Lord Teach us to Pray (Luke 11:1-13)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 7/28/13

If there is one thing in the church today that most people know they should be doing more of and yet find themselves struggling at it, it would most likely be prayer. We know we should be praying, we know that we should be doing it more than just at dinner time and before bed. We know all throughout scripture we are told to pray, we even use some of these passages as catch phrases to remind us to pray such as Paul’s “pray without ceasing.”  We sing songs about prayer exclaiming that we should take it to the Lord in prayer, and yet prayer for so many of us is one of the hardest parts of being a Christian. Most of us don’t really know how to pray. This is not an attack on any of us, it is part of our human condition.  In fact Paul even says in Romans 8,  “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”  Paul himself admits that we do not truly know how to pray and that we need the Holy Spirit’s help. Maybe even more reassuring than this is that in our passage for today, Jesus’ own disciples are unsure about how to pray and so they ask Jesus the simple question, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” As we start to dive into Jesus’ response on how to pray, it seems only fitting that we first stop now and go to the Lord now asking him to teach us how to pray this morning.

                                                ( Time of prayer)

            Lord teach us to pray. This is the request of the disciples of Christ. Now we can assume that they had something in mind when they asked Jesus this question, after all, prayer had been an important part of their Jewish faith.  At that time there were customary times and places at which they would pray daily, and if for some reason they were not able to get away to pray at that said time, there were memorized prayers that they could recite whenever possible. The disciples were most likely familiar and accustomed to these types of prayers and so in asking Jesus to teach them how to pray, they were probably asking for some practices particular to the teachings of Christ. Jesus’ reply was then probably not what they expected because Jesus did not give them a practice, but instead he taught them about the nature of prayer.

            Jesus does start of his answer to the disciples by giving the disciples examples of words to say. These words probably sound somewhat familiar to us since they make up part of the Lord’s prayer that we say every week. When we read it Luke it sounds strange, it sounds choppy, parts seem to be missing. This is because the Lord’s prayer we say is more derived from Matthew’s version which seems to be more eloquent. Could it be that the direct, straightforward, even choppy sounding version that we here in Luke has more to teach us than just words? Could Instead of just giving us a prayer to pray, could it be that Jesus is teaching us how to pray?

            I believe that this is the case, and that Jesus is showing us that there are so many types of prayers, and so he helps us to understand what types of things we should pray for. Jesus starts his prayer by saying, “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” This may be the most important lesson on prayer that Jesus gives. We start our prayer addressing God, we do not start our prayer talking about ourselves. This shows us that prayer first and foremost starts with God. It also reminds us of the nature of God; that God’s name should be revered. It reminds us of the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent nature of our God. It reminds us that this is not just a conversation with your best friend; this is an experience, a relationship with the Almighty!  Finally this beginning phrase reminds us that the primary goal of our prayer is seeking for God’s will to be done. We pray so that we may work with God in bringing forth the Kingdom of God. Bishop Cho uses a short prayer that sums up the beginning of this prayer. He prays, “God, your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.” Jesus teaches us that prayer first and foremost starts with seeking the will of God.

            Next Jesus recognizes that we do in fact pray for our own needs, and so he teaches the disciples, “Give us each day our daily bread.” Jesus’ words here are clever and well thought out.  First it teaches us that God gives what is necessary. Jews at the time would have heard this phrase, give us each day our daily bread, and would have instantly thought back to the time of the Israelites in the dessert. They would have remembered that the Israelites asked the Lord for bread, and so manna came from heaven.  The instructions from God were to gather only what was needed for that day. Most listened to the instructions and found that they had neither gathered too much nor too little, but others tried to keep and hoard bread for the next day only to find that the next morning the bread was bad and full of maggots.  Remembering this story, the disciples would have understood that when Jesus says give us each day our daily bread that he means to ask for only that which is needed. At the same it is a reminder that each day is a day that we should go to the Lord in prayer.

            Jesus’ words go much deeper than this as well. The next question to ask is what does Jesus mean by bread?  The initial response would be that Jesus is telling us to turn to God for our daily necessities: bread, water, clothing, shelter and this is correct. Jesus has also taught however many times about seeking the bread of heaven. By using the word bread Jesus is telling us to seek the Lord in prayer for both our physical needs as well as our spiritual needs as well.

