Learning How to Pray From Jesus

Good morning friends.  As always it is a delight to be with you. 

So, when I was a child, I was kind of obsessed with Disney World – anyone else there a Disney fan? Well, by the time I was 15 years old, I had probably been to Disney about 15 times.  If asked where I wanted to go over Spring Break or Summer vacation, I of course always said, “Disney World”.  I mean, where else would I want to go?  After all, my imagination was awakened in the Magic Kingdom, and my interest in arising technology and world cultures was strengthened at Epcot.  For me, there was no better place to go. 

All these years later, some of my fondest memories of my childhood still come from these trips to Disney, especially the ones where it was just me, my brother, and my grandparents who went. On these particular occasions, the four of us would pile into my grandparents’ car and then spend the next couple of days driving down 95 to Orlando.

During these road trips, we would listen to the same old 8 track tape that came with my grandparents’ Oldsmobile when they first purchased it.  We would play mundane games like the gas station game where we would each choose two gas stations and tally up the points every time we saw one of our stations.  We would also play yatzee, talk, laugh, learn from my grandparents’ wisdom, and occasionally get on each others’ nerves, but mostly, we would just enjoy being with one another.   

Eventually of course, we would reach Disney, and our fun would continue.   Now, on occasion, we would split up, for example, when my brother wanted to go on Space Mountain, but for the most part, we remained together throughout our trips, and this togetherness is what made these trips really special.  

The real blessing of these trips was not the destination, but my experience of my grandparent’s presence, love, wisdom, and care.

All these years later as I reflect on this, it is so clear to me that my grandparents were profoundly generous people, not just with their resources but their very selves.   On those occasions when I asked my grandparents to go to Disney World, they could have easily obliged by sending tickets to my parents so that my parents could take me and my brother, but rather, they took the time themselves to go with us.  Indeed, this proved to be the best and most memorable part of our vacations. Their presence with us was indeed our very best gift, or you might say, reward. 

Friends, would you pray with me.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for all of those people you have placed in our lives over the years who have gifted us generously with their time and presence.  In them, we have seen a glimpse of your character and desire to be with us, love us, provide for us, and open up our horizons beyond our own little worlds.  Dear Father, as we open up the Scriptures now, would you show us who you are and teach us how we are to relate to you in prayer, and in so doing, draw us into your holy, empowering, forgiving, and loving presence.  Amen. 

So today, we continue our journey through the section of Scripture we have come to know as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Throughout these weeks, we have asked, “How is God calling us to live?” and have examined what N.T. Wright calls a “blueprint for a way of being fully, genuinely, gloriously human.”  

Well today, we continue to examine this blueprint, asking of it, “How am I to pray?” and thankfully, Jesus gives us a clear answer.  And so today, we are going to learn from Jesus how to pray. 

So first off, before we dig in, let me give you a little bit of background.  So, in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke about three practices:  giving, praying, and fasting.  Now, at this particular time, all three of these practices were obligations of the Jewish people, so it is worth noticing at the get-go that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he said, “When you pray ….”, not “If you pray …” for it was a given that every Jewish person regularly prayed.

And then this is what he taught.

First off, he taught them to not pray in a showy, self-centered way, using prayer as a means to gain attention or score points with others or with God.  This unfortunately was what some of the Jewish leaders were doing at this time, but to pray in such a manner was to miss the whole point of prayer.  Prayer was not a performance or a platform for attention but was intimate time spent with the Lord.  Indeed, being in the Lord’s presence was the goal.  Having the opportunity to spend time with and talk to the One who created the whole world yet makes space for his children was the great reward. 

So thus, Jesus encouraged those who leaned towards attention-seeking in their prayer lives to pull back, go home, and pray in secret.  Indeed, that is where they would meet the Lord as they brought their most true selves before Him, not their inflated or false versions.

