07-25-10 Shaped by Prayer

Shaped by Prayer

Luke 11-1-13

July 25, 2010

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

I have never been all that excited by exercise. I know some people find it exhilarating and well worth the effort. Not me! But, over the last five months I have discovered something about exercise. In February I started seeing a Chiropractor who believes that in addition to adjusting what might be out of place, it is important to build muscle strength and tone so that the adjustments hold. So at each visit a physical therapist takes each client through an exercise regime. My discovery? With regular consistent exercise I have begun to develop core strength. I have muscles that work and when I engage those muscles I experience less pain and more physical endurance. In short, regular exercise has begun to shape my muscles and my body in ways that are more life-giving and life-enhancing.

Jesus and his disciples are on the way to Jerusalem. Along the way the disciples have been learning many lessons about life and what it means to be a disciple of this Rabbi, Jesus. They have begun to recognize that Jesus is a person of prayer. They have begun to suspect that it is through prayer that he draws the wisdom, the strength and the power of divine love into his being and becomes a channel for that love as it heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind and sets free those who are oppressed. More than likely prayer is not a new concept for these disciples. They had no doubt learned the prayers of the torah, and they might have even practiced some of them. But they see something in Jesus that they have yet to experience for themselves. So one day, when Jesus finishes his time of prayer one of his disciples asks him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his followers to pray." [Luke 11:1]

Now it's not that these disciples want to be like John the Baptist, it's that they want to be like Jesus and they know that it is the practice of most rabbis to give their disciples a distinctive prayer, one that will help them to grow more and more like the rabbi. In fact it was true that you would be known by the prayer that was distinctive to your group, gathered around the teacher you followed.  So Jesus says to them:

"Pray in this way:  

`Father, help us to honor your name.

Come and set up your kingdom.

³Give us each day the food we need.

⁴Forgive our sins, as we forgive everyone who has done wrong to us.

And keep us from being tempted.'" [Luke 11:2-4]

You might recognize this prayer as a shortened version of what has come to be called The Lord's Prayer. The longer more familiar version being found in Matthew 6:9-13. In one version or another it has most certainly become a prayer that is distinctive to Christian communities wherever they gather and whatever language they speak. And if this prayer is more than just words we have memorized it does indeed have the power to shape us and transform us into the fullness of all it means to be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Christ, a Christian. Like exercises build our physical muscles, this prayer can help us build our spiritual ones. Let's take a closer look in the hopes that both Luke's shorter version and some fresh translations might awaken us in new ways to the power of the prayer Jesus gave his disciples.

First, as Kate Huey reminds us: "It is not a prayer of private piety, although we can say it alone, in our room.  It is a "we" and "us" prayer, and it gives voice to our human longings for bread, forgiveness, and escape from the time of trials we cannot bear."[1]

But it begins where all prayer must begin with taking time and making room. To pray the words most often translated as "hallowed be Thy name" and here rendered "help us to honor your name," in the original Aramaic was to acknowledge our need to create space and clean out the clutter within our lives so that the light of the Holy One shines through us.

Then once there is space, emptiness, openness, to say "come and set up you kingdom" is to pray a prayer of surrender; it is allowing God's will to become our will, asking that God's way becomes our way and not the other way around.

 To pray "Give us our daily bread" reminds us to pray not for everything we want but for what we truly need. In Jesus' time having enough food to sustain life was no small matter. Today, hunger is still no small matter."[2] What does it mean to pray not just for my daily bread, but for our daily bread -in other words to ask that all our sisters and brothers will have enough food to sustain life? But the word translated "bread" goes far beyond just food. It also means wisdom, insight or understanding. So in truth this line calls us to trust that whatever we need will be provided in each sacred moment.

Open to the Spirit and trusting God's goodness we encounter the need for forgiveness -both receiving it and offering it. For most of us these words about forgiveness are perhaps the most difficult ones in the prayer. It calls for honesty with ourselves and with God -facing our mistakes and failures and trusting that God's mercy and forgiveness will erase all of them. But it is so hard for us to forgive others, isn't it? That little word as frightens us. We hope God is more forgiving than we are. We hope God's forgiveness is not conditional on our forgiveness of others. So how do we understand this line of the prayer? Again in Aramaic this petition has to do with letting go of what keeps us tied up in knots and accepting, really accepting, God's forgiveness. Knowing that when we truly let go of all the stuff we have done or failed to do, when we stop beating ourselves us and accept God's unconditional love, we are empowered, little by little to let go of blaming others for what they have done and allowing the spirit to heal the hurt and the pain of living.

Finally we come to the words about being tempted which in Aramaic really point to forgetfulness. Don't let us forget the Source of Life. Don't let us get so busy with life that we forget to live. Keep us awake and aware, open and in tune with the rhythms of grace and the heartbeat of Love.

It's not that there is magic in these particular words. Yet when we learn them by heart and take them to heart, when we don't just say them, but honestly pray them, they become a doorway into a relationship with God that leads to LIFE, TRUE LIFE!

I think that's why Jesus goes on to add a curious little parable about an annoyingly persistent neighbor and the reluctant householder who relents, not out of kindness or friendship, but simply for the sake of a good night's sleep. Jesus then concludes this teaching about prayer with a brief comment about parents who know how to give good gifts to their children and the promise that God "is even more ready to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks."[Luke 11:13] 

Between the two we find those incredible promises, "...ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive, everyone who searches will find, and the door will be opened for everyone who knocks." [Luke 11:9-10]

Jesus seems to be saying that when we pray persistently and without ceasing we do we can count on the fact that we will indeed be shaped by our prayers into the very people God has created us to be. I believe Jesus is inviting us to trust that it is God's deepest desire to lead us into the fullness of life. So let us ask and keep on asking, search and keep on searching, knock and know that doors will open to a life more amazing than all we could ever hope for or imagine. May it be so. Amen.