            Finally Jesus concludes the prayer by telling the disciples to say, “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” Jesus reminds us about one of the most neglected forms of prayer, the prayer of confession. Jesus reminds us to confess our sins before the Lord and to seek forgiveness, however he adds a little caveat at the end. Not only is confession and pardon something between God on us, but is something we should do with each other. After all we have just learned about the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is why prior to communion we confess our sins together, this is why we pass the peace, and this is why together we hear the words of pardon, “In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.” This is something that should not be taken lightly.

            After teaching the disciples the manner in how one should pray, Jesus changes gears quite quickly and begins to tell stories. First he tells a story of a man who has an unexpected guest arrive late at night, and has no bread to feed them. He goes to his friend and neighbors house and asks for some bread. The friend originally does not want to unbolt the door because it will awaken the whole family, but the friend does it anyway. What is at play here is the idea of hospitality. It’s great to live in the south because this idea of hospitality still exists here, but imagine what you have learned and multiply it. Hospitality was something that every person was expected to provide, and failing to do such would not just end up having you labeled as rude, but it would bring shame upon the whole family.  This hospitality is why the man having an unexpected guest was expected to provide bread for him, and this fear of shame is why the neighbor gave opened up his door and gave  him bread.  Jesus uses this story to teach the disciples about the nature of God and the nature of prayer.  He explains that if a neighbor who doesn’t want to help but does because of a sense of hospitality opens the door for you, then why would you expect less from the host of hosts? 

            He then goes on to give another example. He asks the disciples to imagine not a friend this time, but rather an evil man. This evil man is asked by his children for fish and for eggs,  would the evil man try to trick his own children by giving a snake whose scales may feel like a fish, or a scorpion who when rolled  up may briefly look like an egg?  The answer is of course no.  Jesus goes on to explain, if even an evil man provides for his children and does not deceive,  why would we expect anything different from the good and loving God?  Jesus uses these  two examples to teach the disciples about the nature of God. That God is one who will hear our needs, that God is one that will respond.

            We then of course have Jesus saying this famous phrase to the disciples, “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.   Many of us may even know the song, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these shall be added unto you, alleluia. Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you, alleluia.” It is a phrase, a song that some of us may treasure. I am afraid however, that it is often treasured in the wrong ways.

            So often we hear these words ask and it will be given unto you,  seek and you will find, knock and it will be given unto you and we hear these as words of entitlement. I am part of generation Y ( barely I must add) or what is sometimes called the millennials. There is another nickname for this generation, that is generation me. It is considered a generation of narcissists, who don’t just strive to succeed but expect it. It is a generation that expects to obtain everything that they desire,  which is why there is the nickname generation me, because everything focuses on the self.  As much as others like to look at our generation and agree with this stereotype, I feel as though when look at how many people, from many generations pray we find that others share many of these traits with my generation. After all so often when we pray it is about us.  If we are honest with ourselves, how often do we pray for something specific to happen in our lives compared to how often we pray for God’s will to be done?

            When we read this section of our scripture for today about asking and it shall be given to us, seeking and we shall find; it often feeds into our own narcissism. It makes us think that all I have to do is ask for something from God and God will grant my wish. We begin to view God less like an Almighty deity in which we serve, and more like a magic genie who is required to grant our wishes.  So then what do we say when what we pray for doesn’t come true. What happens when we pray to get accepted to a certain school and get rejected? What happens when we pray to get offered a job, only to find that they have hired someone else? What happens when we pray for the healing of a loved one and they pass away?  I am not making light of these situations, and it is not that I am taking prayer lightly, but these are honest questions that many of us will ask sometimes in our lives. We pray to God asking for something, sometimes that prayer comes true and we give all the glory to God for it, but what happens when it doesn’t? Do we get angry at God?  We just read that God is not evil, that God hears us and answers; we just read that ask and it shall be given unto us? Why then don’t we always get what we want?

            R. Alan Culpepper, dean of the school of theology at Mercer University argues that we are often we do not pay attention to the verbs, ask, seek, knock.[1] Far too often we come to the door as those who feel entitled. Our prayers more often than not take the form of demands rather than petitions. We come to God as if we come to a server at  the restaurant, “May I get the house special” when in reality it is just a polite way of saying I want it, give it to me. Culpepper argues that these words, ask, seek, knock, are words that indicate that we who come before God are like beggars. We have nothing, and ask for God’s generosity.  We don’t demand God’s justice, we ask for God’s mercy. When we come to prayer like a beggar, like one not even worthy to ask for a crumb, then we start to understand the whole passage better. We understand what it means that God will provide, we don’t try to gather and store our heavenly bread, but celebrate each day for our blessings. When we come to prayer as a beggar, we begin to see how truly dependent we are on God, and how God truly does provide.  And it is for this reason that we like the disciples shall come to Christ and start by saying, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

