& my kingdom's gone

& my will will be gone

A sermon on the Lord's Prayer:

Today we get to the heart of the “Sermon on the Mount.” And here Jesus is, finally, getting practical. He began this sermon giving blessings, which you just can’t do a lot with. But today, Jesus gives us something we can sink our teeth into; instructions for spiritual discipline…

Now, this is actually part of a larger section on almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Today’s scripture only contains two of the three, prayer and fasting. And the sermon is only going to cover one of the three; prayer. 

BUT, we can all use as much help as we can get with prayer. Can’t we?

…Now, A word of warning; Jesus’ instructions are challenging. More than you realize at first blush. 

In fact, Jesus has, what we in the journalism business call, “buried the lede.” BURIED under these instructions, is something really difficult; something that’ll bury YOU.

…So with that caveat; let’s begin. 

The first thing Jesus offers is a general principal; when you are praying—and notice Jesus assumes we ARE praying—when you are praying, Jesus says don’t talk to God the way you would some a person of honor. 

In other words, talk to God the way you would to someone you know. *The way I might talk to Shawn, my not biological father; who has served as my father for as long as I can remember. 

It’s good instruction, too. Isn’t it? Because the temptation when we pray is the fold under the weight of it. After all, who are we that we should speak to God; GOD? 

So we try and cover the gap between us and God with flowery words. Gin-up our speech a little. 

But Jesus calls that hypocrisy. He says have nothing to do with it. 

God isn’t going to be more likely to listen to you because of fancy words. Plus, Jesus says, God already knows what you need. So stop beating around the bush, and just talk to God!

That’s the first thing about prayer, just start. 

*Notice Jesus doesn’t say anything about getting your heart in the right place. He doesn’t say anything about being especially good before you pray. He just says, get started!
Which is a good step with any goal. Don’t hem and haw; just get going. Don’t wait until everything is perfect, or you’re perfectly ready. Just start!

After that; Jesus gives a simple prayer. The Lord’s Prayer. And the good news is, you already know this prayer! So, if you start praying and don’t know what to say; just say this pray you already know!

…Okay; now we’re break down the Lord’s Prayer. 

*Which is actually a good way to pray. Pray a line, stop and dwell on a word or line, then talk to God about what you just prayed!

For the Lord’s Prayer, there are two parts to the Lord’s prayer. The part that has to do with God; and the part that has to do with us. 

And the order of these parts is important; the part about God, comes first. 

*Praying the Lord’s Prayer is a good way to keep the First Commandment; God first!

AND there’s a paradox to these two parts; the part about God is about us. And, the part about us; isn’t about us at all!

Okay, so with all that; we get started. 

To begin with; we call God what Jesus does, “Father.” When Jesus says he gives us his relationship with God, he means it! Telling you to talk to God the way he does.

*Now, if you had a crummy father; know God wants nothing more than to be your PERFECT father. If praying to God the father is hard, know it doesn’t have to do with biology, but relationship. God wants nothing more than to actually be YOUR loving father!

Then, we ASK God to hallow God’s name. 

Which isn’t how we usually speak; but in essence we’re asking God to prove holy. Prove holy to us, AND the whole wide-world!

We ASK God to do this by ASK God to do God’s will. ASKING God to make God’s kingdom come. Come here in this broken kingdom, as it is in heaven.

That’s the FIRST part of the prayer. 

And you see, it is about God. BUT, it’s also about us; isn’t it? God’s will, God’s kingdom; their coming, is the great final promise we all wait upon.

Being about God first and foremost is actually for our goodwill and benefit!

Good as all this sounds, though, there’s something challenging about it, too…

Did you notice how we’re put on the sideline? How we ASK God, in effect, to take us out of the game; do the playmaking for us. All we do in this pray is ASK; we never act!

…Okay. Well, unto the SECOND part: 

The first thing we ask for is daily bread. Which is just what it says; daily bread, the necessary nourishment for the day. 

Now, there’s reproof and promise there. There’s the correction; God isn’t interested in giving us all the extra trimmings or nourishment for the future. Just what we need for the day.

