Matthew 6:9-13 March 7, 2010
Third Sunday of Lent –
The Prayers of Jesus, Part 3
“A Way to Enter”
Rev. Meagan Boozer
Around midnight on September 4th, 1979, a very nervous couple entered the Chambersburg Hospital to deliver their first baby. I was 22, and John was 23 years old. We lived only one block from the hospital in an apartment on 6th street. It was immediately determined that yes, I was in labor. However, the following prophetic words were also said, “It’s going to be a while.” So, because we lived so close, John was advised by the nurses to go home and get some sleep. There was nothing he could do for me overnight, he was told. Of course, the hope was that I was going to get some sleep, too. Yeah right. I was 22; I was trying to be brave and act like delivering my first baby was no big deal, but bottom line: I was scared. In my hospital room, alone in the dark, I prayed. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” I prayed as much of the 23rd Psalm that I could remember. But I know I missed some lines. I also prayed what we all know as the Lord’s Prayer. I knew all of that one. My memory is that I prayed both of them over and over, almost like counting sheep, trying to stay calm, hoping that somehow in the middle of one of them, I might be able to fall asleep.
All of us have probably seen scenes on TV, or movie clips that show football players down on one knee, heads bowed, praying the Lord’s Prayer. As a person grows older, sometimes the memory dims to the point that the details of one’s life are forgotten. But certain hymns, most of the 23rd Psalm, and the Lord’s Prayer remain. At the Presbytery Council meetings, we always end the meeting standing in a circle, praying the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer is undoubtedly the most commonly-known prayer across the world. We could stand in the Honduran village with Scott & Diane, and pray in English while our brothers and sisters pray in Spanish the very same words Jesus gave as part of what is called The Sermon on the Mount.
In this monumental teaching from Matthew 5-7, the centerpiece of Jesus’ message has to do with prayer. For Christians, the Lord’s Prayer is our starting place. But, let’s remember that Jesus was Jewish. So, let’s look together at the Jewish starting place for prayer in Deuteronomy 6:4-9: 4Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The first verse of this section is the most widely known, and provides the reason this whole section is known as the Shema. (The word ‘hear,’ in Hebrew is pronounced ‘Sh’ma.’) Hear, O Israel. Shema, Israel! The Shema is the central prayer in the Jewish prayerbook, and is often the first section of Scripture that a Jewish child learns. Many Jews recite the Shema at least twice daily; once in the morning and once in the evening. It is also sometimes prayed as a bedtime prayer (taking literally “when you lie down and when you rise.”) And taking it even further, little tiny scrolls bearing the words of Deuteronomy 6:4, called mezuzah (meaning doorpost) are encased and placed on the gateways and doorways of Jewish homes. (We have one on both doors to our home because we bought the house from a Jewish couple.) Jewish family members were taught to touch the mezuzah going out and coming in to remind them, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.’
This was the foundation of Jesus’ prayer life: regular, structured, ritualistic prayer: at its best, truly intimate prayer – at its worst, ‘superstitious’ prayer. Someone who prays a prayer for superstitious reasons prays because, ‘if I forget to touch the mezuzah and say the prayer, I am a bad Jew and God will not bless me. That’s superstitious prayer, it is idolatry – putting power in your action or non-action, instead of putting power in God alone. I’m sure Jesus witnessed praying the Sh’ma at its best and at its worst. This is what he has seen for the first 30 years of his life on earth; this background is where Jesus is coming from as he teaches his disciples about prayer.
Today is not the day to teach through the Lord’s Prayer; that is a series of sermons for another time. What I hope to do today is get us to think about our own use of the prayer privately and publicly. First, it’s important we begin by looking at what comes before and after the prayer in Matthew’s gospel. Look with me at verses 1-8 of chapter 6: 1“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 5“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
You gotta love Jesus! He’s always pushing against the accepted norms; pushing against empty rituals; pushing against pride; he is passionate about motives, not appearances.
A couple of weeks ago, Tiger Woods had a ‘private’ press conference for all the world to see. I really hope this incredibly gifted man has had his eyes opened to his sin, and is getting his heart healed from whatever drove him to his destructive behaviors. But, it’s hard not to be skeptical, isn’t it? Many have wondered, ‘did he hold the press conference really to confess and seek forgiveness’ from his fans, or did he hold it for some other reason? Motive matters here, doesn’t it? Was it about saving or building relationships, or was it about saving face and continuing to build has kingdom? Freedom will only come to a heart that truly seeks it.
Jesus is all about motives. Why do we do what we do? Is this or that an act of worship to God, or are we doing something merely to please people? The apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10: Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Paul struggled with it; we struggle with it. Why do we serve: to please God, please others, or merely please ourselves? Jesus is asking, he’s checking, he’s challenging, he’s teaching:
Jesus said, when you give to someone in need: don’t make a big deal out of it. Give quietly, and only let others know if it will bring attention to God’s abundant blessings, and provide inspiration for others to give generously and store up treasures in heaven alone (this teaching comes only 6 verses after the Lord’s prayer).
