Sermon - "Prayer: Being Bent Toward God II"

Prayer: Being Bent Toward God  II
Luke 11:1-13

Sometimes it takes a little humor for us to admit that we are guilty of promoting some rather bizarre, maybe even untrue?, understandings of prayer - its purpose and how we do it, communicate with God.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Dennis the Menace was kneeling beside his bed. His hands were folded – his eyes were focused toward the sky. He had an earnest look on his face. The caption below read: “I’m here to turn myself in.”

A husband was stationed for sixteen months in the South Pacific. His wife sent him a letter in which was an account of a prayer she’d heard their four-year-old daughter pray: “Dear Lord, please send me a baby brother so we will have something to surprise daddy with when he returns home.”

A six-year-old yelled from up in his bedroom: “I’m gonna say my prayers now. Does anybody want anything?”

A little girl, after praying for everything she could think of – relatives, friends, pets, etc., was heard to add: “And dear God, you take care of yourself, too. Because if anything happens to you, we’re all in trouble.”

Finally, there was a minister of a church who discovered at the last minute that he had neglected to invite one of the leading ladies of his congregation to a garden party. Trying to correct his mistake he called the lady up and asked her to come.

She responded: “It’s too late.  I’ve already prayed for rain.”

Despite the interesting concepts or attitudes of prayer these short pieces of humor portray, they are not the source of what we’re going to consider. Rather, we’re going to consider the ideas suggested in Luke’s account of a time the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.

While Jesus and his followers were on their way to Jerusalem, Jesus stopped to pray. It wasn't anything unusual, he often paused to pray. He was a pray-er. In the first ten chapters of the Gospel of Luke, the author thought the fact Jesus prayed significant enough to record several of those times. In 3:21, at his baptism, Jesus prayed and the Holy Spirit descended upon him and a voice from heaven said to him: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
In 6:12 we read about the time when he went out to a mountainside and prayed all night. The next morning he selected twelve to be his disciples. In 9:18, the author shared the story about the time Jesus prayed privately - although his disciples were close enough for Jesus to ask them what others were saying about him and what they thought. Of course it was Peter who boldly stated his belief: “The Christ of God.” And finally, in 9:28, there is the wondrous story of the transfiguration while he was praying on a mountain. James, Peter, and John were with him and observed it all.

Now, we can be sure these were not the only times Jesus prayed. But they were certainly times when something significant happened after it or during it thus earning for it the need to be reported upon. Again, Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Jerusalem and Jesus paused to pray. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him: “Lord, teach us to pray, you know, like John taught his disciples.” "Lord, we've seen enough happen around you after and during your prayer times that we'd like you to teach us how we should go about it."

The significant thing about this request from the unnamed disciple was that it signaled a change in the way those who were following Jesus were perceiving him. The custom in that day was for religious leaders to teach their followers a simple prayer that they could regularly use to both help them communicate with God and summarize the key ideas the leaders wanted their followers to keep in their minds and hearts.

Behind the disciple's request might have been ideas like: "Jesus, we now understand you to be a religiously significant person in our lives - one from whom we have learned much and one from whom we want to learn more. Jesus, we want to be identified with you as John's followers were with him. Jesus, would you summarize what we are to believe in a prayer? Would you teach us how you communicate with God so that we will be able to also?"

“Watching Jesus awakened their belief in prayer. As they watched his personality grow stronger, they began to see that prayer was more than just begging God for the things they desired. Apparently, their prayers had been limited to asking God to give them this or give them that. But, now they saw how prayer influenced his life and they asked him to teach them this art of praying.”1

No longer was Jesus perceived as simply a man traveling through the countryside doing remarkable things. Now he was someone worth listening to - someone the disciples wanted to be taught by and to know as their rabbi. Although there's no question they still didn't fully perceive what all that meant, who he really was, they were willing to journey on  with him, to let him lead them into a deeper fellowship, relationship, with God. They were willing to learn from him who and what he experienced God to be and how he got in touch with that God. So, they sought to learn from him how to pray. And so do we.

The very first two words give us much to ponder. "Our Father." "Our Father" is who we are to think of God as. When we pray, we are to pray, not as individuals, but as a community of faith. To be a Christian is to involve being in community. Christianity is about being called into relationships with others and it is together that we go to God. It is "we" that are in relationship with God. Every time we say "our Father" we are reminding ourselves that we are saved in community, as a community, as a group. Our faith is one that is lived out as we pray together, correct one another, forgive one another and try to follow Jesus in this world together.

