A Prayer for This Day

Matthew 6:1-15, 24-34

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“When you are praying,

do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do;

for they think that they will be heard

because of their many words.

Do not be like them,

for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

         “Pray then in this way:

         Our Father in heaven,

                  hallowed be your name.

                  Your kingdom come.

                  Your will be done,

                           on earth as it is in heaven.

                  Give us this day our daily bread.

                  And forgive us our debts,

                           as we also have forgiven our debtors.

                  And do not bring us to the time of trial,

                           but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their trespasses,

your heavenly Father will also forgive you;

but if you do not forgive others,

neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

 “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

“Therefore I tell you,

do not worry about your life,

what you will eat or what you will drink,

or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air;

they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

And can any of you by worrying

add a single hour to your span of life?

And why do you worry about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;

they neither toil nor spin,

yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory

was not clothed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field,

which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,

will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’

or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’

For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things;

and indeed your heavenly Father knows

that you need all these things.

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things will be given to you as well.

“So do not worry about tomorrow,

for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.

Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Luke 11:1-13

[Jesus] 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.”

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

         Father, hallowed be your name.

                  Your kingdom come.

                  Give us each day our daily bread.

                  And forgive us our sins,

                           for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

                  And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

And he said to them,

“Suppose one of you has a friend,

and you go to him at midnight and say to him,

‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;

for a friend of mine has arrived,

and I have nothing to set before him.’

And he answers from within,

‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked,

and my children are with me in bed;

I cannot get up and give you anything.’

I tell you, even though he will not get up

and give him anything because he is his friend,

at least because of his persistence

he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you;

search, and you will find;

knock, and the door will be opened for you.

For everyone who asks receives,

and everyone who searches finds,

and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish,

will give a snake instead of a fish?

Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?

If you then, 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!”

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A friend of mine from high school asks a question every so often on Facebook, and gets a variety of interesting responses. This week she asked, “what do you miss from your childhood?”, and I was surprised by my immediate memory of coming home from school, jumping up to sit cross-legged on the clothes dryer that was in our kitchen, and proceeding to tell my mom all about my day, usually as she fixed me a snack and got things ready for dinner. She was a great listener, and I trusted her to hear whatever I needed to share or to process, whether good or bad, trivial or significant.

According to Luke, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. They had seen him praying “in a certain place”, and they knew that John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray, and so they asked him to teach them too. Now, as observant Jews they were not unfamiliar with prayer. In fact, from the first century, Jewish prayers addressed God as “Our Father, prayed for the hallowing of God’s name and the coming of God’s kingdom, and had other points of contact with the Lord’s Prayer. So when Jesus shared the words of the Lord’s Prayer, it didn’t sound foreign to them, at least at the start.

And the words of the prayers as captured in these two gospels, from Matthew and from Luke, are similar, but not identical, which is not that unusual between gospels. Luke’s version of the prayer is shorter and more basic than Matthew’s: (show on slide)

Father                                           Our Father in heaven

Hallowed be your name.          Hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom come.                         Your kingdom come.

                                                      Your will be done

                                                               on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us each day our daily bread    Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our sins            And forgive us our debts

         for we ourselves forgive           as we also have forgiven

         everyone indebted to us.          our debtors.

And do not bring us                           And do not bring us

         to the time of trial.                     to the time of trial,

                                                      but rescue us from the evil one.

Matthew’s gospel places this instruction on prayer from Jesus in the midst of his instructions on fasting and giving alms, with an emphasis on keeping all three of these actions between us and God, not focusing on what other people think as we do any of them.

Luke, who gives more emphasis to Jesus’ practice of prayer than any of the other gospels, shows us through the broader context of this instruction, that Jesus is not giving the disciples magic words to say, but rather teaching them about the nature of the One to whom they pray.

The themes in each are these:

Ask of God as if you were asking of a loving parent,

and forgive others.

Let’s consider each of these themes, how they are addressed in the words of the prayer, and how the broader context of each gospel story sheds additional light on them.

