WHEN YOU PRAY… Matthew 6:7-15

Dranesville United Methodist Church Sunday, June 28, 2020

How many things do you do without thinking about them; things that you have done so many times that you can do them with little or no thought? If it’s a physical act, we may say that you have developed muscle memory. When I go to the ATM to deposit a check or get cash (Yes, some of us still do those archaic things.), I usually enter my PIN without thinking. Once, for some reason, I tried to remember it so I could write it down in a list of passwords, PINs, combinations to locks, etc., and couldn’t. I had to go to an ATM and let muscle memory show me my PIN, by repeating the motion I had made so many times before. Only then could I write it down.

We may be able to recall many things in our mental memory - words to songs or poems, the dates of significant events, names and faces of friends and acquaintances (although I am finding that a little tougher lately) and large and small amounts of other data; some of it very useful, some of it not at all.

It’s unfortunate, but we may recite the words to various important and meaningful sayings, songs - even prayers - so many times that we may not give much thought to what we are saying or singing and what the words mean.

There are countless sacred sayings, hymns and prayers shared by many in the Christian tradition. Many of us can say the Apostles’ Creed from memory. The Nicene Creed is a little tougher. We may be able to get through at least a verse or two of some of our favorite hymns. Those of us raised in a family of believers may have learned simple table blessings like, “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for this food…”. I imagine many of you could take it from there. The same with “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep…”. Once again, you probably know the rest.

This morning’s Gospel Lesson includes most of what we know as The Lord’s Prayer. Roman Catholics call it the “Our Father”. How many times do you think you have prayed this prayer? For many of us, the number must be in the thousands, maybe even tens of thousands. When was the last time you gave some serious thought to what the words and phrases mean? Are there parts of the prayer that you have said for years and have no idea what they mean?

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I have said many times that I almost always preach using the assigned Scripture passages found in a document called the Revised Common Lectionary. What I like about the Lectionary is that the readings over a three-year cycle cover about 3/4 of the entire Bible. If you are faithful in your attendance, you will hear most of the Bible read aloud during those three years.

This also means that you will never hear 1/4 of the Bible read in worship. Surprisingly enough, the passage which is our Gospel Lesson for today is NOT in the Lectionary. The passage from Matthew containing The Lord’s Prayer, the prayer which is probably prayed most often by believers, is ignored.

Since we went into our stay-at-home phase, the virtual Bible study I lead on Tuesday evenings and Thursday afternoons has been examining Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which covers chapters 5-7 of the Gospel of Matthew. That means today’s Gospel Lesson is right in the middle of that sermon. When we covered The Lord’s Prayer in class, several participants stated that they now understand the prayer differently than they did before. At least one person said that memorizing the prayer was required for confirmation class when he was younger; yet it was never explained. It was merely a check in the box. Based on those comments, and the things I learned preparing to teach this passage, I believed it would be a good idea to “take a walk on the wild side,” set the Lectionary reading for today aside, and build my message around the meaning and importance of The Lord’s Prayer.

Let’s begin with the verses before the actual prayer. Jesus tells the disciples, “…when you pray…”. He didn’t say, “If you pray..”, but “…when you pray…”. Prayer is not optional for a believer. We need to be in communication with our Heavenly Father.

Jesus cautions against prayers which are wordy and full of vain repetition. Our translation says, “…do not keep on babbling…”. Have you known people who seem to make a habit of lifting rambling long-winded prayers; who repeat the same words or phrases every few seconds? I believe many of these folks are sincere in their prayers. They are simply following the examples that were set for them. There are others who seem intent on impressing us with their flowery, King James Version speech. They don’t talk like that otherwise; but seem to think that they have to use a different dialect to talk to God. If Jesus were here today, maybe he would tell us something like, “Speak in your normal manner, keep it simple, and get to the point.”