And then Jesus continued on with his teaching.  Next, he taught them to not pray like the Gentiles pray, which was in a wordy, one-sided, and manipulative way.  You see, as the Gentiles came before a fickle array of gods, they would anxiously pray various kinds of formulae to get at least one of the gods’ attention, pacify him, and hope that this god would grant their requests.  And while the Jews would not of course have believed in multiple gods, like the Gentiles did, some of them were still tempted to pray in a similar manner.  Despite all that God had revealed to his people over 1000s of years, some still saw him more as someone who needed to be manipulated rather than a faithful Father who always had their best in mind.

So yet again, to pray like the Gentiles prayed was to miss the point.  Prayer was not about using big words or long sentences to catch God’s attention, appease Him, and get Him to give them what they wanted.  Prayer was not intended to be one-sided and manipulative.  Rather, prayer was meant to be relational and responsive. 

Its goal was to create space to be with the Lord, to rest in His loving presence and to speak to him in ordinary ways just as one would speak to a friend or a loved one.  It was a time to praise God, listen to Him, see His point of view, and humbly ask for one’s own needs, trusting that God would indeed provide in the way that was best for the person praying.  

And that is what Jesus taught his followers that day when he next introduced them to what we have come to know as the Lord’s Prayer. 

Jesus’ followers needed to re-learn how to come to God in a way that reflected who God was in His very being and who He desired his people to be, and this particular prayer, which emerged out of Jesus’ own deep, intimate relationship with the Father, demonstrated how his followers were to come.

So first off, one’s prayer was to begin with “Our Father”, two simple words that demonstrated that what was to come next was based on a close relationship between God and the one praying.  There was to be no anxiety or manipulation or posturing or inflating one’s self or formal speaking, because what was about to enfold was a conversation between that person and the Very One who redeemed Israel out of Egypt and called Israel His “firstborn son”.  What was about to enfold was an intimate time between that person and the Very One who created and continually loved and cared for that person.  Thus, this son or daughter of Abraham was to approach this time of prayer in peace, trust, and rest.

Secondly, the prayer was to begin with one’s eyes on God and not on oneself.  When praying, “Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done,” the person  praying was to be focused on God’s glory, power, and purpose for the world, not on one’s own small concerns.   One’s own horizons were to be opened as they reflected on God’s Kingdom purposes and longed for God’s saving rule to come to earth, for the glory and beauty of heaven to be turned into earthy reality and to be experienced in one’s own life.  

This expansive view of the world would keep one’s own personal concerns in perspective and inspire one to listen to God’s voice, align his or her own will with God’s, and to participate in revealing God’s Kingdom, which was not just a future otherworldly reality, but one that had already arrived on this earth in Jesus. 

Only once a person was brought into this more expansive view, could that person helpfully move into a time of petition to the Lord – first for provision (one’s daily bread), then for pardon (that God would forgive them of their sins and empower them to forgive others), and finally protection (that God would keep them from all the evils of this world, whether they be earthly or spiritual evils).

As the Lord’s Prayer demonstrates, people’s individual concerns for their lives were not unimportant to God.  God who knew every hair on the top of His people’s heads was deeply concerned with every aspect of His people’s lives.  His eternal purposes included their wholeness and flourishing, but it also included others’ wholeness and flourishing and relational harmony throughout the world. 

Thus, without first seeing the big picture of who God was and what his purposes for the world were, his people’s prayers would unfortunately tend to be too small, too self-centered, and too one-sided as they gave up their laundry list of needs and desires to God rather than engaging in a give and take of speaking and listening to the Lord. 

And nowhere would this give-and-take be more important than in the area of forgiveness.  After Jesus taught his disciples this prayer, He followed it up with the statement that if one did not forgive others, God would not forgive that person either.  Ouch.  That seems harsh, doesn’t it?  But what Jesus was simply trying to say here is that if one’s heart was not open to offering up forgiveness to others, this person’s heart would also not be open to receiving God’s forgiveness.  And that openness was truly important for God wanted his people to come to Him with listening ears, perceiving eyes, and open and humble hearts.

