Sunday
07/24/16 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “When you pray, say…”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 85
New Testament
Scripture: Colossians 2:6-19
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 11:1-13
My brothers and sisters, my friends, welcome again on this
the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. Ten Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved, and
the Christian Church was born.
In the Christian Church being born so long ago on the day
of Pentecost, one of the biggest focuses of the church, was, and still is,
prayer. As Christians we tend to believe strongly in the power of prayer. We
tend to believe that when we pray that God hears us. We tend to believe that prayer
is a good thing, a holy thing, and a healthy thing. How many of us here, believe
in the power of prayer? How many of us here, believe that God can work through
us, so that through prayer and faith, God can use us to do amazing things?
I believe in prayer, and when I tell anyone that I am going
to pray for them in church or elsewhere, I do my best to do that. In fact, I
try to pray for as many people as I can. If we believe then in power, the
holiness, and the healthiness of prayer, then what is the best way to pray? By
this, I mean is there a best way to talk to God?
I have had people say to me before, “Pastor Paul can you
offer us prayer for this, as you do great prayers?” Are my prayers better than
other people’s prayers? Is how we say our prayers important, or is it what our
heart is speaking to God that matters the most? What I mean by this, is that
some folks can offer great and eloquent prayers, but I believe that all prayers
that are from our hearts, are heard equally by God. In the gospel of Luke
reading for this morning, Jesus gives us one of the two different versions of
the Lord’s Prayer. Now the Lord’s Prayer, or as our Roman Catholic brothers and
sisters often call it, the “Our Father,” is a great prayer. It is a prayer that
was given to us by Jesus as a general prayer. Since Jesus gave us this gift of
Lord’s Prayer, this church, and many other churches worldwide say it or sing it
every single Sunday.
While I love to say or sing the Lord’s Prayer, what of
other prayers? We can recite other prayers written by the great saints of the
church, but what about our own individual prayers? Are our own prayers just as
important to God? I believe that the Lord’s Prayer is a sacred prayer and a gift
that Jesus Christ gave to us, but Jesus also fervently prayed in the Garden of
Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion. We might have some snippets and
some ideas of what his prayers were, but we don’t have much of it, as Peter and
the others fell asleep on him. When Jesus went into the wilderness to rest and
pray, what did those prayers sound like? Did Jesus always pray the Lord’s
Prayer that he gave us, or did he also pray other prayers? We have tons of evidence
in the New Testament that Jesus Christ prayed many prayers. Jesus called out to
God on the cross, and Jesus blessed the bread and the cup at the Last Supper.
I remember many times in my life and in my ministry, while
being in a public setting, how someone was asked unannounced to pray for a meal
or for something else. Has this ever happened to any of you? Have any of you
ever been asked to pray for a group, with no advanced warning? Sometimes when I
have seen this, people join hands with everyone else, or not, and pray for whatever
the focus of the prayer is. Sometimes these prayers have been extravagant and
impressive, and sometimes simple, but so often from the heart.
A couple of times though, I have seen folks freeze and not
want to pray at all. One person even said once, “I just don’t have the right
words to say to God”. This person was almost saying, “I didn’t go to seminary!
I don’t know how pray properly!” Friends, brothers and sisters, you don’t need
a fancy college degree, high social and or economic status, new clothes, you
don’t have to be from a highly regarded family, and or etc., to pray to God.
All you have to do is open your heart, and tell God exactly what is on your
mind and on your heart. God will listen.
In seminary school, I learned the history of the Christian
Church, I deepened my faith, I learned our traditions, how to lead worship, do
communion, baptisms, and etc., but I already knew how to pray. I would assert
that so do you. If you want to take a class on prayer, you can, but our phone
line to God is always open. If we are praying from the heart, I believe that
God hears us, and hears us equally.
This morning, in our gospel of Luke reading, we are given
one of the two accounts of where Jesus Christ gives us the Lord’s Prayer. The
other account of the Lord’s Prayer from the gospel of Matthew 6:9-13. The big
difference with the Lord’s Prayer in Mathew 6:9-13, is that Jesus gave us this
as part of his famous Sermon on the Mount (Africa Bible Commentary). This
morning however in the gospel of Luke, it begins by saying, “Jesus was praying
in a certain place, When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach
us to pray, just as John taught his disciples” (Lk. 11:1, CEB). So Jesus was
praying, and we don’t know the substance of those prayers, as the gospel
doesn’t tell us. Jesus’ disciples then asked Jesus to teach them to pray, as Jesus’
cousin John the Baptist taught people to pray. In citing the New Revised
Standard Version of the Bible, Jesus then says, “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” (Lk. 11:2-4, NRSV).