It's also important to note here that when we use "our" we are not identifying a possessive relationship with God. That is, that God is exclusively ours, that God is Christian.

And then, there's that second word in the opening phrase, the word "Father." Now, what makes Jesus use of the term Father really significant is the word he used for Father. While it may have been common for Jews to refer to God as father in that day, the word they used would have implied an image of father more like “a religious, holy one” - “someone to be related to out of fear” - “someone you dared not approach.”

But the word Jesus used was the Aramaic “Abba,” which in our English would be more akin to “daddy,” or “papa.” You see, Jesus once again was introducing a radically different view of the relationship that is ours with God. It was a radically different view of what God is like, what God wants, who God is, and the kind of relationship God wants with us. When Jesus said that we should pray to "our  Father" - to "Abba" - his point wasn't to identify the sex of God, but rather to suggest that God is approachable - is personable - is affectionate - is caring - is available. It was an unthinkable way for the religious of his day to speak of God, but it was how Jesus said his followers should. It’s not that we are to address some man in the sky – someone, somewhere out there in the cosmos - but a being, a creative source of power, an intimate power that is as close as the kind of dad or mom that cares for every need of ours when we are very young and the kind of parent that loves on us in a way that prepares us to live in the world knowing that they’ve got our back and sacrifices for us so that we can grow up and be all we are meant to be. “Hallowed be your name” – creator, Yahweh, father, abba, parent, daddy.  

Well, after Jesus shared that we should address our prayers to God, then he stated his hope that the new kingdom, God’s kingdom, would come into existence - “Your kingdom come.” He was basically saying: “I want us to seek a partnership with God that will make things here like God has in mind, intended for them to be since the beginning of time.” “I want us to pray that God’s kingdom will be present in our hearts, our community, our country, our world.”  

Jesus then addressed in his prayer some earthly concerns that are a part of our everyday existence. In just three short petitions Jesus identified concerns with which we have to deal every day of our lives. “Give us each day our daily bread,” was the first one. It’s appropriate for us to ask God to provide that which we need to live. Just as our ancestors lived by the bread which came to them daily in the desert while they sojourned out there, so now it’s appropriate for us to acknowledge our dependence on God for our present needs.

Note though, that the request that is appropriate is the one that asks for bread for the day. This is not a prayer that justifies our asking to become rich – to have plenty. We're not to worry about the unknown future. This is not about praying that our every need will be supplied but that we enough to live on. Jesus was basically saying that God will supply what we need to get through one day at a time. According to the students of the bible who’ve really studied texts such as these, our prayers should not include requests for unneeded possessions but only for what is needed to survive the day – today’s bread. It doesn't mean it's wrong to have more than a day's bread, only that we shouldn't go to God for it.

Jesus’ second petition was, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” It’s a recognition by Jesus that we human beings are prone to sin and are victims of the wrongdoing of others. Here he is noting that it is appropriate for those who wish to pray to God to seek assurance for past mistakes. It’s another one of those radical theological shifts Jesus was prone to teach – “God is one who blots out our past sin.” And, just as radical is the notion that those of us who pray this petition are thus committing ourselves to exhibit the same kind of overwhelming unmerited grace to those who sin against us. This petition of Jesus’ prayer closes the door on the idea that God holds grudges and it's OK for us to. Jesus’ prayer rules out the justifying of harbored resentments and the holding out of forgiveness. To do either would be to risk having our hearts closed to the free gift of God’s mercy.

The final petition Jesus offered according to the author of Luke’s version was, “And lead us not into temptation.”  It’s O.K. to seek God’s influence to help us steer clear of trouble – it’s O.K. to ask for God’s help so that those thoughts and actions will not have a clear path into our hearts and minds. The petition acknowledges a daily reality for all of us – that temptation exists. The truth of the matter is that once temptation rears it’s ugly head, it’s difficult to win the battle. If we really want to keep from sinning, then we need to avoid the situations that cause us to be tempted. We don’t handle it very well once we’re in the middle of temptation – once temptation is present, we’re probably not going to successfully do battle with it. And so, the prayer that Jesus suggests we offer – teaches us to offer - is that God will help us stay out of the tempting situations altogether thus covering those future trials that are a danger on the journey through life.

