Lord, teach us to pray
You’d think, wouldn’t you, that after almost 3 years of following Jesus round Galilee that the disciples might have begun to grasp the fundamentals of prayer. It’s not as if it wasn’t part of Jewish practice.
Prayers and blessings are built into the fabric of Judaism – and those same prayers find their place in our worship to this day – but clearly the twelve have noticed that something rather different is going on when Jesus prays.
He hasn’t encouraged them to join him in any particular pattern of words
indeed Jesus doesn’t actually invite others to be with him when he prays at all. He goes off by himself...so perhaps his friends are simply feeling a touch excluded when they ask their leading question. Teach us to pray
They have a model in mind. Why isn’t Jesus more like John in this?
Rabbis of that era were apt to sum up their own particular teachings in a pithy prayer and maybe a law or two – giving their followers a common discipline to unite them, creating a group identity. We don’t know exactly what John taught – though we can assume that it was probably quite ascetic and with a strong emphasis on repentence…
So now the Jesus followers want a prayer programme of their own...
So they asked him to teach them to pray, as John taught his disciples And he said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation."
This version is shorter, more concentrated than the form of words we use week by week, based on the gospel of Matthew...but that’s fine. What we have here is the heart of prayer for Jesus – and thus the heart of prayer for us…It’s a pattern for praying, far more than a set of words...and that pattern is rooted in relationship. it’s not what you say, it’s who you know.
No grandiloquent introductions “Creator supreme and judge of the earth”
Rather there is intimacy with God right from the start.
Yahweh – the one whose name is too holy to be pronounced at all – becomes suddenly, extraordinarily, approachable.
Jesus calls him Dad – and tells us to do the same.
Go straight to the heart…
“Abba”
Isn’t that amazing!
We’re invited into the relationship that Jesus has with God...a relationship of surpassing intimacy “(I and the Father are one)
Dad
Of course, we know that relationships with our human fathers are sometimes flawed and broken – and if that’s the case for you, then please don’t let it limit your relationship with God.
Let go of unhelpful language – and replace it with love.
Here is the relationship as it should be…and it’s a relationship that exists before we ever turn to God or open our mouths to speak to him...We love because God first loved us - so that we’re qualified, by God’s grace, to speak the unspeakable.
When we pray like Jesus, we are not simply firing off set formulae in expectation of speedy results that exactly match our desires…
We are not feeding our petitions into some sort of mysterious slot machine…
We are not dialing 999 so that God can send the rescue we require
We are responding to an invitation to friendship with one who loves us beyond all our imaginings
OUR Father – says St Matthew – and the Church too. Because we need the reminder that this is not an individualist’s prayer, but rather a prayer for the whole body of Christ.
It’s a prayer to be spoken in and for community…
I know that sometimes corporate prayer can fall short of the ideal. To pray in community does not mean that it’s OK to gallop through familiar words by rote...side by side with our neighbours…
I confess I do that sometimes...conscious at the start of the prayer and at its end, but wandering off in my thoughts to plan the week’s shopping or day dream about an much longed for holiday so that it’s a shock when I hear the concluding “Amen”.
PLEASE try not to do that with these precious, weighty yet intimate words
Write them on your hearts, by all means
Absorb them into the very depths of your being, absolutely – so that they can resource you daily – and at the hour of your death.
But pray them consciously.
NOTICE what you are saying…
This is not a prayer about me and my needs, me and MY Kingdom.
OUR Father.
And we aren’t invited to decide who is included or not in that description…this prayer is for everyone…whatever their wants, whatever their needs. It is a prayer that seeks for the whole of creation to be restored as God is honoured in everything...Thy Kingdom come – with justice and truth, peace and righteousness
This prayer means business! It’s vast in its scope...but nonetheless private and intimate, inviting each one of us to trust God for our daily needs.
Bread for today, please lord. Just as you provided manna in the wilderness. Enough for one day only but not to be stored.
Do you find that as hard as I do? I’d love to ask for the certainty that would be represented by a freezer full of all that I might imagine my family could ever need...but that would be to miss the point.
This is about trust – but trust in a God of abundance.
Enough for today.
God’s forgiveness of us spilling over into our forgiveness of others…
God safeguarding us through times of trial
And so it goes on – this wonderful foray into relationship with God -
and Jesus invites US to go on as well – to keep praying – to keep stepping into that place of intimacy no matter what seems to be happening.
Keep calm and carry on praying - whether we feel that our words are hitting the spot or bouncing off to land ineffectively at our feet.
Keep on asking.
Keep on knocking
Persistence will be rewarded, I promise.
Even if it feels as if you’re being offered snakes and scorpions (and the news this past week might make many people feel that this is exactly what is on the menu)
Nonetheless - stick with it.
Because – you see – what God is offering you is more than anything you could actually expect or deserve
God is offering you GOD’s OWN SPIRIT.
The Spirit that enables us to cry “Abba, Father”...the Spirit who fills every breath of Jesus’s prayer….the Spirit that will give life to the people of God
If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children – how much more will God give the Holy Spirit...
The disciples were asking the wrong question of Jesus.
They wanted to be traught to pray as John’s disciples prayed
Instead they found themselves introduced to the amazing reality of their identity as co-heirs with Christ
So Lord – teach US to pray
Teach US to want that relationship above all else
Give US the Holy Spirit that we might live our days transformed by your love and power at work in us for the world.
