Sermon for Proper 12 C RCL
Jesus was praying in a certain
place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord,
teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them,
"When you pray, say:
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."
And he said to them,
"Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to
him, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived,
and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, `Do not
bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in
bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will
not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of
his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
"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. Is there anyone
among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a
fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who
are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Today’s Gospel lesson includes Luke’s version of what we now
call the Lords Prayer. One temptation
would be to look at and compare the different versions between Luke and Matthew
and perhaps look at the myriad of translations.
That can be a fun academic exercise – well at least for some! But I would like to focus today on prayer –
and focus beyond the lords prayer. You
will also notice that I changed the Old Testament lesson today to the one from
Genesis instead of from Hosea. I did
this because it will allow us to – perhaps – explore a little deeper the nature
of prayer and what it says about God and what it says about us.
How many of us pray regularly? Don’t worry I am not going to ask for a show
of hands. Being good Episcopalians I am
willing to bet that most of us are most comfortable using a prayer book or
memorized prayers. At least in
public. It can be scary to be asked to
give an extemporaneous prayer in public.
Yes even for the clergy! We too
often fall back on learned prayers in our worship and in our public
ministries. One of the wonderful things
about this particular passage from Luke is that we see that the disciples – who
have been with Jesus – Jesus whose life was centered on prayer – the disciples had
to ask to be taught how to pray. They
wanted instruction. So what is prayer?
For me there are two types of prayer. One is the type that is scripted prayer. It is the Lords prayer that is so deeply
ingrained into our DNA that we can say it without even hearing the words
anymore. That is why I like to say
different versions from time to time. It
makes to turn off the auto-pilot and pay attention. Not that the autopilot is bad. It is good to have something that we can
trust will be there when our words fail us.
It is wonderful to know that we have a backstop when our world has
crashed around us and we can’t think of words.
I also love the predictability of our church. I know I can attend an Episcopal service just
about anywhere and the core of the worship and the core of the prayers will be
familiar and I will be at home.
There is also another type of prayer and for me that is
conversational prayer. It is the
unscripted free form prayer that can bubble up from deep within our souls. One of the blogs I read regularly – “Leave it
where Jesus flang it” – opens her prayers with “Hey God – Its Margaret”. Not a churchy, Episcopal Book of Common
Prayer way to open a prayer. But it is
good. It is a way that says that we can
have a conversation with God. That
prayer can be a two way street – a conversation. It is also consistent with the Lords Prayer
where Jesus taught the disciples and us to call God Aba – Father – Daddy. A term of affection. Not an address to an all powerful all mighty
indifferent God. But to claim our
special status as intimate children of God.
Or if you prefer partners with God in creation.
How we pray reflects how we see God. And I will be the first to admit that for me
my vision of God is a fluid thing. I
want to see God and the wonderful loving parent who is just as happy at play as
doing anything else. Society has built
another image of God as the bearded monarch on the throne – who knows all and
sees all, is unchangeable and all about judgment. I want that image of God too when I see the
injustice in the world and humankinds inhumanity to each other. That is when I want a god who will spite the
oppressor and make the world a better place.
How we pray can also say a lot about us.
Can we envision ourselves as partners in the bringing of God’s dream to
fruition? Or do we see ourselves as
pawns in some mighty clockwork creation where we do personal good so that we
can get into heaven at the end of times?
When I am at my best I certainly try to be a partner with God in
bringing the dream of a loving creation to complete fruition!
So how do we pray? I
love the section that we have today from Genesis. Abraham’s prayer is one that is certainly one
that we probably have had with God – in one form or another. A prayer where we bargain with God. It is
another type of prayer that can spring from the core of our very being. It is a conversation.
God has just issued judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah for their
sins – for their lack of hospitality to the stranger. God is so mad that he tells Abraham that he is
going to wipe them off the face of the earth. (Note:
I generally try to use inclusive imagery when I talk about the God head
being neither male nor female but the imagery here – thanks to Metro Goldwyn
Mayer is just the bearded God on a throne for me) And then Abraham does the unexpected. He has a conversation with God about who God
is and the relationship between God and God’s people. Abraham is willing to bargain with God! “Abraham
came near and said, "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the
wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep
away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be
it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that
the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of
all the earth do what is just?"”
In
essence Abraham is reminding God that even in God’s anger that Abrahams God is
a God of hospitality, love and justice.
Not a God of unjust vengeance.
Will God slay the righteous with the wicked? Surely not.
And from this point we have Abram bargaining with God. If God won’t destroy the cities if Abraham
can find 50 good people what about if there are only 45? 40? 30? 20? What about if there are only
10? Each time in the story God agrees
that even if there are only 10 he will not – after all – destroy the city. Did God change his mind? Did Abraham have to remind God about God’s
own nature? I don’t know. I certainly think that God can change and
grow as we and the God’s creation changes and grows. I know – some will think it is blasphemy to
think that God changes and perhaps what really changes is us.
If we
are partners with a loving God then we help bring the change into a world that
cannot see or hear God’s dream. If we
see God as Hospitable – one who will open the door at any hour to provide
hospitality. If we see God as one who
desires to give his creation good gifts and not evil then we need to be agents
to bring to fruition God’s dream of Love and care of all creation to this world
now. And we can only do that in
conversation with God.
The two
parables that come with the Lord’s Prayer in our reading today remind us of the
nature of the God and to whom we pray and for whom we are partners in this
creation. We are called by God to be a people of hospitality as God is a God of
Hospitality. Even – and perhaps
especially – when it in not convenient.
Most of us – I dare say – would be like the man in bed who didn’t want
to get up and provide hospitality to his neighbor. After all it was not his friend who showed up
in the middle of the night. But through
the shameless persistence of the man who needs bread to be able to offer hospitality
the man finally gets out of bed to help.
It is an active prayer life that changes us and lets us know when we too
have to get our of our comfort zone to provide hospitality. We are called –as in the parables to offer
sustenance and love to those around us as partners in creation – not to offer
scorpions and snakes.
Prayer
is that conversation. Prayer that springs out of our common prayers and prayer
that spontaneously come from our hearts.
Prayer opens us up to let God break into our heart. Prayer lets us empty our hearts and our pain
to God. Prayer makes space for us to
listen to the heartbeat of creation.
Prayer lets us see that we are partners in making this world a better
place. I don’t believe that prayer is some magical incantation that will make
things different. But the conversation – the dance that is part of our
relationship with God and with each other that ultimately does change the
world.
When we
provide hospitality and love to our neighbors we are answering prayers as well
as praying. I invite all of us to go out
of this House of Prayer and create a world of prayer. To have the conservations with God that will
hold the good, bad and absolutely ugly up to the cleansing light that is Good.
Let us
pray.
Hey God
– Its Rik and the people of St. Paul’s.
Thank you for being in conversation with us on this corner of 15th
and J streets in Sacramento. Help us to
open our eyes to see your hand in the world around us and remind us that we are
your partners in bringing your dream of Love into our world. Thank you for being strong when we are weak
and for accepting all of our prayers.
Our prayers of joy and sorrow, thanksgiving and lament. For comforting us when we cry –and crying
with us when creation is hurt. For
laughing with us in our happiness when we experience the joy of your
creation. But most of all thank you for
the conversations. Amen.
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