PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Our genesis is in you, O God, our beginnings are in Eden,

our origins are those of every man and woman.

Forgive us the falseness of what we have become, the ugliness and divisions of which we are a part.

Restore us to the truthfulness of our birth in you, the heritage of all that has being.

Renew us this night in the genesis of our soul, the beauty of Eden deep in each created thing.

– JP Newell, Songs of the Eternal:  A Celtic Psalter

Gospel Lesson

Luke 11:1-13

The Lord’s Prayer

11 He 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.” ² He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father,^[a] hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come.^[b]
3     Give us each day our daily bread.^[c]
4     And forgive us our sins,
        for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial.”^[d]

Perseverance in Prayer

⁵ 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;⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’⁷ 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.’ ⁸ 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.

⁹ “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. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹ Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for^[e] a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? ¹² Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? ¹³ 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^[f] to those who ask him!”

Footnotes:

a.     Luke 11:2 Other ancient authorities read Our Father in heaven

b.     Luke 11:2 A few ancient authorities read Your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.Other ancient authorities add Your will be done, on earth as in heaven

c.     Luke 11:3 Or our bread for tomorrow

d.     Luke 11:4 Or us into temptation. Other ancient authorities add but rescue us from the evil one (or from evil)

e.     Luke 11:11 Other ancient authorities add bread, will give a stone; or if your child asks for

f.      Luke 11:13 Other ancient authorities read the Father give the Holy Spirit from heaven

Most days, I love being a dad.  There’s been a lot of ups and downs, oftentimes I’ve struggled with the concept of how to be a dad.  And that’s certainly changed as both of my kids are in their 20’s now. I was reminded of that this past week as we’ve been preparing to up my son from OSU’s biology island where he’s been doing research on climate change and the environment.  And, being with our daughter as she’s living with us until her departure to Scotland for 5 months.  This summer has been so good in many ways.  

Plus, being a son, I’ve had to unwrap my own relationship with my dad, and my mom.  How those relationships impacted me in good ways, and in ways that I’m still trying to figure out even as they have both passed away.

But, I’m finding out more and more, the biggest thing as a dad is to simply be authentic in who I am and being in deep relationship with my kids.  I don’t beat myself up too much for mistakes I’ve made along the way, but try to always keep the deep love that I have for my kids in front of me. 

Our gospel lesson this morning finds Jesus using the word “father” in what we have commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer”.  It’s a teaching moment for his disciples as one of them asks Jesus to teach them to pray.  They noticed that Jesus had a deep sense of intimacy with God, that Jesus prayed and conversed with God and that it seemed to have a calming and transformational effect on Jesus.  

Jesus is using his relationship to God to redeem the word “Father”.  In Jewish understanding, beyond the patriarchal implications that could be there, father is still a relational term.  It should denote a sense of deep and abiding love and commitment.  As we’ve said before, the word to describe God’s characteristic the most in the Bible is Hesed…which means ever loving, ever faithful, ever compassionate, and ever loyal to us in community with us.  

So, the writer of Luke is saying that God is a father not like other fathers, but a father filled with care and commitment to his children.  And, a father who also was like a mother.  Which, in other parts of scripture, feminine words are used to describe God as well.  

Jesus is also saying that we should respect God’s name.  Honor and respect are important for any relationship.  If we want to grow in our relationship with God and with others, then we need to honor and respect that relationship.  

Jesus goes on to say that praying for the Kingdom to come is important…not just a kingdom in the future, but to for Kingdom or Presence of God to made known to us every day and that we are to pray for God to provide for us sustenance, or to carry us with nourishment every day.  

It’s also important to note that we are to ask for God’s kingdom, no one can give us God’s presence…no one can say magic words and eyes will be opened to see God or ears cleaned out to hear God’s word…that we have to realize that we are surrounded by God’s presence and we should converse with God to be aware of that presence…and that presence will eventually clear our eyes and clean our ears, IF we are willing to let go and be.

