Lord’s Prayer Sermon – July 28, 2019

I returned from our youth mission trip to Houston about 4 hours before the Saturday service. Knowing I wouldn’t have much time, this sermon’s conclusion is a bit of a “greatest hits” version of the PRAY Like Jesus series I did this spring. It’s good to recap, right?

The readings for this seventh Sunday after Pentecost in RCL Year C include Colossians 2:6-15, Psalm 138, and Luke 11:1-13. Brian Peterson’s commentary on Working Preacher was helpful.

In today’s Gospel reading, the disciples ask Jesus how to pray, and after he gives them an example prayer, he tells them a story. Suppose for some reason you needed to go wake up your neighbor late at night.

Well, as I read this story, I have some sympathy for the person in Jesus’ story who was woken up late at night!

This is a true story: About a month and half ago, I woke up at about 1 am and I thought I heard something. When your wife is pregnant, I think there are supposed to be some sort of protective instincts that kick in for the man, and I guess it’s working, because suddenly I was completely awake. I looked out the window, and couldn’t see anything, and you know how it is when something wakes you up at night and you’re lying there straining to hear something.

And then there was another noise, and this time Zacchaeus the dog heard it too, and someone was knocking at the door. So I got up, and went half-dressed to sort of yell “Hello?” through the open window in the living room.

It turned out to be a neighbor who I’d never met before, and the problem was that she’d locked herself out of her house with her phone inside, and needed to make a phone call to someone who could get her back in. Once I figured it out, I was happy to help, but at 1 am, the only reason I answered her door was because of her persistence.

And in this story, that’s what Jesus says prayer is like. At least, that’s what our translation tells us. I’ve talked before about how that word persistence is better translated as “shamelessness.”

Jesus is not saying we are supposed to stand outside God’s door and yell until God hears us and gives in. God is not asleep in another room. We don’t need to wear down God with our prayers. Prayer is not about getting God to do what we want; prayer is about getting us to do what God wants.

Have you ever been in a position where you had to ask someone for help, even though you didn’t want to? For me, it’s when I’m shopping for something. Maybe it’s similar to the guy stereotype of not wanting to ask for directions, but I really dislike asking for help finding stuff in a store.

It’s some kind of foolish vanity, especially because I used to work retail and I didn’t mind helping someone! But I think I don’t like asking because I have this idea I should just know where whatever I’m looking for is. I think I’m afraid of looking foolish by not knowing.

And sometimes that happens. A few weeks ago (actually, this might have been earlier the same night a couple hours before that neighbor came to my door), I was at Theisen’s in Cedar Falls looking for wooden dowels to hang the paper chain rainbow for VBS. I thought I knew where they were, but they weren’t where I remembered.

So then I walked all around the store, back and forth for probably about 10 minutes looking up and down just about every aisle. Finally, I gave in and asked someone to help me find the wooden dowels.

The guy gave me an odd look, and said, “Those dowels?” pointing to the shelf literally about 4 feet behind me. I felt pretty foolish, but I got what I needed.

One of the reasons we so often have trouble praying I think is because we don’t want to look foolish. We don’t want to do it wrong. It’s hard enough admitting to God that we need help—we want to at least be admitting the “right” way, to at least be in control of that!

Jesus tells us, though, that God does not hear our prayers because we pray the right way. God hears our prayers because God wants to hear our prayers. It’s in God’s nature, God’s character to want to hear from us. God wants to be in a relationship with us—that’s why God made us in the first place!

None of you, Jesus says, are so mean as to give your child a snake when they ask for a fish, or a scorpion when they ask for an egg. And God’s much more generous, much more loving than any of us are!

God invites us to come and pray because of who God is, and because of who God has made us to be. Look at the Colossians reading for a minute.

This is a dense reading, and I think it’s easy to miss some of what’s in here, but it’s a really important passage. Paul basically lays out the good news of the Christian faith in about 4 verses.

He tells the people of Colossae and us to remember who we are. Remember what God has done for us. In the waters of baptism, we have been buried with Christ, and we have been raised with Christ. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, God has raised us from the dead into eternal life.

This isn’t eternal life that begins after death, this is eternal life that has already started. Your eternal life has begun.

Paul says, “When you were dead…God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses.” The sin that separates us from God is gone. You are forgiven. God has given you new life. God has joined you to the Body of Christ.

Remember who you are. You are a child of God. And because God has claimed you as God’s child, you are free to approach God.

Back in March, you might remember (I hope some of you remember!) we spent 5 weeks looking at the Lord’s Prayer as a model for our own prayers.

We talked about a 4 letter acronym: PRAY: Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield. All four of those elements are in the Lord’s Prayer, but what I want you to notice is that they’re all in our worship service today as well.

We praise God through our singing. All three of our hymns have language about giving thanks for what God has done.

Shout to the Lord is a clear example of a song of praise.

The Psalm today is also all about praising God.

The second letter, Repent, is pretty clear – we started worship by repenting of our sins, asking for forgiveness for the things we do that separate us from God.

Asking comes in the prayers as we pray for our neighbors and the needs of the world.

Seek Ye First and Sanctuary are also songs asking God for something.

And finally, we yield to God in communion, coming as beggars to the Lord’s table. Praying is also yielding, because when we pray we’re admitting we need God’s help—we talked about that.

At the end of the service, we’re going to sing Blessed be Your Name, with the chorus “You give and take away, but my heart will choose to say, ‘Lord, Blessed be your name.’” That’s yielding.

This week, remember who you are, and remember who you belong to. Remember you have been claimed by God and joined to the body of Christ.

And may the peace of Christ, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen