Sermon on the Lord’s Prayer, July 24, 2016

This is my second sermon as pastor at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Greene, Iowa. I wrote two versions of this sermon, one that was shorter and included a video, and a longer version without video.

The shorter version was preached at the Saturday evening and the 10:30 Sunday services, and the longer version was preached at the 9:00 Sunday service as a projector is not available in the sanctuary where that service takes place. The longer version is posted here, and I’ll also include the video from the shorter version.

The text for this 10th week after Pentecost in year C, is Luke 11:1-13, the familiar text of Jesus teaching the Lord’s prayer to the disciples. The 9:00 Sunday service also included Colossians 2:6-19.

One of the fun things about starting here in a new congregation is learning what parts of worship are familiar to me and which parts are different.

Part of the beauty of the way we worship is that we repeat traditional words that Christians have spoken for centuries, and we know there are literally thousands of churches around the world with millions and millions of people hearing and speaking similar words around the world in many different languages.

And yet, each congregation does things a little differently. Sometimes the wording is a little different, sometimes parts of the liturgy are chanted, sometimes they’re spoken. Sometimes things we assume everyone does the same turn out to not be so universal.

I’ll never forget my wife Christin’s reaction when she was leading the closing song at worship at the congregation she was working at and she ended by saying “Go in peace to serve the Lord!” and the congregation just stared at her.

In my limited experience as a Lutheran, I thought everyone in a church would know the “correct” response to that is “Thanks be to God!” But that wasn’t something they said in their congregation. The way we worship isn’t as universal as we sometimes think it is.

One thing that is often pretty universal, though, is praying the Lord’s Prayer as part of worship. We do it in different languages and slightly different wordings, but it’s something held in common by all Christians.

And here’s where it comes from. In our text today, the disciples notice Jesus has been praying, and when he finishes, they think it looks like a pretty great thing, so they ask him to teach them how to pray.

Jesus teaches them these familiar words we call the Lord’s Prayer (although it probably ought to be called the Disciple’s Prayer).

“When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

The words we use are a little different, because we also draw on the way Matthew words the prayer, as well as on church tradition and other sources, but we pray basically the same prayer. And Christians all over the world, for two thousand years, have prayed this prayer.

Martin Luther called for Christians to pray this prayer first thing in the morning when you wake up and as the last thing you do before going to bed.

Praying this prayer is important. We do it every time we worship. But I wonder what we think we’re doing when we pray the Lord’s Prayer. We run the risk sometimes of making these words into some sort of a formula, almost as if we need to do it right for God to hear us and answer our prayer.

Video from The Skit Guys:

When we try to find the right formula for prayer, or when we try to crack some kind of a prayer code, I think we miss the point of what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples.

“How shall we pray?” the disciples ask, and we wonder the same thing. Jesus gives them an example we still follow today, but maybe they were asking the wrong question.

Maybe they were asking “how,” when they should have been asking “who.”

Look at the way Jesus answers them. First, he gives this example of a way to pray, but then he starts telling stories about God, and what God is like. God is like a friend, who will answer a cry for help even late at night. God is like a parent who would never give a scorpion to a child who asks for an egg.

The way Jesus begins this prayer might be the most important part for us today. He begins by saying to address God as “Father.” Jesus calls us to approach God like we’d approach our own parents, like we’d approach a dear family member who we know unconditionally cares for us.

As scholar David Lose puts it, Jesus seems more interested here in invitation than in explanation, in who instead of how.

He calls us to trust in God’s goodness, to approach God like children approaching a loving parent, in a relationship of unqualified trust. Isn’t that trusting faith the core of the Christian life? We’re called to trust in God’s goodness, to trust God hears our prayers, even when we don’t see an answer we’re looking for.

There’s something beautiful about the trust small children have. As we get older, we get betrayed, jaded, cautious. There’s a danger even in talking about God as father, because too many fathers aren’t worthy of trust.

But Jesus’ message here is that God is trustworthy. God is loving. And we’re invited, even commanded, to approach in faith, in trust, as God’s beloved children.

There’s a risk of looking at these parables and thinking God needs to be persuaded, or that God will break down and answer prayers if we try hard enough. That can lead to thinking that when we don’t see an answer to our prayers it’s our own fault for not praying hard enough, and that’s a dangerous road to go down.

But the Greek word translated persistence here also means shamelessness. It’s implying a boldness, a boldness coming from a familiar relationship. Because we trust in God’s faithfulness, we dare to approach God shamelessly. We don’t need to worry about having the right formula, or about offending God. We can simply come and say, Our Father.

And look at the answer Jesus promises, in the very last verse of this reading. He says, “if you then who are evil,” (ouch! that’s a little insulting, but compared to God, it’s true.) “If you then, who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The answer to prayer, Jesus tells us, is the Holy Spirit, God’s very self. The answer to this prayer is God coming to be in relationship with us, and we see the evidence of that in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for our sake.

What if the prayer Jesus is trying to teach isn’t just this particular “Lord’s Prayer,” but rather prayer as part of a relationship with God that includes all of our lives?

What if prayer isn’t just a ritual but an orientation?

Sometimes prayer is what we say to God alone at night. Sometimes prayer is communal, like we’ll do together in a few minutes later in this service. Sometimes it’s cries of desperation in a hospital room.

And sometimes prayer is going to visit someone who needs to be listened to. Sometimes prayer is speaking against the violence and hate that seems to dominate so much of our society’s discussion today.

All of this is living and acting shamelessly in the confidence that God does answer this prayer, by coming to be present with us.

How can we live as if our faith is actually true? How will it change our prayers if we look for the Holy Spirit as the answer, for God’s presence with us? How does it change our lives when we live as if we actually believe we’re children of a loving heavenly Father?

That’s what Paul is calling us to do in his letter to the Colossians. Turn to that reading on the back page of your bulletin, and read Colossians 2 verses 6 and 7 out loud with me.

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

Paul goes on to talk about how Christ changes everything, how the whole fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and how we come to fullness in him.

How does it change the way you live when you think about your whole life being rooted and built up in Jesus?

Let us pray.
Lord God, our heavenly Father, help us to learn what it means to live rooted in you, to live in relationship with you. Thank you for calling us to come to you in prayer, to live lives of prayer, to approach you persistently and shamelessly as your children.

Thank you for coming to us again and again and again when we forget about you, when we forget about how much you love us. Continue to be with us as you have promised to be, and guide us to live according to the loving example of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.