When I saw the appointed Gospel reading
for this Sunday, I was reminded of a retired pastor who filled in for me on
occasion in one of my previous churches.
On the first Sunday that he covered for me,
he told me that he was going to preach on “The Lord’s Prayer.” I told him, “That’s a great scripture for preaching.”
Several months later, this
retired pastor filled in for me again. I discovered that he had preached about
“The Lord’s Prayer” yet again. I was curious why he decided to preach on this
same text a second time.
He said, “Well, the first time, I focused on ‘Our Father,’ and for the second
sermon, I moved on to the phrase, ‘Who art in heaven.’”
He said, “When you go away
again, I’m going to preach on the phrase, ‘Hallowed
be thy name.’”
Long story short. Over my six years at
that church, he only made it to the “Give
us this day our daily bread,” part.
I’m just glad that his first sermon wasn’t
entitled, “Our.”
No, I’m not going to spend the next ten
weeks preaching on “The Lord’s Prayer,” although I’m sure I could pull that off
since this is an incredible, incredible prayer that Jesus has given us.
I’m going to attempt to cover this awesome
prayer with just one sermon.
My retired pastor friend did give me a
great idea, though. Let’s look at each section of this prayer so that it can
become even more meaningful for us.
Let me begin by saying that our
familiarity with “The Lord’s Prayer” can be a good thing and it can be a bad
thing. It can be a good thing because many of us know it by heart, and it’s
wonderful that many of us can pull this prayer out of our hip pocket in a
pinch. There’s nothing wrong with that.
The bad thing about it being familiar to
us is that we can easily forget its meaning, and we can easily say it without
even thinking about what we’re praying.
Maybe you’ve heard of the two Christians
who were trying to outdo each other. The conversation came around to prayer.
One said, “I’ll bet $20 you can’t even
say ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’”
The other replied, “You’re on.” And so he began… “Now
I lay me down to sleep…”
The first man interrupted him
and said, “Ok, ok. Here’s your money. I
didn’t think you could do it.”
So, what really is “The Lord’s Prayer” and
how can it help us to have a stronger prayer life?
Jesus taught us what we now know as “The
Lord’s Prayer” when the disciples came to him and asked him point blank, “Lord, teach us to pray…”
In Jesus’ day, there were
many, many different ways to pray, just as there are today. It was common for a
rabbi to give his disciples a model prayer to use which is probably the
motivation for the disciples asking their question about prayer in the first
place.
When people want to know how to pray, I
think they’re really wanting to know how to have a relationship with God.
That’s a very basic question, isn’t it? How can I have a relationship with God?
In 1993, William Hendricks wrote a book
entitled, Exit Interviews: Revealing Stories of Why People Leave Church. Hendricks found that two-thirds of people who
attended church said they didn’t experience God in their worship on a regular
basis. Two-thirds!
They said that the preaching was poor and
that worship was boring. Hendricks said that if the church was a restaurant, it
would be like hungry people coming to eat food and the restaurant not being
able to feed them!
People who gave the church a try, left
because they weren’t getting fed. Maybe this is why Jesus’ disciples asked him,
“Lord, teach us to pray.”
Fifteen years after William Hendricks’ eye
opening book on why people were leaving the church, Julia Duin did the same
kind of research. Guess what? She found exactly what Hendricks’ had found
fifteen years earlier in his research.
In her 2008 book, Quitting Church: Why
the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do About It, worshippers told Duin
that they weren’t getting decent preaching, good community, or spiritual food.
The church had become irrelevant to their
lives, so they were investing elsewhere. Church goers were asking the same
question that the disciples were asking Jesus, “Teach us to pray. Help us to know God.”
So
the pressure is on today, isn’t it? I can’t afford to preach a bad sermon, or
we may miss out on connecting with God in a deeper way. Actually, the pressure
was on Jesus to come up with a prayer to share with his disciples that would be
able to get at the heart of what it means to be a disciple, a follower of
Jesus.
Let’s briefly look at each phrase of this
prayer, and then we’ll give some thought on how it can help us connect with God
in a deeper way.
Our Father...
“The Lord’s Prayer” begins by addressing
God as “Our Father.” Two things to mention hear. Notice that the prayer begins
with the pronoun, “Our” and not the pronoun, “My.”
At the heart of being a Christian and a
being a growing follower of Jesus is this understanding that we are not alone
as we live out our faith. We are part of a community of people who need each
other in living out our faith.
John Wesley, the founder of what we know
today as the United Methodist Church knew this very well. It’s why he spent his
whole life encouraging people to be in a small group of no more than a dozen or
so people. He called them, “Methodist class meetings.”
Wesley knew that it’s when we share our
faith and pray with each on a regular basis that we are able to grow in our
faith. We need each other.
The word, “Our” in “The Lord’s Prayer” is
a subtle, but powerful way of reminding us that to do this thing called
“Christianity” right, we need each other.
And notice that of the many, many names
there are for God, Jesus chose the word, “Father,” to begin his model prayer
for his disciples. In the Aramaic language, the word, “Father” is translated as
the more loving and intimate word, “Daddy.”
I don’t know about you, but I am so glad
that “The Lord’s Prayer” doesn’t refer to God as “our distant and vague deity.”
No, it refers to God as “Our Father.”
The biblical view of God is not that God
is some abstract source who is far away from us. Many people have this view of
God. The biblical view is that God is much more like a loving parent who wants
to have a loving and caring relationship with us.
Even the first two words, “Our Father” of
“The Lord’s Prayer” remind us that God is a loving God who cares about us.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
The next part of “The Lord’s Prayer” that
I want us to think about is the phrase, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven.”
