Trinity VIII - July 29, 2007

All Saints’ Church – Thomasville, GA

Proper 12C

Genesis 18:20-33

Psalm 138

Colossians 2:6-15

Luke 11:1-13

“Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

This is the request that one of the disciples makes to Jesus after he had just finished praying himself.  I have always found the last clause interesting.  Why would the disciples ask Jesus for a manner of prayer modeled after John’s instructions?

Why would their question not have simply been…

“Lord, teach us to pray?”  After a little bit of investigation, I discovered that this was not such a strange request after all.  Jesus’ disciples were sitting at the feet of a rabbi.  That should conjure up images of Mary of Bethany from last week’s Gospel.  It was commonplace that disciples of a rabbi would have a communal prayer that they would pray together.  John’s disciples apparently had such a prayer, and many of Jesus’ followers had first followed John the Baptist.  If we remember back to Jesus’ baptism, we hear John telling his followers that he must decrease as Jesus must increase.  John tells them that his work is now complete, and Jesus is the one that they must follow now.  These disciples of John took the prayer that he taught them, and were now asking Jesus for a prayer that they could call their own as His followers.

That prayer is the one that we have as our own as His disciples as well.

As different as our many services within the Book of Common Prayer are, The Lord’s Prayer is common throughout.  Every liturgy within our Prayer Book has the Lord’s Prayer as a focal point.  Our most regular services of the Daily Office and service of Holy Communion provide the option of praying that prayer at two different locations within the service.  There is certainly a dominical character to this prayer.  As a church, we recognize Holy Baptism and Holy Communion as the two dominical sacraments instituted by our Lord Himself, with the instructions that we should celebrate them according to His Divine Command.

The Lord’s Prayer should be treated in the same fashion.  Jesus told his disciples that when they pray they should pray in this manner.  This prayer is a command from Christ Himself, and as the command expects, it is included as the focal prayer of our liturgies.  There are many things that one can argue that makes a liturgy, or doesn’t.  Many things which have been argued over throughout the centuries.  One thing is very clear in the liturgy in the Anglican Tradition; our liturgies are incomplete without the words that Jesus taught us.

So what are we to make of the words that we find in that short prayer?

Since this is the model that we have to follow what do we hear Jesus saying?

What does this prayer say about God, what does it say about Jesus and what does it say to/about us?

Jesus tells us to pray to Our Father.

Jesus has given us permission to speak to God as sons and daughters.  The First Person of the Trinity can be called upon by name.  As we hear in the prologue of St. John’s Gospel…

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1.14, KJV)

And a few verses later…

“No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (John 1.18, RSV)

The pure image of the Father, the Incarnate Word of God, tells his disciples and us as well, that when we pray, we have permission to call upon our Creator.  In the service of Holy Communion, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer following the prayer of consecration, the celebrant announces that we are to pray the words that Jesus taught us, and we are bold to do so.  It is only because of the redeeming work upon the cross that we are even able to utter those words.

Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension have made it possible for us to approach the throne of the heavenly grace in our sinful and broken state.  Since we have an intercessor and mediator in Jesus Christ, we have the ability and permission to make the Lord’s Prayer our own.

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name.

I hear Jesus summarizing the first three of the Ten Commandments in this first line.  When we hallow the name of God, we recognize and proclaim that He alone is God; there are no others.  We cannot remain true and faithful to the call against idolatry if we do not hallow God’s name.  Finally, if we hallow His name we will not take it in vain.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

These two petitions are in one direction.  We are asking God to help us be a part of His redemptive work that has taken place in Heaven, but is ours to adopt and embrace here on Earth.  These requests put us in a defensive posture.  They are not in the sense of being passive or timid, but rather, in a position of being submissive to the Will of God.  What we ask of the Father is not our will, or our wants, or our wishes, or our desires.  We are asking that God enlighten us to what He has in store for us.  This is not a comfortable position for us to be in.  I would much rather figure out what I think I need, and ask God for it.  However, look back at what we are praying for.

We are asking that God’s kingdom break forth here on Earth in us and through us, and we are asking that God’s will be done in our lives.  It takes us out of control and places our lives in the hands of another.  That is usually a very uncomfortable position to be in.  However, we are placing our lives in the hands of the One who is capable of meeting our needs.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

There is an interesting difference between the version in St. Matthew’s Gospel, and what we heard from Luke this morning.  The printed text in the bulletin isn’t a typo, and I didn’t change the words to make a point.  There is a different verb tense between Matthew’s version and Luke’s.  Luke’s version stresses the perpetual dependence that we need to have for God in our lives.

We call upon God to provide our daily bread each and every day.  The main setback with a request such as this is complacency.  There is always the temptation to rest upon our laurels, and say that since we have prayed to God, and asked that He always continue to provide for us according to His manner, that we are covered.

This is perhaps one of the reasons that the version that we are familiar with follows the version in Matthew where we ask only for our daily bread, and nothing more.  One certainly should hear echoes of the wandering in the desert and the manna that God provided.  The people were only to gather just enough for the day, and nothing more.  That which was stored in excess rotted, and was destroyed.  God will provide exactly what we need, in the capacity that we need for the day.  As we heard this morning, He will provide in that same manner day after day if we are faithful in calling on Him to do so.

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.

The victory of the cross is that the debt for our sins has been paid.  Our response to that victory is our acknowledgement of that fact.  Jesus has done the work of redemption and we must give thanks for that gift.  Our plea to God for His forgiveness never loses its newness.  It should never get old for us to say that we have wronged God by not loving our neighbor and forgiving them, and ask that our sins be forgiven.

It should be a refreshment to leave that burden exactly where it belongs – at the foot of the cross.  Because we have been forgiven, we then have the duty, and command to forgive one another.  And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

In the service of Compline, we offer the following prayer:

“Brethren, be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist stedfast in the Faith.”[1]

Our enemy is always looking to tempt us.  Jesus’ earthly ministry began with his temptation by the devil.  Why would we, as Jesus’ disciples, think that we are not subject to similar temptations in our lives?  Our prayer is to be spared of that time of testing and tempting.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells the disciples, “Pray that ye enter not into temptation.” (Luke 22.40, KJV)

The exact same word is used in both instances.

Temptation lingers all around, and we our petition asks for deliverance.  We pray for deliverance from evil thoughts, evil actions, and from the Evil One himself.  The temptations are coming, and we know they are.

Our comfort comes in the words of St. James when he says, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trails, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1.2-4, RSV)

James doesn’t say “if” we meet trials, he says “when.”  When those trials and temptations come our way, let us meet them knowing that there is strength on the other side.  We are that much more ready for the next trial when it comes our way since we have endured the one at hand.

In just a few moments, after we have called upon the Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify our “Daily Bread” in the Eucharist, we will join in one chorus to pray the prayer that our Lord Jesus gave us.  As we pray together, allow those words to penetrate deep within.

Hear them afresh, in a new light.

And let us with boldness say together the words our Saviour Christ hath taught us.

Amen.