Jesus prays to God the Father. In the first century both Jews and Greeks commonly addressed God as “Father”. The common synagogue invocation was “our Father, our King”. Jesus using the Aramaic Abba is a more intimate and personal term than the simple Greek term pater, and means something more like papa or daddy or dad. God the loving father is the one to whom we pray.

But that’s not all there is in this prayer that speaks of God. The prayer, like all authentic worship, is centered on God, not on us. And so it begins not with our needs and desires, but with words reflecting that we honor God as God, even as we come to God as our loving parent.

We confess – meaning to affirm our belief, not to say I’m sorry – that God is holy. To hallow is to honor as holy. This statement, hallowed be your name, both preserves the awesome holiness of god and prays for it to be acknowledged by all.

We pray that God’s kingdom comes. For Jesus and his disciples, the kingdom was not only a future reality at the end of the world, but a present experience. And so the prayer acknowledges that God is God and that God is ultimately responsible for bringing in God’s rule, but we cannot pray this prayer without committing our own will and action to fulfilling the will of God in the present, and also praying that other people will submit themselves to God’s rule here and how. For us as Christians, submitting ourselves to God’s rule includes becoming disciples of Jesus Christ.

After these two petitions, focused on the nature of God, we then turn to praying for our own needs: for bread, for forgiveness, and for deliverance.

The prayer for daily bread, this day, each day, brings us back to the time when the Israelites were provided each day with manna in the wilderness. It was sufficient for the day, but it could not be hoarded. If they tried to safe it, it became wormy and was spoiled. Because of this, the Israelites had to trust and rely upon God’s provision each day of what they needed. Just as Jesus tells us “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own”, so we are challenged here to only ask for what we need today, and to trust that both today and tomorrow and always, God will provide.

We ask next for forgiveness. Matthew asks for our debts to be forgiven. Luke asks for our sins to be forgiven. Jesus assumes in these words that every person who comes before God in prayer comes as a guilty one who needs God’s forgiveness. In these words, sin is thought of as a debt owed to God, which cannot be repaid. In confidence, the disciple of Christ is taught to ask for God’s forgiveness.

The commentaries and reflections in the New Interpreters Bible, which informed me as I prepared this sermon, speak of “the binding of human forgiveness to God’s… God’s forgiveness is unconditional, it preceded human forgiveness of other human beings, and is in fact the grounding and cause of our ability to forgive others. Yet, praying for God’s forgiveness, they say, is unthinkable for one who is intentionally an unforgiving person. Here and elsewhere in this prayer, divine action and human action are not either/or alternatives. The danger of presuming God’s grace and therefore being an unforgiving person oneself is emphasized in the quid pro quo wording found in both the Luke and Matthew gospels. Forgive us as we forgive. Forgive us for we have forgiven.

The third petition relating to our human needs is “deliver us”.  Do not bring us to the time of trial. Matthew adds, but rescue us from the evil one. It begs the question, world God want to lead us into either temptation or trial? In the Revelation to John, it is the devil who tempts us to sin, not God. In the first letter of James we find the assertion that God tempts no one. On the other hand, there is a strong biblical tradition of God testing believers – the testing of Abraham, the testing of Job, the testing of the children of Israel in the wilderness, and of course, the testing of Jesus in Gethsemane.  Because of these traditions and the threat of persecution, we appeal to God in this prayer, for deliverance from any trials that will threaten either our ability to confess and affirm our reliance on God, or God’s provision of our daily needs, both physical and spiritual.

Frederick Buechner speaks of the boldness needed to pray this prayer at all. He says, “we can pray it in the unthinking way we usually do, only by disregarding what we are saying.”

He says, “For we are praying ‘your will be done. “We are asking God to be God. We are asking God to do not what we want but what God wants. We are asking God to make manifest the holiness that is now mostly hidden, to set free in all its terrible splendor the devastating power that is now mostly under restraint.

