Messages, Meditations, and Musings on the Life of Faith by Rev. Dr. Scott E. Olson, Interim Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Preston, MN

Sunday, February 1, 2015

"The Heart of Prayer" - Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

The Heart of Prayer
Epiphany 4
February 1, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
Matthew 6.7-21

Today’s focus scripture is from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” It is the first, largest, and arguably one of most important blocks of teaching in Matthew’s gospel, and perhaps the New Testament, with the possible exception of his Farewell Discourse in John. As we noted last week, Jesus assumes the position of authority and revelation on the mountain. In doing this and other things, Matthew portrays him as a prophet like Moses. Yet, Jesus is unique because, instead of receiving the Law, Jesus is shown to be the right interpreter of the Law. He is not abolishing the Law but instead insisting that his followers pursue the greater righteous the interpretation of the Law demands. Interestingly, the Lord’s Prayer stands at the center of this sermon. Today’s message explores why this is important for us.

Let us pray…

A number of experiences shaped my understanding of prayer in general and the Lord’s Prayer in particular. One experience occurred almost 20 years when I was visiting a young woman in a nursing home while on internship. This woman had Cerebral Palsy and was confined to a wheelchair. She was unable to communicate much, though she laughed heartily when I told her I was a registered Girl Scout. Uncomfortable because we couldn’t talk much, I plowed ahead with giving her Communion. When I came to the Lord’s Prayer I became aware she was saying the it right along with me. Certainly, it was not as polished, but it was there nonetheless. This was the first of many instances showing me the power of the prayer our Lord taught us.

A second experience occurred during a community worship service where I had been invited to preach. I think it was a high school Baccalaureate service. Shortly after my sermon, another pastor was tasked with saying a prayer. As he did so, I became aware that he was offering a subtle but unmistakable rebuttal and commentary to my sermon. I was reminded of a line I had come across a few years earlier about preachers and prayer: “Open your eyes, brother, you’re preaching, not praying.”

These and many other experiences have shown me two things: the difficulty of prayer and the power of the Lord’s Prayer. Why else is there such a discomfort about prayer and vehement conversation about which version we use. Perhaps the power of the Lord’s Prayer is what makes us uncomfortable, for at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer we declare that we want to align ourselves and our wills most fully with God’s. We ask for the coming of his reign here on earth. Frankly, I think that’s the scariest thing we can pray for, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” Look where it got Jesus as he prayed that prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was crucified on a cross. Frederick Buechner says it as only he can: “To speak these words is to invite the tiger out of the cage, to unleash a power that makes atomic power look like a warm breeze.”

Yet, it’s the most important prayer to pray because we acknowledge that neither we nor the world is not as it ought to be and we ask God to make it and us right. A colleague, Pr. Collette Broady Grund put it this way: “I don’t always like who I am either, so I need God to make me different.” Five hundred years earlier, Martin Luther had this to say: we don’t pray to God to tell God what we want (because God already knows) but to align ourselves with God. This is one of the hardest things about the life of faith, because many things stand in the way of aligning our will to God’s in prayer. For me, one thing that stands in the way is the busy-ness of my life and another is being a pastor. I spend so much time doing these things “professionally” that it’s hard to do them as a regular person. What about you? What stands in the way between you and God?

In a way of helping, I want to end with a Thomas Merton quote that was shared with me the other day. It may help you as you seek to navigate around those things that get in the as you grow closer to God. Let us pray it together:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

― Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

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