Sermon for Sunday July 24, 2022 - The Lord’s Prayer As Identity
GOSPEL: Luke 11:1-13
The holy gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you, O Lord.
1[Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”2He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3Give us each day our daily bread.
4And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
5And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
9“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
I watched a documentary
about the curse of Vlad the Impaler,
Ruthless tyrant leader of Romania
in the 15th century.
Also known as Vlad Dracula,
He went so far as to curse
the people of Bucharest, the capital.
The people of Romania have found their identity
in living with trauma,
having nothing but bad luck
since the curse of Vlad
almost 600 years ago.
“It’s in our blood”; they say.
Romanian identity is intertwined with their past;
with the curse of Vlad.
Canadians and Lutherans often find our identity
in what we are not.
When asked “what does it mean to be Canadian”
Canadians might say “We’re not American”
When asked “what does it mean to be Lutheran”
Lutherans might say “We’re not Catholic”
But we are - Canadians are North Americans,
we live in the americas.
Lutherans are “small c” catholic,
we are part of the universal Church of Christ.
It is tricky to understand our identity,
as Canadians,
as Lutherans,
and like Romanians,
we too cannot escape our past.
Canadian identity is, unfortunately,
intertwined with colonialism,
with residential schools,
and I hope with reconciliation also.
Lutheran identity is intertwined with the Reformation,
and, unfortunately, with denominationalism,
yet I hope with ecumenism, also.
Identity is about our past;
and who we are now,
and who we strive to be.
Identity is about our way of life.
Identity is something we seek to control,
but some parts of our identity are out of our control.
Individually, we find our identity in personal traits:
gender,
ethnicity,
hair colour,
family history
and we find our identity in our behaviour:
the clothes we choose to wear,
the sports teams we support,
the kind of music we listen to,
the kind of car we drive,
the food we eat,
the places we go,
who we worship,
who we vote for,
or who we don’t vote for…
it all adds up to create our identity.
Identity tells us and others what matters to us.
What defines your identity?
What can’t you escape from your past?
Who are you, now?
Who do you want to be?
In ancient Palestine,
young Jews would learn the Torah,
Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
committing the Torah to heart.
Their identity came with God’s Word,
with the laws and commandments,
with the Shema - The Lord is One,
you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
mind,
soul, and strength.
Having learned the Torah,
The best of the best students
might be lucky enough to follow a Rabbi.
They would seek to prove their worth,
They would long to hear the words:
“Follow me” from a rabbi.
Their identity would then be found
in that relationship with God and their rabbi,
and each rabbi
might have a different way about them.
Those who weren’t the best of the best
returned home to learn the family business.
Think of Jesus’ disciples,
Simon Peter, and James, John - the sons of Zebedee,
they were fishermen.
Matthew was a tax collector,
They were not the best of the best.
They were learning the family trade.
They did not earn the invitation of a rabbi.
Completely unearned,
the mediocre hear Jesus say - “Follow me”
And they find their identity with Jesus,
their Rabbi.
The disciples have seen Jesus pray,
They have seen John the Baptist pray,
or perhaps just the disciples
of John the Baptist praying.
Other leading teachers, Rabbi’s,
would teach private prayers.
Knowing your Rabbi’s private prayer
would distinguish you from the rest.
Knowing Jesus’ private prayer
would distinguish Jesus’ disciples from the rest.
“Lord, teach us to pray,
as John taught his disciples.”
Asking this prayer,
learning this prayer,
living this prayer,
is about identity.
Jesus taught them - and us - the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer is quite similar to Jewish prayers,
like the prayer Amidah - prayed 3 times a day
or the Shemoney Esreh in Jewish liturgy.
A couple of examples:
from the 3rd Amidah blessing:
Thou art holy and Thy Name is holy…
We will sanctify thy name in the world,
as thy sanctifiers in the heavens above.”
and from the fourth Amidah:
“Our Father, Our King,
forgive and pardon all our sins.”
As much as the Lord’s Prayer is the Christian’s prayer,
it is very much a Jewish prayer
from a Jewish Rabbi.
The Lord’s Prayer informs their identity,
The Lord’s Prayer is their way of life:
a way of life that recognizes that all we have,
all we are is pure gift.
This identity is connected with the Torah,
with the God of all history,
the past they cannot escape,
and who they long to be,
in relationship with God
and their Rabbi.
Jesus uses the example of a child asking for an egg,
saying no parent would give a scorpion.
So much greater is God, our Heavenly Father,
God hears our prayers
and gives to us like a good, loving parent.
We believe that this is our first privilege in baptism –
to have an intimate connection with our God.
It’s a real paradox.
To call God – abba – Father,
Mother, Daddy, Mommy is profound –
it is intimate.
But we’re also talking about the Heavenly,
Holy, Almighty God,
Creator of the universe.
It is profound to have our identity
found in an intimate relationship with this God.
In the words of David Lose,
“Jesus invites us into relationship with God
through prayer,
offering us the opportunity
to approach the God
whose name is too holy to speak
and whose countenance
too terrible to behold
with the familiarity,
boldness,
and trust
of a young child running to her parent
for both provision and protection.”
In this prayer, Jesus speaks profound truth
into what it means to trust in God –
to be a person of faith and forgiveness.
We acknowledge that we cannot do life on our own.
There’s a clue in the Ancient Greek here;
the verb tense is – indirect imperative –
a literal translation would be
“let your name be hallowed,
let your kingdom come”
It is not about human action –
it is always about God’s action.
On our own,
we cannot do God’s will,
we cannot build God’s kingdom on earth
because our sin always gets in the way –
our best efforts at justice, peace,
and community
are tainted by our sin.
It is God who brings in God’s kingdom,
and we pray that it would come in and among us,
as we join God’s work of justice and peace.
Our best efforts to fight temptation,
to deal with the evil in and around us, will fail.
So we pray for God’s strength
to deal with evil & temptation.
We acknowledge that God provides all we need,
that we need to be forgiven
and so need to forgive others too.
It’s like we are praying:
“God, you’re in control.
Your will be done.
Help us be okay with it.”
That’s our identity we find in the Lord’s Prayer:
not focused on self-worth,
but praising the God who is worthy,
not in becoming self-sufficient,
but in striving for the kingdom of God
for the good of all God’s creation,
because that’s what God is doing,
not in the search for the almighty dollar,
but in searching for God’s will
for us and for creation,
not in hoarding resources for ourselves,
but in trusting God for daily bread,
not in our sin and shameful pasts
that we cannot escape,
but in God’s reckless forgiveness for us,
not in us holding grudges,
but in reckless forgiveness of others.
That’s who Jesus is.
That’s how we strive to live.
It is completely backwards from the ways of this world,
Yet this is the life that is really worth living.
And this is our identity in and with Jesus,
our Rabbi,
who says to us again and again,
completely unearned,
“Follow Me.”
May we be persistent in prayer
trusting that our God hears us.
May we find our identity in the Lord’s Prayer,
and as students of Jesus, our Rabbi,
May God’s Kingdom come
and God’s will be done
in and among us.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
