Lord, Teach Us to Pray Jesus is off by himself a little distance from the disciples, praying, spending some time alone with God. When Jesus finishes his prayers, one of the disciples comes to him and says, Lord, teach us to pray. Jesus says, This is how you should pray," and then he teaches his disciples the Lord's Prayer. Nothing fancy. Short, simple, and to the point. Yet billions of Christians have prayed the Lord s Prayer one person alone with God, or two or three gathered in Christ s name, or a thousand worshippers praying together in the world s great cathedrals Christians around the world praying the Lord s Prayer in all the languages of the world for almost 2,000 years! Whenever we pray the Lord s Prayer, many thousands of our fellow Christians are right there with us in spirit, forming the same prayer in their hearts and on their lips, praying the same prayer that Jesus taught his first disciples. A 60-year-old person who has prayed the Lord's Prayer just three times a week since he or she was 7 years old has said the prayer 8,268 times. Many of you have probably prayed the Lord's Prayer a lot more than that. That's very good, but there's a little danger in it too we can get so familiar with the prayer that we don't really pay attention when we say it; we don't think about what it means. Sometimes our minds wander, and we're surprised when we get to the end of the prayer, and realize we were really thinking about something else like when you're driving a route that you drive almost every day, and you arrive at your destination and don't remember how you got there. Let's think about the Lord's Prayer together this morning. Let me share with you a little of what the words mean to me. The prayer begins: Our Father. God is our Father, but God isn t just ours and God isn t just our Father. 1
God is not just our God but the God of the whole world the God of all people, whether they know it or not, whether they believe in God or not. God is the Father the Creator of all people, the whole world, the entire universe. We re right to say, Our Father, but our means a lot more than just yours and mine. God is our Father, but, of course, we also know God as God s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and as the Sustainer of Life, the Holy Spirit the way that God works in the world today. God is our Father, our Savior, and our Sustainer. One more thing about God as our Father: We often refer to God as our Heavenly Father, and we re right to do so. Of course we understand that God is not a man, not a male parent. God s not a woman either, not a female parent. I think that God has all the best qualities that we usually associate with both fathers and mothers. Most of the biblical imagery for God is masculine, but the Bible sometimes also reveals God s motherly qualities qualities like tenderness and compassion that we associate more with mothers. Of course, fathers can and should have tenderness and compassion for their children, but I think there might be something a little different between a father s love and a mother s love for her children. When I was child, for example, my mother would often say, Just you wait until your father gets home. That wasn t usually good news. My dad never said, Just you wait until your mother gets home. My mom was more tender and compassionate. In the book of Hosea, chapter 11, I think God reveals God s motherly side God s tenderness and compassion when God says: When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. It was I who taught them to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them. My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. For I am God, and not a man the Holy One among you. 2
Don t get me wrong: I know a man can be tender and compassionate. Good men aren t afraid or embarrassed to be tender and compassionate sometimes. But those words from God in Hosea have a motherly feel to me a feeling of motherly tenderness and compassion. Listen to these words of Jesus from Luke 13: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn t let me. I think that God has a motherly side as well as the fatherly side we usually emphasize. When I say, Our Father, to begin the Lord s Prayer, I understand that God possesses all the best qualities of both a perfect father and a perfect mother. God is a perfect parent to all God s children. God is the best Father we can imagine a Father who can be tender and compassionate when those qualities that we usually associate with mothers are needed. The next phrase in the Lord s Prayer is Who art in heaven. In other words, God is in heaven now. But, of course, God is also beyond time and place. God is eternal and everywhere; present in every moment, in heaven, and within us, and all around us. The big words for that are immanent and transcendent, but that won t be on the midterm. It means that God is not just Nature or the Universe or something inside us: God transcends or is above all those things. But God is also immanent within Nature and the Universe and within every person. Immanuel, one of our names for Jesus, means God with us. God is in Heaven, and God is right here with us. Hallowed be thy name: In the Bible, people call God by many names. Elohim, Yahweh, Adonai, and Abba are just a few biblical names for God. But God is more than we can describe with any names. 3
