A man opens a bar, right across the street from a church. The church is very unhappy about this. As they meet for administrative council meetings, for bible study, even Sunday service, every time they pray as a church, they pray that some how this bar will be shut down. One night during a storm, lighting strikes the bar, it catches fire and is destroyed. The bar owner takes the church to court, saying that they were responsible for the damage to his property They asked God to destroy the property and God answered their prayer. The churches defense was that they had no control over acts of God. The lightening had nothing to do with them. Listening to the case, the judge felt that he had to be very careful in how he proceeded and how he answered this case. While weighing the evidence of the case, he says – now let me get this straight – in this case we have a bartender, who believes in the power of prayer and this side, and other the other side we have a church who doesn’t. hmmmm.
And even though we as the church pray at every function, we talk about prayer everyday – the power of prayer is still something that befuddles us. At some level we all ask the same question that Jesus disciple asks in Luke 11 – Teach us how to pray. . Jesus responds to the disciple by giving a version of the Lord’s Prayer. The version that we are used to praying is in Mathew 6:1-14. This is a shorter version of the prayer that we are used to saying. Instead of asking to forgive our trespasses as we forgive our trespasses, the request in Luke is to save us from the time of trial. Also protestants are used to ending with for thine are the kingdom, the power, the glory forever and ever. If you have ever prayed with Catholics, they stop before saying that. But say it more as a response to the prayer later. It was believed that the church added on that part as an extra prayer of thanks and acknowledgement from God. The Lord’s prayer is one of the most powerful prayers in the world. It is a large part of our Christian faith. You will hear some version of it. We know this prayer by heart, we say it all of the time, but how many of us really have taken the time to think about what it means, and what are we really praying when we say it. I could preach a whole sermon series on the meaning and power of the Lord’s prayer.
When the disciple asks Jesus to teach us how to pray like you do, that is what they are asking for a formula – the right words to say to get God’s attention. And Jesus does indeed give them those words. Father, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come. God is the source of everything that exist in the neighborhood. God is the source of everything that we have in our lives, God is the source of both the things that we need in life, and God is the source of what we want. So when we pray, we are to pray to the source- the one who has the power to provide for us.
The source of everything in the universe is not just a scientific reality like the sky, the sun and the moon. The source of everything in the universe is a heavenly and very sacred force. With the power to give, but also the power to give lovingly.– but is a special force which has a special relationship with you- an intimate relationship where it can listen and care about what you are asking for. Like a parent – who has a special reason for making sure that you are taken care of.
Jesus received a lot of criticism from other jews for calling God abba, or daddy. They thought that was much too personal. And yet Jesus tells us that when it comes to prayer,God is personal- listening just to you and your request. So when you have a request, call upon the forces of the universe and acknowledge God as a caring parent, as father.
After calling upon the only one who is able to answer your prayer – your most important needs are food for today, forgiveness of the past, and the freedom to walk into the future without temptation. With Food, forgiveness and freedom – you have access to anything else in the world.
The Lord’s prayer is truly a powerful prayer. It is a prayer that we can live together in community. It is not a prayer for my needs, but our needs. Yes, Jesus does give the formula, but he goes even further by reminding us that it is not the formula that works to answer our prayer – it is the power of God. It is important not only to know the formula, but to also know why the formula works and how to use the formula.
The Lord’s prayer opens us up to the holy, we acknlwledge that we are not in control of our lives and cannot supply all of our needs. Our heavenly father can. A father who is sacred, and should be honored.
The Lords prayer teaches us faith – a belief in things we cannot see, yet trust that it will be so – thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
It teaches us trust – give us this day our daily bread, trust not to worry about things of tomorrow, but to be fully present and trust in today.
The lords prayer calls us to justice – it is so easy in life to take account of those who have wringed us in our lives, but how seriously do we think about those whom we have wronged - and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us – forgiveness is nor just about others, most important it is about you.
The Lord’s prayer makes us one – it binds us together as a community of faithful believers. God is not only head of our lives, God heads our lives o for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.
Finally the lords prayer is our life. Whenever I teach a class, I like to develop a covenant of how we will deal with one another. Rules of understanding. Once we all develop rules that we will live by and agree with, I have people sign the promise. Whenever we say amen – we put put our signature on what is being said or done. This is why it is so important for us to be open and aware when we pray. When we say amen, we are saying that we agree. We sign our lives to what is being said in the presence of god.
If you read through the book of Luke, you will notice that this writer was fascinated with Jesus and his prayer time. He makes notes of every time that he say Jesus pray. And at every pivotal point in his ministry, Luke will point out that Jesus prayed. At his baptism, during his temptation, before teaching, at the transfiguration, before going to Jerusalem, when he got to Jerusalem, when he knew that he would be killed, as he was being tortured, when he was on the cross, as he died, in his resurrection. At each of these junctures jesus needed to have a conversation with god. Prayer was jesus decision to walk with God. When do you take the time in your life to pray? What do your pray for? Whom do you pray for?
A church was having a family and friends day. Before inviting guest, each person was asked to make a list of people in their lives that they would want to invite. Before approaching them, they were supposed to pray for them for a week. One lady wanted to ask her neighbor Kate. She and kate had sons who were in little league baseball together. She prayed for Kate, but it seemed the the opportunity to talk about church never came. So of course the lady decided that prayer didn’t work. And that Kate would never come to church. On Friday, before the family and friends Sunday she got a call from another little league mother that she was coming to church with her son. Her son had insisted that he had to come to Sunday school with his friends. Oh, and by the way, Kate is coming with her son. Her prayer was answered. In order for our prayers to be answered, God has to work behind the scenes in ways that we would never imagine for things to turn out. Sometimes the change has to come in the situation.
We pray for God when we have a request in our lives, but do we pray for strength, for guidance, do we pray when we are in service that god will open the way.
When Jesus says, ask, seek knock he is telling us to pray. Prayer is our request that the door will be opened. Jesus uses the parable of a neighbor asking a to open the door and help in the middle of the night. The neighbor hesitates to answer – yet god always answers.
It was rumored that in the days of the cold war that Russian children were taught not to believe in god by telling them that god does not answer prayer. The teacher would have the children close their eyes and to pray for candy – when they opened their eyes there was no candy. Then the teacher would have them close their eyes again and pray to the Russian leader - Lenin for candy. When they opened their eyes – the candy would be there. The teacher would tell them that Lenin loves them and provides whatever they ask.
Jesus is telling us that is not the God that we serve- we don’t serve a god who gives us candy whenever we ask for it. We don’t serve a god who answers our prayers by giving us the desires of our heart. We are in relationship with a god who loves us and will do for us what is best in the long run. Answer to prayer is not that you will get what you want, it is that you are loved in every situation. Jesus says that the father gives the gift of the holy spirit to those who ask him.
How is your relationship with God? How often do you bring your life to God in prayer? How often do you acknlowledge the presence of the holy spirit in your life – working in every situation on your behalf?
Ask, seek, knock, pray as your lord and savior taught you to pray. Let us pray the Lords prayer together.
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