Jesus was praying in a certain
place. When he finished, one of his
disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
Jesus told them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father, uphold the holiness of your
name.
Bring in your kingdom.
Give us the bread we need for today.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who was
wronged us.
And don’t lead us into temptation.’”
He also said to them, “Imagine that one
of you has a friend and you go to that friend in the middle of the night. Imagine saying, ‘Friend, loan me three loaves
of bread because a friend of mind on a journey has arrived and I have nothing
to set before him.’ Imagine further that he answers from within the house,
‘Don’t bother me. The door is already
locked, and my children and I are in bed.
I can’t get up to give you anything.’
I assure you, even if he wouldn’t get up and help because of his
friendship, he will get up and give his friend whatever he needs because of his
friend’s brashness. And I tell you: Ask
and you will receive. Seek and you will
find. Knock and the door will be opened
to you. Everyone who asks,
receives. Whoever seeks, finds. To everyone who knocks, the door is opened.
“Which father among you would give a
snake to your child if the child asked for a fish? If a child asked for an egg, what father
would give the child a scorpion? If you
who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
Today we are continuing in a
series of messages called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Grace.” Each week, we are thinking of ourselves as
spiritual hitchhikers - dependent on God’s grace to make our spiritual journey
- trusting God to meet us and provide us with what we need.
I have asked you to keep an image
in your mind of God driving around in a bus full of grace, making periodic
stops along the way where people can hop on - where we can experience God’s
grace in our lives. We’ve said that
there are two things people need to do in order to experience the grace in each
of those places - the first is to----show up, and the second is to----have an
open and willing heart.
The grace bus has already made
several stops along its route, and we have experienced God’s grace in Holy Communion, baptism, and healing. Today, we pull into the next stop: prayer. May we
pray.
Today’s text opens when Jesus is
off praying somewhere, and his disciples come to him and say, “Lord, teach us
to pray” (v. 1). It would seem the
disciples of Jesus are still asking this question.
What I would like you to consider
this morning is this: prayer has more to do with who God is than
it has to do with what we say.
Our text opens by telling us that Jesus addresses God as a loving
parent, with both intimacy and familiarity. Jesus’ prayer assumes a parent who is not
remote, but accessible, not violent and overbearing, but supportive and caring. Our text ends in the same place - verses 9-13
tell us what this loving, responsive God is like: giving when asked, opening
the door when it is knocked upon, not deceiving us or harming us, but always
looking out for our own good. Jesus is
telling us that we are praying to the God who shamelessly loves us like a
parent, who loves us better than even the best earthly parent loves their
child.
I find a great deal of comfort in
this. Prayer is, first and foremost,
about a relationship with a God who forgives our shortcomings, and who loves us
with an indescribable love. Prayer
doesn’t require a specific formula, the incantation of certain words, or a
vending machine that only accepts correct change, because prayer has more to do
with who God is than it has to do with what we say.
Further, you can’t really mess up
when it comes to prayer because all prayer is basically one of three
expressions. When you boil it down and strip
away the fancy words, all prayers are either saying, “Help,” “Thanks,” or “Wow!” There may be some other sentiments
that get mixed in there, some other versions and variations of these basic
three responses. Lord, teach us to pray.
Wow
Our text today is Luke’s version
of the Lord’s Prayer, or more appropriately, the Disciples’ Prayer. Luke’s version of this prayer is briefer than
the more familiar version of this prayer found in the 6th Chapter of Matthew’s
Gospel. One of the things I love about
this prayer is that it finds a way to say, “Help,” “Thanks,” and “Wow” several
times over in just a few lines.
Let’s start with “Wow.” This prayer begins with Jesus saying,
“Father, uphold the holiness of your name” (Luke 11:2 CEB). More familiar translations might say,
“Father, hallowed be your name” (NRSV).
The English word “hallow” means “to sanctify, make holy, make sacred, to
set apart.” The way it is used in this text is more a sense of revealing or
upholding what is already there. In this
case, our prayer does not bestow holiness upon God, for God is already
holy. We’re asking God to show us God’s
holiness, not because we need God to prove it or because God owes us, just
because we know God is holy, and we’d love to catch a glimpse of it.
To say, “hallowed be your name” is
us saying, “God, you are holy. You are
powerful and majestic, you are beautiful and creative, you transcend time and
space and human understanding. You are
Grace, you are Love, you are more Wonderful than our minds can comprehend; You
are Holy, whether we acknowledge you or not.
Even so, hallowed be your name.
Grant us grace that we might have eyes and hearts that can see the glory
of your holiness which is all around us, even now.”
It’s sort of like God puts on the
most spectacular show every day, and when we say “hallowed be your name,” we’re
saying, “Please God, give us tickets to the show.” Every evening, it’s like God puts on the
grandest event you’ve ever seen - I’m talking Cirque de Solei meets NCAA Final
Four meets CATS on Broadway meets the Daytona 500 meets the Disney Laser Light
Show meets the Super Bowl meets the Oscars.
When we pray, “Hallowed be your name,” we are saying, “God, we’d like
tickets to the show, VIP back-stage passes, invitations to the after-party.”
To our amazement, God says,
“OK. Done. You’re on the list.” And we respond by saying, “Wow.”
Who God is and what God does is
more than enough to take our breath away, but the real kicker is that God
graciously invites us to see the show.
