Luke 11:1-13 Teach us to Pray Rev. Drew Hanson August 19, 2018 Introduction We have three Sundays until the Fall season starts at our church. We have a lot of fun opportunities coming this Fall, and it means that we start a new journey through Scripture. But until then, there was a three-week gap in sermons, so I prayed and thought about what we should read and study together. Next Sunday, we will have a guest preacher, and in collaboration with him, I have decided that we ll spend three weeks studying and practicing prayer. This morning, we ll begin with how Jesus taught us to pray for ourselves and one another. Praying for ourselves or another is called intercessory prayer, and when Jesus wanted to teach us how to pray, he gave us a prayer that set a pattern for how we can pray. Today, we call that prayer the Lord s Prayer. We re going to look at the prayer from the gospel of Luke, which will look slightly different than the version we pray on Sundays. Luke 11:1-3 So let s look at the prayer, and the context of Jesus teaching his disciples this prayer. Look at Luke 11 again, starting with verse 1. He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. First, Jesus was praying in a certain place. Jesus modeled how to pray. He usually went off to be alone to pray. Despite all the healings and teachings, it certainly seemed that Jesus needed to regain energy and strength by being solitary and praying. We should all seek the same thing, at least every once in a while. Not just solitude from other 1
people, but from phones and other screens, from responsibilities of work, and from whatever else can bring stress or come between us and God. This is where we find the time and space to truly pray. And the disciples saw that. It must have been that every time Jesus prayed there was something special about him. A renewal, or a peace, or something that caught the disciples attention and on this day they decide to ask Jesus about it. Lord, they said, teach us to pray. They likely knew how to pray. They d probably been taught by their parents and the synagogue leaders. They had the prayers that were in the Scriptures, the same ones we have today in the psalms. But something was special about Jesus and how Jesus prayed. I want to pray like that. Many of us know how to pray. We have probably been taught by our parents or the church leaders, like the disciples. We ve practiced it in worship together, we ve practiced it alone, or before a meal with family. I wonder, how many of us desire to say Lord, teach us to pray? I wonder if we know that we have so much to learn about prayer. So the disciples are curious, wondering what makes Jesus prayer time so special. He must have the perfect prayer. He must say the perfect words at the perfect timing. He must fold his hands and close his eyes perfectly. We need to learn this perfect prayer! Now many of us have seen and heard the prayer that Jesus was about to teach them. So we might not think about how disappointing this prayer might have been to the disciples. It s so short. It s so simple. It s too short and simple to be perfect, right? Where are all the fancy religious words? Where s the long monologue? But, when we look at it closer, it s actually brilliant, because it doesn t tell us exactly what to say, necessarily, but it tells us how to pray. It gives us a pattern of prayer. 2
So Jesus says to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial. There s a translation of the Bible that was written by Eugene Peterson called The Message, and I like it because it makes us hear and see Scripture differently. Peterson translated it this way to make it pleasing to the contemporary ear. While I wouldn t use this translation in any official sense, I use it myself for devotionals. This is how he translates this prayer in Luke: Father, Reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. I like that Peterson uses the word keep to describe what we should pray for. We need God to keep us alive, keep us forgiven, and keep us safe, and we should always pray for it. Now, you probably noticed right away that it s a little different than the prayer many of us have memorized as the Lord s prayer. Some details have been added. But this prayer, and the one recorded in Matthew which has a few more details, gives us the basics of the pattern of prayer. 3
Then, Jesus tells us to be persistent in prayer, and gives us the lesson we learned a few weeks ago in Ruth 3: ask, seek, and knock. God is good. We are like children going to a parent and asking for a fish or an egg. A good parent wouldn t give a snake instead of a fish or a scorpion instead of an egg. And so God, when we ask, will provide. That doesn t mean that whatever we ask for he will give us, but when we ask for what we truly need, he will provide. The Lord s Prayer, and the pattern Jesus gave us to pray, teaches us that. Pattern Here s the pattern of the Lord s Prayer we pray every week: Jesus begins with an address: Our Father, who art in heaven. Know who God is. Memorize ways to address God. Creator, Redeemer, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Savior, Lord, Father, Almighty. Scripture is full of ways to address God, and our prayer lives will be fuller when we know how to address God. But it never has to be complicated. In Luke, it s just father. Then there are three petitions about God. First petition: Hallowed be thy name At first this doesn t sound like a petition. But what we are asking for when we pray this is for God to be God for us and for his people. Our main concern in life should be that God be treated as God (Bruner, 297). We are asking for God to make himself high and holy, central and important. We ask God to reveal himself as holy to everyone as he has to us. Second petition: Thy Kingdom come and the Third petition: Thy will be done go hand-in-hand. 4
