Sermon
“Lord, teach us to pray.” It was the name of the first bible study I was a part of. The subject was the Lord's prayer. What we studied then was not what we read today. The Luke version of the answer to that request, “Lord, teach us to pray,” is a shorter version of what we have come to know as the Lord's prayer. Our words in our tradition come from the Matthew version of the Lord's prayer which is longer.
Let's contrast the two versions of the Lord's prayer that scripture offers us. In Matthew's version, the audience was made up of Jewish disciples. Jewish people would have been taught many different prayers throughout their interactions at the temple, and with different rabbi's. They would already understand the importance of prayer, they would have understood even what prayer means. The Jewish audience that the Matthew text was written for would be familiar with the words and structure of a prayer called the Amidah that was in use, and is still in use today.1
Here are just some of the words in the different parts of the Amidah: “Thou art holy and Thy Name is holy…We will sanctify thy name in the world, as thy sanctifiers in the heavens above.”, and also, “Our Father, Our King, forgive and pardon all our sins.” We can see how the structure and even the words are similar if not the same. Adapting the structure and wording of a prayer already known to his audience, Matthew's purpose was to change the purpose and focus of the prayer that the audience already knew.
Here is how the Luke version of the Lord's prayer differs. The gospel of Luke was written for a gentile audience. Gentiles would not have any background in religious life at all. The definition of, and reason for, and method of prayer would have been completely foreign to them. The disciples in today's scripture from Luke have witnessed Jesus praying and want to know how to do that. In contrast with the Matthew version, Luke gives the disciples specific words that are modifications of the blessings from the Amidah prayer. Where Matthew gives no further instruction or explanation, Luke gives his audience a little more information to help them understand a little bit more about God. Luke doesn't say that God is super busy, and super important, and you are a mere human so don't bother God unless you really have to, and maybe only maybe God will hear you and answer your prayer. On the contrary, Luke who always writes with an emphasis on connection and relationship, begins to explain that God is the father that always listens and cares and provides. Luke's teaching about prayer to God serves to let the gentiles, and us, know that God is approachable. I think that instead of the actual words to the Lord's prayer that I learned in that study, I would have liked to understand first from Luke, that ordinary me talking to God would be welcome. How many of us start a prayer with “sorry to bother you God,” or “I know other people have it worse, but…” In framing the prayer as addressing God as Father, Luke explains that this prayer is like a child asking a caring and generous father for something the child needs. We like to debate about calling God Father, and it might have seemed strange to the gentile audience too. Father's in Greco-Roman culture held complete sway in the family and even decided which children were kept or sold or killed.3 For the gentile audience of the time and we in modern times, the role of Father can be less than ideal and downright harmful. What Luke is describing for us is a different kind of Father. When we pray to God as a father, we are counting on the relationship that is intimate and familial. Just as we know we can count on a friend to come through for us, it is the relationship that leads to our boldness to ask.
Point one: We need to ask.
Point two: We need to be persistent. Even if your friend is half asleep, the house is closed up for the night, everyone is in bed, if you are persistent they will eventually get up and help you out. If the relationship isn't enough to get them moving, persistence will seal the deal. Nevertheless, persist.
Point three: be confident. We can trust that God hears us and will answer. We ask, we are persistent, and just like the relationship of a good parent leads us to trust – we trust God to open the door to our knocking. Remember, the first thing we do is acknowledge that God is holy. This is the definition of holy – trustworthy, good, dependable. Our prayer is to God who is trustworthy and good and dependable therefore we can be confident in what we say and ask.
Luke wants to be sure that the gentiles, people who aren't familiar with prayer, or God even, are certain that God is as near as a family or close friend – that our stance of prayer with God is about mutuality, a deep certainty, a deep knowledge that the need will be granted. Not like a scorpion instead of an egg, or a snake instead of a fish. When we pray we know that God is capable of listening so deep that God is able to hear the deep version of what we say out loud.
If we had read today's lesson from the gospel of Matthew we would be concentrating on the words of the Lord's prayer, and the meaning of holy, daily/necessary bread, sins, forgiveness, the meaning of “the time of trial.” Matthew's point of view is solely about the words we use. Today's scripture lesson from Luke is less about the actual prayer to God, and is more about our trust in the prayer. Jesus says, “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.”
Ask, search and knock. Again and again and again.
How many of us do that? Are we good at asking for what we need? Do we deserve it; is God too busy; should we not need? Do we avoid approaching God with our “little” needs, given that others are so much worse off? As if God answering our prayers subtracts somehow from God answering someone else's prayers also. Are we able to ask again and again? Do we worry that we have fallen off of God's to-do list?
Some of us are lucky enough to have a real human or two in our lives who are dependable, always available, reliable and trustworthy. Some of us have parents who love and support us, and some of us have parents who hurt us. For those with parents who caused harmed, close relationships that have hurt, people of influence in our lives who have let us down or let us slip through the cracks, or are without trustworthy friendships in general, the gospel of Luke offers God. God does not act like any human any of us knows. God does not harm. God loves like that perfect parent or friend, and even more than that. God does not give up, God does not ever get fatigued or tired of hearing from us.
In closing, let me read the final portion of a prayer written by St. Claude La Colombiere, SJ a priest who lived in the 17th century:
“Finally, I know that my confidence
Cannot exceed your generosity,
And that I shall never receive less
Than I have hoped for from you.
Therefore I hope that you will sustain me
Against my evil inclinations,
That you will protect me
Against the deceitful attacks of the evil one,
And that you will cause my weakness
To triumph over every hostile force.
I hope that you will never cease to love me
And that I shall love you unceasingly.
In you, O loving God, have I hoped: let me never be confounded.”
Amen.
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1 The Lord's Prayer and the Amidah: A Comparative Analysis - Bible Scholars
2 Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1997), 438
3 Working Preacher commentary Niveen Sarras, Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church of Wausau, WI