We are praying “your kingdom come on earth’. And if that were suddenly to happen, what then? Who would stand and who would fall? Who would be welcomed in and who would be thrown the Hell out? Which of any of our most precious visions of what God is and of what human beings are would prove to be more or less on the mark, and which would turn out to be as phony as three dollar bills? Boldness indeed. To speak these words is to invite the tiger out of the cage, to unleash a power that makes atomic power look like a warm breeze.”

He goes on to say, “you need to be bold in another way to speak the second half [of the Lord’s Prayer]. Give us. Forgive us. Don’t test us. Deliver us. If it takes guts to face the omnipotence that is God’s it takes perhaps no less to face the impotence that is ours. We can do nothing without God. We can have nothing without God. Without God we are nothing.

But he concludes by saying, “It is only the words ‘Our Father’ that make the prayer bearable. If God is indeed something like a father, then as something like children maybe we can risk approaching him anyway.

You know, sitting on that clothes dryer, talking to my mom, I felt like I could be bold enough to trust her with just about everything I had to bring that day. And as I think about prayer, using the Lord’s prayer as a model prayer, I agree with Frederick Buechner, that I can speak boldly to God, knowing that God my loving parent can be trusted with all my doubts, all my fears, all my sins, all my angers and frustrations and unknowns. God listens, God provides, God forgives, and God gives me strength to forgive and to give and to love and to serve. Prayer is what keeps my communication lines open with God, my loving parent, forever more.

God in the End

Luke 15:11-32

 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.

The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.

A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.

When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.

He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!

I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;

I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’

So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.

Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;

for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.

He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.

He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’

Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.

But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’

Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

Romans 8:31-39

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

As it is written,

            “For your sake we are being killed all day long;

                        we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been a whole year since we started the journey called We Make the Road by Walking, using the book of the same name by Brian McLaren. But here we are, at chapter 52 of the weekly studies. This last chapter is entitled, appropriately, God in the End. And as we have walked this journey, week by week, to this point, this book which is subtitled A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation and Activation has shown us how from the beginning to the end, Alpha to Omega, God is with us, and that the journey we are walking is, ultimately, God’s journey.

So this last chapter pairs the story of the Lost Sons with the beautiful and important reminder from Paul that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. What a great way to wrap up this particular journey.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is paired up in the gospel according to Luke with two other parables that come just before it – the Parables of the lost coin and the lost sheep. Jesus tells these three together, according to Luke, in response to some grumbling Pharisees and scribes, who were saying among themselves,

“This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So Jesus tells three stories of the lost being found – the first two involving an in-depth search, and the third involving a Father who is both generous beyond our understanding, and patient and forgiving also beyond our understanding.

This third parable, which you may have noticed I have initially called The Lost Sons instead of The One and Only Prodigal Son, has received extensive study, interpretation and commentary over the years. There is so much in this story that reveals to us much about who we are as well as who God is. And as I have been considering this week in particular the path that we walk with God, this journey of life, the story has made me reflect as well on the various journeys reflected in this story.

The youngest son, the one commonly known as the Prodigal, decides to ask for the portion of the inheritance that will someday be his, and a few days after he receives it, he heads out on his own. We don’t really know what his original intent was. Maybe he had a business plan of some sort. Maybe his intentions were honorable. But sometime after he left, he found himself on a path where, before long, all his resources were gone. The translation we read today says he squandered it all in dissolute living. The Greek words also can be translated as scattering it all recklessly. So who knows what he did? It could be anything from drinking, to gambling, to a series of lousy investments, to getting in over his head in debt. All these could be considered a reckless approach to life, whether then or now.

So when a famine comes, he is caught with no reserves.

He finds work, but still doesn't have sufficient food to survive. And when he realizes that his dad is still out there, the plan he devises does not involve his dad forgiving him, giving him a second chance, but rather that he will return in shame and ask to be hired help from here on out, just so that he has a way to survive.

So imagine his surprise when his father comes running, wraps him in a loving hug, and immediately plans a celebration feast to welcome him home and express his joy!

Now his older brother chose a different path for his life - the path of obedience. He stayed with his father, learned the family business, and as far as we know from the story, kept on the straight and narrow, as they say.

