Pentecost X

By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C, Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 12, 29 July 2007 

Text: Luke 11: 1-13  Other Readings:  Hosea 1: 2-10; Colossians 2: 6-15 [16-19]; Psalm 85 

      The first lesson this morning from Hosea is pretty harsh, isn't it?  How would you like it for God to tell you to name your children names that predict the outcome of your country's forsaking of God?  It's only at the end of today's reading that we hear the hope & promise which echoes God's promise to Abraham:  "Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered."  What was necessary for the people of Israel, & for us, to be called "Children of the living God?"  A song we'll sing during communion today (at the later service today) is also from Hosea & helps us remember God's ultimate desire for the Israelites—& for us.  It echoes God's own voice in saying, in part, "Come back to me with all your heart; don't let fear keep us apart." And the chorus expresses God's yearning for our faithfulness & is repeated 3 times: "Long have I waited for your coming home to Me & living deeply our new life."

      Even after we've given our hearts to God through Jesus Christ, how do we continue the journey back to God & sustain our living deeply into our life with God?  Perhaps that's what the disciples are asking when they ask Jesus to teach them to pray.  After all, they often observe Jesus going off to pray in a certain place or on a mountain or in the garden, so they must realize that their growing as disciples requires an active prayer life.  When they ask, Jesus gives them a template for prayer which has become a part of almost every service of worship in which we Christians participate.  Luke's version has 5 petitions; we'll pray the 7 of Matthew's [twice] later in the service today. 

      The prayer which we usually know as "The Lord's Prayer" is a good Jewish prayer, yet as usual, this good Jewish rabbi changes the whole approach to God when he emphasizes the relationship with God as more important than fulfilling obligations & fulfilling rules.  Jesus invites us to join him in calling to God as a loving parent who wants an intimate relationship with us.  We are to affirm God's name as hallowed—holy—not only when we are praying but throughout our lives.  Do we always use God's name in sacred pursuits?  What would our civilization be like on earth if it were truly God's reign—God's kingdom?

      The next petitions move the focus from the nature of God to God's relationship with humanity.  Just as God provided Israel with daily sustenance in the desert, we ask God to nourish us day by day, not only with adequate physical food but also with spiritual nourishment.  If we're going to expect God to sustain us daily, I guess it's a pretty good idea for us to set aside time each day to be receptive to what God has to give us.  I need to take time for lunch which I'm often tempted to forego, just as I can get lazy & think I'm too busy for prayer time.  I may be able to survive on a skimpy diet, but I surely won't grow in my relationship to God without regular soul food.

      Notice the wording on the next petition: just as we forgive everyone indebted to us, so do we ask God for like forgiveness.  What shape would we be in if God forgave just like we do?  Sometimes the best I can do is to ask for the willingness to forgive.  How can God be so eager to forgive?  Oh, yeah, God is God!  But our growing on the journey includes learning to forgive just as God does. 

      I don't want to have to undergo a time of trial, yet we all face trials many times, don't we?  Remember Peter's three denials which he only recognized when the cock crowed?  What serves as our wake-up call when we deny Christ?  What better way to make midcourse corrections in our Christian journey than through daily prayer, regularly in community as well as personal & family prayer?  When I take a personal inventory & realize I need to do things differently, confession, making amends where needed, & moving on is the best I can do to deal with times of trial.  And you know what, the best amends are living amends—living more faithfully into the future.  Not a bad template for prayer, or for living our lives, would you say?

      What about the rest of this gospel passage?  [Since we'll be hearing from the Vacation Bible School folks in a few minutes,] I simply want to say that Jesus seems to urging us to persistence in our prayer life as he tells the story of the friend who responds to the neighbor's request because of the neighbor's persistence.  Jesus tells us to ask, search, & knock—not to give up in our spiritual journey—recognizing that God will provide much more appropriately than even we humans who want only the best for our own children.  Welcome to all those who are on Jesus' journey in this ship called Hope & are journeying together today!  Let us continue to pray & seek & find together.