Our Presbyterian book of order talks about worship quite a bit.  One of the things that it emphasizes is that worship is not a spectator sport.  We can get into all sorts of conversations about what happens on a Sunday morning or any other time, and those can be important, but the real work is being done by all of us together.  We can go into any worship service, or any setting really, and experience God’s Presence, God’s kin-dom…but it’s up to us to be in prayer for our lives to be settled and to let go.  When we can do that, we can experience more fully the blessings of God’s Presence.

Jesus goes on to say that it’s important for us to know that we are forgiven, that God is not concerned about the past.  That doesn’t mean that we can’t grow from the past, and that we should own our past, but it does mean that God wants us to move forward.  That we are forgiven in God’s eyes.  And, because of that, we should forgive those whom we feel owe us something.  

As a parent, sometimes I want my kids to say they are sorry, I may work really hard to get them to understand that…and, my kids are pretty aware and eventually, most of the time, will come around to that.  But, I’m more focused on them realizing that my love for them, the love that will carry them through this part of their journey and hopefully take them to the next, is not dependent on their actions.  I’ll love them and forgive them no matter what.

Jesus is saying that same thing.  God loves us, and God wants us to practice loving others.  When we do, we’ll find our relationships with ourselves, God, and others will thrive.  

Forgiving debts is also important…I think that word “debts” is huge.  We live in a world that piles up debts, not only monetarily, but to so many things that hold us back…  Dr. Walter Brueggemann says that we are all a part of a pharaoh economy, that we are all enslaved to something.  As people of faith, we are called to walk away from whatever we are enslaved to, just like the Israelites walked out of Egypt.  Freedom isn’t easy, but it does beat being broken by the debt that’s put on us.  But, God doesn’t send us to freedom by ourselves.  The Israelites as a people gathered were freed together, none of this rugged individualism, but a called out people together.  We cannot do this journey towards freedom alone, we have to depend on one another.

We are also to ask God to not test us.  We don’t have anything to prove.  God’s love for us is a transformational relationship.  It isn’t a transaction.  God is not going to love us any less if we pass or fail or a test.  We will always have things or people in our journey in life that will want to test us, but not God.  God wants to love us into growth from the inside out.  As that happens, we can find ourselves able to overcome so many obstacles.  

The second part of our gospel narrative gives us more of an understanding of the practical aspects of prayer.  The verb to ask is very similar to the verb to pray.  It is an action.  I believe that it’s paired with the Lord’s prayer because Jesus wants us to understand that our God wants us to be able to go to God as a loving parent, in relationship.  God wants us to converse with God, to pray for whatever we may need in order to be sustained and to grow.  Jesus gave us a prayer when our words fail us, but, really, God wants us to have agency and to know that we are in constant prayer, to also realize again and again that prayer gives us a sense of relational intimacy and growth.  Even with the story of asking a neighbor for bread after they’ve gone to bed…they may not want to get up, but they will eventually give us bread!

Friends, Jesus is telling us that if you want to be sustained in your relationship with God, that if you want to grow, if you want to be strong in who you are as a child of God, made in God’s image…that you need to persevere, that you need to know that God is a loving father and will not give you a scorpion if you ask for bread!  What kind of a parent is that?!  

But, you have to ask, you have to be aware and to be humble.  Asking for forgiveness, asking for God to sustain you, that you can’t do it on your own, asking for eyes to see God’s Presence means that you have to admit that you haven’t been looking or have some blind spots.  

I know that for me as a dad that my kids are teaching me new things and part of my rebirth in my 50’s are coming from my changing relationship with them.  

May we all ask God, the force that is so intimate and relational…the force that creates, saves, and sustains, to move through us in this moment and in every moment of our lives.  

JP Newell has written this Celtic version of the Lord’s Prayer, it seems like a good way to end this sermon!

Holy One beyond all names

Eternal Wellspring

May love rise again in us today

With food for every table Shelter for every family And reverence for every life.

Forgive us our failings in love And free us from all falseness

That the light of our souls may shine And the strength of our spirits endure

For Earth and all its people

This day, tonight, and forever.

Amen