Almsgiving,
fasting and prayer
are
the three spiritual practices
Jesus
expects of his people.
But
he expects them to be done in a different way
than
most people do it.
Spiritual
practices are not to be performances.
They
are not to be done in order to be seen by others,
nor
to be evaluated by the self,
nor
to impress God.
They
are not performances.
Almsgiving,
or giving for the relief of the poor,
shows
love for God by imitating his generosity
and
being the conduit through which God provides for the poor.
Fasting
is the denial of self
which
gives up earthly goods
in
order to focus on the one true need.
And
finally, prayer is not a virtuoso act of holiness,
not
the stringing together of beautiful words
or
the feeling of deeply felt feelings
in
order to force God to act
or
to gain approval from others.
Rather
prayer is trusting, loving communication,
asking
God to do his will
and
to sustain us on our journey.
Jesus
teaches his disciples a prayer,
a
prayer which, in its brevity,
contrasts
with the long prayers of the Gentiles.
But
this is not the truly distinguishing feature of the Lord’s Prayer.
Jesus’
prayer life with the Father
was
what sustained him in the desert wilderness for forty days.
It
was the source and power of his ministry.
As
a son of a Jewish family,
Jesus
would have known the prayers of the Old Testament inside and out,
including
and especially the psalms.
But
when he taught the disciples to pray,
he
took them into the prayer relationship he had with God his Father,
into
a relationship of trust and love and complete communion.
When
we say ‘Our Father,’
we
do not mean that God has a generic relationship with all of humanity
as
his creatures.
That
would be ‘Creator.’
Rather,
we mean that because Jesus has brought us into his community,
his
‘faith family,’
and
named us sisters and brothers,
we
may now address his Father as our Father.
We
are brought into the circle of prayer.
Whether
we are with others or not,
we
never pray the Lord’s Prayer alone.
Rather,
we always pray it with Jesus and all his faithful.
Imagine
the next time you say the Lord’s Prayer,
being
with Jesus and all the disciples,
not
just the ones on the hillside hearing the Sermon on the Mount,
but
all the faithful, living and dead,
those
of every time and every place,
addressing
‘Our Father.’
It’s
a wonderful thing to think about.
And
by the Spirit, it’s true, even though we don’t see it.
In
praying Jesus’ prayer, we ask for two things and two things alone.
We
ask that the Father make his kingdom come.
This
is elaborated in the first three petitions.
The
second thing we ask is that God would sustain us on our journey.
That
is summarized in the second three petitions.
Make
your kingdom come,
Sustain
us until that day.
It
is a prayer that is more concerned with our need for God
and
the world’s need for God,
than
our needs for ourselves.
It
is a very simple prayer,
so
simple that we could spend the rest of our life talking about it
and
never run out of things to say or consider.
But
there is just one more thing I want us to think about tonight.
You
see, the Lord’s Prayer is not for everyone.
There
are some who are not able to pray the Lord’s Prayer with him.
Now
anyone can say it, but that doesn’t mean they’re truly praying with Jesus.
By
this I don’t mean that we need some sort of intellectual stature
or
some kind of spiritual superiority
to
plumb the depths of Jesus’ prayer.
What
I mean is that we have to share in Jesus’ Spirit,
the
Spirit which proceeds from Jesus and the Father.
And
how do we know if we are sharing in that Spirit?
Jesus
says that those who forgive others their trespasses
will
themselves be forgiven by the Father,
but
those who refuse to forgive will not be forgiven.
This
is the criterion of an honest, Spirit-filled prayer,
whether
we can pray it for others as well as ourselves.
When
we say ‘Forgive us our trespasses,’
we’d
better not really be saying, ‘Forgive me my
trespasses,
but
send those other people to hell!’
Rather,
we include ourselves with others as those in need of forgiveness,
our
forgiveness and God’s.
We
seek to cast aside fear of the other,
trusting
that God will provide,
and
showing the same forgiveness toward them as God shows toward us.
Because
that’s how Jesus prayed his prayer.
He
did not need to ask forgiveness for himself.
He
needed to ask it for us,
we
who misunderstood him,
we
who gladly hear his word and then wrong each other,
we
who put him on a cross.
‘Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.
If
you’ve tried to do this and failed, join the club.
And
we cannot be reconciled with one who will not reconcile;
we
need not subject ourselves to abuse or violence,
and
we may never be able to return to the same way
of
relating to another who has hurt or wronged us in some way.
We
don’t have to entrust our money
to
the same person who embezzled from us,
even
when he has repented from his sin.
But
when there is a way to restore relationship,
or
even to rework relationship,
we
can be open to it,
rejoicing
in God’s new possibility,
and
we can always, always pray,
even
when things seem hopeless.
There
is no moment we will reach when we cannot pray for the other.
But
those who refuse to pray in this way
or
even to start to walk the path of this kind of prayer,
even
when they cannot do it by their own strength,
show
that they are not part of Jesus’ community
which
prays for the kingdom of the Father.
They
pray alone,
for
they refuse to pray together with the one who forgave them their trespasses.
They
do not long with Jesus for the reconciliation of all people,
and
therefore they cannot accept the forgiveness which he offers them,
a
forgiveness which would bring them into communion with others.
Again,
we are not asked to perfectly fulfill a law,
we
are called to walk a path.
We
are not asked to say that we are not hurt and deeply so,
we
are called to hope with Jesus’ heart
for
a world at peace and reconciled
and
to seek to live out that reality in our own lives.
Let
us pray, therefore,
that
we might be saved in the time of trial
delivered
from evil,
and
set in the community of Jesus’ disciples,
praying
with him for the reconciliation of the world,
and
the appearance of his kingdom.
Amen
