delivered Sunday 25 July 2010
by Rev. Dr John Evans
Hosea 1:2-10
Psalm 85
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Luke 11:1-13
Prayer is a core aspect of the Christian faith. Prayer indeed is a core, observable aspect of any religion. Our Muslim friends have their regular times and pattern of prayer. We have the image of Jewish pilgrims at the so-called Wailing Wall in Jerusalem – but all religions in some way or another involve prayer. Prayer is the background practice or custom to our own worship, indeed all worship.
Karl Barth the great theologian from last century, dramatically asserted that prayer is our theology. What one prays for, shapes and expresses our theology and what we actually believe. How we understand prayer, how we pray, lies at the heart of faith and how we live and act as Christians.
However, what is involved; how we understand and practice prayer – is not clear. Yes we might be able to say there are different sorts of prayer – prayers of thanksgiving, or confession or intercession – but then what is prayer, why pray? Our whole life is our prayer – isn’t it.
At the beginning of our reading from Luke, the disciples observed Jesus praying. This prompted these sort of questions and issues in their mind – so they ask for something fundamental – teach us to pray? Teach us to pray?
Prayer was not natural thing to do – prayer for the followers of Jesus needs to be spoken about – even taught. But then at the same time prayer is a very human activity – in a sense it is also instinctive. We have all heard uttered, we have now doubt uttered the cry ourselves: “God” or “Oh my God” which today gets reduced to OMG, at the breaking of some news, or the unfolding of some event; or out of frustration, annoyance, even joy. The word “Jesus” may get uttered in similar circumstances. Perhaps the normal take on this, is that this could just be another expletive, that could be added to a more colourful array of like words. The key is that it is an expletive. We have to say something at that moment – to fill up the space – which what the word literally means. I am not saying that the times when such words are used that this is prayer – however, just at that time we do seem to be seeking something from beyond ourself. So when we find we are not self sufficient, or our sureties have been rocked – because of an illness or some diagnosis, or some sort of tragedy – we seek, we grasp at, something beyond us. This is like why we pray; perhaps sometimes it is how we pray.
At times of natural disasters, or times of great tragedy – it is not uncommon for our leaders, for ourselves, to slip into “prayer” language. Words are inadequate to describe, say, the devastation of a Black Saturday and the scope of its impact, and what we feel, and what we feel for those affected, is beyond words. All we can utter is that our “thoughts and prayers” are with you. We are saying this is all beyond understanding – we trust, hope that this unspeakable thing can in some way be resolved; we want to make sense of it. We pray.
But how do we pray?
Our reading has Jesus give us a sample prayer – and then some teaching, stories about prayer. Interestingly the disciples in seeking a lesson on prayer – perhaps were expecting a new and better technique, concerning say, a certain body posture – proceed to get a lesson on the nature of who God is for them. They are taught something about this “beyond” in their midst. Our prayer is formed around this notion of who we are, in comparison to God. We humans are not all controlling, all powerful, fully understanding and capable. We thus look to relating with God, or here expressed as, God the Father – who in Jesus’ model prayer and his teaching, is of a certain character, and if you like has certain capabilities and inclinations.
So we have the Lord’s Prayer . . . the way to pray. Now in the sheet I have circulated to you I have set the prayer out, trying to explain the various versions we have the Lord’s Prayer.
The bold is the Lukan version – and it is quite short; the non bold is the version from Matthew with some expansion of some of the petitions – and the italics are the bits or translations we have inherited from Anglican Book of Common Prayer of 1662, or now the current agreed English translation. Perhaps an important beginning point is that it is not how many words that are used. As Paul says in Romans 8, it actually is the Holy Spirit which intercedes for us with sighs to deep for words – again those cries of “God” or “Oh My God” we might utter. Our prayer is just 36 words. Prayer can be quite simple and yet profound.
So we come to the opening of the prayer. And if we look at the slightly longer and more familiar Matthew version we set the scene and significantly we say to whom it is we appeal beyond ourselves.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come – and we could add, Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
This “beyond”, this “numinous”, this Spirit, God – is as close as a parent: our father. We say Father. Here in our time of need or great wonder or joy, God is not distant and remote. Indeed God is like a person – our relationship and prayer is with “our Father”. And here there should be a comment on the personal pronoun. Yes the relationship is personal – but it is plural – our Father, and later we seek bread for us – we together seek our forgiveness. There is a very strong communal element in our coming before God. We pray with others.
