The Prayer That Gives Us Angel Wings George Martin A sermon for St. Matthew s Episcopal Church July 28, 2013

Transcription

1 The Prayer That Gives Us Angel Wings George Martin A sermon for St. Matthew s Episcopal Church July 28, 2013 It s good to be back at St. Matthew s. I ll be here for these two weeks then I ll take three more weeks to be in Northern Minnesota at our family cabin. Just before I come back to California I ll make sure I spend part of a day at the Great Minnesota State Fair. Then I ll fly back and start full-time as your interim rector. Our time together begins in September. I m sure youheard the news. The name George is back in style! It s been a while. I doubt that this new Prince George, though, will ever hear on the playground what I often heard: Georgie Porgie, Puddin' an Pie, Kissed the girls and made them cry, When the boys came out to play Georgie Porgie ran away. [1] There were times when I wished I d had a different name. I m sure others of you have similar stories of others of someone making fun of your name on the playground. Three kids that had to have the worst time of all must have been the children of the 8 th century Biblical prophet Hosea. What a strange reading we have for this Sunday morning. I find it amazing that these passages were memorized, treasured and passed on in the oral traditions of the Hebrew people who willing admitted that there were times they had gone astray from God. Hosea lived at such a time the monotheistic faith of Israel was countered by the powerful worship of the god whose name was Baal. And there was this prophet, who s message was in words, but also in deeds. In taking Gomer, a lady of the night, to be his wife It wasn t just about love, but it was prophecy. Hopefully there was love. We know there were kids. In naming the first child Jezreel, he was thinking about a valley in Israel known as a place of warfare and bloodshed. The second child was named Lo-ruhamah. One translation is that the kid s name meant I m God and I ve run out of mercy. And the third child was named Lo-ammi which in Hebrew means I m nobody. I don t even have a name. Those three kids really had to have a rough time playing on the playground outside the temple in Jersualem. I sure more than one of us has though might think that the real lesson ought to be, If you re going to be a prophet, please don t have kids. But Hosea did. It s in the Old Testament with words that are laced with the sharpest kind of poetic irony ever spoken. The question posed over and over by Hosea: how is it that we are faithful to God, and what is right worship all about?

2 2 This brings me to Margaret a member of the parish I served as rector starting in She wanted everything to be just right all the time. Margaret was in some respects the grand-dame of the parish. She was extremely suspicious of this 32 year-old upstart Episcopal priest who was arriving in her church with ideas about renewal and Prayerbook revision. Ah, those were the times in the life of the Episcopal Church miserable for some, exciting for others, and challenging for those us in leadership. We had green books, striped books, and all kinds of liturgical innovations to try out. We asked people to actually touch one another in worship with something weird called The Peace. We were asking lay people to read the lessons and help administer communion. They d not done that before. We were talking about the possibility that women might serve as priests and bishops. And you would have thought the world was coming to an end. Margaret was my watchdog. There was hardly a time when she actually said that she liked something I did. And yet we had some good time together. They took our four kids, Caroline, and myself for a lovely day on their boat on the Mississippi river. I baptized her grandchildren at their home when her husband was so ill he couldn t get to church. Perhaps the biggest issue involved painting the parish hallway which led to the library and church offices. She had contacted her favorite interior designer who d chosen a horrible wintergreen color intended to enhance the already dark wood-framed doors. Many heard what was planned for Margaret told others what she had decided. A great many came to me they hated that color. It s would be so dark and gloomy. How could we counter Margaret? It was the question asked by numerous others. I said, We ll get a secret color consultant. And I did, and she choose a kind of muted sunset yellow, which predictably Margaret didn t like. She asked, Who is this secret color consulant? I replied, Margaret if you I told then it wouldn t be a secret anymore. One more Margaret story. A few years after leaving that parish I was interviewed by a search committee, and I was thinking I was open to another call. The committee came to Minneapolis to hear me preach, to grill me, and to interview people who had worked with me. They had one strange request. They wanted to meet with three people who either didn t like me, or with whom I had some struggles related to working in the church. Needless to say, Margaret was at the top of my list. I called her and explained the request. Her response: Tell me when and where, and I ll be glad to talk to them. And she did. Which brings us to the Gospel. It s the teaching of the Lord s Prayer and Luke has it immediately after the Martha and Mary story. Remember, if you were here last week, that Brian s sermon talked about how upset and irritated Martha was with Mary. Not the first or last time that siblings have issues, as we all know from our own lives.

