This sermon is based on Luke 11. 1-13. I hop about quite a bit so it's worth having the passage open in you Bible or a separate tab. For added context I preached this sermon at a service my friend Pete was leading, as well as knowing each other since High School we also trained for Ordination together. He's the one I refer towards the end. How should we pray? It’s a common question, particularly among those coming to faith or starting to take it more seriously. And there have been countless books written on the subject by countless people. I’m reading one by Tim Keller at the moment, rather conveniently. But how should we pray? In Jesus’ day it was common practice for disciples to learn from their Rabbi a way to pray that was somewhat unique to that teacher, as John the Baptist taught his disciples. So the disciples aren’t unusual in making their request, they’ve seen him pray, watched him go off into quiet places gone looking for him while he is praying. Teacher, teach us how to pray. And Jesus gives us the masterclass in prayer. It’s the masterclass because prayer is about conversation and communion with God. Who better to teach us than the eternal Son who has been in conversation and communion with his Father since before the universe came into being, from time immemorial to the ages without end. Jesus gives us this prayer, which should shape all our prayers. And in praying it we step into Jesus’ shoes as we call out ‘Father’. Only in Jesus can we call God Father. Only through Jesus’ work on the cross for our deliverance and sanctification can we approach the God of the Universe and dare to call him Father. In the Old Testament God was sometimes referred to as Father, but generally of the nation of Israel or of the King, and it was a minor theme, that popped up occasionally. With Jesus, God as our Father comes right into the foreground. It’s the grounding for all our praying. Father. The God who could have been our judge, our reckoning, instead comes to us in Jesus that by the Spirit within us we can call him Father. And that should change how we pray. When he was in office, if a senior official, whether a politician or military leader wanted to meet with President Obama, wanted to make a request, they had to make an appointment. There were rules about how they were to present themselves before him, do’s and don’ts. And ordinary members of the public could only meet him on occasion and again under strict rules and circumstances. But if one of his daughters wanted to see him, they could just bound into his office. They could ask whatever they wanted. Because yes he was the most important person in the United States, the leader of the nation, the head of the military, a leading figure on the world stage, but he’s also their Father, and that’s what matters. Keeping with the theme of father, let’s look at the closing parable from that reading. If the Lord’s prayer is how we are to pray, the mechanics, the parables which follow explain why we should pray, God’s character. Because if he’s a Father, if that’s his defining characteristic, that’s a wonderful thing. If human Father’s know how to do good, how to give good things to their children, how to care for them, how much more does God our perfect Father. And if our experience of Father’s is that they give scorpions instead of eggs, snakes instead of fish. God is our good Father, the perfect Father we long for, who will only give us good things, will only give us what is right and good for us. And if God is our Father, and we are his adopted children, that reminds of something important too when we pray. That he knows best. We’re children, we won’t always ask for what’s best, for the right things. Like a child asking to eat the whole 5L tub of ice cream or wanting the kitchen knife to play with because its shiny. We think we know what is best, we think we know what will make us happy. But God knows better, just as any good parent. And because he is our good Father, we can trust that he does only what is right and good. Only what is best. If he said yes to everything, like some sort of divine genie, we’d be in a terrible mess, as most stories with genies remind us, we’re terrible judges of what would be best for us. But’s he’s our Father, he will only give to us what is best for us, what is good. Going back to the Lord’s prayer, as it continues, we ask that God’s Kingdom come, in our lives and in our world. That his Kingdom may at last come in its fulness and all be made right at last. We pray that we would have what we need. St Augustine liked to pair this petition with a paraphrase of a quote from Proverbs about daily bread ‘give me neither poverty (lest I resent you) or riches (lest I forget you). It’s a prayer which reminds us of our utter reliance on God, and a reminder not to be greedy in our praying, but to ask for what we truly need. And then we pray that we would receive his forgiveness. Couched with the fact that, having been forgiven so much ourselves, we forgive others too. Having been shown such mercy, we should not harbour resentment or grudges against others. Forgive us Lord, for all the many things we have done wrong, for