Sermon for Sunday, September 4, 2016

The reading

Luke 11:2-4

Jesus 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.”

 

The message

This is our last week with Luke 11:2-4 as our reading at worship.  Over the past 3 Sundays we had a skit dramatizing a conversation between a person praying the Lord’s prayer and God answering her, we had the newly retired Deacon Florence Poeskhe as our guest preacher who took the church through a petition by petition review of the Lord’s prayer and we had 4 things you might not know about the Our Father (Jesus shares two versions, it’s a model prayer,  the ending, “for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever amen” is not included in all ancient biblical manuscripts and while Jesus combination is unique, the actual petitions and praise in the prayer are found in other monotheistic faiths (Judaism and Islam)).

This week, I wanted to share some personal reflections on the Lord’s prayer. I will also look the role of these words for our faith, in particular the part they play in Martin Luther’s Catechisms.  The words of the Our Father are probably the most familiar words in Christianity. As my mother first brought me to church, I can remember feeling like I was connected and fit in because I knew the Lord’s prayer (and once we said it, church was almost over). Today, they are the words that Jen and I pray each night before bed.  They are the first prayer we teach our children at home, the first lesson for those entrusted to us at Sunday School, the words we often get tested on at First Communion or Confirmation, the words we turn to when we do not know what else to say and the words that guide our understanding of how to pray.

Early on in my ministry and pastoral care training, I was taught to make sure you include the Lord’s prayer during moments of crisis, care and loss.. Over the years, it has created a sense of comfort for me, the words to cover anything I might have missed or any lingering concerns about God’s grace or presence.  Jesus’s words often offer comfort at times when we fail to. I still remember the hours after my father died. It was about 20 years ago and once we found his body, we called our church for a priest to visit.  The priest who arrived was relatively new and on his first call like this. We knew him from youth group and putting faces to names, he was shocked that we were the call. At the time he talked and listened and probably wondered what happened as much as we did. All I really remember from the visit is that a priest showed up and we said the Lord’s prayer, that’s what mattered.  

For all of those reasons this is the prayer that people never forget. I can remember sitting with people at the end of their lives, with people who were virtually unresponsive due to sickness and its treatment. Often as I said this prayer to them or led their loved ones in this prayer around them, they responded, appeared listening, or even trying to pray it too.

As familiar and comforting as the Our Father is, people still wonder about and wrestle with parts of it. I  can think of moments when people have struggled with petitions in the prayer. “Thy will be done” is easy when things are good, but it is a hard one at times of tragic loss or unexpected, undeserved suffering.  At those times, Thy will be done goes from words we say to a confirmation of our powerlessness and limited understanding.  

As we started this series on the Our father, someone of deep faith and knowledge told me she “didn’t get lead us not into temptation”.  My first thought was that’s easy it means….. and then I wasn’t sure. This conversation made me think of being in school when teachers would say “if you don’t understand something, ask, others probably don’t get it either”.   

After a good deal of study and 2 or 3 long emails, the sort of rambling ones that you do when your not really sure of the answer, we worked it out.  First, it is worded in a strange way,  God does not tempt us. There is enough temptation the world without God adding to it. Perhaps we are asking for God to keep us on a path that lets us walk right by temptation or if we stop, to get moving again, to stay focused on the joy God offers. We are not going to avoid temptation without God's word, guidance and promises.   

As I studied “lead us not into temptation”,  I turned to Luther’s small catechism for help in understanding this petition. The Lord’s prayer takes up a good portion of Luther’s Small catechism. This guide was written in response to Luther and other reformation leaders visiting churches in the 1520’s and being shocked, annoyed and angered by how little pastors and members knew (I can imagine Luther waiting on the greeting line after church, walking up to the pastor and unloading a barrage of  nasty comments “you are pathetic, how can you wear these robes and share the word of God and know so little about it”) .  In response to what he observed, Luther wrote the small catechism or teaching. Each part of this guide, the 10 commandments, Lord’s prayer, apostles creed, sacraments and daily prayers or blessings work together to teach and to bring us to God’s grace

.

The teaching part is systematic, looking at each commandment, petition and prayer and explaining “what is that”, what are we saying, asking for or confessing to be true”.  In response to “lead us not into temptation” Luther writes,  We know God will not lead us into temptation without us asking, we ask as a reminder to ourselves that this is true and we can depend on it.   That phrase, we know God will do something without us asking is the foundation of The Lord’s prayer in Luther’s small catechism.  We know God will provide our daily bread without us asking, God's kingdom will come without our praying for it, God’s name will be holy without our request.   

The catechism also preaches, bringing the reader to God’s grace. This is accomplished through a process called Law and Gospel.   The 10 commandments are the law.  Each one is examined and expanded upon until they become impossible for anyone to keep regularly. By the time you get to number 10, you know you are a sinner and cannot save yourself. The commandments expose our sins to us and drive us away from ridiculous attempts to save ourselves by our good works.   They drive us to God’s saving work through Jesus cross, his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins. We are saved by faith alone.  The depth and saving power of that gift is revealed in the Apostles Creed and the Lord’s prayer.  That gift is put in our faces daily through the sacraments and ordered prayers of the day (at waking, before sleeping, before and after meals)

Today was our last week with the Lord’s prayer as our reading and the last Sunday of our first year with the Narrative Lectionary .  Next Sunday, we start our second year with the Narrative Lectionary. Our list of Sunday reading will literally start in the beginning with the book of Genesis. Each Sunday from then to December, we will go through the Old Testament leading up to Christmas. As we worship God, we will hear the stories of the promises, expectations and amazing events that prepared the world for the birth of our savior.