Let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of our
hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord
our strength and Our Redeemer.
We hear today aspects of the Lord's prayer
that we all know so well, and of course the
longer version of The Lord's Prayer is in chapter 6 of Matthew's
gospel. The Uniting Church in Australia
has adopted the "English language liturgical
consultation" version, which many churches
have now adopted and I'll be
drawing today on the new revised Standard
Version in today's message on Luke's gospel.
So the Gospel of Luke chapter 11 verse
1 in our Luke's reading today
one of the disciples heard Jesus pray and
asked Jesus: " Lord teach
us to pray."
It's a fair enough request isn't it having seen Jesus
praying when Jesus had finished, the
disciple presumably observing essentially
asked: "Show us just
how to do that."
Now no doubt this disciple was moved by
what he saw.
And that the outset I find this interesting.
The Jews after all were great prayers.
Now, I'm not an expert on aspects of the Jewish
faith,
but I know that a practicing Jew is required to
to pray.
Three times a day morning midday and
evening.
And even as young children, they would have grown up
and been nurtured in the practice of Prayer.
So, why does this disciple ask Jesus
to teach him to pray?
He doesn't ask Jesus for a particular prayer, but
he asked Jesus how to go about praying.
The way in which Jesus prayed was very different to
what this disciple experienced of prayer,
but why?
Well, we can get some answer to this if we look very
carefully at the way in which Jesus instructed the
disciple to pray.
His lesson on prayer begins
at the very first word that Jesus
mentions in this text.
It's a word that for me really jumps out, that stands
all alone and is an
invocation to Jesus' reply. The word
is father.
Abba in Aramaic, which is essentially how
a child in Jesus's time addresses their
father; "Abba", short and
sweet.
And Jesus knew and the disciple presumably looking
on as Jesus prayed that when Jews prayed
to God, they didn't address God
in their prayer in this way as "Abba".
They used a very different word - "Abuni", which
meant father but it was a
much more revered word.
And this tended to put people at a distance from God.
That first and foremost had to be strictly obeyed. God
had to be obeyed.
The Apostle Paul a Jew himself said
that they were previously enslaved referring
to the law being enslaved means
watch out or else.
But now Paul says, you know God or
rather you are known God he mentions this
in Galatians.
Known by God in a totally different way.
So to say father means that
you acknowledge your sonship as a
son or a daughter.
So this one word sums up
our identity that Paul unfurls in
Colossians 2 of our reading this morning baptised Children
of the Living God revealed through
the Life of Christ the very revelation of God.
And we can read in Galatians. God sent his
son. Paul tells us to redeem those under
law that we might receive the full
rights of sons.
So with his one word,
Jesus profoundly establishes how he
and we approach God
in Prayer - not under fear or in trepidation, but
as a child would approach a
father knowing that our father loves us
who listens to us and responds for
our well-being.
When it comes to approaching God In Prayer after the
first word of jesus' instruction father,
he adds these words.
Hallowed be your name
now hallowed means made holy - holy is
your name.
It means we approach the Holiness of
God in nature and character.
Jesus is saying that when you name the name of God, you
are uttering the character and all that
is known and revealed about God, which is really powerful.
And then Jesus adds "your kingdom come."
This phrase represents the constant subject
of Jesus' teaching the realisation of
the kingdom of God is here and
now in the lives of men and
women whose subject themselves to God.
Later in chapter 17 of Luke, the Pharisees
pick this up when they asked when would
the kingdom of God come?
And Jesus replied the kingdom of God does
not come with your careful observation or will
people say here it is or there it
is because the kingdom of God is within you.
well, we've only got through the first couple of verses that
Jesus taught on prayer and I want to suggest something this
morning that even if we stopped here and we
won't
that these are instructions on prayer that really impact
your life.
Why? Because they represent something of
the most profound thing we can
do as Christians about the way we approach God
and interact with the world in our prayer life.
There is so much
that we can say about the rest of Jesus' prayer
that he taught but in summary, it speaks
further about how we approached God
for our past and our present in our
future lives.
In approaching god with our present needs.
In Verse 3 he speaks of daily bread.
Now bread is nice, but we have to know that this is not
about Baker's Delight. This is about putting your
Reliance on God for our
daily needs.
So in approaching god with our past (verse 4.)
Jesus says to pray and forgive
us of our sins.
As we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to
us.
There can be potentially nothing more powerful than
approaching god with the sins and transgressions of
our past.
We know we constantly come short of God's will so
we ask for forgiveness and in doing
so we recognize that in turn we are to
forgive others.
Finally Jesus' teaching is
about approaching God about our future
verse four concludes with and do not
bring us to a time of trial.
The prayer request is not that we never face any
trials, but they're through God's grace
and presence in our lives. He will enable
us to come through our trials.
Now how confident should we be about this prayer? We
might be asking this.
And Jesus answers this he says: " So I say
to you ask and it will be
given to you."
Search and you will find knock on
the door and it will be open to you
(verse 9.)
Jesus is encouraging the disciple of how God
as father is not ignoring but
listening.
And of course the outcomes are not always as we expect
but Jesus teaches us.
In verse 13 that just as we all know
how to give good gifts to
our children as they ask.
So does God know how to respond to our requests.
In the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray Jesus tried
to explain that prayer is a
simple ordinary part of human life.
As natural as the relationship between friends or
between parents and children
It's the meaning of the parables in this Gospel reading today.
The example of the man seeking bread from
a friend and a father who knows how to
give good gifts to his children.
So in finishing, I would like to read a translation
of the Aramaic version
of these prayers that Jesus taught that I
found. Let me read them this this to you
this morning.
Eternal God
creator of all the one who brings to
birth
the one who is parent, mother, father of
us all and of all that
is
In Peace your name resides, a holy
of holies open and
giving light to all.
father
Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come
As we venture forth into our lives and
Ministries in the coming days and weeks let this
prayer that Jesus taught be firmly
and foremost in our hearts.
amen, and God bless