Matthew 6:7-15
November 13, 2011
“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
You probably already know this because I’ve mentioned it perhaps too many times in my sermons, but I had a hard time in church when I was growing up. Somewhere between my childhood and adolescence, I became very cynical about church. A large part of it was that the seeds of the “I’m spiritual but not religious” movement were being sown at the time, seeds that have now grown into numerous crops. The surrounding youth culture was questioning everything about church, and it made me question.
So I became cynical about the need for church, while also being cynical and critical about the motivations of the people in church. I wasn’t sure that people needed to be in church, but as I looked around I became convinced that so many of the people I saw in church on Sundays were there for the wrong reasons. Looking around at those attending worship, I was convinced that they were there as much to be seen as they were to worship. I’m not sure I was entirely right, but it was what I saw.
My experience, or at least my perceptions as a teen, of people in church wasn’t far off from what Jesus saw in the Jews of his time. When Jesus taught his followers about prayer, he was reacting to something specific to the Jewish faith: they were praying more for prestige than to connect with God. And Jesus taught that praying for the wrong reasons was as bad as not praying at all.
To understand what I mean, it helps to transport yourself back to Jesus’ time, and to see what Jesus saw. First, he was critical of the Gentiles. The Gentiles, or non-Jews, had a faith that revolved both around the Greco-Roman gods, and a vague understanding of one God (depending on what movement you followed). The practice among Gentiles was to offer long, flowery, expressive prayers. They believed that to get the gods’ or God’s attention, they needed to pray in the right way, which meant being wordy and eloquent. So, as Jesus said, “they think that they will be heard because of their many words.”
Second, he was critical of the Jewish way of praying. This passage in Luke’s gospel is critical of the Jewish prayers for different reasons. The Jewish faith of the time was a very rigid faith, especially when it came to prayer. The Jews, to be righteous, were required to recite a number of memorized prayers, which many did in public so that others would see how holy they were.
For example, they were required to say the Shema at least twice a day, and the most righteous would say them three times a day. They were to say them upon rising and before going to bed. Many of the Jewish men would choose to be seen in public reciting their prayers, so they would emerge from their houses in the early morning, stand in the marketplace, and pray so that everyone could see. The Jewish culture was a religious culture, so prestige was heaped upon those who were seen as righteously religious. The Shema, which means “Hear,” as in “Hear, O Israel, The Lord is our God, the Lord alone,” is a recitation of the following three passages of scripture:
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 11:13-21
If you will only heed his every commandment that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul— then he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them, for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you. You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
Numbers 15:37–41
The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.
In addition, they Jews were required to recite the Shemoneh ‘esreh, which means “The Eighteen.” These are nineteen prayers (one was added later to the original eighteen) that cover a whole variety of topics, many of which repeat the history of Israel. For instance, here is a sample of Number One:
"Blessed be Thou, O Lord, our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, the great, the mighty, and the fearful God—God Most High—who bestow goodly kindnesses, and art the Creator of all, and remember the love of the Fathers and bring a redeemer for their children's children for the sake of Thy name in love. King, Helper, Savior, and Shield; blessed be Thou, Shield of Abraham"
Many Jewish men chose to recite their prayers in public so that they could be seen as being righteous. In addition, when they prayed they wore their phylacteries, which were two boxes—one worn on the head, the other on the arm—containing tiny scrolls with the Ten Commandments written on them. The latter was wrapped around the arm with a cord that extended down to the fingers.
Jesus wanted people to move away from memorized and wordy prayers to ones that really connect us with God. I believe that what Christ wanted was for people of faith to simplify their prayers, to make it more natural, and to get the focus back on God, not on how we were praying. That’s why he taught this simple prayer to take the place of all the prayers, the Lord’s Prayer.