BUT, there’s also a promise in this, too. Sometimes when we come to God in prayer, we feel like we should be praying about big things; like God isn’t interested in the mundane stuff of life. But here Jesus teaches us God does care! God is interested!

Then, we dare to ASK God to forgive us. In fact, we ask God to forgive us the way we’ve been forgiving others. *Notice Jesus is making another assumption; that we’re already out there forgiving others!

Finally, we ASK God to protect us. To be so proactive, in fact, that God wouldn’t even let us be tested! And when, NOT if, we find ourselves over our heads, that God would rescue us. 

And that’s the second part of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s about us, but it’s really about God. Isn’t it? Sure, we’re making requests for ourself. BUT, we’re still ASKING God to do the acting! God’s still the main actor, even when it’s supposedly about us!

And that, that’s what’s challenging about this prayer! The part that’ll bury you.

It sounds easy enough, but when you go out there and actually try and pray what Jesus teaches, you’ll learn just how hard this prayer is!

Because, believe me, there’s not a single request that comes easily! Every line in this prayer, from start to finish, asks God to do the acting. Which isn’t easy for us to ask, much less want… 

The prayer we’d pray, left to our own devices, would be to ask God to give us more strength or will power to do the right thing ourselves! Instead, Jesus says, ask God to do the acting. Jesus tells us to pray ourselves out of prayer!

Which is how prayer, like faith, works best!

…Its like this; during Polar Vortex 2019 Amanda and I found ourselves with an unexpected free night; so we finally got around to finally watching “Eight Grade.” We had heard so many good things, we knew we needed to see it. 

And the movie is so good. It captures life in Eight Grade so well, so honestly. It’s a good reminder of just how hard life is at that age. If you’re of the persuasion that kids have it too easy these days, you should watch this movie…

Anyway, “Eight Grade” follows Kayla, an eight grader with, maybe a little more than common anxiety; during her last week of her middle school. 

The movie opens on her recording a youtube video. Throughout the movie she records these. They’re on things like “being yourself,” “being confident,” “putting yourself out there,” and topics of the like. 

Now, in her videos she speaks as if she has personal experience with the advice she gives. And she does have life experience, but the experience she has on the topics she talks about it mostly failure. 

Throughout the movie you see her trying act on the advice she gives; but often she fails…

As the movie progresses, her failures become too large to ignore. Eventually she can’t bear that discrepancy, and faced with the gap between her videos and her life; she sets to undo the her youtube channel.

She makes one last video, confessing she isn’t the person she pretends to be. She says she’s going to stop making those videos because she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

But, that’s not where the movie ends. In fact, at this point, something different becomes operative; we Christians call it grace!

Freed from the demand she put on herself with her videos; Kayla actually comes as close as she ever did to being the person she wants to be! All because she’s not trying anymore!

And that’s how prayer, and life, work too! They run best, not on our will power, but on grace! Jesus’ instructions on prayer aren’t instructions at all! They’re the means whereby grace becomes the motor of prayer! AND life!

But first you must take yourself out of the driver’s seat. And that’s the hard thing, isn’t it? Because we all want to be like Kayla, don’t we? In charge. And it’s working for us, about as well as it did for her!

Actually praying the Lord’s Prayer will drive you to your wits end! It will show you how far you are from basic Christianity 101! How you don’t actually want God to be the main actor! How you want, you to get some of the action…

But, and here’s where it get’s sweet; when you know that about yourself, you’re actually most ready to pray this prayer Jesus taught!

I know what I said sounds like a contradiction, but bear with me…

When you learn how hard it is to actually ask God to do the work, you’ll be like Kayla, ready to call it quits on the whole thing. Which is just doing what Jesus said, admitting you’re helpless! “But deliver me, O Lord!”

You see, Jesus’ prayer will teach you how to need what you pray for! How to pray the last line of the Lord’s Prayer first! 

Because Prayer, like faith; work’s best backward!

This simple pray Jesus teaches is harder than it seems. Learning to pray it will bury you. Which is, finally, God’s WILL. After all, that’s where God works BEST; in the dirt!