The next verse tells us why Jesus might say that - “…[Y]our Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Maybe that raises this question in your mind. “If God

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knows what we need before we ask, what is the point of praying?” In the Bible study, we talked about two possible reasons:

First, God wants to hear from us. If we are to be in a relationship with our heavenly Father who loves us, shouldn’t we communicate with Him? How many successful relationships have you been in in which no one spoke, asked questions, or said what was on their mind? Prayer is our chief means of communicating with God. The Scriptures are the most common means by which God communicates with us.

The second reason to pray is to enable us to say what is on our hearts. How many times has something bothered you, something you couldn’t quite describe? How many times have you wrestled with a problem that you struggled to even define? In many cases, if we have someone to talk with, even if the other person does nothing but listen (and maybe ask a few probing questions), we are able to articulate an answer to our problem. When I was still a lay person, both Candi and I were active in a lay caregiving ministry which emphasized listening techniques. We each were assigned care receivers with whom we met on a one-on-one basis. Our primary task was to walk with this person through whatever crisis or issue they were dealing with. We weren’t there to try to “fix” them. The idea was to help them find the answers which were probably already inside them and just needed to be brought to the surface. The most important lesson I learned from that ministry experience, about which I need to be reminded on many occasions, is that I can do a lot of good when I keep my mouth shut.

God wants to hear from us in prayer; prayer which may help us work out many things once we get them out in the open.

Jesus goes on to say, “This, then, is how you should pray…”. In the Revised Standard Version, Jesus says, “Pray then like this.” I think that is a more accurate translation. “Pray then like this.” This is a model or sample prayer. We need not pray this prayer word for word. This is an example. In fairness, many people, when they realize this is an example of a prayer, decide they can’t really improve on it, and pray it as given. If that’s your reason for praying this way, fine. On the other hand, how many of us pray this prayer in sync with everyone else and don’t give much thought to what we’re saying? I have to tell you that’s been me on far too many occasions.

The Lord’s Prayer is an example of a collect; spelled c-o-l-l-e-c-t. Collect is a word for which the pronunciation varies, depending on how it is used. As a noun, meaning a type of prayer, it is pronounced one way. As a verb, meaning to gather, it is pronounced differently.

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A collect is a common prayer in the form of a figurative “sandwich.” The top piece of “bread,” the beginning or opening of the prayer, is a reverent, respectful address to God. In this case, we pray, “Our Father, in heaven…”. The fact that we say, “Our Father” rather than “My Father” is an indication that this is a prayer to be prayed in community. By using a plural possessive adjective, we acknowledge that God is not my personal God. God is so much bigger and greater than any of us can imagine.

Father is a word that denotes a loving parental figure. Jesus often addressed God as “Abba:” which may be loosely translated as “Daddy.” This is a demonstration of the closeness between Jesus and God the Father. There are many persons, most of them female, who have problems with the image of God as Father. The cause is often the fact that these persons had a dysfunctional relationship with their biological father and project their images and impressions of their human father on to God. We need to turn that around. God is the ideal Father. No matter how good a father any man might be, he cannot begin to compare to our loving Heavenly Father.

“…In heaven…”. This is a way of acknowledging the transcendence, the greatness of God. Once again, God is so far beyond our understanding that we cannot find adequate words to address Him.

Next, we come to the “filler” in the “sandwich.” A collect is comprised of one or more petitions; requests for God to do something; usually for God’s people. The Lord’s Prayer consists of six petitions, which I will briefly cover one at a time.

The petitions are divided in two groups of three. The first three focus on God. The last three on humanity. The inclusion of both God and humanity is certainly not limited to The Lord’s Prayer. Remember when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is? His response was two-fold - love God with all ones being and love one’s neighbor as oneself. The Ten Commandments are similarly divided. The first four Commandments describe our relationship and conduct with and toward God. The last six are focused on the relations among humanity.

Let’s address the first three petitions. The first one: “Hallowed be your name,” is a plea that God’s name would always be honored. One of the Ten Commandments is a prohibition against taking God’s name in vain. Names were very important in Biblical times. To know and speak another person’s name conferred power on the speaker. God’s name was sacred. In fact, Jews did not speak God’s name; so that they might not commit a sacrilege by doing so. When we pray, we are expressing a hope that we might honor God’s name by our words and actions.

