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The Eve of Saint James the Great
The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 12)
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The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
The Eve of Saint James the Great
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Scripture citation(s): Luke 11:1-13
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
Luke 11:1-13
✛
Allowing the Lord's Prayer to Shape Our Lives
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“Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples”. Jesus gave his disciples the words of a prayer that many have said is the pattern of all prayer.
In order to understand this prayer, we need to first understand the context of where it comes in the narrative of Matthew or Luke. What precedes the prayer in both gospels is, I believe, significant for our understanding of it.
In Luke’s Gospel, the Lord’s prayer is preceded by some strong themes which we have heard over the past few weeks: First there is the successful mission of the 72 upon whose return, Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and praises God with those beautiful words – “I thank you Father because you have hidden these things from the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” Then, a Lawyer asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Jesus turns this question back on the lawyer who answers wisely – quoting from the Torah “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your strength, and with all of your mind: and your neighbour as yourself,” which leads to the famous parable of the Good Samaritan. After that, in the house of Martha and Mary, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus. These themes are very powerful and the Lord’s Prayer, in turn, has within it these powerful themes of the discovery of God’s presence in our lives – the proclamation of the kingdom of God and the attempt to create a community in which love and forgiveness reign.
Similarly, in Matthew’s account there is no less a significance to the placing of the Lord’s Prayer, coming, as it does, as part of the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon, given to his disciples challenges them and challenges the established order of the day. The disciples are to be salt of the earth – they are to be lights to the world – they are to forgive in a way that is seen as scandalous – they are to go the extra mile, turn the other cheek and love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. The Lord’s Prayer is, therefore, a kingdom prayer; the pattern of prayer, which, in turn, is the pattern of life for those who abide by the values of the Kingdom of God rather than of the world. And, therefore, it is a prayer that is repeated time and time again for God yearns to be close to us. It is, after all, the Lord’s Prayer, which reveals in a most intimate way the prayer life of Jesus and his relationship with the Father.
As we pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer day by day, we can sometimes forget the power of them and the fact that God still yearns for us to be close to him. As we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we can forget that God’s kingdom will challenge our perceptions of what is right or wrong or proper or even appropriate in our world or our community. The kingdom that will come will not be like any human society and, dare I say it, it may not even be like the Christian Church as we now experience it! The values of the kingdom will create a new order in which the gift of forgiveness will be so natural that we will forget our differences; a new order where people are aware of their true needs, know their own need of forgiveness and, in turn, set an example of forgiving others. Oh, how the recent atrocity in Nice in France reminds me that we need now, more than ever, people who do not simply recite the Lord’s Prayer but live their lives by it – inhabiting the prayer, as it were, and becoming more Christ-like.
Let me give you an example. When Jean Vanier founded the first L’Arche Community just north of Paris, for people with intellectual disabilities, he says that he did it as a project, but soon realised that he was as poor as those who has come to live with him. In so doing, Jean Vanier made a commitment to that new community for life. Here was a community like no other – not a place where people were looked after or even ministered to by those who were not disabled; a community where every gift and skill was equal and precious. In attempting to build a community which was truly inclusive, Jean Vanier began to discover some of the truth at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer – he began glimpsing the kingdom that was to come – he discovered the need for forgiveness – the forgiveness demanded by the Lord himself; he discovered the kind of bread that Jesus gives that truly nourishes us. Listen to these words of Jean Vanier, speaking about the creation of the first L’Arche community:
“When I first welcomed Raphael and Philippe from the Assylum I knew it was for life: it would have been impossible to create bonds with them and then send them back to hospital, or anywhere else. My goal, in starting L’Arche, was to found a family, a community with and for those who are weak and poor because of a mental disability and who feel alone and abandoned I have gradually discovered their gift. At the start, I could believe myself to be generous. But living with Raphael and his brothers and sisters, I began to realise my own limitations and mixed motives. To enter into relationship with them, I have had to discover that I, too, am poor. I have had somehow to stop having ‘projects’ so that I could discover the child in myself – the child of God.”
My friends, if we take the Lord’s Prayer to our heart and really, really try to live our lives by it, then we will find it liberating. It is not a formula but represents a way of life centred on God. The words will continue to be comforting, but we will discover afresh the power of those words to change lives.
Father,
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Amen.
