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St.
Luke's Episcopal Church |
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NinthSunday after Pentecost
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There is a certain house in our neighborhood, and within the past year or year and a half that house slipped off of its foundation. This is a very nice house. I don’t know the people, and I have never been inside the house, but it sure is pretty on the outside. It is a beautiful dwelling, a beautiful structure. I don’t know what happened. I am severely mechanically challenged, as some of you may know. Somehow that house slipped off its foundation. And, for weeks, and weeks, and weeks, there were work crews of one kind or another there working feverishly to make everything right again with that house and its foundation. There were huge pieces of equipment, one crew after another, and there was digging - - everything was in total chaos. As Debbie and I would drive into the neighborhood for weeks and weeks, we would see what was happening, and we would just alternate saying, “What a mess. What a mess.” We hope our house never slips off its foundation. As I was thinking about what I would say to you today, that image kept coming to my mind - - a house that had slipped off its foundation. Why did that keep coming to my mind? Because, this prayer is the foundation of our prayer life as Christians. Now, of course, there are other kinds of prayers. Other kinds of prayer that are helpful, that are effective, that are necessary. But, there can be no doubt that for Christians this is the foundation of our prayer life, because Jesus himself taught his disciples to pray in this way. Just imagine being one of those early disciples, and you are following Jesus everywhere he goes. You have left everything you know behind, to follow this young rabbi. As you have been following him around the countryside, you have come to believe that he is the Messiah. This young rabbi is God’s Anointed One, the Christ. You have come to believe that, even though you aren’t exactly sure, yet, all that that means. So, you know that Jesus has this extraordinarily rich, this extraordinarily intimate prayer life with God the Father. Finally, one of the disciples has the nerve to say to him one day, “Lord, teach us to pray. You, who has the perfect prayer life with God, the ultimate connection, the deepest intimacy possible, teach us to pray.” Just imagine being there, and Jesus answering the request, “When you pray, say, ‘Father, hallowed be your name. . .’” Prayer begins with praise. The first step in a Christian prayer life is to acknowledge that we are children of God. We are children of Someone greater than we. So, we begin prayer with praise, with adoration, “Your kingdom come.” Matthew’s version of this prayer adds, “Your will be done,” which is what this means, “Your will be done, Lord. May your will be done on earth. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread.” You can tell later in the story in this Gospel passage that bread was a staple of the diet in this part of the world at this time in history. So, 'give us our daily bread,’ is a way of saying, ”Lord, give us what we need. As we depend on bread in our diet, give us what we need to live. “ This is a way of acknowledging that God supplies all good gifts. “Forgive our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.” This is Jesus teaching his disciples. We ask God to forgive us. Part of what it means to be human, is to be sinful. You and I are sinful. That is simply a part of what it is to be human. Yet, the glorious good news of the Gospel is that when we ask God to forgive us, He does. Through the grace of our heavenly Father, we are forgiven. Our sins are washed away. So, Jesus teaches us to ask for forgiveness, and then he makes it very clear, as we have been forgiven, then so we are to forgive. So, they are equally important. To confess to God our sinfulness, to be honest before God. We say in our Prayer Book, “God who knows our needs before we ask.” That is simply an invitation to be honest with God from our perspective, because God knows us better than we know ourselves. Part of a healthy spirituality is to be honest and open before God, and to allow His grace to come in to forgive us and set us free from the weight and the burden of sin. So, as we have been forgiven, we are to forgive others. “And do not bring us to the time of trial.” The Greek here is notoriously difficult to translate. We are more familiar with the wording in, “Lead us not into temptation.” This translation here is not trying to say anything radically different than that. It is just another way of translating the difficult Greek. But, the context, the underlying petition here is clear. “Lord, protect us. Lord we acknowledge our dependence on you. We acknowledge that we are your children, and you are God. Protect us.” That is what we are praying here. This prayer is the foundation of our life in Jesus Christ. These words come from him. They are our tangible connection with our Lord himself. I want to end with something very simple this morning. Some people at 8 o’clock said this was very reassuring. So, I want to share these words with you. These words are so familiar to most of us - - The Lord’s Prayer. We can say them without even thinking about them. And, I suspect if you are like me, sometimes you do. I have a confession to make to those of you who have taken the time and effort to be here this morning on the summer schedule at 9:30 AM. There are times that my mind wanders when I pray this prayer. I will be saying the words that sound perfectly eloquent, and my mind may be a thousand miles away. It happens. These words are so familiar. Sometimes, something so familiar can lose its power. Here is my invitation to you this morning. It is an invitation to myself, as well, I can assure you. As we have had these words as our Gospel passage today, my challenge is to let these words take on fresh meaning when you pray. I am going to challenge myself to do that in the coming days. As we pray these words from our Lord himself, let’s remember that this is a tangible connection to Jesus. This is not a prayer that a theologian devised. This is not second-hand theology. When the disciples said to Jesus, humbly, reverently, “Lord, teach us to pray,” this is what he gave them. This is our connection to Jesus himself. These words. This prayer. So, as we pray them today, and as we pray them in the days ahead, let’s let them take on new meaning. Everything we really need to know about the Christian life is contained in this prayer. So, may these words take on new life and new meaning to us in the coming days. And, as we pray the Lord’s Prayer, may our sense of his love, and our sense of our communion with Jesus be very real to us. Amen. |
