First Presbyterian Church, Cottonwood Falls, KS

Jesus’ Prayer: Luke 1:1-11

Rev. Pat Ireland, Pastor

July 25, 2010

Luke 11:1-11 CEB

Jesus was praying in a certain place.  When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: Father, uphold the holiness of your name.  Bring in your kingdom. 3Give us the bread we need today. 4Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who has wronged us. And don’t lead us into temptation.”

5And also said to them, “Imagine 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; 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 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 and give you anything.’ 8 I assure you, even if he won’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. 9 “And I tell you: Ask, and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 Everyone who asks receives; whoever seeks, finds.  To everyone who knocks, the door is opened.  11 Which father among you would give a snake if your child asked for a fish? 12 If a child asked for an egg, what father would give the child a scorpion? 13 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!”

This morning’s lesson is a shorter and probably earlier form of the Lord’s Prayer.  Luke places it in the context of Jesus’ own prayer life and the disciple’s desire to be like Jesus.  When the disciples say,  ‘Teach us to pray’ Jesus gives them a brief model and two stories.

I am reminded of the old saying, “be careful what you pray for, you might get it” for as I studied the lesson this week, struggling with a slumbering God, I began to realized that we are getting an intimate glimpse of Jesus’ own prayer life.  One, we are invited to join.

Let us Pray:  Creator God, father, guide the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts that we might see your kingdom come. Amen

The pray starts simply, almost abruptly, no adjectives of adoration, just a statement of relationship:  Father.  One of Jesus’ greatest gifts was to bring the great God in heaven, the creator of all that is, into an intimate and familiar relationship with mortals.  Jesus consistently called God Father, Abwoon in Aramaic.  Sometimes he even used the familiar, Abba.  It is not baby talk, but it does reflect the kind of intimacy one might expect in a family.

The very speaking of the word, abwoon, evokes the breath of life and source of creation.  The name itself makes the transcendent God of the heavens accessible to mortals.  It shifts the emphasis from power to compassion and support.  What we call God- how we image God- shapes our relationship with God.  Jesus consistently called God, father.

Father, hallowed…  Hallowing means respecting, treating as holy.  This is basic to our relationship with God and our other relationships as well.  We acknowledge the dignity, the otherness of the other.  The Aramaic also implies a hollowing out- a making room for the other in our hearts and minds.  Hallowing is not trembling in fear before the great almighty, like Dorothy before the wizard.  Hallowing is respecting the other as unique and holy.   Hallowing is the opposite of what Adam did in the garden, trying to be as God.  Hallowing is making room for the unique and divine perspective.

So, when we hallow God’s name, we make room for God’s own self.  Remember that in the Hebrew mind, to use someone’s name was to evoke all that person’s authority.  Consider the boldness of those few words.  The great god who made the heavens and earth, the source of lightening, earthquakes and floods, is named, Father, and hallowed into our very being!

Jesus does not pray as one cringing before one who is more powerful, but claims relationship and is empowered by it.  “Father, hallowed be thy name.”   “Daddy, uphold the holiness of your name.”

I had the privilege of studying with Dr. Cynthia Rigby last January and she stressed the sense of urgency in the first petition.  She would stand before us saying, “Your Kingdom Come” stamping her feet, demanding that God do something, demanding that God the almighty assert divine power and authority to fix the world.

Remember, Jesus was living in an occupied land.  A foreign ruler tried to shape his daily life.  He and his disciples were not free.  Thus the fervent prayer:  Your kingdom come! This petition is not a vague hope for a second coming, but demand to live into the first coming.  That is why later versions add:  on earth as in heaven.  We are praying for God’s kingdom, now in our midst, in ourselves as well as others.

And because it is such a broad request, Jesus makes three specific petitions, each a sign of the kingdom coming, of God’s presence and reign in the world.

First:  Give us each day our daily bread.

When God’s people, freed from Pharaoh were traveling through the wilderness God rained down manna – sweet bread-like stuff- fresh each day so that none went hungry.   Food is a sign of God’s reign.  That’s why we fellowship around the table, especially the communion table.   Food is basic to life and those who worship the Lord of Life trust in God to nourish, as a mother nourishes her child.

Similarly we work to see that all are fed and nourished.  Notice the communal nature of the prayer: our daily bread.  It is not enough that I be satisfied, Jesus seeks that all have enough, every day, one day at a time, just like those whom Moses led.

If food is the first sign of God’s reign then forgiveness is the second.  Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

I suspect we most often sin when scrambling to secure provisions for ourselves.  Like those in the wilderness, we rush to gather enough for the day, and even a little reserve.  But God’s wilderness manna spoiled over night… except on the Sabbath.  We ask only for today’s bread.   Tomorrow, God will provide for tomorrow.

But that’s a hard lesson, and we still gather, and we hoard.  We turn our backs on those who do not have enough.  We manipulate power to get more.  We turn to violence to protect what we have.  That is the way of the world.

