Sermon 17th June 2012

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Mark 6 verses 5 to 15. 

So, have you heard the one about when Little Johnny was having Sunday lunch at his Granny’s with his whole family?

Well, they were all seated at the table with the food being served. As soon as Little Johnny got his portion, he started to eat.

“Johnny! Wait until we say our prayer, please,” his mother said.

“I don't need to,” he replied.

“Of course, you do,” his mother insisted. “At home we always pray before eating.”

“Yes, we do at our house,” Johnny explained. “But this is Granny’s house; and she knows how to cook.”

Believe it or not, I do think that is a very good introduction to this new series on prayer. It’s honest: not just in a child-like way, but in the way that I think the Bible encourages us to be in, and about prayer. And, if we can’t at least start out with a decent bit of honesty, then we might as well not start at all, I’d say. So I’ll continue in the same vein, then: with the admission that we have indeed been here before. This isn’t a memory test: so, we last studied this, Lord’s, prayer 4½ years ago. Some people may even remember the series of midweek workshops that was based on this prayer, way back in 2001. Even if you do remember every detail of both series, though, there is one thing that is for sure: we still haven’t anything like plumbed the depths of this amazing prayer.

My reading this week included a description of the Lord’s prayer as being like new baby’s mug-and-spoon set. It’s almost the first gift that we are given as Christians – not least because most churches do pray it almost every week. The Lord’s prayer is so much more than that, though. That description went on to how it’s also like a suit of clothes, that has been made to be worn by a grown-up. Every time we put it on – as in, when we pray it – we realise afresh that we have still got plenty of growing to do. At least, we will realise that if we pay proper attention to what it is that we’re praying, in the way that Jesus intended us to. So this prayer is like an entire journey in itself, then: the end brings us back to the beginning of it – which will then be a place that we don’t recognise.

The source of all those thought-provoking ideas is part of the reason why this series on the Lord’s prayer will be so different to the previous ones. This is the first time that we have based it on a particular book. If you didn’t put in an order for Tom Wright’s “The Lord and His Prayer”, you may well want to buy one. Of course you’ll pick up plenty if you ‘just’ listen to the sermons each week, and/or visit our website. But you’re more likely to learn life-changing praying habits if you have this book to return to time and again in the years ahead. Of course you are most likely to learn life-changing praying habits if you pray regularly; and most specially by praying this prayer in particular!

So there’s the series’ first challenge: to pray more regularly than you do now: starting today. I’m prepared to bet that there is nobody here who thinks they pray enough – let alone well enough! Tell me I’m wrong, if you can: I can’t myself. So how about we all start with a clean slate, from today? How about we use one of Tom Wright’s three particular methods to pray this prayer? Maybe you’d like to try ‘breathing’ it, three times daily, say. If you’ve never prayed in this way before, you focus on one phrase as you breathe in, and on the next as you breathe out, until you’ve gone through the whole prayer. Perhaps you’d rather try praying it phrase by phrase, each day, and adding to these headings that Jesus gave. The third option is by taking the Lord’s prayer a phrase per day, as this series divides it – though these are far from the only three ways of praying it, of course. But how about we each sign up to do one, or some combination, of these methods for the 6 weeks until the summer, and see what happens? It’s always possible that we’ll never be the same again!

That is possible because prayer so often changes the pray-er – and not least because it’s meant to! As Tom Wright points out, however firm, or vague, our faith may be, we usually start out with some big mess, or a pressing need that we want God to sort out, or supply. In the process of telling God about that – as we are so good at doing – we start to realise Who it is that we’re speaking to. Our thoughts begin to shift, a little: it might even become a 2-way conversation. Perhaps our priorities start to change, as we realise we have been not a little selfish, demanding even. And, before you know it, we may find ourselves asking God to make us the answer to our own prayers!

I’m more convinced than ever that this is why the Lord’s prayer begins as it does. Jesus’ intent was to set us off on the right path, in two ways. First, it’s by not thinking about ME, but rather about us; and then, second, by very quickly getting us to focus on God – who is our Father, in heaven. There is plenty enough in there to change our perspective – and to take up the rest of this sermon, but still barely scratch the surface of what’s here. Our standard hope as preachers – following the example of our great Teacher himself – can only ever be to help people want to dig deeper, or go further with God. Yes, prayer, like so much else in the Christian life, is something that we can, and must, do together. But prayer is very much something we must each take responsibility for ourselves too.

