Ninth Sunday after Pentecost                      Luke 11:1-13                        July 25, 2010

Today's Gospel reading from Luke invites us to take a look at the prayer we often refer to as the Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father.
It is that prayer that we as a community of faith often say together each week and it is a prayer that many people of faith will pray individually in some still quiet place.
It has been said by more than one theologian that this little prayer is more than a prayer to memorize and recite, this prayer teaches us about prayer in general and provides a template for all our other prayers.

I believe it is important to keep in mind that disciples who followed Jesus were not unfamiliar with prayer. These were Galilean Jews, each devout in his own way. They knew how to pray.
Spreading their hands in upward devotions or lying prone with face to the ground were second nature practices. These were men who had grown up well versed in the Book of Psalms that consisted of countless prayers: prayers of praise and thanksgiving, prayers of confession, prayers seeking God's help and even prayers that expressed frustration with God at times.
As I said, these disciples were no strangers to prayer and yet they saw that the relationship that Jesus had with God was something more, and they wanted a taste, a glimpse, an insight into how they too might be drawn closer to their God.
So they asked Jesus, "Lord, teach US to pray."
And he did and that teaching has been recorded by both Matthew and Luke and passed on to each of us, so that we too may be drawn closer to our Creator and our Savior.

So, let's begin at the beginning: Matthew's gospel begins the Lord's Prayer with the familiar, "Our Father."
Luke's version begins with the simple "Father."

It might be helpful to point out that even that little word "Our" is important as we begin this prayer in that it reminds us that we can say "Our" because God, who created the universe and flung the planets into their course, the great God of heaven and earth, has willed to become our God.
Before we reached out to God, God reached out to us and claimed us, promised to be our God, promised to make us his people.
Thus, not because of whom we are or what we have done, but rather because of what God in Jesus Christ has done, we are privileged to say, "Our Father.

In other words, because God has chosen us, because God has accepted us, long before we had any notion of choosing God or accepting God, we can pray with the confidence that God wants the best for each and every one of us.
This relationship between God and humanity was not humanities idea; we are not the bright or humble enough to recognize our need for help.
This relationship was God's idea, therefore God has a vested interest in each and every one of our lives and because or this, we can approach God with confidence that he is going to listen and respond.

For some time now there has been a fair amount of attention given to the reality that this reference to "Father" might not be a universally positive form of address.
In other words, there are many for whom their relationship with their earthly father has been anything but nurturing.
The sad reality is that we live in a world with horror stories of broken relationships, abandoned children.
We live in a world where there are fathers, who are physically, mentally, emotionally, sexually abusive.
There are fathers who are distant and absent—emotionally and geographically, not around to provide the kind the instruction and guidance to his children.
And there are some fathers that simply don't know how to be fathers because their fathers were one of the previously mentioned and as a result they are at a loss on how to be loving and nurturing.
So for some, this name Father, can be a stumbling block.
Scripture however teaches us that God is a wonderful Father, the perfect parent, always loving, respecting and encouraging—that He loves us more than anyone and for this reason we are invited to approach and call upon him as Father knowing and trusting that our Father in heaven will listen and respond with our best interest in mind.

This brings us to the second half of this petition: "Hallowed by your name".
I have to admit, I don't use the word "hallowed" very much and I suspect that not many of you do either, but it means "holy or sacred".
So essentially this petition means—"God, may we treat your name has holy, may we use it with reverence."
But like much of what Jesus says, there is more going on here than what meets the eye. On the one hand it does discourage us from using God's name both inappropriately and flippantly.
It suggests that we watch our language and that we avoid using God's name to condemn others or as an expression of exclamation.
But on the other hand it also reminds us that if we are honoring God's name, we are living respectable lives, regarding our neighbor's need with generosity, teaching our children to accept all God's children as brothers and sisters, in other words, living like Jesus each and every day, drawing closer to the one who created us in His image.

In the second petition Jesus invites us to pray: "Your kingdom come"
What does this mean?
Quite simply it means that God's kingdom is the place where God is king.
If God is our king—if God sits on the throne of our hearts—then we are part of God's kingdom.
When you are part of God's kingdom, you are part of God's family and it behooves us to act and behave like a child of God, a disciple of Jesus Christ.

