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St. Charles Episcopal Church, St. Charles, IL

July 25, 2010 – Pentecost 9 C

Hosea 1:2-10, Psalm 85, Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19), Luke 11:1-13

The Rev. Elizabeth Meade

If you’re of “a certain age” you’ve seen that old Uncle Sam poster: The drawing of a stern older man dressed in red white and blue, and wearing a top hat. And he was pointing at us. The caption read: “I want YOU, for US ARMY. It hung on a wall in our barn, when I was a kid. It was old and torn, and would probably be worth a fortune today, had we saved it, but it always kind of gave me the creeps. Who was Uncle Sam? And why did he want me?

Well, today, we have a similar image in the Gospel reading, although, it’s not Uncle Sam who wants us, its GOD.   A mysterious figure one no one has ever seen – one we all describe a little differently. GOD. We all carry images of what God looks like, but chances are, they’re vague – like a watercolor painting done with too much water. Or maybe we picture him as having that giant index finger – reaching out over the abyss, as Michelangelo portrayed him on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel: God pointing to us saying, “I want you!” And maybe you find it a little creepy too.

Who is this God? A God who is elusive, mysterious, and hallowed? A God capable of raining hellfire and brimstone down on Sodom and Gomorrah; a God capable of drowning thousands of Egyptians in the Red Sea? This God wants us? Loves us? Desires relationship with us? So, when the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray to this God, Jesus offers them careful instructions on which to model their prayers. We know it, of course, as the Lord’s Prayer. It’s the first prayer we ever memorized, and the last one most of us will remember.

In it, we see the intimacy that exists between Jesus and God the Father.      We see it in his choice of words: Abba, Papa. And we see it in the examples Jesus uses at the end of the reading, comparing God to a loving parent, who would never endanger his child, who gives the child whatever he asks for. And remarkably, Jesus invites us into that intimacy he shares with His Father.

Coming before God with familial intimacy may be kind of hard for us, especially if we’ve been standing at the back of the room, hoping God will save the brimstone for the really BIG sinners – like Hitler, and Osama Bin Laden. But God cherishes us so deeply, that we can come before Him at any time, even in the middle of the night for 3 loaves of bread; God is, Jesus says, more desirous of you and of me, than even the most loving of parents. That kind of love takes some getting used to.

Lord, teach us how to pray.

I want to stop right here and state something up front, and it’s this. Notice that Jesus didn’t say: “This is the only prayer there is, and there’s only one way to say it.” People actually leave churches over the wording of this prayer. To some, the Lord’s Prayer has become an idol, words not to be messed with. But I can absolutely guarantee you, that when Jesus offered this prayer to his disciples for the first time, he did not offer it in the King’s English! Be on guard when people start grumbling about the different “versions” of this prayer. In offering a model for how to pray, Jesus was simply inviting us to join an intimate community, with God at the center. God is central, not the words. Okay, so I’ll get off that soapbox now, so we can look at the prayer a little more closely.

Jesus starts his prayer with “Our Father,” Abba. The words convey intimacy, as we have said. But the intimacy is not just with Jesus and the Father. Jesus said Our Father, not “my Father.” This is the Father we all share, Jesus says. We are in relationship with each other because we share the same Father. Notice, too, that Jesus didn’t start out with some high falutin’ 14 Karat gold language like: “Holiest God, Creator of the Universe;” Jesus wants us to draw near to the Father not as strangers, but as family members. We are being invited to “come home, ” perhaps as a soldier would after a long war: trusting in their inevitable welcome, yet with reverence, anticipation, and love.

The second phrase, “Hallowed be thy name,” reminds us that while we have a familial relationship with God and with each other, it’s not “familiar” in our casual “wear flip-flops to church” sense of the word. “Hallowed be thy name” serves to remind us that this is, after all, the God of the Universe we are approaching. Hallowed. Holy. Set apart. God does not require we use the stained glass language of King James when we come, but we ought to approach with reverence and gratitude as we are swept up into God’s embrace. We’d do well to remember God is God and we are not. The next line underscores this: “Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Whose world do we inhabit? It’s a good reminder for us today, as there so many other gods clamoring for our time and attention. It also reminds us of our part of the bargain. We are because God willed it. We are created to bring God’s plan for the world into reality. When we pray “on earth as it is in heaven” we enter a contract. We acknowledge that we here to be God’s hands and feet in the world.

Once we’ve reminded ourselves whose world it is in our prayers, and what role we are to play, then we can approach God with our needs. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus even encourages us to be persistent. Keep knocking! We can ask God boldly for our needs. God listens to our needs, and answers our needs. Rest assured of that. God listens, and God answers. Always. Perhaps not always as we want, with magical solutions to our problems but GOD always answers. Keep knocking. God likes persistence!

Speaking of persistence – how about our sins? We’re sure persistent in those! “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Beware! It’s another contract. We ask for forgiveness, but there is that other part as well: forgiving others. It’s not a “pick and chose” proposition, it’s both. We ask for and receive forgiveness, but we agree to forgive. And while we’re on this one, let me say here I prefer the more modern version, “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” I don’t know about you, but calling my sins trespasses just kind of sanitizes them. They’re SINS!!! Let’s name it and say what we mean. Let’s not sugar coat them with anachronistic words like “trespasses.” Let’s be honest in our prayers.

Finally, we get to the biggest gift of prayer. After speaking of our needs, after confessing our sins, we can simply speak our hearts. We can be utterly vulnerable. “Lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from evil.” In Eugene Petersen’s contemporary version, called The Message, it’s worded this way: “Keep us safe from ourselves and from the Devil.”

I like that. “Keep us safe from ourselves.” Where do all our temptations come from? Not from God. Temptations come from us. “Save us from ourselves and from the Devil.” We don’t talk much about the Devil or Evil these days, but since Jesus raised it, I’ll mention it, if only to say this: Evil is real and in the world today. Acknowledge its presence and steer clear. “God, deliver us from Evil.”

And then we come full circle. We close our prayers just as we started: by acknowledging who God is. We acknowledge that the kingdom belongs to God, not to us. The power is God’s, not ours, and the glory is offered only to God, not to other glittering images. The kingdom, and the power and the glory are yours, God. Yours. Now and forever. Amen.

So now, let us join in that prayer that Jesus gave as an example. Pray it boldly, using the guidelines given to the disciples by Jesus himself. Do not put on a high dusty shelf as a relic, but pray it boldly, and freely, with the freedom that God has given us in Christ Jesus.

Let us pray this prayer Jesus taught together: Our Father………..