3 3 I m going to focus in on forgiveness and reconciliation perhaps as being the heart and soul of this prayer. But before I do allow me to do a little teaching on this prayer. The version we all know isn t the one we heard read from Luke. His version is a little shorter than the one from Matthew s gospel. That s what we all know and use. First of all, the Lord s Prayer is a Creation-Centered prayer. It s about what s suppose to be possible on this earth namely how life here is meant to reflect heaven. It sees God s rule, God s kingdom coming but not just around the corner rather God s rule is present and in actual existence. We have added in our practice what is called a doxology when we say at the end, For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. You may know that there are some places in our prayer book, and it s also true of a Roman Catholic practice, to say this prayer without the doxology. The actual prayer taught by Jesus has three petitions for God and three things we pray for ourselves. We ask that God s name be hallowed or kept holy. That God s kingdom will come. And that God s will, his purpose, his vision, this future life that it will happen. Then there are the petitions we offer. That we ll have daily bread. That we ll know how to practice forgiveness and reconciliation. And that in a time of trial or temptation we won t fall away from God. (By the way the temptation has nothing to do with chocolate, scotch, or that brand new car you saw the other day.) Hosea gets back in the picture here: how is that we can stay true to this God who created us, who loves us, who offers us forgiveness? The prayer is to hope that we never come to a time when we walk in a different direction than the one God calls us to follow. Except it will happen, and then we get to start all over again. And that s why this a community prayer. You don t pray My father in heaven. It s Our Father in heaven. It s a prayer that s a practice inside a community of disciples essentially we need to be taught this prayer over and over again. The better translation of the actual Aramaic roots of the Lord s Prayer isn t to use the word temptation. Jesus probably said Do not bring us to a time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. Once more that s from Mathew. Our Book of Common Prayer has what s misnamed the Contemporary Lord s prayer it gets the translation right, ending with Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. Margaret didn t like that either. Maybe some of you would agree with her. Hopefully a little teaching helps. I also like to recognize the different names for this prayer. We call it the Lord s Prayer. Roman Catholics call ii the Our Father. And there are Baptists and Anabaptists like Mennonites who call it The Disciples Prayer.

4 4 Now for the heart of this prayer. The forgiveness part. Or what the Presbyterians would tell you is the Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors part. And they aren t entirely wrong. We think of trespasses as times we stepped out of line, did what shouldn t have done, and wronged someone, something. But deep down in the world of Jesus there wasn t this high level of personal introspection focused on a multitude of sins. There were, instead, these mutual obligations at work and mutual responsibilities. There was suppose to be this deeper sense of community and obligation to one another and for one another. As in that story from last week! Hey my sister isn t helping me. I know, Jesus replied. She s sitting here. Like one of the disciples. You can come out Martha, if you d like. I d like that. I don t know about these guys. You see having women in this class is kind of new. But it feels right to me. Of course that conversation isn t recorded in scripture. I wish it was. I want us to realize that Jesus is teaching a congregation in this case his disciples that they are to have a practice of forgiving one another. Before he dies he gives them another practice a meal to have together. The Lord s Prayer and the Eucharist have been linked going back to those days. And thus, I truly believe, that daily bread we pray for isn t just bagels, or toast, or Italian bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar it s also the holy bread we share at this table. And then there was that other teaching that said, if you coming to this table and you have something against someone. Leave your gift. Go and be reconciled. And then come back to the table. It s why the confession in a Eucharist is so important. One more thing. You and I are going to be like Peter, at times, wondering how often we must offer forgiveness. An even more difficult question that must be asked is this: Are there not some things that can happen or that have happened that are almost impossible to forgive? Yes, there are some things we ve known that can t be easily forgiven. So hear me: I m not saying that forgiveness is easy. Forgiving others is way beyond difficult at times. As just one example: A recent New Yorker article called A Raised Hand asks What can we do to curb domestic violence? Thankfully it s a positive answer. There are some steps that can be taken to protect its victims from further violence. Even so the reality of domestic violence inflicts such lasting pain on so many. I know I could give other examples. I wish it were not so, but there are situations in life where forgiveness is on hold. It s will be the hardest step taken. But the call to practice forgiveness must never be relinquished in a community that breaks bread together and which prays Thy will be done on earth as it was in heaven. I know there are times I can t change a wrong done to me, or a clear an injustice that happened. I can live for a long time saying that there is this debt incurred because of that

5 5 wrong, but then it s possible to remit the debt. I cancel it. Yes, something happened. The memory is still there. But I let it go. As strange as this may sound, I believe that s when we can discover angel wings walking to this table. I don t know the whole story of St. Matthews, but I know from other times in doing interim work, that I needed to ask in those congregations if there weren t things in the past that maybe now need to be forgiven. More importantly if there weren t people from the past in the life of the disciple community, I was serving, who needed to be forgiven. We can t always do it with words, but we can do it in prayer. And with what the Prayer Book calls sincerity of heart. What might each of us let go for the future of God s story at St. Matthew s be in order that our story wears those angel wings? Oh, and Margaret. Did I tell you she was a California girl, and got back here for the last part of her life? Did I tell you we stayed in touch with each other, with our long Christmas letters with the family doings in them, and then we always added personal notes to each other. You see Margaret and I were friends. We d broken bread together so many times, loved the same church and friends together through so many different issues and challenges, that God gave us to each other. There was mutual respect. And there was humility. We d been hard on each other at times, but there was grace too. And it was and is and always will be an Amazing Grace. Blessed be that tie that binds us to one another and to the love of God.