PRAY Like Jesus: Praise | September 15, 2024

Back in 2019, for my first time ever doing a sermon series, I wrote a sermon and liturgy series I called, PRAY Like Jesus. Now, just over five years later and in a different setting, I’m repeating that same series (with some modifications, of course – for one thing, last time I did it was during the season of Lent, so there are some tonal differences especially in the music selections). As I post this year’s editions of these sermons on prayer, I’ll link to the first version as well.

As we begin this sermon series on prayer, diving into The Lord’s Prayer and uncovering its deeper meanings, today’s focus is on themes of gratitude, praising God, and recognizing God as our Father, as we consider the words Jesus taught us: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” What an awesome privilege we have to come and pray to the Creator of the cosmos, who calls us to approach as beloved children!

Today’s Scripture readings are Exodus 3:11-17, Psalm 136:1-12, and Luke 17:11-19, and the first time I preached this sermon was February 16/17, 2019. Coincidentally, due to bad weather that day, that Sunday’s 11:00 am service was also my very first time leading a live-streamed worship service. Little did I know how common that would become a year later thanks to the pandemic!

Here’s this week’s livestream from Christ the King and sermon podcast audio:

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

I have a children’s book that lists a bunch of situations and feelings, and says that in all of them, you can pray to God.

We all know we’re supposed to pray, right? If not, let me be the one to tell you: You should pray. It’s part of being a Christian.

And it’s not just for Sunday morning when someone says, “Let us pray…” There’s a great verse in 1 Thessalonians that says, “Pray without ceasing.” Prayer is a good thing, and all of us, including me, should pray more.

But one of the things I’ve learned as a pastor is prayer can be intimidating, especially when it’s not just reading words together from the screen.

More than once I’ve been to church council or committee meetings where the first item on the agenda is “Opening Prayer” and when I ask if anyone would lead us in an opening prayer, some people suddenly get very interested in staring down at their agenda.

I remember in a meeting once someone made eye contact with me, but she had this terrified expression, like I’d asked her to start the meeting by reciting the pledge of allegiance backwards or something.

Usually someone will eventually step in and lead a prayer, which is great, but here’s the thing: God did not intend prayer to be a burden. Prayer is a gift from God.

If you’re sometimes confused by prayer, or if it seems mysterious, you’re in good company. Paul writes in Romans 8 that we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that’s ok because the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.

There’s not some magic formula to prayer where if you don’t do it right God won’t listen, or you’ll accidentally make something terrible happen. Jesus invites us to pray as a way to build a relationship with us. Prayer is talking with God, and God wants to hear from us.
So, over these next few weeks, my goal is to help us all understand prayer as 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.

We say it every week in church, but it comes from the eleventh chapter of Luke, where 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. They see it’s good, and they ask him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” We want to learn this.

So “Jesus said to them, ‘When you pray’” (and notice he saws 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’s 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 his 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 on your bookmark: 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, maybe some of you know the A-C-T-S model, but P-R-A-Y fits well with the Lord’s Prayer.

Praying is talking with God, coming into God’s presence, and the appropriate attitude to being in the presence of God is praise. Psalm 95 tells us to enter into the presence of the Lord with praise, singing songs of thanksgiving.

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 our faith is that the Creator is a personal being. God is not a vague spiritual force, or the life-energy of the earth, or something; God is someone with whom we can have a relationship.
We believe God is not only the creator of the cosmos, not only the one who gives us the breath of life; we believe God cares for us like a parent.

Saying “Our Father” is 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 claims us, God adopts us as children. (That’s the promise of baptism.)

NT Wright (in The Lord and His Prayer) says addressing God as Father means accepting God’s claim on us, accepting that we are part of the family business. “It means signing on for the kingdom of God.”

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.

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.

By the way, 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.

Calling God “holy” is acknowledging we are not God. I think that ought to be obvious, but how often do we act as if we’re the ones in charge, instead of allowing God to be God in our lives? God is pure and holy; we are sinful. God is immortal; we’re on the road to death. God is big; we are small.

“Hallowed be thy name” is a reminder that we’re on holy ground, in the presence of the Almighty.

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. What an awesome thing for the Creator of the universe to be 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 God’s faithfulness, you see 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.

Nine 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. He can’t keep going until he’s expressed his gratitude.

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 tell God you’re thankful 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. Give God praise. Amen

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