This God is however, not the same as us – God is not the same as who we are as creatures. We indeed pray “God be holy in the fullness of all your life. We do come in awe and praise in relationship to all who you are.” Hallowed be your name.
Then – Your kingdom come. Perhaps the most significant and profound three words we can ever utter. Perhaps they even trump, “I love you”. Here is a call for the fullness of God to be present and evident here on earth, here in our lives, here in our community and in our relationships. This kingdom of God which has indeed begun in Christ, we pray it to be here. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection shows that this kingdom is based on love. It is concerned for justice – it seeks peace, it affirms life; the fullness of life. In praying for God’s kingdom to come – this is what we seek in the confusion of our lives or in the fractured nature of this world, or the despoliation of our environment. This is not what we might think, and what we want – you know the sort to thing: a car parking space, passing our exams without any work, wealth and a great career. Rather we are to pray that the reign of God to be evident in the turmoil of our world and lives; say at the time of Black Saturday or the suffering of innocent people, or in our own despondency, or just the ordinariness of life.
Matthew’s version then adds – as if to reinforce all of this – “God’s will be done on earth as in heaven.” Please, this is not saying when bad things happen, say a dreadful illness or great tragedy – these events are just God’s will, or even worse obviously God’s punishment.
I think I have shared with you my great horror when I was a minister in Maryborough Queensland. There was a dreadful bus accident – 11 of the town’s civilian widows were killed, including five who were members of our congregation. I, together with other ministers, organised a service of grief and mourning the next evening. Thousands were there, television crews, the Queensland Premier, and as it happened that year, I was the chair of the ministers’ fellowship – leading worship. Then one of my more conservative colleagues prayed acknowledging that it was God’s will our town should suffer, for surely we had been evil in God’s sight.
Here in this petition – the prayer is in fact the reverse – in the midst of bad things, this should be our prayer, God’s will be done on earth.
So having critically set the scene, understood our relationship with God, our praying then changes. First we, like the Israelites in the wilderness need food, bread sufficient for each day to live on. Perhaps this could be our spiritual food – the body and blood of Jesus which we recall in our service of Holy Communion. Perhaps this is the food we need when God will be all in all – that great vision of a heavenly banquet. Or more likely, it is just ordinary food – the basics of life. It is our daily bread – not just my daily bread, and forget about my neighbour – this a prayer that each day all will be fed. All will have the basics of life. It is a prayer for justice.
Next is about our relationship with God – forgive us our sins. We are unworthy – this is the very nature of our humanity. We need to be reconciled with God. Forgive us our sins, so that we may be restored to a relationship with God. Again, with the advantage of hindsight, we see this petition has been fulfilled through the cross of Christ. However, obviously we then need to show such a restored relationship, in our own relationship with others: “as we are to forgive those who sin against us.” We are to be reconcilers ourselves.
Finally our last petition; some take it to be an allusion to the end times – when God will be all in all. Spare us harm at that point. Alternatively it could be that through life we will often be tested – such as the children of Israel experienced in the wilderness, or Jesus himself experienced in the wilderness or Gethsemane. In a sense this is the climax of our short prayer – do not bring us to the time of trial, or save us from the time of trial – in which this whole relationship will unravel and fall apart. Here we appeal to God for protection from any circumstance that might threaten that relationship. We wish that relationship to be sealed and affirmed.
So here then in this context, as Jesus goes on to say, we are to ask, seek and knock on doors – in our prayers. Here is the context in which we can with prayer explore, question, ferret around, grieve, celebrate – but ultimately God will allow us to find, find who God is for us. This why we can be persistent in our praying, like the persistent and shameless neighbour who keeps on waking us up at night; or that we can feel assured that we will not be sold a pup when we pray – and so we will not get a snake instead of fish, or a scorpion instead of an egg.
God is there when we pray. But again do we understand who this God is, because that will guide all our prayer. Jesus’ teaching on prayer requires the praying person to be aware of their own need before God. Jesus’ teachings assure us that prayer is effective not because of our cajoling, or because we have found the right words or posture or breathing, but because of God’s natures as a parent who loves us and wants to give to us when we are in need.
When we bring our humanity to God’s love in faith, that is prayer.
