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." He said to them, "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."
And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, `Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 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!"
Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
I feel confident that many of us gathered here today might count the words of the Lord’s Prayer among our earliest childhood memories. And likely, some of us began saying those well-known and beloved words with our parents during bedtime prayers, or with our aunties and grandparents even before we remember saying them in church on a Sunday.
And as children, we didn’t know what the words meant. We only knew that we’d been taught that this is what we say when we approach God in prayer. As we got older, we began to engage the process of what these words really mean. What do they say to us? And what are we hoping for as we begin to say them?
The words of the Lord’s Prayer took on new meaning for a friend of mine a few years ago. On a Friday morning, she went for what was supposed to be routine physical exam. It was supposed to be all over and done within an hour so she could get on with her day. She was excited about plans she had for the weekend. But an abnormal image appeared on a scan. And she said that it seemed everyone and everything went into high speed motion around her. There were worried looks and expressions of concern.
And a doctor finally said to her, ”we need to schedule an appointment for you with a specialist this afternoon.” She had never been so frightened in her life. She had a 4-year-old, and a not quite 2-year-old. And the notion that she might be leaving them sooner than she ever imagined was terrifying. There were a lot of tears - tears as she was trying to figure out how to tell her spouse. Tears as she was trying to make sense out of what was happening. Tears about how she was even going to get through the next couple hours as she waited for the specialist
But no words. She couldn’t find any words. She describes herself as “a prayer.” But in that moment, she could find no words. Alone in a sterile hospital exam room, it took a crisis to bring her to prayer, to ask for God’s help and acknowledge her need for God’s help. And in the depth of that lonely, despairing moment when she craved comfort it was finally a few bits of the Lord’s Prayer that she could summon, But those were enough to dry her tears and lift her in strength. She repeated over and over: “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.”
Now if we were looking at scripture and looking for an example to rely on when we are in need of renewal and strength and are preparing ourselves for the work God has given us, we really don’t need to look very far. Because all of our gospels, especially Luke’s gospel, talk about the times that Jesus needed to be with God in prayer in order to continue the journey.
There were some specific times that Jesus knew he needed to stop and pray, that he needed the strength and the peace that could only come from seeking God in prayer: after his baptism; as he was choosing the 12; as the Pharisees were besieging him; as people were seeking him out to be fed and to be healed. He knew that in order to do the work that God required of him he would need lots and lots of prayer.
Yet sometimes I think we forget that. Sometimes we think we can handle all sorts of things on our own without the strength that comes from that intimate relationship with God. The disciples had observed Jesus stepping away to pray. So they ask him to teach them to pray.
Notice what Jesus tells them:
Our Father, holy is your name. We hear a lot these days about Jesus as “personal savior.” But that would have been a foreign notion to the disciples and the larger Jewish community, and out of character with Jesus’ teachings. It is all about community, not about individuals. “Our” Father, not my father.
Your kingdom come. We’ll come back to that in a minute.
Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we ourselves need to forgive all those who are indebted to us. That’s hard sometimes isn’t it?
So Jesus has set up this marvelous model for the disciples to understand what it means to go to God in prayer. And he adds one more thing: you need to be persistent. God has no need for us to be persistent, we need that. We need to persist in prayer to realize that intimate connection with God.
I want to spend some time on the whole idea of “thy kingdom come.” To utter those words in the 1st century Roman Empire world was to actually say something that was fairly subversive. To the culture’s way of thinking, there’s only one kingdom and that’s the kingdom of the empire. And there’s only one king and that’s Caesar. And to suggest that there is a place that is far bigger and better and more important, those are dangerous words to say in Jesus’ time. And yet this is where he begins his petitions.
Your kingdom come. Not this one. Not this one in which we are surrounded by poverty and disease and violence. No, not this kingdom but your kingdom, God. Your kingdom where the impoverished and the marginalized know your mercy and your love and your justice. Your kingdom, God. Your kingdom come. Jesus teaches the disciples – and us – the pray boldly, courageously and expectantly.
We hear that and it almost sounds a passive event. Like one of these days we’ll be walking along and God’s kingdom will just fall on our heads.
There’s so much more to understanding what Jesus is telling the disciples here. It’s more than a passive waiting. It’s an engagement with God that helps us understand as people of God that God’s kingdom coming, comes through us. Through the work of our hands and the love of our hearts – that is how God’s kingdom comes.
And only when we are filled up and strengthened to prayer can we understand how God can use us to allow God’s kingdom to come into being.
Mother Teresa once said that she stopped believing that prayer changes things. She stopped believing that when she reached an understanding that prayer changes us. And that we, in turn, change things. This reminds us that we have a role. We are not passively watching the world go by. We have a very real role to play in helping everyone understand God’s love and mercy. If we are not the ambassadors of this, if we don’t radiate God’s love and mercy in all we do, then where is the hope?
In a few minutes we are going to baptize our friend Jordan. In baptism he will be adopted into the family of God and welcomed by all of us. We will offer him the care and support he needs to become the very best version of himself before God that he can be.
The prayers that will be offered for him reflect those same qualities of God’s kingdom come. We will pray that his heart be always open to God’s grace and truth, that he be filled with God’s holy and life-giving spirit, that he will love others in the power of the Spirit and, finally, that he will go into the world in witness to God’s love. This is a hopeful day, a special day.
Jordan, I’m guessing that until today, July 27th wasn’t particularly important to you. That is was just an average day in the middle of summer. But all that changes today. July 27th will never be the same. It will always be your baptism day – a day to celebrate just as you celebrate your birthday or wedding anniversary. It will be forever a day of joyous remembrance and renewal.
This is where hope lives. We don’t need to wait for a crisis for all of us to understand our need for God and our need for one another. We only need to persist in praying boldly in strength and commitment to being builders of God’s kingdom. Amen.