Saturday, April 19, 2014

Lenten Devotional – Day 40

Q. 99. What rule hath God given for our direction in prayer?

A. The whole Word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called “the Lord’s Prayer.”

“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.” (Matt. 6:7-9)

Those who have prayed the Lord's Prayer with an open heart, as an act of humble discipleship, know that the prayer is powerful and even dangerous. In praying the Lord's Prayer we ask God to lead us down some risky and unfamiliar paths. Praying the Lord's Prayer compromises the sense of security we fumble to maintain within our own power. - Victoria Rebeck, The Christian Ministry, Jan-Feb 1995, 2.

  "Lord, teach us to pray!" So spoke the disciples to Jesus. In making this request, they confessed that they were not able to pray on their own, that they had to learn to pray. The phrase "learning to pray" sounds strange to us. If the heart does not overflow and begin to pray by itself, we say, it will never "learn" to pray. But it is a dangerous error, surely very widespread among Christians, to think that the heart can pray by itself.

0e282407_prayer-sermon  For then we confuse wishes, hopes, sighs, laments, rejoicings - all of which the heart can do by itself - with prayer. And we confuse earth and heaven, man and God. Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty. No man can do that by himself. For that he needs Jesus Christ. - James Burtness, Shaping The Future: The Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 9.

  The archbishop of Canterbury wants kids to be taught the Lord's Prayer in school. In the U.S. at least, constitutional issues render that unlikely, at least as part of the official curriculum. But we don't need to wait, and, for our own kids at least, we don't need to leave it to the schools. Centuries ago, God told Israel, "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." He then told the Israelite adults to not only "keep these words" themselves, but also to "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" (Deuteronomy 6:4-7). As Christians, we can do the same with the Lord's Prayer.

  Let's not overstate the case. Helping our kids know the Lord's Prayer isn't likely to turn the world around spiritually or be the start of a worldwide religious revival. But let's not understate the case either. The Lord's Prayer is a spiritual starting point, a way to reach out toward God when we're too numb, too much in pain, too blind, too angry, even too tired to do much else. Our kids and we will benefit from it, and God hears us when we pray it.

  Praying something is better than praying nothing. And the Lord's Prayer is really something.

  And teach the disciples to pray Jesus did! And teach us he does! Not only the now famous "Lord's Prayer," but teaching piled upon teaching. He teaches us to come to God in the most intimate of way, saying, "Abba, Father" (Mark 14:36). He gives us parables about the "need to pray always and not to lose heart" (Luke 18:1). He teaches us to pray "in secret," to "Pray for those who persecute you," to "forgive, if you have anything against anyone" when praying, to "believe that what you say will come to pass," to ask "the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest," and much, much more (Matt. 6:6, 5:44, 9:38; Mark 11:24-25).

  Prayer is one of the most powerful things we can do in life. The Lord's Prayer was so special in the early church that only the confirmed members could pray it. They figured that spectators and inquirers weren't ready for the power and mystery of the prayer. It was called the "believer's prayer." Even today in the liturgy of the Greek and Russian Orthodox Church, the praying of the Lord's Prayer is a moment of awe and mystery as a priest says at the introduction: "And make us worthy, O Lord, that we joyously and without presumption may make bold to invoke thee, the heavenly God, as Father and to say, 'Our Father, ...' "

Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 54, 137
Evening Psalm: 20, 49
Job 19:21-27a
Hebrews 4:1-16
Romans 8:1-11

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