PRAY Like Jesus: Praise

February 16/17 is the first week of my first-ever sermon series: “PRAY Like Jesus.” Each week, we’re looking at a section of the Lord’s Prayer and a letter from the acronym PRAY. For week 1, our topic is Praise.

As part of this series, we’re going off-lectionary for a few weeks, so the readings I’ve selected for this first week are Exodus 3:11-17, Psalm 136:1-12, and Luke 17:11-19.

The weather for this week was absolutely awful, so (in another first), we live-streamed the sermon via the church Facebook page.

The text of the sermon is below, and you can watch the video from the 11:00 worship service here:

A few months ago I asked everyone in worship to write down one faith question. One topic that came up repeatedly in those questions was prayer.

We know all Christians are supposed to pray, and not just in church when the pastor says, “Let us pray.” In the Bible, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing.” Prayer is a good thing, and all of us, including me, should pray more.

But at the same time, prayer is intimidating, especially when it’s not just reading words together from the bulletin. I was at a church committee meeting a couple weeks ago, and I won’t say which committee because it’s happened more than once, but the first item on the agenda was “Opening Prayer.”

I asked if anyone would lead us in an opening prayer, and several people avoided making eye contact. Someone else looked at me with this terrified expression, like I’d asked her to start the meeting by reciting the pledge of allegiance backwards (or sacrifice a goat) or something.

God did not intend prayer to be a burden. Prayer is a gift from God. We pray at the beginning of meetings to invite God to guide us and so we remember why we’re meeting.

Jesus invites us to pray so we can grow closer in our relationship with God. There’s not a magic formula for prayer where if you don’t do it right something terrible will happen. Prayer is talking with God, and God wants to hear from us.

So, over the next five weeks, my goal is to help make prayer less of a scary burden and more of a joyful gift.

We’re going to think about prayer by looking closely at the Lord’s Prayer. It comes from the eleventh chapter of Luke. Luke writes, “Jesus 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.’”




So first, Jesus himself is our model in prayer. All over the gospels, we read about Jesus praying. Sometimes he’s by himself, sometimes others are listening. And there’s something about Jesus’ prayers that intrigues his disciples, so they ask him, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

“Jesus said to them, ‘When you pray’” (when you pray, not if. Jesus assumes we’ll pray.)”

“‘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.’”

That’s Luke’s version. Matthew’s wording is a little different, and there are different translations. But Jesus gives us this beautiful example prayer. The thing is, I don’t believe Jesus intended us to literally only pray with these exact words. He’s giving the disciples an example, a model of prayer to follow.

In these next few weeks, we’re going to look at the Lord’s Prayer through the model printed on the bookmarks you have in the bulletin: Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield, and Listen, which doesn’t quite fit into the nice P-R-A-Y acronym. There are other models of how to pray as well, like A-C-T-S, but P-R-A-Y fits well with the Lord’s Prayer.

Praying begins with praise. The meaning of life for Christians—our purpose—is to glorify God. This is what we do when we worship. When you pray, start with praise, thanksgiving, gratitude. Gratitude sets the tone for everything.

The Lord’s prayer begins with who God is, God’s identity. Our gratitude starts with acknowledging God is our Father, establishing our relationship. Just the first two words of the Lord’s prayer are incredibly profound. Jesus invites us to address the God of the universe as “Our Father.”

The unique claim of Christianity is that God is personal. God is not a vague spiritual force, or the spirit of the earth, or something, God is a personal being with whom we can have a relationship. We believe God not only created the world and us; we believe God cares for us.It’s not about whether God is male or female, or whether God’s DNA is somehow within our cells. These words “Our Father” are about the relationship God has with us. God adopts us as children.

Maybe the language of “Father” is a sticking point for you. Some earthly fathers do terrible things to their children, so perhaps thinking about God as a parent is tough. That’s ok, there’s other language we can use. The point is God cares for you. God loves you with the absolute best love a parent should have.

This isn’t a new idea from Jesus, by the way. Psalm 68:5 describes God as a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows. God is the ideal father, better than any earthly parent, so Jesus invites us to approach God as our heavenly Father.

Martin Luther says, “With these words, God wants to attract us, so that we come to believe he is truly our Father and we are truly his children, in order that we may ask him boldly and with complete confidence, just as loving children ask their loving father.” (Small Catechism)




As we continue with “Hallowed be thy name,” once again we’re establishing who God is. That word “hallowed” does not mean “hollow.” God is not a donut with the jelly filling missing. “Hallowed” is an archaic way of saying “holy,” which means set apart. When we pray, we start by praising God for who God is and what God has done.

It’s not like God has forgotten who God is, or because God has this huge ego that needs to be stroked before hearing the rest of our prayer. It’s to remind ourselves of who God is and who we are in relationship to God.

On the one hand, we are nothing. God is big; we are small. God is beyond size, and we’re smaller than ants, smaller than microbes. God is pure and holy, we are sinful. God is immortal, we’re on the road to death.

Jesus starts with “hallowed be thy name” to remind us who God is. We’re not bringing a Christmas list to Santa Claus, we’re coming before God with our gratitude, our cares, and our needs. It’s a reminder that we’re on holy ground.

In the section right before our Exodus reading, Moses comes across a burning bush, and when he sees the bush is on fire but not burning up, he understands he’s in a holy place, a place set apart. He understands he is in the presence of something or someone much greater than himself.

He’s not sure exactly who that is, but he knows there is something special and profound about this encounter, and so in the section we read, he asks who this god is he’s talking to. God responds to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” God is the one who is eternally present. That’s the attitude we ought to have in prayer. God is holy. God is different than us. God is more vast than we can comprehend, set apart from us.

When you pray, slow down and remind yourself who it is you’re talking with. That’s not to scare you off from praying—remember, God is still your heavenly Father who longs to hear from you—but to begin your prayers with a sense of awe. The Creator of the universe is willing to listen to you, eagerly longing to hear from you.

Prayer begins with praise because praising what God has done reminds us why God is worth praying to. Our Psalm is a great example of listing some of God’s attributes and accomplishments: God is good; God has made the heavens and the earth and the stars; God has rescued God’s people from slavery.

When you remind yourself of all the things God has done for you and for all of us in the past, you see that God is faithful and God has the power to help you with whatever you’re going through.

In the Gospel reading from Luke, there are 10 lepers, unclean outcasts from society in need of healing. They see Jesus, and they pray a simple prayer: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

Jesus follows the law and sends them to the priests who are responsible for certifying who is ritually clean, and on their way, they’re healed. 9 of them keep going, but one of them comes back to praise Jesus. He throws himself at Jesus’ feet and thanks him. He’s overwhelmed with gratitude at what Jesus has done for him. When someone asked Martin Luther what true worship of God is, he is said to have responded, “The 10th leper.” That’s our example.

There are so many blessings you and I have received from God, so many things we can give thanks for, yet it’s so easy to take our whole lives for granted.

This week, I challenge you to pay attention. Look for things in your life to thank God for. And then do it. Praying could be the first thing you do in the morning, or you could keep a list throughout the day and pray before bed, but do it. Tell God what you’re thankful for.
Amen

Continue on to week 2 of the “PRAY Like Jesus” series on repentance.