Rev. Stina Pope,
July 25, 2004

Teach us how to pray, the disciples asked Jesus. Teach us how to pray. We still ask that,
don't we? We want to teach our children how to pray, and realize sometimes that we're
not exactly sure how to pray ourselves. So we teach them the Lord's Prayer. That's a good
place to start, and that is in our Gospel reading this morning.

Let's first start with the context, and here I'm talking about the larger context, namely the
Hebrew Scriptures. Here the passage is about Abraham arguing with God. Please pay
attention to this. Abraham does not get struck down by arguing with God. You even get
the sense that God enjoys a good legal argument. Beyond the idea that it is ok to argue
with God, I want us to carry away the idea that prayers of a few can have a significant
difference. Sometimes we wonder if our "little" prayers amount to anything. This story
would say, yes, they make a great deal of difference. Keep praying.

So, back to Luke. If we were in a different church I would tell you to take out your Bibles,
but please do take out your bulletin and a pencil or pen if you have one so you can mark
down the things that strike you.

The passage starts out with Jesus praying. He did that a lot. If we are going to fashion
our lives after him, we also need to pray a lot. His disciples come to him and tell him
that they want him to teach them how to pray. He is by now a noted rabbi, that is, a
teacher, and they want him to teach them how he does what he does. Praying is
obviously very important, so how does he do that please? So he starts, telling them,
when you pray, say: Father, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each
day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted
to us; and lead us not into temptation.

It starts off with "Father" -- not "our Father" just "Father," like you were really talking to
someone. It reminds me of a dear friend who started his prayers off "Evening Lord."
In other words, we are to address God as familiar, someone we know well. Then it goes
on, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, give us our daily bread. I want you to
notice that not only are these verbs plural, this is a corporate, not a personal prayer,
they are imperative. Do this! Do that! Let this be so! Jesus tells us that we are to
command God! This is explained further down the passage, so we go on.

Give us our daily bread. Remember this is right after Jesus has told them to go out to
preach and heal in the world, without taking provisions. Don't worry, Jesus says, over and
over. I don't know about you, but it's really hard not to worry about what's coming next
and whether there will be enough. When we say the Lord's Prayer, we need to remember
that Jesus told us to ask for today's bread, not for tomorrow, not for the week, just today.
Today is what we have, today is when we need food.

Now for the really sticky point. We tell God to forgive us our sins, because (because!)
we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. Have you forgiven everyone who owes you?
Everyone? Then tell God to forgive you the rest of what you have done, and accept
forgiveness. If you haven't forgiven everyone, then you know what you need to get right
with God. It's not fundamentally about getting right with that person, that happens as a
result of your wanting to get right with God.

Finally, we tell God to please not lead us to... and here the word temptation is better
translated as something like apostasy. In other words, God please don't put us in a situation
where we will be on trial for believing in you because we're not sure we're that strong.
That's why the new prayer says time of trial instead of temptation.

But wait, we're not to the end of the passage yet. Jesus goes on to explain something.
He says, think about this, suppose it's midnight, and you've gone to bed because you
have an early meeting the next day, and your neighbor starts banging on your door. You
pull the pillow over your head, but you remember that you really like this neighbor, and she
probably has a good reason for banging on the door, so you get up and answer the door.
The moral of this story is that it is ok for us to bang on God's door, even at midnight. Then,
if we still didn't get it, Jesus says, if your son comes and asks for a fish, will you give him
a scorpion?

That's what we're afraid of, right? We're afraid God's going to remember the time we hit
the ball through the window and then lied and said someone else did it. We're afraid God's
going to remember everything, because God does, and when we come asking for our daily
bread, God's going to say, oh you! I've been looking for you, come in here right now.

So we don't "pray" the Lord's Prayer, we say it, sometimes over and over. It's not a bad
mantra, but why not remember that the prayers of a few who are willing to call on God's
power are very powerful indeed, why not pray the Lord's Prayer?

Father
Let your name be holy
Come into full power in our lives
Keep giving us the bread we need for today
Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us
Lead us not to trial
Amen, let it be so.