Pray This Way

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

September 8, 2013

Pray This Way

Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4

The crowd was hushed as they gathered in the hot mid-day sun

near the Sea of Galilee to listen,

to listen to Jesus as he taught,

as he spoke those words we now call his Sermon on the Mount,

words that are so familiar to us:

“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth;

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God;

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy;

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.  ….

You are the light of the world. …

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,

But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.

But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek,

turn the other also.”

The Sermon fills three full chapters of Matthew’s gospel,

and there, right in the middle,

the centerpiece of the Sermon,

Jesus taught his listeners,

and teaches us, about prayer.

“Don’t heap up empty phrases,” Jesus said,

“but pray then 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.”

These are words we know,

words we say every Sunday;

although what we just heard from Matthew’s gospel

is not quite the same as what we say on Sunday mornings,

is it?

Luke’s gospel also gives us The Lord’s Prayer,

but his version is different, too:

his version is shorter than Matthew’s,

and the setting in which Jesus taught the prayer

was different.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus was not preaching to a large crowd;

It was a far more intimate setting.

Jesus had just returned to his disciples

after having gone off by himself to pray,

when one of the disciples said to Jesus,

“Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

John was John the Baptist.

It was common practice back then for a rabbi,

a religious leader, to teach his followers

certain, specific prayers.

Jesus responded to his disciple’s request with these words,

“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.”

Two versions of The Lord’s Prayer,

similar in part,

yet different in part,

and different from the prayer we know and say.

What Jesus taught his listeners

was a prayer that was typical of prayer

used back then in Jewish practice.

In fact, if you listen to the Eighteen Benedictions

used in Jewish worship today

you’d hear the same themes we hear in the Lord’s Prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer helps us to honor God,

hallowing and making holy God’s name.

But even as we lift our voices in holy praise

to the Creator of the universe,

Jesus is teaching us that we are also

lifting our voices to God our Father,

our beloved Abba,

a term of endearment and intimacy.

Jesus wants us to know that God is not a distant,

mountain-top God,

but an ever-present God,

a loving, caring God.

Can we also think of God as Mother?

Yes, of course.

The Affirmation of Faith we used as we began the service

(The Brief Statement of Faith)

reminds us that there are numerous references

in both the Old and New Testaments

that refer to God in maternal terms.

God is both our loving Father and our loving Mother.

It is that intimate relationship that Jesus wants us to know.

The prayer teaches us that we are to seek God’s Kingdom;

that we should pray for that day

when God will establish his Kingdom,

a place where God’s will is done,

here on earth,

just as it is already done in heaven.

“Feed me with the food I need”

are the words of a Proverb,

(Proverbs 30:8)

and also the lesson about our daily bread –

that God will see to our needs,

and that we should trust God to care for us,

not worry,

and not be greedy as well.

The prayer teaches us that we cannot truly know

God’s graciousness and mercy in forgiveness

if we ourselves don’t learn to forgive others.

Forgiving and knowing forgiveness are tied together,

we cannot fully know one without the other.

Debts? Trespasses? Sins?

The two passages and the Greek language

teach us that the words are interchangeable.

The churches that still use “trespasses”,

those that use “debts”,

and we here at MPC with our version with “sin” –

we are all correct,

no one more correct;

no one less correct.

“Lord, lead me not into temptation,

for I can find my own way just fine;

I don’t need any help.”

This old joke reminds that it is not God

who leads us to temptation,

but we ourselves when we make bad choices,

when we turn from the will of God;

when we disobey.

James, the brother of our Lord said it best,

when he wrote,

“No one, when tempted, should say,

‘I am being tempted by God’;

for God cannot be tempted by evil

and he himself tempts no one.

But one is tempted by one’s own desire.”

(James 1:13)

Guide us we pray, for we all need guidance,

every one of us, to help steer us away from temptations,

from the bad, from poor choices,

from evil,

from pursuing our own will

rather than doing God’s will.

We’ve changed the prayer over the centuries,

modifying it for communal use in worship services.

Jesus taught it in community

and taught it to be used communally.

The final words that were added probably have their origin

in the doxology the Book of Chronicles records

King David as having said to conclude a prayer:

“Blessed are you, O Lord,

the God of our ancestor Israel, for ever and ever.

Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power,

the glory, the victory, and the majesty;

for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours;

yours is the kingdom, O Lord,

and you are exalted as head above all.”

(1 Chronicles 29:10ff)

The danger with anything we say repeatedly is that over time

we stop thinking about what it is were are saying,

The words become rote, automatic,

and in time can lose their meaning.

As we say the prayer in a few moments

as part of our Lord’s Supper liturgy,

try to think about what it is you are saying,

what it is we are saying as the body of Christ,

brothers and sisters in faith, praying together.

responding to our Lord’s words, “pray this way”.

Try to focus in particular on the words,

“thy will be done”

for that is the life you and I are called to

by our Lord Jesus Christ: doing God’s will.

“Let your will O Lord be done in me,

through me

and by me

that I may become an effective sign

of the dawning kingdom.”

(Douglas Hare)

Let us pray:

“We pray your prayer, O God, the perfect prayer as our Lord taught us.

We say it often, together and alone.

And think that we have spoken now to you.

And yet, O Father, are these words not meaningless at times?

Do we not say them often without thought of their intent?

We pray so often with our lips, but with hearts and souls that are still.

Help us, Lord, to break the bonds that sever souls from lips and lives.

Help us to think anew on these words we so gladly say.

Help us as we meditate and pray the perfect prayer

To understand anew of what we pray.”

(E. R. Ferguson)

AMEN