July 25, 2010

Luke 11:1-4

Jesus Teaches us to Pray

 

Luke records that one of the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Teach us to pray.”  The disciples had all seen Jesus pray.  He was quite public with some of his prayers.  Luke tells us that Jesus had been praying at the time of his baptism and that, “while he was praying, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, and a voice came out of heaven, saying, “You are my beloved Son. In You, I am well-pleased.” Again, Luke says all of that happened while Jesus was praying.

Also, according to Luke, Jesus spent an entire night in prayer, and the next day made the decision on who he would name as the twelve apostles. What was he praying about all night? We don’t know, but implied is that he was praying about which twelve people he would choose.

On the mountain with his disciples, when the face of Jesus was transfigured and Moses and Elijah, appeared with them, it happened while Jesus was praying.

Those were public occasions, and although we don’t know how the disciples knew it, we know that they knew that when Jesus went off by himself, he was spending time in prayer. 

We have good reason to believe that Jesus spent time every day in prayer.  And we have reason to believe that his times of prayer were spent in making key decision, that those times helped strengthen him with his certainty and power, and they helped him hold up under pressure.

Some people say he didn’t really need to pray all that often; after all, he was the Son of God.  He was just praying just to set an example for us.  I hope not, because if Jesus was simply praying to set an example, then the example he was setting was for us to set an example by praying. Meaning, we pray to set an example. It’s an act of “show.”

But, no, I believe that prayer was his lifeline with God, and he prayed not to set an example but to be able to live the sort of life he was leading.

The disciples recognized that connection between who he was and his prayers, and they wanted to have that sort of connection with God and the power to take action in ministry as Jesus did.  There is no bypass; there is no shortcut to living a life connected to God.  You want to stay connected to God? You pray.  And so the disciples ask Jesus, “teach us to pray.”

Now, they are not asking Jesus to teach them a prayer. They are not saying, “Teach us some words to say.”  They are asking Jesus to show them how to live the sort of life that he lived, close to God. Teach us to pray.

And Jesus gives his answer.  “Pray in this manner,” and then – it’s a good time for anyone to get the notebooks open and the pens at the ready or the computer screens on and fingers at the keyboard when Jesus says, “pray in this manner.”

He teaches them what we refer to as “the Lord’s prayer.” Many of us may have been taught those words in their slightly longer version found in Matthew’s Gospel.  I’ve known the words since I was a child.  I said the prayer in church.  I said it in my first grade classroom at public school.  When you saw our football team huddle up right before the kickoff, we were saying the Lord’s prayer, rather frantically, rather breathlessly.  We were about to go to battle and we wouldn’t dare go into battle without saying the Lord’s prayer, but for many of us it was sort of a mantra, a good luck charm.  You didn’t want to get your fool neck broke while you were out there. So, we felt it was good to recite it and to know it.  And it was. But I don’t remember back then really taking a close look at what we were saying. What sort of power did we have in our hands without ever really knowing? What would happen if we began to pray this prayer – not just recite the words – but pray this prayer every day?

Ten years ago, in the year 2000, a Baptist minister by the name of Bruce Wilkinson came out with a tiny book called The Prayer of Jabez.  Wilkinson took a few verses out of an Old Testament genealogy found in First Chronicles, and produced a best seller, showing us how the prayer of some obscure man called Jabez mentioned within three verses of First Chronicles (4:8-10) could change our lives.  We were encouraged to pray his prayer every day. It became such a phenomenon that the small book produced Prayer of Jabez Bible studies, Prayer of Jabez bumper stickers, the Prayer of Jabez song lyrics and the Prayer of Jabez for Children.

          And I might say, it was all very good stuff. But it came from three obscure verses.  “The prayer of Jabez, that God “bless me indeed, enlarge my borders, that your hand might be with me, and keep me from harm, and from pain.”

          And people bought the book because so many people found that when they prayed that prayer, it made a difference. Some of us got into that study, I taught the study, and some of you were in it back in 2010, and we watched as God expanded our borders.  It was a year later that this church began, partly under the influence of praying that prayer of Jabez.

          So, it’s a good book.  You might want to read it. But while you read it, you might have this thought come to mind – that it’s a little bit strange and peculiar that a prayer from a person mentioned only within three verses of the Old Testament could have such an impact on so many people, especially when there is a sometimes neglected prayer prayed by the man who serves as the entire focus of the New Testament. If people find that the prayer of Jabez can make such an impact, what sort of impact might the prayer of Jesus make if we actually understand what we are praying when we pray that prayer every day?  

Most of us are familiar with Matthew’s expanded version of the prayer.  That’s the one we use a couple of times a month here in our worship services.  But maybe that one is so familiar to us we overlook the power in it.  Luke’s prayer is less poetic and shorter. But let’s see what it says.

It begins with the word, “Father.”  Some people just can’t get past that first word.  Some people choke on it and can’t pray it.  If their father was abusive or non-supportive, some people can’t get past their own father’s failures to call God “Father.”

But let’s assume that our own father was a decent sort and there’s no barrier or bad taste in our mouth when we call God, “Father.” We still have to get past another barrier. And that is that when I call God “father” it means I’m declaring myself to be his son or daughter. And though I know it to be true theologically, that Jesus is the only begotten son and the first born and now calls me brother, I can still find it hard to believe that Father God would ever look at me as his own child. But to get any further with the prayer of Jesus I have to get it settled, that I’m not praying to “Master,” or “Teacher,” or “Gracious God,” or “Almighty God,” or “Creator,” but to “Father.”