                         

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[1] New Interpreter Bible Commentary Volume IX pgs 238-289

A Better Answer (Luke 10:38-42)

Sermon as preached on 7/21/13 at Lambs and Evington UMC

When I was in school, especially when I was still in high school I remember dreading different formats for tests.  Teachers found many different ways to test our knowledge about any particular subject. For me, the easiest questions were the True or False questions. You would be given a statement and had to determine whether or not it was true or whether it was false. They were the easiest to me because it was cut and dry, the statement was either true, or it was false. There were other forms of questions however that was not as simple, including the multiple choice questions. What I hated about multiple choice questions is the older you got the more sophisticated the questions would get, and eventually you would have a statement such as, “which of the following best answers the question?” It was that best that would always get me. It means that you good give a correct answers, you could even argue with the teacher after the fact that you were not wrong, and yet it was not the best answer for the question. For example a question could be, F Scott Fitzgerald is best known for which novel: A) Moby Dick, B) This Side of Paradise C) A Tale of Two Cities, D) The Great Gatsby.  As you go through the question you can eliminate  Moby Dick because that was written by Melville, and you can eliminate a Tale of Two cities because that was written by Dickens. But then you left with This Side of Paradise and the Great Gatsby which both seem to be correct answers, because both were written by Fitzgerald. A judgment call has to be made then to determine which he is best known for and therefore you would choose The Great Gatsby. The questions become much harder when there is a good answer, and yet there is a better one.

            Our scripture for today is a perfect example of the difference between the good choice, and the best choice. Our scripture starts with Jesus and his disciples being invited into the house of two sisters Martha and Mary. When they entered the house Martha did all that she could to provide hospitality to their guests. She slaved away in the kitchen preparing them something to eat, cleaned up to make sure they would be comfortable there; In essence Martha did everything she could to show respect to her honored guest. While Martha was doing all of this however, her sister Mary simply sat at the feet of Jesus and listened. Finally sick of the fact that her sister was not helping her, Martha speaks to Jesus and tells him, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." Many of us may be surprised by Jesus’ answer as he replies, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

            When we hear this our first instinct is to question what has Martha done wrong? After all many of us here are Marthas. We always try to keep up with the best of our responsibilities, most of us are eager to be hospitable to guests, and so why does Jesus seem to rebuke Martha? The thing is Martha has done nothing wrong; she has done what is good and what is expected of her. In fact if anybody had done anything wrong it seems to be Mary. Mary neglects her responsibility to help her sister and simply sits at the feet of Jesus. That action in itself is more of a wrong at that time than many of us recognize when we read scripture through the lens of our modern world.  In those times women were not seen as equals to men, and there were certain gender roles and responsibilities that were expected to be done by women. Especially in the presence of guests, women were expected to be the servants to their male guests. Mary had rejected this responsibility. Even worse than this, women were not supposed to sit at the feet of a teacher; this was seen as a privilege for the men. In our scripture we find Mary rejecting these social cues; neglecting her responsibility to  serve as well as sitting in a place of honor that society deemed her not to be worthy of.  In light of all of this we can see that Martha is in fact doing what is good; she is doing what is expected of her, she is performing acts of hospitality to her guests. Jesus never says what she is doing is wrong, instead he says, “Mary has chosen the better part.” Mary has chosen the better part.

            So what then is the better part? Why is what Mary does better than what Martha does? To answer that question we must understand that this story in Luke does not sit in a vacuum by itself. It is a continuation of a theme that Jesus had started earlier in the chapter. Before arriving at the house of Martha and Mary, Jesus was asked by a scribe what was necessary to get into heaven. Jesus asked what is written in the scriptures, and the man replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Not satisfied with the answer the scribe asked Jesus and who is my neighbor. And so Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.  It is one of the best known parables in the Bible.  In the story a man is beaten and robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest happens to walk by, but sees the man and crosses on the opposite side of the road. Likewise, a Levite, ( who were helpers of the priests)  came saw the man and crossed on the opposite side of the road. Finally a Samaritan, ( who were outcasts of society) saw the man beaten and took care of him, took him to an inn and made all the provisions necessary that the man may be completely taken care of. After he told this parable Jesus asked, which of these is the neighbor, and the scribe responded, the one who showed mercy, and Jesus says “Go and do likewise.”