But God’s kingdom is marked by forgiveness.  Jesus asks us to recognize our own sins as well as the other’s.  We ask God for forgiveness after we have forgiven those who are indebted to us in word or deed.

Food and Forgiveness are signs of Gods reign, God’s kingdom in our midst.

The third request bothered me for a long time:  Don’t lead us into temptation.

I resist the notion of God testing us to see if we’ll pass.   I think, however, that in this petition we see the heart of the Jewish faith.  And Jesus- don’t ever forget- was a faithful Jew.

Think of how, in Genesis, Jacob wrestled with God on the banks of the river before crossing over to seek is brother’s forgiveness. (Gen 32)  It seems to me that this is the story behind the first petitions.  Jacob wrestled all night with the angel, seeking a blessing.  ‘Tell me your name.’  He would not let the angel go.  They tossed and turned and Jacob ended up with a dislocated hip and, finally- at day-break, a blessing, a new name: Israel.  The one who contends with God.

When I was a little girl, I loved to wrestle with my big brother.  I’d pick a fight just for the fun of it – that is until my mother recognized the game and refused to intervene to rescue me.  But my brother, who always overpowered me, never hurt me.   Maybe that is why Jacob’s wrestling resonates with me.  Wrestling is an intimate activity!

But Jesus prays not to have to wrestle like Jacob.  Jesus doesn’t want to be the hero.  He is asking that the father, help him to live in faithfulness.  Jesus was tempted in the desert (with the wild beasts) and wants to put it all behind him.  He is asking God for the blessing and suggests we should too.

Mind you God does not create the temptations.  Lead us not into temptation is a prayer for faith and courage to resist.  It’s when our faith, our relationship with God is underdeveloped that we are tempted to choose the world’s way over the kingdom’s way.

Here’s a personal example.  I was raised a Christian and I think that’s why I’ve never really been tempted to rob a bank or kill someone.  I thank God for that.  I have never been so hungry as to be tempted to steal food.  But I am often tempted to take a little more; to keep a little more for later.   I want to have enough to take care of myself – even as I pray for daily bread!

When we pray not to be tempted, we are praying for the trust, the faith, the relationship with God to not be tempted to rob a bank, … or make a cutting remark.  For the sake of alliteration, one scholar calls it fidelity.  Food, forgiveness and fidelity are the marks of God’s kingdom on earth just as they are in heaven.  We pray that we might be faithful to the God who is ever faithful to us.

Then Jesus gives us a story and, I think, a glimpse at Jesus’ own prayer life.  At first glance it looks like the purpose of prayer is to wake God up, to nag until we get what we want.

“Imagine 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 mine 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 and give you anything.’  I assure you, even if he won’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.”

I remember Elijah’s taunting of the prophets of Baal when they were trying to call down fire from heaven.  Elijah asked not only if Baal was asleep, but suggested he might have wandered off to relieve himself.  It was an awful insult, and yet it is not unlike Jesus story.  One scholar called him a slumbering God!

No, wait a minute, Jesus is being sarcastic!  He’s messing with us, just to keep us awake – to get our attention.  Jesus’ point is that if your lousy neighbor will yield to your persistence, surely God will yield.  In a sense there is no unanswered prayer, just prayer that has been answered yet!

That’s why, I think, we glimpse Jesus’ own prayer life.  We have the story of his temptation and how he wrestled in Gethsemane in the hours before his arrest.  It didn’t take a fortune-teller that there was treachery afoot.  Jesus prayed for God to change it, to overcome the world, to let this cup pass.

And yet God appeared to slumber.   Jesus was arrested, beaten, crucified and buried.   Nevertheless, the world was overcome in the resurrection as the model of God’s desire for all creation and us: life, and that abundant.  (John 10:10)

Keep in mind the primary petition,  Thy Kingdom Come.  The petitions for food, forgiveness and fidelity are simply an expansion of the original demand.  The story of persistence is the story of our eternal longing to see God in our midst.  We must be persistent and insistent in our asking, and disciplined in our looking. 

The second story adds clarity.

Which father among you would give a snake to if your 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!”

Remember, these words were spoken to a people who had lost their identity.  The Romans had conquered and occupied them and insist that Caesar’s way is the way.  These folks were looking for a new King David, a miracle worker like Elijah, who would put Caesar in his place.  They were looking for one who would overthrow Caesar.

Here’s the catch, they are asking for a scorpion when they needed an egg.  They were asking for a snake and God sent a fisherman.   The answer to the prayer was in their midst, and most of them missed it!

Father, let us not miss the answer to our prayers.  Jesus prayed for the Holy Spirit and promised it to those who ask.   I am praying that an offering of sightings, of kingdom acts, of random acts placed end to end around our sanctuary will help us recognize the answer to our prayers.

I realize there aren’t a whole crowd of us here today, but then this teaching was not given to the crowd.  It was given to Jesus’ disciples.

Ask, and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  Everyone who asks receives, whoever seeks, finds.  To everyone who knocks, the door is opened.

God is just waiting for us to invite the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts, our lives, our world.