This prayer wasn’t just a short memorized prayer to take the place of long memorized prayers. It was an attempt to get people to pray about what matters. It wasn’t just a prayer, it was an outline for prayer. The prayer wasn’t just meant to be said in one piece, the way we typically pray it, which can lead us to pray it in the way the ancient Jews prayed their prayers—without passion or emphasis. He wanted people to dwell on each facet. Let me go over the prayer and show you what I mean.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. What does Jesus mean by this? It’s not just a starting line, something to get us going, by calling God sacred name. Jesus was saying that when we pray, we need to start from a place of humility where we hallow God. What does it mean to say we “hallow” God? It isn’t just saying that God is holy. It’s starting in a place of awe and reverence, where we recognize God’s greatness. It overcomes the tendency to be so familiar with God that we fail to recognize God’s greatness, wonder, and mystery. Jesus was saying that when we pray, we need to stand in awe of how wonderful and great God is, for that sets the context for our surrendering to God. So start your prayer from a place of awe and reverence.
Your kingdom come. Of all the lines in the prayer, this is the one that is most misunderstood. What do you think it means? My guess is that you fall into one of two categories. First, you may think it means that we are asking God to let us into heaven when we die, but there’s a problem with this. If that’s what Jesus meant, he would have said, “Your kingdom be open to us when we die.” It’s speaking about God’s kingdom coming to us here. It’s not about death, it’s about now. This leads to the second thought: that it is asking that Jesus return in what are called the end-times, which so many people think of in relationship to the book of Revelation. They think that what Jesus is telling us to do is to pray for his return. There’s a HUGE problem with this idea, though. Why would Jesus have them pray for his return when he was already there, and before he had even taught about his return? Remember, this is in the beginning of his ministry. He hadn’t even mentioned his going and returning.
Jesus is actually teaching a concept that appears all throughout the gospels, which is the idea that when we are living the right way in complete openness to God, we can simultaneously live in the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God. Jesus taught that while we all live in the material realm, the realm of the earthly reality, those of faith can live simultaneously in a spiritual kingdom that helps us see and experience God and God’s blessings all around us. When we live in that kingdom, we become open to everything God has to offer us. We begin to see with God’s eyes, love with God’s love, and do what God wills. Which leads us to the next part of the prayer. So in this part of the prayer, pray that you can live always in God’s realm as much as you live in the earthly one.
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. This phrase flows out of the idea of God’s kingdom coming. It’s the idea that when we live fully in God’s kingdom, God’s will becomes done on earth through us, in the way that it becomes done in heaven. So pray always that you will be doing God’s will in everything.
Give us this day our daily bread. This is a reminder that God’s concerns aren’t only spiritual. God cares about our material needs, and not just bread. God cares about us being healthy physically, and that what we eat, drink, and where we live matters. So pray that God will care for your physical needs.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Several months ago someone asked me why we Presbyterians pray “debts” and “debtors,” rather than “trespasses,” or “sins,” which is what the original translation says. I kiddingly said to them that I believe it all has to do with our heritage. I figure the Episcopalians, being originally English, prayed “trespasses” because they tended to be the wealthy landowners who constantly had trespassers on their property. Meanwhile, the Scottish (who were the original Presbyterians) were always poor and in debt to the English (causing them to trespass), and so they were obsessed with getting their debts forgiven. Really, though, I have no idea why we don’t translate these as “sins.” The point of the prayer is that Christ wants us to pray that we can let go of our sins into God’s forgiveness, but that we would also steep ourselves in God by extending God’s forgiveness onto others. We all struggle to forgive, but when we forgive we live in God’s kingdom. And to forgive we have to be rooted in God’s kingdom. So pray that you will be forgiving just as you have been forgiven.
And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. This part of the prayer recognizes that we struggle with testings and temptations, and it is a call to remember that we don’t face life’s challenges alone. God is with us. And so we need to pray for God to be with us when we struggle.
Personally, in my prayers, and even in the way I approach leading this church, I strive for Simplicity and Naturality. I realize that “naturality” isn’t a real word, but it rhymes so nicely with simplicity. I believe that when we pray, we need to be as simple and natural as possible, because the combination of the two opens us up the best to God. One of the problems with us pastors is that we are trained to be eloquent in our praying, and this can intimidate people, resulting in them feeling as though they can’t pray properly. God wants simple prayers, not necessarily eloquent prayers.
The point of our whole passage for this morning is that prayer is the foundation of the Christian life—even more than scripture is. Why? Because prayer is the stuff of our relationship with God. It is how we speak, listen, and love God. If you want to learn how to pray, learn from the Lord’s prayer: Keep it simple—Keep it natural—Make it constant.
Amen.