            In the encounter with scribe, Jesus makes clear what the Lord requires of us, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Through the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus teaches the scribes, teaches the disciples, and Luke through his gospel teaches us the reader what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. To leave the story there would be to only explain half of the commandment that Jesus had given. We would only know what it means to love our neighbor; we wouldn’t know what it means to love the Lord with all our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our strength and with all of our mind. For this reason, it is so important that we have the story of Martha and Mary follow right after this parable.

            It is as if through the actions of Martha, God is showing us the danger of only following half of that commandment. After all Martha is loving her neighbor as herself, maybe even more than herself. She has invited them in, she has prepared a space for them and is making the feel as welcome as possible. What is lacking for Martha however, is an understanding the need to love God with all our hearts.  Service is good, even great; but if it does not start with a love for God than it is nothing more than a distraction.

            It is easy for us to do the same in our lives, to get distracted by the responsibilities in our lives, even the noble ones, even our service.  How often do we get distracted by our work, even by our families so much so that we push God to the wayside? Even in church we can get so devoted to different groups and activities, responsibilities and meetings that we forget that the reason we are doing all that we do is because God loves us, and because we love God. All of these things are good, all of the things are important, and yet when we lose sight of our love for God because of them we like Martha become distracted. We must seek the better answer.

            And so through the actions of Mary, Jesus teaches Martha, his disciples, and all of us what it means to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind. Mary recognizes the presence of the Lord in her midst and puts everything aside to be in his presence. Mary risks the consequences of breaking the social norms, all so that she may hear what the Lord has to say. It is in fact quite amazing paradox that by simply doing nothing but stopping and listening, that Mary is doing so much and risking so much.

            As we heard from Barbara last week, the focus of this year’s annual conference was Lord teach us to pray. I won’t harp on this too much because it is our scripture for next week, but one thing that must be pointed out is that as I have talked to many people after this annual conference, both clergy and lay, the consensus is that this was one of the best and most powerful annual conferences that we have had in a while, and everyone can identify why. It is because this annual conference first and foremost focused on prayer; focused on being in the presence of God and hearing the word of God. Not only did we open and close every session with prayer, but with each decision that we made we went to the Lord in prayer about it. We asked for God’s discernment for each topic. The Annual Conference truly was focused on loving God and experiencing the love of God.

            I must make a confession though, going into the conference I was definitely a Martha. I knew the reputation of Bishop Cho, I had even experienced his prayer centered leadership style at Pastor’s Convocation in January, and I must admit that heading into annual conference it made me a little nervous. I thought to myself, that’s great and all, but what if we spend too much time in prayer? What if we don’t get to everything on the agenda?  The days are condensed down from what they used to be several years ago, what if we run out of time. And of course the worst of all, what if we don’t break on time for lunches and dinners?  Other than the last question, these were legitimate questions, because the business aspect of the conference is an extremely important issue since we only meet once a year. And yet as we dove into prayer each day  found that we did in fact have time for business. And those who had been to other annual conferences may have realized that the debates and arguments were not as heated,  not as long as other conferences. That discussions were truly discussions, and that people disagreed with each other, and felt comfortable enough to voice their disagreement, and yet the animosity experienced in previous conferences did not seem to be there.  We loved the Lord with all of our heart and soul, and the business still got done.

            This is the lesson that Martha and Mary teach us; that we must first seek after God. We must first love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, souls, strength and minds.  When we do this we find that there is still time for our other responsibilities and our service, but not only is there time, we find that this service and these responsibilities, and transformed by our love for God. By taking the time to be with Christ, we are able to more than if we had used that time for other responsibilities.  We must not ignore these responsibilities, we must continue to love our neighbor as ourselves, but we must first and foremost do this through seeking the better answer; we must love our neighbors through our love for God.

A Year With the Christian Calendar

Ok, so I know that this isn’t my first year with Christian calendar, in fact it is my twenty-fifth. I have of course experienced many of the nuances of the seasons from Advent and Christmas, to Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost, and of course ordinary time and all of the special days scattered throughout the year. Growing up I had of coursed celebrated many of these seasons (and even understood some of them!). In college and in seminary I learned more about the calendar in depth, and yet for all of my experience and training, there truly is something eye opening about experiencing the Christian for the first time as a pastor. These are some of the things that stuck out to me from my first year in service. There are many seasons and special days that I will not mention that were still greatly important to me, but the following examples are the experiences that have surprised me, and that have taught me the most over the past year.

