Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Some of you prepare for our worship together on Sunday mornings by reading the lessons appointed for the day ahead of time. If you do that, you realize that we are in the time of the year when we are reading the Gospel according to St. Luke in sequence. Thus, last week we read from Chapter 10 the story of Mary and Martha. Today we picked up where we left off, with the beginning of Chapter 11, where Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. One of the things I love about the lectionary is that if you never open a Bible at home—which I don’t recommend, by the way—if you come to church every Sunday and every major holy day, you are going to hear most all of the New Testament and a good deal of the Old Testament.
As was his custom, Jesus had been praying. His disciples were aware of that fact, and when he finished praying, they asked him to teach them to pray. That was the occasion when he gave them what has become known as the Lord’s Prayer. St. Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, as you probably noticed, is a little different from St. Matthew’s, which is the one that is better known. Today I will just deal with St. Luke’s version.
The disciples’ request, “Teach us to pray,” is a request commonly heard by priests and pastors today, as it must have been in every generation. It is asked in a variety of ways: What is prayer? Why should I pray? What is the best way to pray? It is most often asked, I believe, when a person is having a difficult time and he or she has literally been brought to the knees. In the disciples’ case, they love and respect Jesus, they see how important prayer is in his life, and so they want that for themselves.
In response to their question, our Lord gave them a very simple, straightforward prayer in which every word is packed full with meaning. It begins by addressing God as Father. To call God Father was not uncommon in the Old Testament. God is referred to as the Father of Israel and occasionally as the father of an individual Israelite. What was unique about Jesus was that he characteristically thought of God as Father. This was new. And he taught his disciples to do the same.
The holy, immortal God, whose name was even too holy for a mortal to utter, was to be addressed with the familiarity of Father. Of course, we know that Jesus is God’s only-begotten Son, and so it was natural for him to address God as Father. Through our baptism we have been made children of God by adoption and grace. It is such a great privilege to be able to call God Father. That is why, in the liturgy, the Lord’s Prayer is introduced by the words, “As our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say ‘Our Father.’”
“Hallowed be thy Name.” Hallowed means holy. God’s Name is still holy. We pray that all of the world will someday worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all will come to know him and to worship him. We also know that there are times when we, the children of God, do not recognize the holiness of God, that there are times when we still want to go it alone, when we put ourselves first, when we worship other things. And there are times when we can see it so clearly in others, but not in ourselves. We become judgmental, placing ourselves in God’s place, expecting a level of perfection in others, while being all too understanding of our own failings. “Father, hallowed be thy Name.”
“Thy kingdom come.” It was common in Judaism to address God as king. Here we ask much the same thing as we did with “Hallowed be thy Name.” May there be a time when all people live under God’s rule, and especially in my own life, and the life of my family, and the life of my community of faith.
“Give us each day our daily bread.” Here we ask God to provide for our needs, both spiritual and temporal. Ask God for what you need. You have a concern, so take it to God. He is your Father. He wants to provide for you. You need the basic necessities of life. Ask for them. You need to forgive someone, and are having trouble doing that. Ask for help. You need to be healed. Ask God to heal you.
The assumption in this petition is that all that we have and all that we are comes from God. He is the provider. The implication is that we are to be thankful for all that we have received. Sometimes we all have a tendency to see the glass as half empty rather than as half full. We look off into the future, which no one can predict, and worry about what might happen. Be thankful for what you receive each day, and let the future take care of itself.
Does God always give us what we ask for? Sometimes the answer we receive is yes, sometimes it is no, and sometimes it is a long time in coming. Remember that one of the most heartfelt, anguishing requests Jesus made of his Father was turned down. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” Jesus was praying that he might not have to die on the cross. The answer God gave was no.
An interesting thing happens in prayer when we take our concerns to God. When we pray, God helps us to see things from his perspective. Sometimes the answer comes as we utter our prayers. For instance, if we pray for our enemies, we cannot help but begin to see them in a different light, as people whom God loves and for whom Christ died. The very act of praying for them aids in our forgiveness of them.
“Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” We acknowledge that everything we have said thus far in the prayer judges us. We call God Father, but we have not acted like children of God, we have not hallowed God’s Name in so many ways, we have not done our part to bring the kingdom of God to earth, we have not been satisfied with what God has given us and been truly thankful for his blessings. Forgive us, Lord, for our past unfaithfulness, for we forgive those who have sinned against us. And Lord, we do try to forgive, but this petition judges us, too, for we have held on to grudges, sometimes for decades. We let go of that now, and forgive everyone who has harmed us. “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”
Finally we are to ask, “Lead us not into temptation.” This is probably the most difficult petition in the prayer to understand. Why would God lead us into temptation? Some of the early Church fathers interpreted that to be a request that God not allow us to fall into temptation. In fact, that is the interpretation that was followed in the modern translation of the Lord’s Prayer in our own prayer book. It reads: “Save us from the time of trial.” In other words, help us to live according to our faith.
You notice that the prayer is first of all about God, and secondly about us, not about me. Even though of course Jesus wants us to pray individually, we are always part of the Body. We never go to God alone, even when we are by ourselves. We take our brothers and sisters with us. Someone said, “If you go to God alone you are not likely to find God, but the devil, who will bear an embarrassing likeness to yourself.” We are part of the Body of Christ, extending back through the ages and into the future. We are of that great movement of faith that seeks to transform the world, that God’s Name may truly be hallowed by all, and his kingdom spread through all the world. We don’t do it perfectly, and when we fail we ask for forgiveness, and the Good News is that God forgives.
“Father, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”