- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Text: Luke 11:1-13

I once heard the Arkansas Regional Minister, Barb Jones, share a devotion in which she talked about a time in seminary when things were going really badly for her family. She went to the dean, who happened to be an Episcopalian, shared her story and asked him to pray for her. He said, "Sure. Let's say the Lord's Prayer." And the two of them bowed their heads and recited the familiar prayer. After the Amen, Barb looked at the dean with a puzzled look as if to say, "Is that it?" She had expected him to pray specifically about the concerns she had just shared with him.

Then the dean said, "You don't get it, do you?" And Barb admitted that she didn't. The dean then explained his belief about the power of that particular prayer. He said, "In saying the Lord's Prayer we are saying the most powerful prayer known to humankind. That prayer has been prayed continuously since the days of the early church. People all around our world have prayed that same prayer day and night for two thousand years. And when we pray it, we connect ourselves to all believers everywhere and in all time. We pull together the collective power of all those prayers." Barb said she left feeling that she had really been prayed for.

Perhaps the strength of that prayer is summed up in this poem found in a mailing from the Omaha Home for Boys (4343 N. 52nd St., Omaha, Neb. 68104):

You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "I."
You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "My."
Nor can you pray the Lord's Prayer and not pray for one another,
And when you ask for daily bread, you must include your brother.
For others are included ... in each and every plea,
From the beginning to the end of it, it does not once say "Me."

Today we deal with Luke's version of this most famous of all prayers. We call it "the Lord's Prayer," but it is more accurately called "the Disciples' Prayer." It is a model prayer or a prayer template. It was the prayer Jesus gave for his disciples to use. Jesus' own prayer is the one recorded in John 17.

Jesus must have had an impressive prayer life. The Bible often mentions the fact that Jesus went away to pray. Specific details of his prayers are given in John 17 and in the Garden of Gethsemane scene. The disciples must have seen and heard him pray often, and in our text we find the only incidence of somebody requesting that Jesus teach on a specific topic - and the topic is prayer.

The disciples asked him, "Lord, teach us to pray." Whether this is a request for a group prayer or for basic instruction in individual prayer is not clear. The disciples may not have seen a distinction between the two. What is clear is that Jesus had such an impressive discipline of prayer that his disciples wanted to know how to pray that way.

So today I want us to take a close look at the Lord's Prayer, which we say every Sunday in our church. Some people in our church have asked me why we say "sins" when some churches say "trespasses" and other churches say "debts." It really is a matter of which translation the church prefers to use.

On several occasions I have conducted my own informal survey among Christians by asking if they are "debtors," "trespassers," or "sinners." I have found that most Methodists are "trespassers;" many Presbyterians are "debtors," and Disciples are often "sinners."

Let's look at a phrase-by-phrase comparison of Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer and Luke's version in the King James Version.

Mt - Our Father which art in heaven,
Lk - Our Father which art in heaven,
Mt - Hallowed be thy name.
Lk - Hallowed be thy name.
Mt - Thy kingdom come,
Lk - Thy kingdom come.
Mt - Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Lk - Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Mt - Give us this day our daily bread.
Lk - Give us day by day our daily bread.
Mt - And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Lk - And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.
Mt - And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
Lk - And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
Mt - For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen
Lk -

Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer reminds us that it is intended to be a bare-bones model of a prayer. But the abrupt ending of Luke's version makes it difficult to use in corporate worship.

In 1975, a group of scholars from many denominations carefully examined the Greek texts and the traditions of the churches and proposed a modern language version of the Lord's Prayer. It is known as the English Language Liturgical Consultation text (ELLC). It is being increasingly adopted by many denominations.

Let's look at a comparison of the King James Version of Matthew's text and the ELLC:

Mt - Our Father which art in heaven,
ELLC - Our Father in heaven
Mt - Hallowed be thy name.
ELLC - Hallowed be your name.
Mt - Thy kingdom come,
ELLC - Your kingdom come,
Mt - Give us this day our daily bread.
ELLC - Give us today our daily bread.
Mt - And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
ELLC - Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Mt - And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
ELLC - Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
Mt - For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen
ELLC - For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.

This version has the most straight-forward, simple, clear and direct wording that I have seen. It eliminates the archaic and unnecessary "who art." It uses "sins" instead of "trespasses" or "debts." It updates "thy" and "thine" to the words we use in everyday language - "your" and "yours." And finally, the words "And lead us not into temptation" have become "Save us from the time of trial."