 

1) The Christian Calendar Reorders Time

            What do I mean when I say that Christian Calendar reorders time? We live in a culture that lives its life within the boundaries and context of many different calendars; some more obvious than others. When we think of calendar, we in the West of course think of January first as the beginning and December 31 as the end. Those who are in school or who are teachers may have another calendar they go by, beginning in late August or early September or and going until May or June. Many businesses have a fiscal year that begins in July. In other words, we order our lives around these calendars, but when we truly follow the Christian Calendar we find a calendar that is different, and sometimes seemingly in opposition to these other calendars that lay claim to our lives. This is not a new concept, I even remember having this explained to me in seminary, and yet it is totally different once you experience your vocation dedicated to a calendar different than the other calendars you had been living within the boundaries of ( for me, this was the school calendar in particular).  My first Sunday was the first Sunday of July, I had just graduated from seminary turning the page on that chapter, and I had just opened a new chapter in my life through the beginning of my ministry.  While my life was at the crossroads of the end and a beginning, the Christian calendar was right in the middle of Ordinary time. It was a reminder for me that despite all the new and wonderful things going on in my life, both the joys and the fears, that the story of God of love continues on. It was rather humbling, reminding me that I am but in one moment somewhere between the already and the not yet. As the September approached, a new school year started, but not for me, I was still in the middle of ordinary time. And finally as Christ the King Sunday arrived in November, I remember how odd it felt to be ending a year, and starting a new one, a month before we in the western culture celebrate the turn of our calendars. Living in the Christian Calendar reordered time for me in that while as I said a realized I was but in a certain moment between the already and the not yet, I somehow, almost paradoxically, was able to live the entirety of the salvation narrative.

 

2. The Advent/ Christmas Battle

            This dilemma too is nothing new, it is something that pastors have been griping about for ages, and yet until you are a pastor you don’t really get it.  In seminary I thought I got it, but I didn’t. What I am referring to is of course the need for churches to skip past advent straight to Christmas. When you start a new year in the calendar (Advent is the beginning of the Christian Calendar) what is it saying when the first thing you talk about is little baby Jesus? What does this say about the span of time prior to Jesus? What does it say about our view of the importance of what we call the Old Testament? How do we learn about our need for God incarnate, if we don’t take time to listen to the prophets’ warnings? All of these questions seem to be neglected because we want to sing our favorite Christmas hymns and celebrate the coming of our savior before we take time to prepare for what that means. This dilemma I expected; what I didn’t account for was how quickly Christmas was over. That once we were finally in the Christmas season, Christmas was over for most people. They didn’t want to sing those hymns anymore, they didn’t want to hear about the little baby, it’s time for Jesus to grow up now.  For wanting to rush into the coming of Christmas, it is truly amazing that we fail to celebrate it in its fullest.

 

3. The Easter Hangover

            No I don’t mean the sheer fatigue that accompanies the festivities of Holy Week, and no I don’t mean the inability to move after sinning boldly as gluttons at Easter dinner. The Easter Hangover I refer to here is one that came about three weeks into Easter. The first two Sundays of Easter were great! After a long but meaningful Lent,  preaching about the good news of the resurrection, the forgiveness of our sins, grace and so on seemed to just easily flow from my lips. Then I got to a point where I had to stop and ask, what now?  I can’t just say the same thing four weeks in a row. Where do I go from here? It was on Ascension Sunday when I realized that my questions were probably not that different from those of the disciples. Jesus is resurrected and now ascended, what now?  It truly taught me to wait, to pray, to stop trying to run ahead of where God was leading me. Most of all, it gave me a greater appreciation for Pentecost. Pentecost was as if a weight was lifted from my shoulders; the spirit was with us, and now we had a direction to go.

 

4.  The End or the Beginning?

            Christ the King Sunday marks the end of the Christian calendar, but unfortunately it is a day that is less emphasized in some of the less liturgical churches. For this reason I knew about the day, but it truly was like experiencing it for the first time. I got all excited to talk about soteriology and eschatology. I was excited to talk about the Kingdom come and to talk about communion and our foretaste of when “Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.”[1] I was excited to talk about that anticipation of the coming Christ. Jump forward to next week, and it the beginning of Advent and what else am I talking about than the anticipation of the coming Christ. It may be the greatest transition in history of calendars, that the end and the beginning, though so completely different, focus on the same hope. That in the beginning of our journey to its end, we truly live in a world in need of Emmanuel, God with us, and that as we begin and end each Christian year we know  that our hope is real, because we have experienced it each day of our lives by putting ourselves within the salvation narrative. For me that truly is the beauty of the Christian Calendar.

 

 

P.S. I do indeed recognize the irony of writing this during Ordinary time and not at the end of the Christian year.

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[1] United Methodist hymnal pg.10