God who is holy has not only invited us to see and participate in the splendor
unfolding around us, but has even invited us into a relationship, the intimate
and nurturing relationship of a parent and child, not because we are deserving,
but simply because God loves us. And we
say, “Wow.” Our lives, both here and in
the world to come, become a symphony of constant praise, and we realize that
everything around us, having encountered the holiness of God, is constantly
telling the glory of God.
(Dave - “Holy, Holy Holy” v. 4
response)
Help
Sometimes, our prayers are an
opportunity to say “Help.” Help-type
prayers are probably the most common and familiar to most of us. Help prayers are when we ask God, beg God, or
even demand that God do something, either on our behalf or on behalf of someone
else.
Often in our help-type prayers, we
find some other feelings mixed in, as well.
There may be feelings of sorrow or lament, there may be feelings of
desperation and exasperation, there may be feelings of numbness or indecision
or completely being overwhelmed. We
offer a help prayer because we need help; we’ve come to a point where we
realize that we can’t do it on our own or through our own faculties, and we
need some assistance, which is why we’re asking God for help.
One thing I’ve come to realize is
that help prayers are more effective if we offer them first rather than as a
last resort. Starting the day by saying,
“Lord, help me through this day” puts us in a place where we start out
recognizing our dependence on God and our constant need for God’s presence in
our lives. Starting out with this recognition
helps us keep God at the center, keep the conversation open constantly, and
live as if we really are dependent on God’s grace, rather than only inviting
God into our lives in the midst of life’s crises and desperate situations. Make no mistake, God is still there with us
in those crises - yet God doesn’t want to be called in only on special teams,
but would really like playing time through the entire game.
The more often we ask God for
help, the more we keep the conversation open, and the more we open ourselves up
to the constant movement of God’s Holy Spirit within us. God’s help becomes something that is not a
desperate play in our book, rather, it becomes our entire life’s gameplan. Prayer is about nurturing our relationship
with God, and God’s line is always open when we call.
(Dave - “O Lord Hear My Prayer”
response)
Thanks
There is one more basic type of
prayer in addition to “Wow” or “Help.”
That’s when we say, “Thanks.”
This one should be an easy one.
When someone does something nice for you, or helps you out, how do you respond? You say, “Thank you.” Saying “Thank you” is a simple way to say,
“Hey, you’ve done something for me, and I appreciate it!” More than just a polite thing to do, it
acknowledges that person and keeps us from taking them or their gift for
granted.
We were taught to write Thank-you
notes as kids, and we sent them for gifts we received at birthdays, holidays,
and graduations. When we’re at a
restaurant, and the server refills our water, we say, “Thank you.” Ashley and I have spent the last 11 months
writing Thank-you notes for gifts at our wedding, and panic mode has set in as
we’ve realized that we only have a month left to get them all completed within,
at least according to the etiquette guides, a socially-acceptable timetable
before everyone gets to start gossiping behind our backs about how rude and
ungrateful we are.
When someone does something for
us, we say “Thank you.” Question for you
this morning: Has God ever done anything for anyone here? Raise your hand if God has ever done anything
for you. Truth is, God does stuff for us
all the time, even more than we could ask or imagine, God is doing. The creative gift of life, reconciliation
through Christ, the sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit - God has done, is
doing, and continues to do for us all the time, and we respond by saying,
“Thanks.”
Have you ever noticed that some of
the most joyful people are those who know how to say “Thank you”? They say it frequently, constantly
acknowledging those around them and letting them know that they are not taken
for granted. Likewise, have you ever
noticed that some of the most joyful Christians are those who know how to say
“Thank you” - not only to other people, but to God? When we realize that all of life is a gift,
and that God has given freely, generously, and abundantly to each of us, in
infinitely greater measure than we deserve, what else can we say but
“Thanks”? I don’t know about you, but I
want to be a person who lives my life in such gratitude that everything I
think, say, or do gives acknowledgment and thanksgiving to God.
(Dave - “For all that you’ve done”
response)
Listening
One last thing about how we
experience God’s grace through prayer.
Obviously the three basic types of prayer - “Wow,” “Help,” and “Thanks”
- help us experience God’s presence, whether we are overcome by God’s holiness,
asking for God’s assistance, or expressing our gratitude to God. Yet, we’ve already said that prayer is the
conversation of a relationship, and every relationship involves both give and
take, speaking and listening. Prayer,
therefore, is just as much about listening to God as it about having God listen
to us.
My first grade teacher, who will
turn 90 this week, taught our class about the importance of listening. “You have two ears and one mouth,” she
said. “So you need to spend at least
twice as much time listening as you do speaking.” Given my love for talking, I was reminded of
this lesson with greater frequency than were others in the class.
Every relationship, every
conversation, involves both speaking and listening. Listening necessarily requires that we give
our attention to the other, as well as an openness to what they are saying and
a willingness to be changed by what they share.
This is true in our human relationships, and this is especially true in
our relationship with God. Effective
prayer, that truly nourishes and responds to our relationship with God, will
devote twice as much time to listening to God as it does speaking to God. It requires the intentional setting aside of
our distractions and giving God our full attention, so that everything about us
- internally and externally - says, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening. Not only am I listening, but
I am open to what you will reveal to me, and I am willing to be changed by this
time with you.”
When we listen, when our hearts
are open to hearing from God and being transformed by what we hear, then we
have made room for the active grace of God in our lives.
The disciples of Jesus said,
“Lord, teach us to pray.”
Teach us who God is. Teach us to listen. Teach us to respond as we say, “Thanks,”
“Help,” and “Wow.”
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