The phrase "lead us not into temptation" is the most problematic one in the Lord's Prayer. There are several objections to it. Some modern readers complain that "lead us not into temptation" is "ungainly language." But I think the most powerful argument against it is that God is not the one who leads us into temptation. Satan does that. God may test us, but God doesn't tempt us. James 1:13 says, "No one, when tempted, should say I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one."

I really like the new phrase "save us from the time of trial" because I think we should not include words in our prayer that we don't really mean.

In our text for today, Jesus really gives us some basic lessons on how to pray. I want to suggest three things we can learn from this text about how we should pray.

First, we should pray simply. Perhaps most importantly, we should note the very simple and direct manner in which this prayer speaks with God. It seems always to have been a problem that we humans want to make our religious speech somehow more exalted in style than normal speech. The motivation for this is understandable and laudable, but it appears from Jesus' teaching that it is misguided.

One reason we pray less than we should - either in private or in public - is probably that we think we should pray like a professional. Or maybe we think we need some special language to make prayer acceptable. Jesus shows that our prayers can be very simple and very direct. As Rosalind Rinker has put it, prayer is "conversation with God." God understands not only our words but also our hearts. Therefore we should feel free to speak to him in our normal voices and words.

The Lord's prayer provides a simple outline that we can use in our prayers.

1) Address God personally
2) Glorify God
3) Ask for necessities
4) Ask for forgiveness
5) Ask to overcome temptation

Secondly, Jesus tells us to pray persistently. Jesus was not finished teaching them to pray when he gave them the model. He went on to tell them a brief story about going to a friend at midnight to ask for some bread to feed a surprise visitor. Even though we might have to ask several times, the friend will give the bread if for no other reason than our persistence. God, of course, is not to be compared with an exasperated human friend; but Jesus thus makes the point that we should persist in prayer. One commentator wrote, "Go on praying because God responds graciously to the needs of his children." Our prayers should be both direct and persistent.

"There is a company in the Midwest that specializes in handling subscription mailings for various magazines. Among other things, they send out renewal and expiration notices. But one day the company's computer malfunctioned. As a result, a rancher in Powder Bluff, Colorado, received 9,734 separate mailings informing him that his National Geographic subscription had expired and that it was time for him to renew. In response to that flood of notices, the rancher drove the ten miles to the nearest post office and sent in his money for the renewal. In addition, he sent along a note that said, "I give up! Send me your magazine." In a way, the subscription company learned that persistence does pay off." (1)

Third, we should pray expectantly. Here we find the familiar words of Jesus, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you." He follows this with the example of the kind response of the earthly father to his child. The father would not give a snake if asked for a fish, nor a scorpion if asked for an egg. So we can pray to the heavenly Father expecting that he, even more than earthly parents, will respond with kindness. This God who responds to our prayers does so with surprises that go beyond "all we can ask or imagine." (Ephesians 3:20). In this knowledge, we are encouraged to pray expectantly.

How then shall we pray? We should pray simply and directly, knowing that God reads our hearts as well as understands our words. We should pray persistently, knowing that the gracious God wants to respond with what is best for us. We should pray expectantly, trusting that God will pour out gifts far beyond our dreams.

When the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews, it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a prayer, and a miracle would be accomplished and the misfortune would be averted. Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Magid of Mezritch, had occasion, for the same reason, to say the prayer, he would go to the same place in the forest and say, "Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer." Again, a miracle would be accomplished. Still later, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say, "I do not know how to light the fire, I do not know the prayer, but I know the place, and that must sufficient." Once again, there was a miracle. Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God, "I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story, and that must be sufficient." And it was sufficient. Again a miracle occurred and the misfortune was avoided.

There is nothing magical about the Lord's Prayer. Rather the reward of prayer is found as we consistently turn to God in faith. (2)

(1) Jerry Fuller, PRCL quoting "The gift is in your hand," Seventeenth Sunday of the Year, Connections, (MediaWorks, 7 Lantern Lane, Londonderry, N.H. 03053-3905) July 2001.
(2) Jerry Fuller, PRCL quoting "Staying in touch," Lectionaid 9 (3): 33 (LectionAid, Inc., P.O. Box 19229, Boulder, CO 80308-2229. J. Nichols Adams, publisher) July 2001, pg. 33-4.