Sermon
I love teaching flute to adult beginners. Adults are good at many things. Blowing through the side of a pipe isn't usually one of them. I get to teach from my imagination instead of from a method book. I can make connections a 10 year old might not get. Also, adults don't often have the time to put in lots of practice so there's a kind of efficiency that I can find. There are variables with an adult student that are different than a child student. I don't demand perfection. But I do expect engagement.
Deciding to get involved with the church as an adult put me in the position of being an adult beginner. As a kid I had a few friends who weren't allowed to play with me because I wasn't Christian. Another friend when I was pretty small, wasn't interested in playing house when we got together, she wanted to play church. I was at a disadvantage because I didn't know what we were doing. In an advanced English class in High School, we used a book that had a lot of biblical stories in it and I was way behind in class discussions. It wasn't until long after the class that I learned that those stories were in the bible. So by the time I was getting involved in a church, I had this niggling idea in the back of my head that the pressure was on to do this new thing well. The steepest learning curve for me was praying.
The problem with being an adult beginner is that as adults we try hard to take our less-than-satisfying work in stride, but we still feel a little embarrassment. And when it's prayer that you're new at, doing it wrong can seem like an offense against God.
The Lord's Prayer says to us, “Don't sweat it.”
It's a prayer that teaches us that we have a close familial relationship connection to God. It teaches us that the familial relationship with God, above and beyond our own family relationships, is a holy relationship. God is not distant at all, but is as close as a parent. We are humbled by being in a holy space when we pray to God. We first make it clear that it is the kingdom of God that we hope for.
Lastly, we are to pray for our own needs. We don't have to be shy about it either. The verbs in this section are imperatives. The kind of verb that says do it. Give us, this day our daily bread. Forgive us, our sins. Do not bring us, some translations say Save us, from the time of trial, from temptation. Give, Forgive, Save.
Our first petition is for bread. When we ask God for our daily bread, we are recognizing that God gives us what sustains life; is a provider; we recognize that God gives from abundance – we only need bread for one day because God will give bread the next day. The first temptation Jesus faced when in the desert was to make bread out of a stone. In the desert the Israelites ate manna from heaven. One commentator says “There is no manna recipe!” We can't generate manna, we can't hoard it. It only comes from God. It's pure gift. When we pray “give us this day our daily bread” we are inviting feelings of gratitude for that gift.
Second, we ask for God's forgiveness. When we pray this second petition, we are not just asking for God to forgive an event or an action. We are acknowledging that we understand how forgiveness from God works. We are acknowledging that we understand Luke 17:1-4.
17 1Jesus said to his disciples, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! 2 It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. 4 And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive.”
There is such power in this second petition of ours. We know that when Jesus told us to forgive he stressed three things. 1) People will fall, fail, stumble, sin, make mistakes, be vulnerable to the circumstances they find themselves in and may behave badly, 2) we sin just as much if we are the cause of someone else's sinning behavior. “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come!” 3) If there is repentance we must forgive. Repeatedly.
When I say as the Luke version says, “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us” I can only hope that I am being truthful. Because I don't know if I am capable of forgiving “everyone indebted to me.” Again, this petition is as much a request as it is a statement. Am I allowed to make the request if I can't truthfully make that statement? Jesus' statement says I must forgive, if there has been repentance. Given what we know about forgiveness – that it is not forgetting, it is not letting bygones be bygones, it is not giving the offender a pass – we are to forgive if there is repentance. Praying this portion of the prayer is a bold way of reminding ourselves that to forgive is to release. To forgive someone releases us from the bondage of anger, retribution, vengeance, desire to punish. We are not to allow that person's worst day to define them in our eyes. We have that power. Because we have that power, to withhold forgiveness is to try to be God. To withhold forgiveness is to hold onto that dark part of our hearts that wants to control. The power to refuse to forgive, means that we don't take someone's cross to bear off of them – we give them a cross to bear. To forgive gives the situation to God to handle. This is the hardest part of this prayer, for us.
And yet, here it is, in the very prayer that we are told to pray.
We've asked for bread, for release, and our last ask, is to be saved from the time of trial. Because we are vulnerable to temptation we are asking God not to even go there. Do not bring us to the time of trial. Even though Jesus said, “Occasions to stumbling are bound to come,” we recognize that our way through life is filled with trouble and hurt and illness. The forces around us might lead us to despair. We will be given lose-lose situations sometimes, and we do our best. We recognize the reality of life's struggles, and yet, we ask to be kept from them.
Every time we pray the Lord's Prayer, we are making a statement of faith with every part of the prayer. We are agreeing that God has given us a parent figure, Father for some, to whom we can address directly, even though God is holy and sacred. God never says “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” God says come to me. All those who are weary, and I will give you rest. God says, my burden is light. God says My peace I give to you. I don't think God expects perfection, but I'll bet God desires engagement.
Praying this prayer is grasping that divine gift of God's care.
Amen.