You’d think, wouldn’t you, that after almost 3 years of following Jesus round Galilee that the disciples might have begun to grasp the fundamentals of prayer. It’s not as if it wasn’t part of Jewish practice.
Prayers and blessings are built into the fabric of Judaism – and those same prayers find their place in our worship to this day – but clearly the twelve have noticed that something rather different is going on when Jesus prays.
He hasn’t encouraged them to join him in any particular pattern of words
indeed Jesus doesn’t actually invite others to be with him when he prays at all. He goes off by himself...so perhaps his friends are simply feeling a touch excluded when they ask their leading question. Teach us to pray
They have a model in mind. Why isn’t Jesus more like John in this?
Rabbis of that era were apt to sum up their own particular teachings in a pithy prayer and maybe a law or two – giving their followers a common discipline to unite them, creating a group identity. We don’t know exactly what John taught – though we can assume that it was probably quite ascetic and with a strong emphasis on repentence…
So now the Jesus followers want a prayer programme of their own...
So they asked him to teach them to pray, as John taught his disciples And he said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation."
This version is shorter, more concentrated than the form of words we use week by week, based on the gospel of Matthew...but that’s fine. What we have here is the heart of prayer for Jesus – and thus the heart of prayer for us…It’s a pattern for praying, far more than a set of words...and that pattern is rooted in relationship. it’s not what you say, it’s who you know.
No grandiloquent introductions “Creator supreme and judge of the earth”
Rather there is intimacy with God right from the start.
Yahweh – the one whose name is too holy to be pronounced at all – becomes suddenly, extraordinarily, approachable.
Jesus calls him Dad – and tells us to do the same.
Go straight to the heart…
“Abba”
Isn’t that amazing!
We’re invited into the relationship that Jesus has with God...a relationship of surpassing intimacy “(I and the Father are one)
Dad
Of course, we know that relationships with our human fathers are sometimes flawed and broken – and if that’s the case for you, then please don’t let it limit your relationship with God.
Let go of unhelpful language – and replace it with love.
Here is the relationship as it should be…and it’s a relationship that exists before we ever turn to God or open our mouths to speak to him...We love because God first loved us - so that we’re qualified, by God’s grace, to speak the unspeakable.
When we pray like Jesus, we are not simply firing off set formulae in expectation of speedy results that exactly match our desires…
We are not feeding our petitions into some sort of mysterious slot machine…
We are not dialing 999 so that God can send the rescue we require
We are responding to an invitation to friendship with one who loves us beyond all our imaginings
OUR Father – says St Matthew – and the Church too. Because we need the reminder that this is not an individualist’s prayer, but rather a prayer for the whole body of Christ.
It’s a prayer to be spoken in and for community…
I know that sometimes corporate prayer can fall short of the ideal. To pray in community does not mean that it’s OK to gallop through familiar words by rote...side by side with our neighbours…
I confess I do that sometimes...conscious at the start of the prayer and at its end, but wandering off in my thoughts to plan the week’s shopping or day dream about an much longed for holiday so that it’s a shock when I hear the concluding “Amen”.
PLEASE try not to do that with these precious, weighty yet intimate words
Write them on your hearts, by all means
Absorb them into the very depths of your being, absolutely – so that they can resource you daily – and at the hour of your death.
But pray them consciously.
NOTICE what you are saying…
This is not a prayer about me and my needs, me and MY Kingdom.
OUR Father.
And we aren’t invited to decide who is included or not in that description…this prayer is for everyone…whatever their wants, whatever their needs. It is a prayer that seeks for the whole of creation to be restored as God is honoured in everything...Thy Kingdom come – with justice and truth, peace and righteousness
This prayer means business! It’s vast in its scope...but nonetheless private and intimate, inviting each one of us to trust God for our daily needs.
Bread for today, please lord. Just as you provided manna in the wilderness. Enough for one day only but not to be stored.
Do you find that as hard as I do? I’d love to ask for the certainty that would be represented by a freezer full of all that I might imagine my family could ever need...but that would be to miss the point.
This is about trust – but trust in a God of abundance.
Enough for today.
God’s forgiveness of us spilling over into our forgiveness of others…
God safeguarding us through times of trial
And so it goes on – this wonderful foray into relationship with God -
and Jesus invites US to go on as well – to keep praying – to keep stepping into that place of intimacy no matter what seems to be happening.
Keep calm and carry on praying - whether we feel that our words are hitting the spot or bouncing off to land ineffectively at our feet.
Keep on asking.
Keep on knocking
Persistence will be rewarded, I promise.
Even if it feels as if you’re being offered snakes and scorpions (and the news this past week might make many people feel that this is exactly what is on the menu)
Nonetheless - stick with it.
Because – you see – what God is offering you is more than anything you could actually expect or deserve
God is offering you GOD’s OWN SPIRIT.
The Spirit that enables us to cry “Abba, Father”...the Spirit who fills every breath of Jesus’s prayer….the Spirit that will give life to the people of God
If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children – how much more will God give the Holy Spirit...
The disciples were asking the wrong question of Jesus.
They wanted to be traught to pray as John’s disciples prayed
Instead they found themselves introduced to the amazing reality of their identity as co-heirs with Christ
So Lord – teach US to pray
Teach US to want that relationship above all else
Give US the Holy Spirit that we might live our days transformed by your love and power at work in us for the world.
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