Sermon 8-10-14

Luke 11:1-4

1 He 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.’

2 He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.

     Your kingdom come.

3 Give us each day our daily bread.

4 And forgive us our sins,

     for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

     And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

How many times have you used the Lord’s prayer? I remember learning it in Grade 5 when my teacher made us stand behind our chairs and recite it every morning. It forms part of my daily prayer, and of every service I am part of every week. I  must have said it hundreds of times. Jesus gave us these words when his disciples asked him to teach them to pray. They must have noticed that one of the things that set this man apart was his deep connection with God, and the priority he placed on prayer must have had something to do with it. The disciples had access to the psalms, but what Jesus had seemed to be something more. The disciples, so human, were asking for words. What Jesus in his divinity gave them was so much more.  Instead of giving words to pray, Jesus gave them a way to pray that opened a relationship with God—communion—as opposed to a procedure for God’s help. This likelihood is already suggested by comparing Luke’s preface in which Jesus says, “When you pray, say…” with Matthew’s preface to the other Gospel report of the Lord’s Prayer (6:9ff) where Jesus says, “Pray then in this way…”

Look at the simplicity of this prayer. We start with an acknowledgment of our relationship with God – whether we address Father or Mother, we are allowing a depth of intimate relationship with our God that can only be expressed in the most personal of terms. We are not asking for this love – we are merely affirming that it is so. We recognise that sacredness of God – that even God’s name has been set aside for perfection.

“Your kingdom come” – where is God’s kingdom? My first answer is that it is here – here, where God is found, where acts of mercy and justice are carried out every day, where we share in the body and blood of Christ and bring forth the Spirit in ourselves and others. What would be possible if we really saw God’s kingdom as being here, now, with us, and never apart?

We know that we require certain things to survive – and we know that in this broken world there are so many who struggle without. As we pray, with our bellies full and our lives secure, we hold before God those who are not so fortunate as ourselves.

Forgive us our sins – not because we are worthy, but because we are not. We not only ask for God’s forgiveness, but we promise to express that same grace to those in our lives. Is God’s forgiveness conditional on ours? A scary thought, but Jesus certainly seems to make this point more than once

Finally, we affirm our trust that God will not leave us in our struggles. We do not so much petition for our lives to be easy so much as are reminded that God is a present and active part of every trial.

I have gradually come to realise that Jesus was not giving his disciples the words to pray so much as showing them on what his relationship with God was based.  I furthermore expect that from that day on, Jesus gathered the twelve into his daily prayer, which he had before this done in private, using this prayer, through which they could start to participate in the depth of God’s presence on earth. How could the disciples, throughout their lifelong use of Jesus’ prayer, not always sense Jesus’ presence as the actual one who was praying, and doing so as only he could?

More than this, I feel the real presence of Jesus whenever we use this prayer. For me, these words open us to the power of this prayer joining all of God’s children throughout time and space. Whether we are begging with fervour or merely going through the motions, Jesus is with us, showing us the way, leading us into right relationship with God. Jesus is our priest when we use his prayer.

Mother Theresa was famously devoted to prayer and contemplation is association with her incredible life giving work, but it is less well known that for the last 50 years of her life she experienced a great spiritual poverty. As she wrote to a friend in 1979, “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.” Yet she is revered as one of the most holy women of her generation, dedicated to living a life of active prayer and reflection. It is worth considering that there are going to be many times, maybe the majority of the time, when our prayers seem to go not only answered, but unnoticed. Times when the words desert us, when the emptiness inside seems to not only rebuff but repel the power of God. This, then, is when we can turn back to the words Jesus has given us. Loving God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.