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“Thy kingdom come.” When Jesus walked the earth, he proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was at hand. The kingdom arrived in part the first time Jesus came. It will come in all its fullness when Jesus returns. Our petition says we are looking forward to Jesus’ return. We may not give much thought to Jesus’ return in the normal course of the day; but that’s what we’re talking about when we pray this petition.

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Obviously, God’s will is done in heaven. There are no forces in opposition. The earth is a different story. Just look around; watch the news; read the paper. There is a lot going on that we would probably all agree is contrary to the will of God. We might describe them as the forces of evil.

This petition implies a great deal of submission on our part. We are asking for GOD’s will, not ours, to be done. I wonder how many times we pray, as individuals or as a congregation, asking for God’s will to be done, when what we are really hoping is that God will allow OUR will to be done and bless what we have decided to do. Once again, if we are sincere, this is a petition in which we ask that God’s will be done, whether it coincides with ours or not.

That concludes the three petitions focused on God. Now let’s take a brief look at the three focused on humanity.

“Give us today our daily bread.” In the Middle East, bread was an absolute necessity for survival. Meals were served in a common dish. Persons around the table were given small loaves of pita bread, which they used as their utensils. There were no knives, forks or spoons. Everyone dipped their bread in the common dish and used the bread to grab whatever was in the dish. If you didn’t have bread, you didn’t eat.

Our “bread” is whatever we need to get through the day. Notice the petition is limited to “this day” - today. While there is nothing wrong with planning for the future, we don’t obsess over it. We live for today. The past is gone and we’re not guaranteed tomorrow. We ask God to provide what we need (Not what we want) for today. We are asking God to meet our PHYSICAL needs.

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” We usually substitute “trespasses” for “debts;” but the meaning is the same. Both words mean “sin” in this case. Sin, like debt, must be forgiven in order for us to be free. We are all in need of forgiveness because we are all sinners. Notice that our forgiveness by God is linked to our willingness to forgive others. Think about it. How can we expect God to

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forgive us our many great sins against Him if we are not willing to forgive the sins of our neighbors which pale in comparison to what we are asking God to forgive? Jesus says as much in the last couple verses of our lesson for today. In this petition, we are asking God to meet our SPIRITUAL need for forgiveness.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” God does not tempt any of us to commit evil acts. That’s entirely contrary to God’s nature. God may TEST us. Some good examples in the Bible of God’s testing are Jonah and Job. Jonah failed and Job passed their respective tests. We may include Abraham, if we concede that God would not have allowed him to sacrifice Isaac in response to God’s original directive.

When we pray, we are asking God to save us; to strengthen us when we are being tested; to help us avoid all temptation and deliver us from the forces of evil. We are asking God to meet our MORAL need.

That’s where The Lord’s Prayer ends in most versions of the Bible. This where Roman Catholics stop praying. There are some versions of Matthew, taken from manuscripts which are hundreds of years newer than the ones on which most of the current New Testament is based, which contain the words, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.” Protestant denominations have included these phrases because, for one thing, they provide the “bottom piece of bread” for our “collect sandwich.” Every collect should begin and end with an acknowledgment of God’s greatness and power. Did Jesus give us this form of prayer - the collect? Probably not. This is a creation of Church leaders who lived centuries after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

What you have heard today is perhaps a different look at the model prayer Jesus gave his disciples. It was good for them; it’s good for us. When we pray, in the first three petitions, we acknowledge God’s greatness, pray for the coming of God’s kingdom and that God’s will might be carried out. In the final three petitions, we ask God to meet our physical, spiritual and moral needs. While we need not pray this prayer EXACTLY the way Jesus gave it; it is a great model for all our prayers. It encompasses a great deal, keeps us focused on God and speaks to needs rather than wants.

My hope is that, each time we pray this prayer, individually and collectively, that we pray it in a reverent thoughtful manner and make these petitions ours. Amen.

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