I hope you’re already enthused about the idea of doing it. Tom Wright has a wonderful description for prayer: yes, when we pray we are pursuing a mystery: what is it, how does it work? But it is also about “Listening, and responding, to a voice that we think we’ve heard; it’s following the light that beckons us around the next corner; it’s laying hold of the love of God – which has already somehow laid hold of us”. And so we start praying in the right place: by focusing on God: our Father; in heaven. By definition, He is able to do all things: but knowing that as a reality is a goal which we are working towards in prayer, rather than where have we already reached. It’s by praying that we get to know our Heavenly Father better.

Tom Wright has plenty to say about the meaning of God as Father – very appropriately so on this Father’s Day. No, that’s not always a helpful concept for some: too many of us earthly fathers are too imperfect. But it’s an idea that’s still worth engaging with for what it teaches about God. I’ll then point you to the book for the detail, with the trailer that Jesus didn’t invent this idea. God as Father goes right back, to Exodus; it also runs through the promise of Messiah; so there are themes of revolution and liberation, and clear strands of a sure hope in it. What Tom Wright majors on, though, is the idea of Son as the Father’s apprentice – which works just as well for both genders. Isn’t it so true that we learn best by watching – and then doing, under the guidance of – someone who knows how to do that particular task?

As ever, Jesus is the prime example of this key principle in practise. Where we see it most clearly is in the Garden of Gethsemane. In blood-soaked prayer the Son checked with his Father that he was doing it right, doing what it took, to fulfil those centuries-old promises. Together the Father and Son rescued the whole world from evil, injustice, fear, and sin. On the cross that awaited Jesus’ obedience as his Father’s Son, the good news of God’s kingdom of freedom and justice became real – at such a cost. Jesus came to bring in that kingdom, in this way; as well as that, he came to teach us how to live in that kingdom, and to pray it in – like this.

Over these next 6 weeks we’ll examine how what we call the Lord’s prayer is Jesus’ summary of his kingdom. It describes both what it looks like, and how it is to live in it – now and eternally. We’ll look at this prayer in both of the shapes that it appears in the New Testament. We’ll think about the settings of each, and what else they teach us about prayer. We’ll take it phrase by phrase, and use it as the scaffold that Jesus intended us for to build our living and our praying of his kingdom around. But that all starts, and goes from here, with our Father, in heaven. Tom Wright says calling Him that isn’t just the cheeky boldness of walking into the presence of the living God and saying, “Hi Dad”. It’s the bold risk of saying to Him, “Please may I too be considered an apprentice”. To call God Father is nothing less than signing up for the kingdom of God.

To conclude this series opening, I really can’t do any better than an extended quote from Tom Wright’s book. It reads: “When we call God ‘Father’ we’re called to step out, as apprentice children, into a world of pain and darkness ... If we take the risk of calling Him ‘Father’ then we are called to be the people through whom the pain of the world is held in the healing light of the love of God. Then we discover that we want, and need, to pray this prayer. Father, our Father; our Father in heaven, may your name be honoured. That is, may you be worshipped by your whole creation; ... may the world be freed from injustice, disfigurement, sin, and death ... And as we stand in the presence of the living God, with the darkness and the pain of the world on our hearts, praying that He will fulfil His ancient promises ... then we discover that our own pain and darkness is somehow being dealt with as well ... ”

Prayer isn’t “shouting into a void, or getting in touch with our own deepest feelings ... It is the rhythm of standing in the presence of the pain of the world, and kneeling in the presence of the creator of the world; of bringing those 2 things together in the name of Jesus and by the victory of the cross ... When we call God ‘Father’ we are making the same astonishing, crazy, utterly risky claim [that Jesus did] ... Our task is to grow up into the Our Father ... seeking daily bread and daily forgiveness as we do so ... to feast at the table (of our older brother), to weep with him in the garden, to share his suffering, and to know his victory. So, [as some formal liturgies introduce this prayer] as our Saviour taught and commanded us, by his life and death, we are bold, some might even say crazy to pray” ... If you are that bold, and that crazy, then pray with me now:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours

now and for ever.

Amen.