Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on July 28 & 29, 2007
(Proper 12, Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Genesis 18:20-33
Psalm 138
Colossians 2:6-15
Luke 11:1-13

All through the summer, the Gospel of Luke has been teaching us what to do if we want to be a disciple of Christ. And last week with the story of Martha and Mary we discovered that God prefers, first and foremost, quality time with each and every one of us, in order to cultivate a relationship of mutual love. And from this fundamental communication of love, all other forms of love will flow.

And immediately, without any hesitation, Jesus demonstrates quality time with God by going to prayer. When he is finished, one of his disciples say, “ Hey, can you teach us how to do that.” And Jesus then teaches them what we know today as the Lord’s Prayer.

Now even though it appears to be a very short prayer, it is in reality an outline for prayer consisting of an opening address followed by five petitions.

In the opening address, we begin by calling on God as Father. This is to establish the type of relationship in which we share quality time with God; that of a parent and child. By saying, “Father,” we have acknowledged that we are completely dependent upon God for everything that we need in life just as children are dependent upon parents to provide for their needs. Later on in this same Gospel Jesus will remind us of the necessity to be childlike in our relationship with God if we intend to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Now in the first petition, we ask God to sanctify His own Name, to set it aside and make it Holy. Now why would Jesus have us ask for that? God is God and His Name is already holy. He has no need to vindicate His own Name. But in the Bible, to name someone is to have a certain amount of control over them. Perhaps this is another reason why we call Him Father so as not to be too presumptuous in calling Him by His Proper Name. When I was growing up I had a friend who’s whole family always called their parents by their given names and it always bothered me. It seemed so disrespectful. Which is exactly why we are asking God to hallow His own Name because just like disrespectful children, we drag His Name through the mud, we take it in vain and we abuse it any chance we get. By requesting God to hallow His own Name we are not being presumptuous by thinking that He needs us to give Him permission but rather we recognize in humility and contrition that we are incapable of doing it on our own.

In the second petition we ask God for his kingdom to come. We are requesting from Him to bring forth His reign in this world because we acknowledge that through His sovereignty all things necessary for us to live will flow. His kingdom is the natural outcome of the advent of His incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King.

Now see how this fits into what we have been learning over these past weeks? By addressing God as Father, and asking Him to make His Name Holy, and to establish His Kingdom we have already accomplished in prayer what we have been instructed to do in life: we have put God first. We are being loved and loving in return, enjoying quality time with God. We have properly established our relationship with God, which now permits us the opportunity to petition Him for our own needs.

In the third petition we are asking God to provide us with the needed stuff of daily life, that which is required for us to live in His kingdom. “Give us each day our daily bread.” This one sentence means so much more than it appears to be. It illuminates our total trust in God. Bread is a staple of life and as food we know that without it we will die. Even in the wilderness, God provided the Hebrews with manna to satisfy their hunger. And just like the Hebrews who were instructed to gather only enough manna to fulfill the day’s needs, thus depending on God to feed them tomorrow, in this petition we also acknowledge our complete dependence on God.

But isn’t there something written about man not being able to live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Part of the daily stuff of life is being spiritually fed. Just as we need physical sustenance each and every day so too, do we need spiritual sustenance. We need to take time each day to be spiritually fed by studying God’s Word and partaking in the Holy Sacraments. By doing so we nourish an awareness of the necessity for putting God first in our lives, and our Father/child relationship is sustained.

In the fourth petition we ask God to forgive us as we seek to embody the forgiveness of others. Again, we are incapable of doing this on our own. Forgiveness is rooted in God’s mercy. And it is through God’s forgiveness of our sins that we are empowered to forgive those who have sinned against us.

And finally, in our last petition we ask God to protect us from being led away by the allure of Satan. Just as Jesus was tested in the wilderness we are continually tested in this life. But by putting God first, Jesus resisted the temptations that were put before him. Now in our lives we know right from wrong but it’s the doing part with which we have troubles. So in this request we are asking for God’s help in the doing part.

 And that’s the basic outline for prayer as Jesus has taught us. But there is more to it than what we have just discussed. I used to meet weekly with a group of guys to talk and pray. One of these guys was a priest from South Carolina. Once when we finished praying the Lord’s Prayer, he said, “You Yankees pray too damn fast!” As we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we need to slow it down because as an outline, we need to fill in the gaps. When we say Father, we ought to become like a child imagining ourselves wrapped in God’s loving embrace, assured of His security and strength and goodness. When we ask Him to hallow His own Name, we ought to praise Him in all of His glory, reflecting on how many times we have mocked His Name in thought, word and deed since the last time we prayed. When we pray for His kingdom to come, we ought to humbly offer ourselves to His service and listen for specific ways by which we may assist in making it so. When we pray for our daily bread, we ought to keep in mind those things that we need as opposed to those things that we want, both physically and spiritually. And not just for us but others as well. When we ask for forgiveness, again we ought to pause and confess those specific things that we have committed against God and our neighbor or those opportunities that we have missed to do right by God and our neighbor, knowing that God will only show His mercy upon us as we show our mercy upon others. And when we ask to be delivered from the time of trial we ought to anticipate our weaknesses; number them truthfully, and then pray for the strength and perseverance to overcome them. And above all, as we pray this prayer, at the end of each individual petition, we ought to remember to give thanks. Offer thanks to God for all that He has given to us in the past, all that He is doing for us right now, and for all that He will provide in the future.

Prayer time is our quality time with God. Prayer strengthens our relationship with God. “Prayer is the presence of God in our lives – not that God will always change the situation but knowing that God is with us; that God is going through the tragedy or the suffering or depression or even death with us, not as a far off God, way out in space, but as a very close and loving Father.” It is within this loving and prayerful relationship that we will find our complete joy.

Gloria Patri