Reflection – 24 July 2022
Prayer Class
It’s amazing isn’t it? You can live with someone for years and not understand everything about their habits, behaviours, foibles and way of thinking. (I remain amazed at what new insights I get into Sue’s life despite the fact we celebrate 50 years of married life next month!)
Our reading this morning is the familiar passage where Jesus addresses the disciples’ request for guidance on how they should pray. This rough and ready group had lived alongside Jesus for almost three years, had watched him interact with the people of Israel and Judah, had watched him in the temple and His participation there, knew that he disappeared at times to pray and yet they don’t know what praying is.
In the first instance we need to note that it was the disciples who initiated this request. They wanted to be taught. They had seen Jesus in prayer regularly and because they were not graduates from the local tertiary institutions (or the theological college of the day) they were not sure of the way to go about it. It seems funny to us now, but the disciples just didn’t know what prayer was all about.
In fact,…. this was a whole new concept for the people of this time. It was thought that the common people could not talk directly to God; only the Levite priests were allowed to come into the presence of God. Think about the Ark of the Covenant (which held the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments). There were special arrangements and instructions on how the Ark was to be handled, moved during the 40 years in the Wilderness and how it was to be stored each night, until such time as the Temple in Jerusalem was built by Solomon.
There was a sense of secrecy, of awe, of something special, something holy – something that was beyond their normal life experience. It was a bit like people today entering some of the great cathedrals of the world - St Paul’s in London, St Peter’s Basilica in Rome or the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The difference here is that the people can still worship God without all the secrecy whereas the Ark was hidden behind various rows of curtains, accessed only by the priests. The ordinary people of Jesus’ time were not allowed to approach, or communicate with God.
So, it is the disciples who come to Jesus with this request – “teach us how to pray”. Isn’t it good that God is so loving, so gracious, so flexible that He desires us to have direct communication with Him.
Did Jesus seek to maintain the status quo? Did He tell the disciples that this was “secret priestly business”?
No, …. Jesus turns thousands of years of religious practice all its head and provides teaching to the disciples, and everyone else for that matter, on how to pray directly to God. As I have mentioned, these people were not learned scholars ….. they were fisherman and the like. They knew their place in the social orders and religious structures of their time.
Even today, it is a scary concept, when you think about it, that we can speak directly to the Creator of the Universe, our Maker and our Redeemer.
But let me put it out there. We have an elephant in the room. Talking about prayer is a difficult thing and raises a whole bundle of questions arising from our experiences of praying, regardless of the tradition we come from.
And I am one of the first to confess that I find praying difficult at times. And perhaps that comes from personal experience. But does that mean that we should not enter into a personal dialogue with our God who has invited us to talk with him? Not to do so could be seen to be incredibly rude.
We might say: “I don’t know what to say”. But God has even provided an answer to that question.
In Romans 8:26 we read: “For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express”.
Or if we feel we cannot pray alone, we are encouraged by these words from Matthew 18: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:19–20.)
Prayer, then, is the vehicle whereby we invite His Spirit to be with us.
There are lines throughout the passage that seem incredibly clear and hopeful, and yet, ….. we do not experience them quite so clearly. For example:
Let me be bold ….. I think it is fair to say that there are times, for all of us, when prayer does not work. Or ….. at least, that is how it feels.
Of course, some will respond by saying that God does not always respond with what we want, but what we need. But try telling that to someone who is starving and for whom food does not come.
Sometimes the answer is “no”.
And again, how cruel is it when you ask for healing or peace for someone who is terminally ill?
I think we need to say up-front, and openly, that prayer can be hard to fathom. It feels inconsistent and at times unreliable. So, … why do we do it?
A good reason lies with Jesus. He did it ….. and did it often.
And this gives a clue to the second story in our reading, the one that follows the teaching on “what” to say. We are familiar with the words that say:
But how should we understand them? Let me suggest that they could be summarised as God encouraging us to persist in bold, and possibly audacious prayer, just like the midnight visitor.
Let us return to the prayer Jesus taught the disciples and draw out just a couple of observations because, as we know, many, many books have been written on this subject by many highly regarded theologians – and I can assure you that I am but a poor commentator.
Perhaps the first thing to say is that it is a prayer about relationships. The first words “Our Father” sets the tone. Nowhere in the whole prayer are the words “I”, “mine”, “my” or “me” used. …. It is always “Our” or “us” – reflecting Christian unity …. or our coming to God as a body of believers.
And in using the word “Father”, we can know that even though there is pain and struggle, despair and disappointment in this life we live here, behind it all is a loving and caring Father. This knowledge gives us confidence that we can bear the trials and also enjoy the blessings that come our way.
And the use of the words “in heaven” points to the place where God resides but more importantly for us, this is the place where we are heading …. our hoped for eternity …. joining Jesus.
Perhaps we could also think of it this way, as one scholar[1] has written: “heaven is in good order, run well and well organised. Earth, however, is a bit of a mess and the prayer yearns for the coming of God’s reign to restore justice, order, life and peace to all.”
Secondly, we see that there are two main petitions, or requests, in the Lord’s Prayer:
If we cast ourselves back in time to when Jesus was alive, these would be two of the main things that affected the lives of Jesus’ hearers:
When we pray for our daily bread we are not asking God for bread alone, but we are asking God to care for all of our physical needs and provide for them. For many in the world, the basics of food, water, shelter and healthcare are vital necessities for each day. Do we think about these people as we recite the prayer each week?
And with regard to the second petition, more recent versions of the Lord’s Prayer substitute the word “sins” for debts” because close to the need for bread is release from indebtedness. Too many people then, and today, are indebted beyond what they will ever be able to pay. And this injustice condemns them to eternal debt, depriving them of life and hope.
When we seek forgiveness of our sins we are praying for that vital component of the Christian life – forgiveness. If we cannot forgive, our life becomes bitter and twisted. Love disappears and so does our relationship with God.
And then, following the verses relating to the Lord’s Prayer, we read about the persistence of the neighbour asking for three loaves of bread. This was not that unusual …. other than for the fact that this was occurring at midnight! What are we to make of this behaviour?
Its simplest meaning is that we should pray urgently, persistently, until we find what we are looking for. Does this story suggest God is a “sleepy neighbour” who does not want to get up in the middle of the night to respond to our crisis? Does this story suggest that God is a 9 to 5 God? No, it reminds us that prayer is one of the most basic and essential aspects of the Christian life available to us on a 24/7 basis (and not only that, God does not have rostered days and annual leave!). And having been taught, the disciples are then able to teach others.
Now I appreciate that I have not attempted to address the question of “prayer not being answered”. That is outside my league and I do not think anybody has developed a complete explanation. That may need patience as we await our arrival in the eternal kingdom.
Again, I appreciate that this is not going to be a satisfactory response to anyone who finds prayer difficult.
However, let us not be afraid to pray. Let us not hide from God like Adam and Eve. God knows everything about us and encourages us to come to Him boldly and often. He wants to hear from us and is ready to forgive and give us what we need.
Let me finish with a story of an international airline pilot.
“Pilot to tower……….pilot to tower…….…..I am 300 kilometres off the coast ………I am 200 metres above the water……..I am running out of fuel……. please instruct……..over.
Tower to pilot……….tower to pilot……… repeat after me…..Our father in heaven…..
This little story reminds us how Jesus made prayer a priority – a constant communication between himself and his Father.
It’s time to think about that. Can I suggest that we don’t wait until we are 300 kms off the coast, 200 metres above the water or near the end of our life to call your towering God. Call Him now….. and ask him to instruct you now.
Amen.
[1] Dominic Crossan