This one phrase summarizes the message of
the Bible. If someone would stop you on the street and ask you, “Could you
summarize the bible for me in one sentence,” it would be wise to share this
line from “The Lord’s Prayer” for them.
From the Book of Genesis to the last book
of the Bible, “The Book of Revelation,” God’s desire is for the joy, peace,
love, and justice of heaven to completely fill this earth one day. And the way
that we seek for this hope to become a reality is by praying this wonderful prayer
that reminds us for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
For many people, inside and outside the
church, we have this mistaken notion that the whole point of Christianity is
for us to go to heaven someday. Yes, we all want to be with God in heaven when
we die, but the bigger story line of the bible is that one day, God will make
all things new here on earth.
God loves this world too much to just give
up on it. God’s will is for this world to reflect all of the glory and splendor
of heaven. Imagine a world of no homelessness, no crime, no pollution, no
terrorism, no hatred, no injustice, no child abuse, no war.
And you think to yourself, “well, that describes heaven.” Exactly!
And that’s why Christians pray “The Lord’s Prayer” because the big deal of the
bible is that we are to pray for and work toward a world that is filled with
all of the love, peace, and justice of heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
The Lord’s Prayer concludes with a request
for God to provide bread for the day. Not only does this part of the prayer
remind us of how God provided bread for the Israelites when God was leading
them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land, it’s also Luke’s way of
reminding us of what we now know as, “The Sacrament of Holy Communion,” and how
Christ is present with us every time we receive the bread and the cup.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive...
“The Lord’s Prayer” concludes with a
confession of our sins, but notice that it comes with a little twist which is
always important for us to remember. We ask God to forgive us in the same
proportion that we forgive those who have wronged us. Nobody said that “The
Lord’s Prayer” is an easy prayer to live out.
So much more could be said about this
incredible prayer that Jesus taught us, but I think some of these thoughts can be
helpful to us whenever we say this prayer.
After Jesus teaches the disciples this
prayer, he then encourages them to be persistent in offering their prayers to
God. He says, “Knock and the door will be
opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. To everyone
who knocks, the door is opened.”
Prayer really does make a difference. It’s
been said that God answers prayers in four ways: 1) No, not yet. 2) No, I love
you too much. 3) Yes, I though you’d never ask! And 4) Yes, and here’s more.
I like that! Jesus gave us “The Lord’s
Prayer” to encourage us to be persistent in our prayers. In one way, shape, or
form, God will answer our prayers. We just need to keep knocking on heaven’s
door and be open to how God will answer our prayers.
A few months ago, I met a good friend of
mine for breakfast here in Athens. He’s also a pastor and used to attend my
church in Lancaster when he had a Sunday off from his church. We became good
friends these past several years.
When we got together for breakfast
recently, he asked me what he always asks me when we get together. “What are
your prayer needs?” So I’ll give him a couple of prayer requests.
On that particular day at the restaurant,
I told him about a family member who needed to find medical insurance because
he needed his wisdom teeth extracted. He said sure. And so before we left the
restaurant, he said a little prayer, and I prayed for him.
We said our “good byes.” As I walked out
of the restaurant to head to my car to come to the church, I got a text message
from this same family member that we just prayed about. He was letting me know
that he had just found out that his part-time job offers dental insurance and
that he was going to sign up for it later that day.
God answered that prayer in less than ten
minutes! I looked up into the sky after I received that text message and
whispered to myself, “Wow, that was
quick! Thank you, God.”
Many of you know about our
outdoor prayer cross in front of our church building. There’s a box on that
cross where you can place prayer requests. When our prayer team was getting
that prayer cross ready, I remember how we were wondering if anybody walking by
our church would actually take the time to fill out a prayer card and place it
in the box. We were willing to give it a try.
To our astonishment, we received 35 prayer
requests during that first week back in February. They were mostly from college
students. During the remaining school year, we averaged around 20 or so prayer
cards each week.
These prayer requests have been melting my
heart. It’s encouraging to know that college students who might have no
connection with our church or any church are drawn to that cross.
I love seeing people stop at our prayer cross
to offer their prayer concerns. This is their way of knocking at heaven’s door.
I just want each person who places a prayer request in the prayer box to know
that our church is praying for these needs on a weekly basis.
I want to share a prayer request that we
received from a college student about a month ago. This college student had
placed two prayer requests card in our outdoor prayer cross that same week. The
first card was for our church to pray for a test this student would be taking.
I want to share what this student wrote on
the 2nd card we received later that same week. Here’s what it said:
“I
passed Spanish. Keep it up guys.”
In a fun kind of way, this college student
is telling our church to keep knock’n on heaven’s door. That’s what Jesus is telling
us to do. Keep asking because you will receive. Keep seeking because you will
find. Keep knocking because the door will be opened.
Like the college student said, “keep it up
guys.”
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Small Group Questions
Luke 11:1-13
July 24, 2016
Jesus instructed the disciples to say "The Lord's Prayer."
Begin your small group meeting by sharing this prayer together, pausing at each phrase for reflection.
Our Father...
We address God as a loving parent and not as a distant and abstract deity. Share a time in your life when you have felt God as a loving parent.
...who art in heaven. Hallowed by they name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...
This part of the prayer reminds us that we are to pray for heaven to come upon earth. Share how you see the church working toward bringing heaven to earth in our community and world.
Give us this day our daily bread...
The phrase, "daily bread" is to remind us of the exodus story in the Old Testament when God provided the Israelites with manna in the wilderness. It also reminds us of the Sacrament of Holy Communion and Jesus' death on the cross for the sins of the world. Share a time when you were fed spiritually in your walk with God.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Jesus is inviting us to be forgiving toward others. What helps you to be forgiving toward others?
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