This of course raises the question—what would it be like if everyone were part of God's kingdom?
What would it look like if we who call ourselves children of God acted like it—if we tried to reflect the one who claims us?
Trust me when I say it would be a different world.
If everyone were a part of God's kingdom--we would not have issues with the use of the word "Father" bringing up negative images in the lives of so many.
If everyone were part of God's kingdom--our nation would not have the largest military budget of the world and we would not spend obscene amounts of dollars on defense and weapons development each year and we could invest it in restoring and enriching lives with better health, housing and educational opportunities.
If everyone were a part of God's kingdom--we would not have the greatest number of incarcerated prisoners of any nation.
If everyone were a part of God's kingdom--places like Milwaukee, where our mission trippers just came home from, would not be one of the most segregated cities in our nation—where Blacks, Whites and Latinos live divided—where rich and poor are isolated from one another.

Bottom line, if everyone were a part of God's kingdom, if everyone of us acted like children of God-- there would be less people living in fear, poverty would be eradicated, no one would ever go to bed hungry and every home and community would be safe and nurturing.
Until that day—either when we begin to reflect our Creator and Lord—or when this world as we know it comes to a close—we will continue to live with fear, divided and left wanting.

This brings us to the third petition where Jesus prays: "Give us this day our daily bread."
In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says the God knows that we need food and clothing—and other things as well.
In this simple petition, Jesus teaches us to pray for the things we need for daily living.
In Martin Luther's explanation of this petition he states "God gives daily bread even without our prayers, to all people, though sinful, but we ask in this prayer that God will help us to realize this, and to receive our daily bread with thanks. Daily bread includes everything needed for this life, such as food and clothing, home and property, work and income, a devoted family, and orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbors"

From Luther's perspective and opinion, Jesus didn't leave anything out of this petition because he loved his friends and followers and he wanted them to know and trust that God would provide for their physical needs as well as their spiritual needs.

But notice that Jesus does NOT teach us to pray for T-bone steaks for every meal.
He does NOT teach us to pray for big expansive mansions.
He does NOT teach us to pray for a new Lexus or BMW.

He teaches us to pray for daily bread—for the bread we need today—for the things that we need to sustain life.
And he teaches us to live in gratitude, with appreciation, with a spirit of generosity toward others in need of daily bread as well.

Then Jesus teaches us to pray: "Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us."
Let me begin by saying that we not waste a lot of time on whether we use the word, "debt", " trespass" or "sin".
It seems like every time a new hymnal comes out someone is bound to be bent out of shape over the slight changes in language of this prayer.
The truth is neither Luke nor Matthew use the exact same wording in this prayer.
The bottom line is that we need to ask God to forgive us and that we strive to do our best to forgive others and quite frankly—that need to forgive others takes greater precedent over our semantics and traditions.

And this brings us to the end of Luke's version of this prayer where we ask God to spare us from times of trial and in Matthew's Gospel it ends with an emphasis on being protected from evil temptations.
When Luke wrote this Christians were being persecuted for their faith.
In some ways, not much has changed, as people of faith are still being persecuted and martyred in many parts of the world.
We would all do well to pray that God would spare us that kind of trial and we would also all do well to pray that God would protect us and rescue us when we find ourselves over our heads in a world filled with temptations.

Today's Gospel reading provides us with both a reminder to pray and a lesson on prayer.
The Lord's Prayer is not merely words to be repeated in a chanting singsong voice, headed bowed and hands clasped.
Jesus didn't teach us a "nice way to end a meeting" or something to recite at a funeral and just before we take communion.

Rather, Jesus taught all his followers about a wonderful relationship between the One who created all people and all things and the children God loves—that being each person ever born.

Jesus wanted his followers to know that they were loved more than the world's best parent could possibly love the most perfect child.

Jesus wanted his followers to know they could come at any time and in any place to ask for their most pressing needs and their prayers would always be heard.

Jesus wanted his followers to know they would never be alone, and even if they couldn't think of HOW to pray, the Holy Spirit would know what they needed and lift those needs to their Creator.

So, Jesus taught his disciples to pray and in doing so, invited them to draw closer to our Creator and in turn, to Jesus himself. And today, because Jesus' followers kept his teachings alive, and because their children taught the Word of God to their children, and through the generations someone has passed the faith on to another and in doing so taught another generation to pray, to honor our Creator, our loving parent, to ask for our daily bread with all that includes, to forgive those who have hurt us, to share the body and blood of our Lord and to get the courage needed to face another day in this life until that day when we are reunited with all those who have gone before us in the Kingdom of God forever.
So pray. Pray often, pray with persistence, and pray with conviction that our God will hear our prayers and God will respond.
Amen

Pastor Stephen Blenkush
Zion Lutheran
Milaca, MN
www.ZionMilaca.org

 

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