So, if you haven’t noticed already, Jesus does not say the
full prayer, that we call the Lord’s Prayer. He leaves out some bits. Some
scholars have said that maybe Luke left some of this out of his gospel account
for some reason, or perhaps Jesus intentionally did this. We don’t really know
exactly, but the two Lord’s Prayers are different from each other in the
gospels of Luke and Matthew.
Now
for good measure, this is what Jesus says when he is giving his famous Sermon
on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew: “Pray then in 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” (Mt. 6:9-13, NRSV).
Some of you might be saying, well what about the “for thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen?” Well our Roman
Catholic brothers and sisters, who sometimes call the Lord’s Prayer the “Our Father,”
speak the prayer that Jesus taught in Matthew 6:9-13. We do also, but we as
Protestant Christians added the doxology. A doxology is often seen as a short
hymn of praise or a special ending to Psalm, a scripture or something else
important.
In the majority of the Protestant Christian Churches then, when
we say the Lord’s Prayer, we include at the end the doxology of “for thine is
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.”
I remember when I was at a worship service once with many Roman
Catholics and many Protestants. It was funny to me, to hear a large percentage
of people stop speaking the Lord’s Prayers, as the rest of us Protestants said
the doxology.
The point of all of this is this, Jesus gave us two
different version of the Lord’s Prayer. Also, since as Protestant Christians we
are awesome, we added the doxology at the end of the “Our Father,” or the Lord’s
Prayer.
I truly believe that the Lord’s Prayer is a gift from God
through Jesus Christ, but I also believe in addition to this prayer, that we can
all talk to God. We all have something in our hearts and in our minds, and I
believe that our great God listens to us all equally.
In the gospel of Luke from this morning, Jesus concludes
this reading with these famous words of scripture,
“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and
you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches
finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a
fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, 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!” (Lk. 9-13, NRSV).
Jesus Christ
believed in prayer. When things were hard, when Jesus was physically suffering,
he often prayed. Sisters and brothers, as Christians, we are a praying people.
We believe what Jesus told us this morning, that God hears us. This is why some
Christians after saying a prayer say the words, “Lord in your mercy, hear our
prayers”.
Brothers and
sisters, I am going to continue to commit to praying for you, as I hope you
will pray for me. Let us also pray for our families, our church, our community,
our country, and our world. Remember that God knows the intentions of our
hearts, and all prayers matter to God. For our God is His mercy, hears us.
I have cited a
couple of times this morning, my favorite Bible Commentary, the Africa Bible
Commentary, which includes African views and perspectives on the gospel (Africa
Bible Commentary). Bible commentaries are great, as they can help us to
understand the Bible better.
In bringing
this message to a close, there is a prayer that is in my African Bible
Commentary. This prayer is an adaption of the Lord’s Prayer, written by a Roman
Catholic Priest, named Father Donal Dorr. This prayer is not designed to
overshadow or remove the Lord’s Prayer. Instead Father Door is attempting to take
the Lord’s Prayer and combine it with what is on his heart, knowing that God
hears him and hear us.
Here is Father
Donal Dorr’s adaption of the Lord’s Prayer:
“Our Father…May your Kingdom come, and may we be active in
promoting it – A Kingdom of peace and love, founded on true justice… Give us
this day our daily bread, and strengthen us in our efforts to build a world
where all have an opportunity to earn our daily bread through meaningful work,
where nobody has to go hungry, and no group lives in luxury while others
starve. Forgive us out trespasses – our failure to believe in your Kingdom and
your call to us to bring it about, our sinful apathy in the face of injustice,
our failure to work together, our dissipation of energy in fruitless resentment
rather than courageous challenge. Lead us not into temptation: do not test us
beyond our strength by leaving us in our desperate situation. But deliver us
from evil: lead us out of bondage as you led your people in the past out of the
slavery and into the Promised Land; raise up leaders for us as you called Moses
and Deborah; inspire and strengthen them to lead us into freedom” (Africa Bible
Commentary). Amen.
Friends,
brothers and sisters, let us in this worship service this day, and always be in
prayer, as God hears all of our prayers. I bring this message to you in Jesus’
name, as I say, “Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers”. Amen.
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