These petitions has wide implications and a few different interpretations, but what it boils down to is that we desire God s Kingdom, the perfect kingdom, with perfect justice and peace, where every illness and injury are healed and where every tear is wiped away, where mercy and grace replace punishment and fear, where swords are beaten into plowshares, where God s presence is unfiltered and full. We want that Kingdom to come. Then we get a transition from God in heaven to us on earth when Jesus says on earth as it is in heaven. The first half of the prayer is directed at God your name, your kingdom, your will. These things are done perfectly in heaven, but we can all see in our lives and around us that God s name, God s kingdom, and God s will are not perfectly done here on earth. So then Jesus turns the prayer to us, with three more petitions. Fourth petition: Give us this day our daily bread. God, keep our bodies, minds, and souls sustained so that we can worship and serve here on earth, so that we can demonstrate to others what it will be like when thy Kingdom comes and thy will be done. Fifth petition: and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Forgiveness is central to God s Kingdom, and we are called to continuously ask for forgiveness. We are called to repent to turn away from sin and toward God. But we can t stop there, because when we truly repent, when we truly are forgiven, we will also forgive. Jesus doesn t want us to forget that in this prayer. Sixth petition: Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. 5
These last three petitions, that are focused on us, have a sense of time to them. The first, give us this day our daily bread is about now. Forgive us our debts is about the past. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil is about the future. In some ways, I don t think that what we are praying for is an easy life or for us to never see evil. Evil is everywhere, we re not called to ignore it. But we need God s help to not perpetuate evil. Evil wants to be spread, when we see hate, we are tempted to hate back. Jesus breaks that cycle and delivers us from evil when we see evil and seek to do God s will; when we see an enemy and desire to love instead of hate. When we respond with forgiveness rather than retaliation. But we can only do that with God s help, and so we must pray for it. And just as the prayer opens with an address to God, it closes with a postscript about God and what belongs to God: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen. This part is an addition to the Luke version, because it is an important reminder for us. Always remember God s Kingdom, God s power, and God s glory. God s Kingdom gives us hope and a purpose, God s power gives us strength, and God s glory causes us to worship and spread the gospel. Just as we remember ways to address God, we should also remember ways to turn back to God and declare that any Kingdom, power, or glory that we have belongs to him. 6
Practice Over the next three weeks, we ll be exploring prayer. But I m not just going to talk to you about it, we are going to practice it together. This week, we ll practice using the Lord s prayer as a guide to pray. We pray it every week, and we will do so after the sermon as we always do, but we will also use it as a prayer template. What I mean by this is that we ll use the pattern Jesus used to help us pray for our own specific needs. John Calvin said that the Lord s Prayer helps us pray when our ideas run out. But it also provides a pattern of prayer. The prayer is short and simple, and yet Jesus says it contains all the petitions we need to ask. Because this is a prayer with petitions, the Lord s Prayer helps us learn how to do intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer simply means when we pray for ourselves or for someone else. Less simply, intercessory prayer means that we are invited into God s care and concern for us, our families and friends, and the entire world. No concern is too trivial for God to receive with loving attention. However, intercession is not a means of manipulated God to do what we want God to do, but a way to become aware of God s prayer for a person and join in that intercession. Romans 8 tells us that Jesus sits at the right hand of God in heaven, and intercedes, or prays, for us. The same chapter tells us that the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us and all around us, also intercedes, or prays, for us. When we pray, we are joining with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. With that in mind, we can use the Lord s Prayer to pray for ourselves and others. We saw the pattern, now let s put the pattern into practice. 7
I invite you to close your eyes and listen to this meditation from Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, which helps us enter into the Lord s Prayer to make it our own. Listen to these words: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Spend some time thanking God for his fatherly love and attention. Ponder who he is and adore his majesty, holiness, sovereignty, goodness and beauty. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Turn your intercession to God s purposes in the world. Where are you trying to bring in your kingdom rather than putting your efforts toward God s kingdom agenda? Confess where God s priorities have been replaced with your own. Consider what God s kingdom agenda might be in your relationships and in the world. Pray for these things. What might partnering with God around his will look like? Give us this day our daily bread. Pray for your needs and those whose lives are closely linked with your own. Pray for those who are in danger, suffering and in places of decision making or costly love. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Confess your grudges, bitterness and oversensitivity; dwell at the foot of the cross. Thank God for what it is like to be forgiven. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. As you look ahead into your day, notice the tasks and transactions ahead of you. Where might you get off track? Become aware of the ways that you may be tempted to spin the truth, manage your image, live out of your false self, lose your patience or envy another. Pray for the Spirit to work in you to change you. Ask for protection and courage for the day. 8
For yours is the kingdom and the power and glory forever. End your time of intercession with prayers of trust in God s goodness and his redemptive plan. You can open your eyes now. Conclusion Earlier, we saw that the Lord s Prayer gives us a pattern of how to pray. That practice shows us how we can use that Lord s Prayer pattern to guide our own prayers for ourselves and for others. We are called to be a church who prays. We are called to pray individually and in solitude, and we are called to pray for one another and collectively. And thanks be to God, Jesus shows us how. Amen. 9