about this prayer is that it is given to us by Jesus himself.  It becomes our prayer, and even though there are different translations and versions, it is one of the things that identifies and unites us as Christians.  It includes everything that we need when it comes to our physical and spiritual lives.  The other thing that strikes me is that most of the verbs are imperatives.  It is as if we are making demands on God, or commanding God to give us what we need the most.  “Let it be holy”…”Let it come”  “Give”…”Forgive”…”Lead us not.”  You may be thinking that we should not be commanding God to do anything, because God is God after all.  But in this prayer, God wants us to ask boldly and be persistent in our asking.  As familiar as this prayer is to us, it is good for us to hear and consider again what it is we are praying for in this prayer so that it is more than just something we say by route.

              Jesus says, “When you all pray, say…. Father, hallowed be your name.”  What Jesus invites us into is an intimate, personal relationship with God where we can talk to God as if we were talking to a loving parent.  To call God our Father, as Jesus did, brings God closer to us, removing the distance between us.  How different this address is compared to something like, “Almighty God, Sovereign Lord, King of the heavens and earth.”               No, in this prayer, God is as close to us as our own parents.  As a loving parent, we trust that God is right there beside us.  As we call upon our Father in “prayer, praise, and thanksgiving,” we are giving honor to God’s name, respecting and sanctifying it in our lives, even though we are sinful and undeserving even to call upon him.  But God has come to us first with the love of his Son, Jesus, making this kind of relationship possible.  As the Bible says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”  And again:  “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”  Right from the start, this prayer helps to define us and who we are as Christians, the children of God.

              As we call upon the Father and hallow God’s name among us, Jesus goes on to say, “Your kingdom come.”  If we look around at our world, it would look like it is anything other than God’s kingdom.  There is news of violence, war, famine, illness and disease, racism and hate, the strong taking advantage of the weak.  Where is the evidence of God’s kingdom in all of that?  It would seem that our world belongs to another rather than God.  But it is to this world that God has entered with his very Son Jesus, proclaiming, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”  In Jesus, God has gone to battle against the devil and defeated every purpose of the evil one.  Through his death on the cross the power of sin is broken through his forgiveness.  By his resurrection from the dead, death is defeated.  We are given a new life now as we live and hope for everlasting life for when we die.  The kingdom of God has come upon us and continues to grow as more and more people come to have faith in God’s saving work in Christ.  Martin Luther says the kingdom comes when the “Father gives us the Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy Word and live a godly life on earth now and in heaven forever.”

              I see God’s kingdom present among us this morning as we gather for worship in this place.  I see God’s kingdom present in the ministry of each of our congregations as we proclaim the gospel and share in the sacraments.  I see God’s kingdom when you go out into this community of Red Wing to share the love of Jesus and care for people in need.  When asked by John’s disciples if he was the one to come, Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.”  It is for us to be witnesses to God’s kingdom of love and grace so that others may also see its presence and experience its power.

              Jesus goes on to say, “Give us each day our daily bread.”  In this petition we recognize that all good gifts come from God and we trust God that God will give to us “all that we need from day to day.”  In his sermon on the plain, Jesus taught us “do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”  God will care and does care about us.  And yet, we know there are people who go hungry, who do not have the necessities of life.  So we respond with grateful hearts and share the abundance that God has given us with those who don’t have.  We can do this because we trust that God will provide us with all we need, our daily bread.

              For those of us who are part of the kingdom, we are caught up in a system of grace, participating with God in the forgiveness of sins.  Jesus teaches, “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”  I remember an interview with Terry Anderson after he was released from being a hostage in Lebanon for over seven years.  This happened back in the 1970’s.  He was the last to be released.  In this interview he was asked if he wanted to see his captors brought to justice and punished for what they did to him and his family.  Amazingly, he said “No.”  He forgave them, saying he was a Catholic.  He was a Christian.  There is no room for pride or for holding grudges or seeking vengeance in the kingdom.  Forgiveness is the only thing that can break the cycle of violence and hate.  It may be the only thing that might bring an end to the violence in Iraq as it did in South Africa.  In what is perhaps the hardest thing to do, we pray for forgiveness, as we forgive others.

              And finally, in this prayer, Jesus says, “And do not bring us to the time of trial.”  Suffering is nothing new for us in this world.  The temptation is for us to fall victim to the times of trial and give up on our faith in God.  That is what Satan would want us to do, to despair and curse God.  One day, a young woman came to my office, burdened by guilt and shame, asking me why all these terrible things were happening to her.  She wanted to live a different kind of life, a life of joy and happiness, but didn’t know how.  We talked about how Jesus wanted her to live a new life and that he offered a new life through his death and resurrection.  I pointed out to her the Bible verse that says, “In Christ, you are a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.”  When times of trial come, and they will, I can guarantee that, we need to remember the words of Jesus, “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.”  And, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you may have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

              And so, there it is, “The Lord’s Prayer.”  It is a prayer that gives shape to all of our prayers and defines us as Christian people.  Through it, Jesus gives us an invitation to pray, and to pray often, at any time, in any situation of life, for all good things.  When we pray, God will listen and hear our prayers.  And God will answer our prayers according to his “good and gracious will” and purpose for us in our lives.  It is a promise we can trust and rely as we speak this doxology: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.”  Amen.