November 11, 2007 Message

Luke 11:1-13
“Why Pray”

This week, and for the next two weeks, our scripture readings and lessons will center on prayer – not only an essential part of our worship service each Sunday, but also of our daily lives as well. Each Sunday, we will consider a different question: Why Do We Pray? How Often Do We Pray? (Pray Continually, Even When Prayers Are Unanswered), and What Happens When We Pray? (Does Prayer Change Anything?) I hope you are able to be here for all three and will invite others to be here as well. Prayer is that important.

Today our focus is on ‘Why Do We Pray?’ I don’t think we pray because it makes life easier or it gets us the things we want. There is an old African Proverb that says: “The prayer of a chicken hawk does not get him a chicken.” Prayer does not get us things. Although it does get us close to God and that is a good thing. English poet, P. J. Bailey wrote a century ago, “Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth.” Perhaps that is why we pray – so that we can speak to God. Or maybe we pray because ‘everyone is doing it’ – at least in the Bible.

Prayer is biblical …and it is something Jesus did quite a bit of. There are many times in scripture we are told of Jesus praying. For him, prayer was essential. So much so that when asked, he taught his disciples how to pray ‘his prayer’ to God, the Father - the prayer from today’s gospel, known as The Lord’s Prayer. For us, it is to be the model for all prayer and perhaps the answer to our first question – why do we pray?

We pray because of our need to praise God (adoration), to admit our mistakes to God (confession), to thank God (thanksgiving), to ask God to provide something (supplication), and to ask for God to help others (intercession). The Lord’s Prayer is all of these, rolled up into one.

Our worship each week is to include our response to those needs to pray – to praise and thank God, to seek God’s help and provision, and to ask God’s forgiveness. And that is why we pray the Lord’s Prayer as well.

Note I said ‘pray’ and not ‘say’ – you’ve been there before, right? You have been told that if you slow down and listen to what you are saying in the Lord's Prayer, you will no longer be able to just "recite" it. Instead, you will be able to pray it. Maybe many of you have even practiced doing just that at sometime or another in the past. However, sooner rather than later, the Lord's Prayer became once again nothing more than a recitation - a memorized script mumbled forth on cue with no thought about its meaning or implication to life.

For a moment - imagine what it would mean if we actually prayed the words of the Lord’s Prayer and actually meant them? Chances are, most of the time, we have just mouthed the words. For many in my generation, this is so true. The scenario goes something like this: At some point in the worship service, the pastor says, "… as Jesus taught his disciples to pray," and the congregation ‘chants’ the words of the Lord's Prayer. The prayer is often a memorized recitation rather than an expression of the heart. The only point of reflection is whether to say "forgive us our debts," "forgive us our trespasses," or "forgive us our sins" - if the words are not printed in the bulletin.

Sometimes the Lord's Prayer has been examined in a Sunday School class or Bible study we have been in. It has been taken apart and analyzed phrase by phrase, if not word for word. The intimate character of the term Abba, Father is learned; as is the meaning of that strange word, "hallowed"; and the sorts of evil from which we might pray for deliverance.

Either way, whether in our recitation or in our study, we may have lost sight of the prayer itself or its significance to our own prayer life. Perhaps, when it comes to this prayer, not only have we been standing on holy ground and did not have the good sense to remove our sandals, we have not yet been ready to actually pray it.

Because to pray this prayer indicates a desire (on our part) to be set free from those ideas, those habits, those attitudes that seek to hold us captive. So the question becomes, "Are we at all certain that we want to be set free?" Are we ready to really pray as Jesus has taught us?
Many of us are comfortable with our lives and the faith associated with it. To change things could be uncomfortable, if not painful… and we don’t want that. What we do each day may not include those things that nourish the soul, yet we’re not willing to find room in our schedules for necessary spiritual disciplines. We know that we are impatient, unforgiving, sarcastic or inattentive to those we love and who love us, and we really don't like being that way. But given the choice between exerting the energy to change or continuing as we are, too often we choose the status quo. We shy away from embracing the implications of calling God "Father."

In short, we may need to be freed from whatever enslaves us, but the haunting question is whether we want to be set free. If praying the Lord's Prayer -- if calling God "Father" -- is to acknowledge God’s liberating power and to confess our desire to participate in that liberating experience, then, perhaps, the Lord's Prayer is a prayer that cannot yet be prayed.

When we ask for God’s kingdom to come, we are bound by cords of grace to all sorts of persons who profess faith in Jesus as the Christ. We are all kingdom-mates, brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God - even those whose Christian beliefs do not conform to our own. We may not be ready for that yet! Even though a kingdom - in which those differences that would divide are less important than the One whose kingdom it is – is exactly what we need to pray for.

We also need to pray for the basics of life - no more, no less – for the ‘daily bread’ and survival of all people. However, if truth be told, our satisfaction requires more than just bread. We’ve worked hard to surround ourselves with creature comforts to which we have become attached. The simple lifestyle may be okay for some folks, but most of us just not there yet. And yet, that is exactly why we need to pray.

And especially we need to pray for the ‘daily bread’ of the millions in this world who, in N.T. Wright’s words, “…didn't have bread yesterday, don't have any today, and in human terms are unlikely to have any tomorrow either." However it would be a cheap grace to pray, "give US OUR bread," knowing where MY bread is coming from, but I leave it up to God to figure out where THEY will get THEIR bread. Praying those words invites God to act through us, providing hunger relief, giving people hope, and advocating changes in policies, both locally and internationally, that keep people impoverished and hungry. This, too, is why we need to pray.

So, why do we pray? I think we pray because we desperately need to – even though we sometimes realize we are not ready to. Prayer can be a dangerous thing. Especially a prayer like the Lord’s Prayer that asks God to lead us, as Victoria Rebeck has said, “down some risky and unfamiliar paths.” St. Francis of Assisi explained that praying the Lord’s Prayer is: “praying that we might know God better and better; that we might be brought into God’s kingdom to love God perfectly; giving ourselves completely in service to God; asking for what sustains us - God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; recognizing God’s mercy when it comes to forgiveness and our need to forgive others in the same way; and, lastly, concerning our time of trial –a pass would be nice.”

So, perhaps in the future, we should always begin, "Lord, make us able to pray your prayer. “Father ...."
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.