And so when his brother returns and is welcomed home with open arms, the older brother’s feelings are not so hard to understand, are they? Here he is, sticking around with his father, towing the line, probably doing both his share of the work and his brother’s, and it never even occurred to him that he might actually deserve a party. But now, his brother is home, and the celebration has begun, and the fatted calf that he probably even raised to be fatted and ready is being cooked up for the one who screwed up bigtime!

So this story tells us what happens when we choose the path of obedience, doing what’s expected of us, or when we choose the path of going it alone, striking out in a new direction, deciding for ourselves what is best.

Whichever path we take, God loves us, and provides for us, and not only welcomes us home, but celebrates our arrival with a great feast.

The older son could have had a party – all he probably had to do was ask.

The younger son could have counted on mercy from his father – all he had to do was come home – not even ask!

Paul tells us that he is convinced that nothing – NOTHING – can separate us from the love of God. Not scattering our resources in reckless living. Not resentment and anger hidden behind dutiful obedience. Not powers, not angels, not life of death. Nothing.

Psalm 139 tells us there is nowhere we can go that God is not there.

Whatever path we choose in life, God will walk with us, and will do what it takes to turn the messes we make into something good.

But – in all this discussing and considering and choosing our life’s paths, there is something that we risk missing. A path that we may overlook.

This is the journey that God is on. Because God is on a path, too. And Jesus calls us all to come, to follow him. We should not so much be asking God to be on our path, as we should be asking God to help us get on God’s path. Because it’s God’s journey that we are called to be part of. And if we miss out on joining in as God makes the road by walking, we miss out on so many opportunities to not only catch glimpses of God’s kingdom, but also to provide glimpses to others.

And here is a part of the mystery that is God – we are not alone, no matter what path we are on. But that does not mean that we are always on the path that God is calling us to. God is always with us – we can never be separated from God – but in Jesus Christ God calls us to a path that requires us to turn from our own paths – to repent – to turn and go in a different direction. Onto God’s path.

Where is God’s path? God is out in the community. Where do we need to be to join in God’s journey? We have good, strong hints in the Beatitudes.

·      God is with the poor.

·      God is with those who mourn. 

·      God is with those whom society humbles.

·      God is with those who are famished and parched for justice.

·      God is with those who imitate God by showing mercy through emotion, action, and dedication.

·      God is with those who, with genuine hearts, wrestle with God, and are changed, and live in a way that strengthens the whole people of God. 

·      God is with the peacemakers, with those who work for shalom for the whole people of God. 

·      God is with those who have been persecuted for the sake of justice.

These are the paths to which God calls us to join in, where Christ says, “Come and see!” “Follow me!”

For as tempting as it is to set out on a path of our own choosing, a path to make of ourselves as much as we can, or a path to abide by all the rules of what it takes to succeed, if we first draw close to God, if we seek first the kingdom of God, and God’s righteousness, then God will lead us on a path that will most certainly not align with our personal preferences, will not follow society’s rules, and will lead not to success but to faithfulness. But it will be a path of joy, a journey that will bring us alongside sisters and brothers in faith, a path that we can look back upon and see how God’s kingdom is at hand, even here and now, a path that leads to a table upon which Christ has prepared a great feast, nourishing us and strengthening us for God’s work in the world. If we find ourselves, on whatever path we take, drawing near and turning when necessary onto the paths God has laid out for us – because to repent means to turn and go in a different direction - , when we turn our direction onto the paths that lead us to the poor, the humble, those who mourn, the peacemakers, those who seek justice, in order to greatly honor them, to walk along with them, then we are truly using our God-given gifts on God’s journey, not just our own.

I pray that each of us, individually and as the community of New Life Presbyterian Church, will seek first God’s path, God’s journey, and do whatever it takes to turn our lives onto that path, trusting that whatever is the calling to which we are being called, that God will walk with us, and will never leave us, and that God will perfect our imperfect attempts to do God’s will in the world, so that the best thing that can be said about us is this: “these people welcome sinners and eat with them.”

Amen.