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The Lord’s Prayer. For most of us, we learned it as children—by heart. If we have been going to church for a while, we’ve said it countless times. A friend of mine has just finished a sermon series based on the Lord’s Prayer. What I’m trying to say is that this one reading could take a lifetime to understand—and I only have ten minutes!
I know I have preached on the jumble of verses that follows Jesus’ instructions—many scholars think that Luke assembled various statements of Jesus about prayer and dumped them in this spot. But let us leave that for another day.
Today, I want us to focus on those words that countless Christians in all parts of the globe, in all languages, and throughout millennia have spoken, because Jesus told us to.
One commentator has said that even though we call it the Lord’s prayer, really it should have been named the disciple’s prayer—for they are the ones who ask Jesus “teach us to pray.” Don’t you find it interesting that that is the request—teach us to pray. Let’s remember that in the story Luke is telling, and we are hearing, the disciples have already been sent out (in twos) to go and cure the sick and preach the good news “the Kingdom of God has come near to you”—if that town would receive them. Remember that they returned amazed at what they could do. And then Jesus answers a pointed question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” with words from his own Scripture—“Love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself,” and of course, with the parable of the Good Samaritan. And remember that then Jesus and the disciples stopped at Martha and Mary’s house, and Jesus said Mary had chosen well to sit at his feet. Maybe the disciples heeded what Jesus had said. What better way for them to learn from the master than to ask him to teach them to pray.
And what does Jesus do? Jesus gives them an outline. I know that we all learned this prayer as if these particular words are the ones we must say. I know that there are volumes written about the differences between trespasses and debts and sins and why we choose those words. I know even how jarring it is to hear Luke’s version rather than the Matthean phrasing we are used to.
I titled this sermon, Do we pray? because I think that when we say words often enough we do it almost by rote--we may not really think about what we are saying, we may even lose the meaning behind the words. I think Jesus would say that it is more important to make the prayer our own, to use the words that mean something to us, than to think that he had given us the secret formula that would unlock God’s ears.
Do we pray? is a call for us to explore how and when and what we do in our own prayer life. Do we pray? is a prodding, a urging that we, like Mary, like the disciples, take time to sit at the feet of Jesus, take time to have conversation with God. We, like the disciples, might feel inadequate—we can ask Jesus to teach us to pray.
Jesus’ answer to that question is simple lines. Easy to understand. Touching on such topics as Praising and Loving God; Holding what God intends for us and our world before our eyes; Asking for sustenance for this present day; Reminding ourselves that forgiveness comes from God but needs to flow through us to others; Trusting that God will be with us no matter what. That is, in my own words, what I see in Jesus’ prayer (this week).
Seasons of the Spirit suggests that we read a couple of “translations” to give us deeper insight into all the ways people hear these words. We have already heard a dialogue version and sung “Abana,” from the Egyptian Reformed Church.
This is from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”(2002)
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
As above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Here’s another called “Kitchen Mother Version” by George Ella Lyon
Our Mother Who Art
in the kitchen cooking us up
hallowed may we see all that is
Your kingdom here
delivered into our hands
Your will in children and trees leaping out
on earth as if it were Heaven.
Give us this day
bread we could feed the world
and snatch us bald-headed
if we try to swallow it all.
Don’t forgive us till we learn it is all for giving,
That salve you’ve got in a pot
on the back of the stove
only heals when everybody has some.
And heed us not
if we believe You look like us
and love us best
and gave us the True Truth
with a license to kill Others writ inside.
Deliver us from this evil.
for it is Yours, this kitchen we call Universe
where you stir up our favorite treat,
the Milky Way,
folding deep into sweet our little sphere
with its powerful glory
of rainforests and oceans and mountains
in feather-boa mist
forever
if we don’t blow it up
and ever
if we don’t tear it down
Amen.
(Ah women, ah children,
I reckon She’s about fed up.
We better make room at the table for everybody
before She yells—OUT!
and turns our table over,
before She calls it off
this banquest we’ve been hoarding
this paradise we aim to save with bombs.)
But maybe my favorite seems to come from the New Zealand Prayer Book, by way of editors Ward and Wild.
Beloved, our Father and Mother,
in whom is heaven,
hallowed be your name,
followed be your royal way,
done be your will and rule,
throughout the whole creation.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another,
forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, Strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
Now and forever. Amen.
This week I challenge all of us to write our own version of Jesus’ words.
This week, may we be like the disciples,
and ask “teach us to pray”.
This week, may we find time to sit at Jesus’ feet,
and allow the Spirit to whisper in our ear.
This week, may the Lord’s prayer,
The disciples’ prayer,
Our prayer,
Touch us again,
Teach us anew,
Tug us toward God and God’s world.
May it be so, Alleluia, Amen.
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