Jesus said, don’t make a big deal of praying in public. Remember, prayer is a conversation between you and your heavenly Father. It’s not given to you as a means to show off your ability to put words in a particular order, or create a cadence that draws attention to yourself or the prayer.
I have to tell you, I always struggle when I’m invited to pray outside of the church for particular events. Over the last 5 years or so, I’ve been asked to pray for the Franklin County Area Development Corporation annual dinner. There are hundreds of people in the business community who attend this dinner. There’s a big screen that gives a close-up view of whatever is happening at the microphone. Wow. I struggle, because it seems way too close to what Jesus says not to do. “Don’t pray to be seen by others.” But, then I remember that his teaching is about motive. Jesus doesn’t say not to pray if you will be seen by others, he says not to pray in order to be seen by others. In other words, I shouldn’t accept the invitation to pray at the FCADC dinner if I want attention, if I get excited about everyone seeing my face on the big screen, or if I’m hoping that people will come to my church because they like my prayer. I should accept the invitation to pray because I see it as a wonderful God-given opportunity to enter into something real with people who’ve been running all day trying to keep up with something that may or may not matter for eternity. I’m always amazed and touched in my soul at this dinner by how reverently quiet the room becomes in prayer.
But here’s what I don’t do: I don’t pray the Lord’s Prayer at the FCADC dinner. I don’t do it because it is too familiar, and therefore could give permission for people to “check out.” You know what I mean. We all have done it. Don’t try to convince me that we are all 100% focused on worshipping the Lord every single time we pray using the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Sometimes I’m so irreverent that I’m shuffling my notes up here while we’re praying it so that I can be ready to lead what is coming next. I’m embarrassed about this, but it’s true. The distance between comfortable familiarity and empty ritual is very, very short for sinners like you and me.
Tom Wright says this about the Lord’s Prayer: What the Lord’s Prayer provides, here at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, is a framework. Jesus doesn’t say you should always use identical words, and actually when Luke gives his version of the prayer in Luke 11:2-4, it is different in small but interesting ways. It looks as though Jesus intended this sequence of thought to act more like the scaffolding than the whole building, though of course the prayer is used as it stands by countless Christians every day.
Jesus said, after challenging their motives for giving and praying in public: 9“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.
I read of a little child in Sunday school who had some problems repeating the Lord’s prayer, but he didn’t lack in imagination. One day he prayed, “Our Father, who art in heaven, how’d you know my name?” Sometimes we get hung up on the wrong things for the right reasons.
Notice that Jesus said, “pray then in this way.” He didn’t say, “pray then using these exact words,” he said, “pray then in this way.”
There are two things I want to point out as the way Jesus is teaching us to pray: First, as you pray, start by remembering (by stating) your relationship with God. In this model prayer, we are remembering our relationship with God as our heavenly Father. We should begin our prayers by emphasizing the reality of the relationship we have been given with the Creator through the blood of Jesus Christ. He is our Father in Heaven. He is our Refuge, our Creator, our Provider, our Healer, our Salvation, our Comforter, our Hope, our Beginning, and our End. Start praying by emphasizing the gift of the relationship. It puts the focus on God not on us, and that’s really important as we enter into this Spirit-led conversation. To make the second point, listen with me to this poem:
You cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer
and even once say ‘I.’
You cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer
and even once say ‘My.’
Nor can you pray the Lord’s Prayer
and not pray for another.
And when you ask for daily bread,
you must include your brother.
For others are included – in each and every plea,
From the beginning to the end of it,
it doesn’t once say “Me.’
Even though we sometimes pray the Lord’s Prayer alone, the prayer itself, as taught to us by Jesus, reminds us that we are not alone; we are part of a very unique community – the Body of Christ in the world today. When we pray all of those plural pronouns, Our Father, Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us – we are praying with and for our brothers and sisters in the pews beside us, and our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world. We are praying with and for Scott & Diane and all those they have been called to serve in Guadelupe Carne. Our Father. Our Redeemer. Our Rock. Our Provider. Our Eternal King.
The Lord’s Prayer is given to us for the purpose of building relationships:
• It gives us the scaffolding we need to build a prayerful relationship with our heavenly Father, whether we are in the hospital and need the comfort of the familiar, whether we are clinching our way through yet another plane flight to and from Honduras, whether we are getting ready to take our SAT’s, or sitting peaceably with our church family in worship, the Lord’s Prayer helps us enter into a prayerful relationship with God.
• It also helps us (and calls us) to enter into prayerful relationships with brothers and sisters near and far in ways known and unknown, visible and invisible, audible and inaudible.
What a gift it is to the Church.
Thanks be to God!
Let us pray: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