And so, Jesus gave his listeners that day what we now call the Lord’s Prayer, and by God’s grace, many listening that day took it to heart, and then passed it along to other followers of Jesus who then passed it off to others.  Indeed, the Lord’s Prayer has been a staple in the Church for the last 2000 years.  Many pray it weekly in their worship services, just as we do, and this is because it is universally a good way to pray.

Thus, now, I would like to take this last part of our time together and see what the implications of this prayer are for our lives. 

So first off, the lessons that Jesus taught his first listeners about prayer stand for us.  Our prayers are not to be one-sided, manipulative, showy, self-centered or too small in focus.  Our prayers are to be relational in nature, responsive to God’s voice, God-and-other-focused, and expansive, having a sense of God’s big picture, even as we lift up our individual concerns. 

And the basis for our praying is to be our secure relationship with God as beloved sons and daughters of a very Good Father who rescues us and provides, pardons, and protects us.  We do not need to anxiously throw out our thoughts and prayers into the universe, using particular formulas, or getting our words exactly right in hopes that a distant, unconcerned God may hear us and respond. 

No, we have a loving Father who knows us more deeply than we even know ourselves, desires our good, and is always present and listening to us.  While our own earthly fathers, mothers, or caregivers may fail us from time to time, perhaps even in devastating ways, our heavenly Father who is the true, perfect, and pure model of loving parenthood never fails and always shows up.  As the Rev. Summer Gross says, God is always accessible, responsive, and engaged.

Thus, we can offer up our prayers in ordinary words or no words at all, for we are not there to impress, pacify, or convince, but simply to be with our Beloved.  Whether He answers our prayers exactly like we want Him to do or not, He is trustworthy, and we can delight in simply being with Him and rest in Him, knowing that He delights to be with us, His beloved.  Indeed, He is our great reward.

It’s a little bit like, although of course much better than, my experience with my grandparents that I mentioned earlier.  The true gift was not that they gave me what I wanted in terms of some trips to Disney, but that they made time for me whether that was in Florida, home in NJ or VA, or elsewhere.  The true gift was that they opened up my horizons beyond my own little world, and provided for me, protected me, and even pardoned me when I was a little bit less than angelic.  Their presence was the true gift, and in a same but more wonderful way, God’s presence is our true gift in prayer, as well.

So, friends, if you are not in a regular habit of praying, I invite you to make space each day to be with the Lord, for He really does want to be with you.  Don’t think of it as an obligation but a wonderful invitation to goodness, intimacy, and rest.

And friends, if you are in a habit of praying but this mostly looks like trying to impress God or others or simply asking for your own needs, I invite you to expand your view of what prayer is about.  Prayer is not about performance, or checking off the boxes, or assuaging guilt, or doing enough, or simply getting what you want.  It is about relationship.  Both speaking and listening.  Asking and receiving.  Loving and being loved.  It’s about catching a glimpse of God’s Kingdom purposes and responding by learning to align our wills with His.  It’s about trusting that God is good and will indeed care for us.

And so, friends, I commend the Lord’s Prayer as a good model for entering into relationship with God.  While you can certainly pray it word for word, that is not always necessary or even the best way.  Jesus didn’t give this prayer as a formulaic prayer to be always repeated word for word, without thought. 

He gave it as scaffolding.  And just as scaffolding is a support to work crews as they construct a building, the Lord’s prayer is a support as we build out our own prayers.  They are to be personal, both in what we bring to the Lord and how we respond to Him.  The way the Kingdom comes and God’s will be done in our particular lives will be unique to who God has made us to be and where He has placed us.  And thus, we can reflect that uniqueness in our prayers.    

And so, friends, I invite you to come.   Come and be with your Heavenly Father who loves you beyond comprehension.   Come and know his good intentions and purposes for you and the world.  Come and give him your praise and ask that your will would be aligned with his.  And finally rest in Him, trusting that He will love and provide for you.  Friends, this is what prayer is about, so let us learn from Jesus how to pray.  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.