we forgive those who have done wrong against us. Finally we pray that God would keep us from being tested, from the time of trial, keep us from temptation. That isn’t to say we won’t be tried and tested, for such trials and tests refine us, strengthen us as gold is purified in fire. But it’s a prayer that we wouldn’t give into the temptation, that whilst we may be tempted, we would not enter into it, start entertaining it. It’s also a prayer that we would not seek out trials and temptations in order to prove ourselves instead acknowledging our weakness without God’s help. And what this whole prayer does is direct us back to God. We glorify him for who he is, acknowledging that we come before the God of the Universe, the one by whom all things were created, but that we come to him as Father. Prayer brings us into God’s presence. And in coming into his presence our shortcomings are exposed and this awareness of insufficiency, of our weakness and helplessness then drives us to seek God more intensely for forgiveness and help, to ask for what we need. In other words in first fixing our eyes on God, we are driven deeper into prayer. And Jesus tells us to come into God’s presence, not timidly, or even politely, couching our prayers in if’s and maybe’s and niceties, but boldly and confidently, even annoyingly, (as Abraham does in Genesis 18. 20-32)built upon God’s faithfulness. The image he paints in that first parable of the neighbour, got me thinking, Pete and I have been friends for many years now, we’ve known each other since High School. But if Pete turned up at my house at 2 in the morning asking for bread because he’d run out, I wouldn’t be very impressed, I’d help but I’d be fairly grumpy about it. If he kept doing it, well, we might not be friends for much longer. But do you know what, even if I no longer liked him, if he kept pressing that doorbell, I’d bring him what he needed for the sake of a good night’s sleep. But God isn’t like me, or Pete, God isn’t reluctant to help, not wanting to be bothered, instead God rejoices to hear our requests, God can be approached with this persistence, perseverance, even with shameless audacity, because God is not offended by our honest and urgent prayer. I’d get annoyed because I’m a fallible human being, I, like all of us, can be rather selfish, and I’m terrible when I’ve been woken up. But God isn’t like us, he’s the one who is the perfect Father, he’s the one who is perfect love, perfectly self-giving. If we ask, if we seek, if we knock, in accordance with what is truly good for us, we will receive, we will find, the door will open. And we can be bold, even annoying in our praying, because of God’s covenant faithfulness, and that’s where I want to leave you. Because all that we pray for in the Lord’s prayer we already have in Jesus. We can call God father through Jesus’ saving death and resurrection. We pray for God’s Kingdom to come because he has promised that it is coming, that he is building it even as we pray, that Jesus will return to bring in the Kingdom in its fulness and all shall at last be made right. We pray for what we need, knowing that God will give it to us, knowing he will give us good things, knowing that we have received what is supremely good in Jesus, and in the coming of the Spirit. We pray that we may receive mercy, because Jesus has already won that mercy for us upon the cross. That forgiveness is already ours in Jesus. And we pray that we would not be tested, for Jesus has passed every test on our behalf, fought off every temptation for us that he may become the way into everlasting life. We pray for what is already ours in Jesus, we pray for what has been promised to us. For God’s name will be sanctified, kept holy, his reign will break forth, we will be forgiven, we will not be tested beyond our limits. Jesus teaches us to pray, and in looking at Jesus we see the promise that God will answer, for Jesus is the very image of God’s covenant faithfulness. Jesus is the incarnation of God’s holiness, of his reign, of his forgiveness, and of his saving deliverance. In looking at Jesus we see the God who is faithful. So why pray? If it’s ours why bother to ask? Because God tells us to. Because if we didn’t and we got it anyway we’d assume it was through our effort, through our merits, through our greatness. We’d glorify in the gift but forget the giver. God calls us to pray because it points us back to him, because it directs us back to the one who is supremely good, the one behind each good gift. Because in looking to him our disordered desires are properly ordered, and we ask for what is truly necessary. Prayer directs us back to the one who truly knows what we need. Prayer isn’t passive or arbitrary, it’s active, it’s engaging with our Father, with Jesus alongside us as our companion and example. For the outcomes aren’t tentative or uncertain, instead they are assured, they are promised to us by the God who is faithful to his promises. So seek, knock, ask. And then trust in the one who desires only your good. Amen
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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