Well, that’s all the author of Luke’s version of the prayer Jesus taught his followers contains. But he follows it with a story. He has Jesus inviting his listeners to think about visiting a friend at midnight. The hospitality of that day demanded that a host provide food for a guest whenever the person arrived. Jesus proposed that those listening imagine visiting a friend at midnight seeking three loaves of bread because another friend stopped by unexpectedly. But the neighbor friend expressed a reluctance to do what was requested because it would involve waking the whole family. You see, the sleeping arrangements in that day were that everyone slept on mats on the floor in the same room – including the animals. That certainly helps explain the neighbor’s reluctance now doesn’t it. However, the constant knocking at the door would finally cause the potential host to get up and give the persistent caller all he needed.

Now, the point of this story is often noted to be that it is important to be persistent in our praying.  While that is certainly an important guideline, the point of this story is really something quite different. In contrast to the friend who will give a persistent neighbor three loaves of bread at midnight only because the neighbor makes a pest out of himself, God will simply give to those who ask; and, as the questions Jesus posed at the conclusion of the story notes – asking what father asked by a son for a fish would give him a snake or asked for an egg would give him a scorpion? – what these questions suggest is that God will not only give but will give what is asked for. Jesus was saying that if a mannerless and unwilling homeowner can in the end be persuaded – coerced – by a friend’s shameless persistence into giving him what he needs, how much more will a loving God – a God like our daddies – supply all our needs?

When Jesus’ disciples asked him about prayer, he modeled for them a prayer. But, The Lord’s Prayer is not just a model for praying. It’s also a summary of what it means to live a Christian life. The prayer first of all sums up, in a very condensed version to be sure, the way in which Jesus read and responded to the signs from God in his life – the way in which he understood his own vocation and mission and the way he invited his followers to share in it. “The Lord’s Prayer” is a vignette in which we can see Jesus and what he was about.

The Lord’s Prayer reveals what it is going to take for us to be formed into faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. We are to take up the way of life described in the prayer – God’s kingdom is to come among us – God’s will is to be done in us – we are to forgive others and seek God’s forgiveness - that’s what we pray will happen when we pray The Lord’s Prayer.

Former Duke chaplain, now United Methodist bishop, William Willimon, once noted that by praying The Lord’s Prayer we’re being made into a people whose life together is a sign to the world that God has not abandoned the world but is still present in the world as a people on the move. Our lives are being bent toward God by our praying The Lord’s Prayer. It’s a lifelong act this being bent toward the one that has reached out to us.

We are the body of Christ and one of the things we do together is we pray this prayer when we get together. One of the things our repeating this prayer together reminds us of is that the Christian journey through life is tough to do alone. We pray this prayer until it becomes second nature – until we can do it without thinking – until it becomes a habit and we do it both in the community of faith and privately.

Even though there are times when we feel guilty about saying it out of habit – without thinking about what we’re saying – still it’s important that we develop the habit. “Many of the really important things in life we do out of habit. We eat, sleep, love, shake hands, hug our children, all out of habit.  Some things in life are too important to be left up to chance.  Some things in life are too difficult to be left up to spontaneous desire – things like telling people that we love them or praying to God.  So we do them until they become a habit – we do them ‘out of habit.’”2  Prayer is bending our lives toward God and making it a habit is one of the ways we do that – it’s one of the ways we get bent – not bent out of shape – but bent toward God and thus into spiritual shape.

In that same sermon by Willimon he further noted, “We, who are accustomed to thinking of prayer as a good strategy for getting what we want, an appropriate opening for football games and important civic meetings, may be surprised that we must be taught to pray.  This prayer is not for getting what we want but rather for bending our wants toward what God wants.  This is the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer ‘in Jesus’ name,’ which means that this prayer, unlike some other modes of prayer, is distinctively related to the one who teaches us to pray.  This prayer is the enactment of the story of a God who called a people into existence through Jesus.  In praying this prayer we become the people God has called us to be in Jesus.”3

Praying, praying especially The Lord’s Prayer – bends us toward God. So, “How’s the bending going?”

1 Robert L. Allen, “I Believe in Prayer,” Greatest Passages of the Bible (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing, Inc., 1990), 1-55673-172-8.
2 William Willimon, The Pulpit Resource, July,August September, 1998, p. 16 – 17.
3 Ibid.