Proper 12, Yr C (July 24, 2022) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Proper 12, Year C (2022) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Luke 11:1-13 St. Andrew’s On-the-Hill
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. AMEN.
“Jesus was praying in a certain place,
and after he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray….’”
Having now lived in the area almost three whole months,
I am beginning to learn my way around.
I am a creature of habit,
so once I figure out a beaten path, I usually stick to it!
Having discovered some back roads to get to stores for weekly groceries and household items,
last week I set out on my beaten path,
and it wasn’t until I was well on my way that I realized that the store I needed to go to - and thought I was on my way to –
was on an entirely different road!
On the way I had been lost in thought:
running through my head the items I needed at the store,
what I needed to do when I finished this errand,
and even replaying a recent conversation I’d had with a friend.
And to think that only last week we heard Jesus say in the gospel,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled by many things.”
Today’s Gospel reading follows on the heels of the story of Martha and Mary –
a story of action and contemplation.
Over and over again in the Gospels we read where Jesus engages in teaching and preaching and healing
and then goes away to pray –
sometimes with those closest to him – other times by himself.
Jesus reminds us that we, too, must also remember
- in the midst of our action –
to take time for contemplation.
When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray,
Jesus teaches them what we know as The Lord’s Prayer.
It is the prayer that many of us learned as children.
It is the prayer that we will remember the longest,
long after we have forgotten most things we ever knew.
In fact, the Lord’s Prayer is so ingrained in our lives that it functions just as our liturgy functions in the Episcopal Church.
We say the same prayers each week so that we may enter into those prayers
and enter through those prayers into relationship with God.
However, because this prayer is so much a part of our lives
- so routine a part of our prayer life (a beaten path, if you will) –
it becomes possible for us to lose our focus and let our minds wander as we pray it.
I know that that occurs in my own prayer life.
Sometimes at the end of a prayer, I realize that I have no idea what I really said….
like driving a familiar road and not really paying attention to how I got there.
So, I want to walk through this prayer with you –
perhaps opening up lines in ways you have not considered before,
making it more alive.
To begin with Jesus says, “When you pray,” not if you pray.
He assumes that we, as disciples, will pray.
Prayer is a vital part of our relationship with God.
So, Jesus says, when you pray, say, “Father, Abba.”
Jesus begins with the vocative of the word for father.
It is not simply the way you address someone as if you were going to have a conversation.
He does not begin as if to say, “Jean/John,” would you like to get together for lunch sometime?
The word “Father” is said as a call,
a cry,
a pleading.
“Father!”… Much like a child crying out to a parent when they need help.
It is also a familiar term of address,
as of a child calling to a loving parent.
So, Jesus tells us to begin our prayer by boldly proclaiming:
“Father,
Papa,
listen to us!”
“Hallowed be your name.”
God’s name is holy,
unlike any other in this creation.
God alone is the one God.
We are to keep God’s name sacred –
something that is a challenge in today’s world…
where God’s name is taken in vain and used flippantly so frequently.
One church community paraphrases this line in this way:
“May your holy name be honored
by the way we live our lives.”
Hallowed,
Sacred,
Holy
is your name.
Hallowed,
Sacred,
Holy
are our lives as we reflect God to others.
“Your kingdom come.”
After acknowledging God’s sacredness,
we first pray for the coming of God’s kingdom.
We pray for the coming of God’s justice and God’s mercy – God’s kingdom –
which reminds us that we are working for God’s kingdom, not our own.
“Give us each day our daily bread.”
We ask God to give us what we need to sustain us each day.
Again we see the theme of not concerning ourselves with all the little things –
making plans for a lifetime….
allowing for all the “what ifs” in the plans for our lives –
becoming worried and anxious about all the little details before they even happen.
Let us instead take each day as it comes,
seeking to live each day as God would have us to live it,
knowing that God will give us exactly what we need for that day…
being fully present to ourselves, to God, and to others in each moment of our day.
“And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
We ask God to forgive us for our sins.
That petition is understandable –
we are in need of forgiveness for the ways we wrong God,
one another,
creation,
and even ourselves.
It is that next phrase that gets me into trouble and makes me think – deeply…
“for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
Do we actually forgive everyone who is indebted to us?
How forgiving are we of someone who owes us something?
Or who has hurt us or wronged us in some way?
Given God’s mercy,
may we strive to be as merciful to others.
Lord, help me.
“And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
We will be tempted and tested many times.
We ask God to help us in avoiding temptation;
we cannot be lone rangers.
We need God’s help.
What a wonderful gift of prayer that Jesus has given us!
God loves us more than we are capable of loving,
but first we must seek God
and ask for God’s help.
It is interesting that Luke immediately follows this story of Jesus’ teaching the disciples how to pray with two stories of persistence.
Jesus tells us to ask, search, knock.
Everyone who asks, receives.
Everyone who searches, finds.
For everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Please note that Jesus does not say that God will grant exactly what was requested.
God will grant the Holy Spirit!
A priest friend of mine interprets Jesus’ teaching of The Lord’s Prayer as this:
When we pray this prayer over and over
– with persistence –
so that it descends from our heads into our hearts,
and as we listen attentively to the Spirit,
then our prayer and our actions come in alignment with the Kingdom!
As we ask God for God’s Kingdom to come,
our very lives become reflections of the Kingdom…
as we forgive and are forgiven
and live into God’s justice.
So, perhaps, as the disciples saw the Kingdom reflected through the way Jesus lived and taught and healed and prayed,
others may see the Kingdom reflected through the ways we live and pray.
How much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask –
if only we will ask –
and persist in the asking!
AMEN.