When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, Moses asked God, "What is your name? Whom shall I say sent me? And God told Moses from the burning bush, I Am Who I Am. The comedian Bill Cosby had a little fun with that story. Moses sees God in the burning bush. Moses says, Who are you? God says, I am who I am. Moses says, Thanks for clearing that up! In ancient Israel, the name of God was so holy to the people that it could be pronounced only one time each year and only by one person. Once a year, the chief priest would go into the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem to say God s name. He would wait until all the people outside were praying and singing so loudly that no one not even the chief priest himself would hear him say God s name out loud. When Jesus said, hallowed by thy name, the disciples understood what he meant: God s name is holy. Don t use it lightly or casually. The next phrase in the Lord s Prayer is Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When we pray these words, we're looking forward to the time when Christ will come again and create a new heaven and a new earth, and we re asking God to help us transform the world we live in today into the just, peaceful, and holy world that God desires for all God s people to do the best we can to follow God s will until Jesus comes again. Give us this day our daily bread: God created a fertile world of abundance that can provide all people with everything we need to nourish and protect our bodies every day. God s good earth will provide our daily bread and everything else we need to survive and flourish if we can summon the wisdom and the will to use our planet s resources the way God intended. We re not doing a very good job of protecting our planet. For example, I heard on the news last week that the number of animals alive in the world today is one half the number of animals alive in the world just 40 years ago. 4
In other words, since 1974, the animal population of the Earth has fallen by 50 percent. That doesn t sound like a healthy, life-sustaining planet. We need to do a better job of respecting and protecting Planet Earth if we want God to continue giving us our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us: We're asking God to forgive us for our actions and inactions that cause harm to others and to heal the unkind thoughts and selfish desires that prevent us from forgiving others who cause harm to us. We will receive from God only the measure of forgiveness we give to others in our families, our community, our world, and don t forget this one in our church. Forgive one another! Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: We're asking God to remind us that everything God creates is good, and asking God to keep us from turning good into evil by misusing the good things God has given to us. God doesn t tempt us, but many of the good things that God created can tempt us to use these good things improperly. For example, God created grapes and the process of fermentation. We can make wine. Jesus first miracle was to change water into wine. Wine is good a gift from God. I admit I drink a lot of wine: seven or eight glasses every year! But many people drink wine and other alcoholic beverages to excess. They ruin their health, destroy their lives, and devastate their families. Almost any good thing can be used badly: alcohol, food, sex, freedom, freewill, intelligence, knowledge, power. Everything God creates is good, but we humans often manage to use good things badly. We pray that God will help us use things properly, that God will help us overcome the temptation to change good things into bad results. 5
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever: We're praising God because the whole universe is God's kingdom God's home; the power that creates everything comes from God alone; and the glories that make everything holy the big things like the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the galaxies, and the little things like plants, animals, and human beings all belong to God first, last, and always, on Earth and in Heaven, now and forever. One of my favorite things to do as your pastor is to visit our members when they re sick or in the hospital or shut in at home. We talk for a while, I usually play a few songs on a Native American flute if they don t mind, we share Holy Communion, then we hold hands and say the Lord s Prayer together. Here s something I ve noticed many times. Even if the person I m praying with doesn t remember all the words of the Lord s Prayer, he or she always remembers the last phrase: for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. They say that part confidently and a little louder and more clearly than the rest of the prayer. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Something else I ve noticed: almost everyone I pray with squeezes my hands on the words kingdom, power, glory, and forever. Four strong squeezes! That s the good news they re looking forward to saying and hearing the part they always remember even if they don t remember the rest perfectly. For Thine Is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever! And so it is! In Christ s name we pray. Amen! Rev. Tom Bierovic 6
7 First Christian Church Shelbyville, TN October 12, 2014