consider the powers

parading you home

A sermon on the Lord's Prayer as recorded by Luke 11:1-4:

Teaching about prayer has to be one of the dullest things a person can do. Who wants to hear talk about prayer, when you can talk directly to God in prayer? 

There are a million miles of difference between those two things. Isn’t there? Talking about and talking to. It’s the difference between explaining how fireworks operate, and lighting the fuse.

…When the disciples come to Jesus wanting instruction about prayer, Jesus doesn’t hem and haw with any of that. Does he? No, instead, he just gives them a prayer. And what a humdinger of a prayer it is.

He lights the fuse with one simple word, “father.”

Say it with me, “Father.” _________

…Now I know exclusively masculine descriptions for God isn’t always helpful. Bear with me, though, because Jesus does intend to trip you up with this word. But not because it’s masculine.

No, Jesus intends to trip you up with this word by how direct and intimate it is. Let’s say it again, “Father.” _________

…Truthfully, though, “father” isn’t really a good translation of the word Jesus uses. It’s basically a transliteration from the Greek, “patir.” Which is accurate. But it’s not correct. It’s not correct because it’s not how the word was used in Jesus’ time. 

“Patir,” or the Aramaic equivalent Jesus undoubtedly used, “abba,” isn’t as formal as the address “father.” No, “abba” was a word for in the home, and it used by little girls and boys to call on their dad. 

Which is probably a better translation, “dad.”  Say it with me, “Dad.” ______

…In fact, though, “dad” probably doesn’t even capture the tenderness of the word. “Abba” is the sort of word that might make you a little squeamish to hear your pastor use in a sermon. “Abba” was a very intimate word. A better translation might be the familial “daddy.”

So let’s say that together, “Daddy.” _________

This prayer Jesus gives is no formal, proper prayer. No, this prayer is an intimate and informal one. Calling on God the way a child might call on their pops.

Which is another part of this prayer you may have a little trouble hearing. Not only is this prayer more personal than we expect, it’s also more direct. 

You’ve been conditioned to hear the Lord’s Prayer through praying it in the church. Which is good. But the prayer Jesus gives isn’t a formal, liturgical prayer. 

In the church, not only do we use the formal “Father.” We also use the liturgically correct, “Our father.” 

But, that’s not what Jesus offers, is it?!? No, Jesus tells you to pray directly to God yourself! “When you pray,” says Jesus, just “say: Papa.” Not our Papa. The personal and direct, papa.

So, say it with me. “Papa” _________

Now, communal prayer is well and good. It’s good not to pray alone. And it’s good to pray for more than ourselves, too. But, Jesus isn’t interested in right and proper prayers. He’s interested in us! And those times we need him most. This times when we’re a mess. Those times when we don’t have all the right words. Those times when they all just come tumbling out. Those times when all we have is our need. Our need is someone to listen to us, and be there for us.

Scholars who study this sort of thing say there’s no equivalent to this sort of informal and intimate prayer before Jesus. Which makes sense.

It makes sense because it isn’t until God gets so close that God’s skin smokes, as Luther put it, that there’s any reason to address the creator of the cosmos so directly and candidly. 

But now that, in Jesus Christ, that’s precisely what God has done, that’s the only fitting way to pray to God now! Personal and affectionately! Like calling on your “mommy.”

Say it with me, “mommy.” _________

This is why Jesus tells you to call on God ‘your moms.’ Because, in Jesus, that’s who God has become for you! That’s how you’re free to come to God, empty-handed and fully expectant! To speak with God with the honesty and vulnerability that comes from intimacy.

…Which is challenging for folks like us. Isn’t it? 

We want to do everything right and proper. We’re uncomfortable showing our vulnerable side. But that’s not true to life. Is it? And prayer, Jesus says, is for real life. Real people, living real lives. Real people who really need to come to God in prayer. 

Jesus hasn’t just come to give you prayer. He’s come to give you God! And give you God in such a way that you can actually, really, truly come to God in prayer! Incomplete sentences and all! Imperfect lives and all! 

And the God you can bring all that to is not some theoretical, distant God out there. But a God who is as close as your heartbeat, and just as immediate, too.

When you pray, you don’t have to have your ducks in a row or all the right words. You just need a god who’s going to listen and do something. And in Jesus Christ, that’s exactly who God has promised to be FOR you!

So say it with me one last time. Better yet, use the address that’s intimate for you. So intimate, you have to whisper it.

Whisper the name you cry out when you’re most helpless: Father. Dad. Pops. Papa. Daddy. Mom. Moms. Mommy. Or like martyr George, Mama. 

Go ahead and whisper that name. _________…

Whisper it again. _________…

Now, and hear what God has to say to you in return. Because God doesn’t say, ‘toughen up.’ God doesn’t say, ‘that’s life.’ No, God says, and this is what Luther writes in the Large Catechism, “Yes, dear child, it shall be done indeed, in spite of the devil and all the world.” 

Yes, dear child, it shall be done indeed, in spite of the devil and all the world.

Whisper that name you would call on God at your most defenseless. The name you would cry when you breathe your last. Whisper it. _________

And hear what God says in return, “Yes, dear child.” 

…Yes, dear child.