It may take me a day or two, or a week or three, of daily prayer to let it soak in that to say to God, “Father,” is to have him say to me, “Son, or daughter.” You might take the next month to get no further in your daily prayers than to pray, “Father.” But it would be worth your while in the next month to call on God as “Father,” if you could reach the point of knowing how much God cares for you.

Now, if we’re his sons and daughters and pray this prayer, it means that, like it or not we have some responsibility for the family name.  We lay claim to quite a bloodline, blood that Jesus has poured out for us, and that’s why the phrase, “Hallowed be thy name,” comes next.  It’s a prayer that Father’s name be protected. That his name be made holy. 

“Father, don’t let us be able to hear your name slandered or maligned or belittled or misused without our feeling hurt by it.”

You think about Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, where Scout Finch hears a boy on the school playground criticizing her father, and she beats up that boy. You don’t talk about my father that way.  I’m not saying to fight when you hear God the Father’s name put down.  Atticus Finch refuses to let his daughter fight, and God doesn’t want us to fight, but I hope you understand the hurt of any child hearing their daddy being cursed.

So, help us to think about you, Father, in such a way that it hurts us to hear you being put down or laughed at. Help us to think respectful and loving thoughts about you.  Help us not to slide into the mindset that treats you lightly.

          And then we pray, “Thy kingdom come.” What does that mean?  The kingdom of God is what happens when people allow God to take control.  His taking control doesn’t just happen. God has a kingdom, but not a dictatorship. He doesn’t rule by force.  He requires our participation.  It’s up to us to crown him king.  And when His kingdom does come, we see things change.  People give up their rebellion against him.  People are forgiven.  They are reconciled to God and to one another.  These are all signs that His kingdom has come – at least for the moment.  And so you pray like this: “Father let your work take place in and through the lives of people who yield to you. And let me be among those people who yield.”

          And then we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  It’s a literal prayer for food.  We can’t neglect our bodies. We can’t neglect our physical needs.  We need food.  We pray for it literally.  But the prayer also has a figurative connotation. Because if we are praying that God’s kingdom come, there are physical and tangible things that we need to let God bring about His kingdom. We need the tools, we need the equipment, we need the bread, we need the money.  And so we pray that God direct into our hands those resources, whether those resources are people with talents and gifts or creative capabilities or financial capabilities. Give us today what we need to see your kingdom come.

Then comes a prayer for our relationships.  Forgive us our trespasses. We can’t help but at times encroach upon the lives of other people.  We make mistakes.  We wound others.  Not intentionally. It just happens. The church may serve a perfect God, but the people of the church are imperfect and constantly in need of restoring relationships.  And so we pray that we be forgiven. One translation says, forgive us our debts. There are things we owe people, things we should have done for them, but we failed to do them.  And another translation says, “forgive us our trespasses.”  There are times we have trespassed into their territory and done to people things that if we’d thought better of it, we never would have done. But we pray for forgiveness for ourselves as we forgive people who have done some of those same things to us.

          There is no territory where we have an exemption.  We don’t have the right to withhold forgiveness from anyone.  The minute you hold on to a wound because someone has hurt you, you have given that person authority over your life.  If you don’t forgive them, they hold the power to pull your strings and make you angry or bitter.  They will be in charge of your emotions.  So if there is someone you know who only has to drive by your house or dial your number to make you angry or bitter, you have a prayer issue. Forgive us our trespasses, because the forgiveness we experience from God is directly connected to our willingness to forgive others. So, make sure that the only one in charge of your life is God.

          And finally, in Luke’s version of the prayer, Jesus says, “Pray that God lead us not into temptation.”  It seems strange that we would even think of God leading us into temptation.  But we are praying that God help us to keep from running to trouble. Help us keep our paths out of tempting situations.  If we have trouble with alcohol, keep me from driving home from work by the route that passes the liquor store. If I have trouble with lust keep me away from the people who would incite that lust.  Give me the wisdom to make good choices and stay away from situations where I would be tempted to yield. 

That’s the prayer in Luke’s Gospel.  And what you notice in this prayer compared to the prayer of Jabez is a difference in personal pronouns.  Listen to the pronouns in the prayer of Jabez.  Bless me. Enlarge my border. Let your hand be with me. Keep me from harm, don’t cause me pain.

Me, my, me, me, me.  Sounds like a warm-up for choir practice.  Sounds like the emphasis is on me.  Maybe that’s why it became a best seller to American readers.  Here’s a prayer where the emphasis is on me.

But in the prayer of Jesus?  There’s not one solitary first person singular pronoun in the prayer.  Nothing about me or mine. It’s, “Give us, forgive us, as we forgive others, lead us not. 

          This is a prayer that moves beyond me to others. It’s a prayer for us.  And if when two or more people gather and pray this prayer, or when two or more people pray this prayer, what might happen over the course of a month or a year or a lifetime?

          When the followers of Christ get on the same page and pray this prayer, not only when we gather together on Sundays, but every day, I would believe that people praying that prayer would see things happen that make the events occurring from praying the prayer of Jabez pale in comparison.

          The results of this prayer would be that God makes himself known.  That lives change.  That people are forgiven, and people find themselves able to avoid the traps that so many people have fallen into and suffer from. The results of this prayer would be that people begin to think that God matters and really wants to take first place in their lives.