“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.”
It is the prayer of the Christian Church, prayed more often in public worship than any other prayer, and known personally by heart by more individuals than perhaps any other passage of Scripture.
So, what will I do with a sermon on such a familiar text? I could take the easy way out and do as a young man who had come to a monastery and asked for admission to the order.
“He told the abbot that he would accept any task, no matter how menial, if only he could be part of the religious life. He set only one condition, that he not be required to preach. The abbot replied, “Obviously this is the one area of your spiritual development that needs attention, so tomorrow morning you will be our preacher!”
The young monk-trainee was gripped by fear when he approached the time to preach, but was seized by inspiration and said to the gathered brethren, “Do you know what I’m going to preach about this morning?” “No,” murmured the other monks. “Well, neither do I, so let’s go right to the benediction!”
The abbot was upset and determined that the young novitiate preach, so he assigned him a second time. At the time of preaching, the man again said, “Do you know today what I’m going to preach about?” Wishing to help him along, the monks all nodded “yes.” He said, “Then if you know what I’m going to preach about, there’s no need to hear it again. Let’s go right to the benediction!”
Now the abbot was furious, and he instructed the novitiate to try again the third time. At the third encounter the young monk said again, “Today do you know what I’m going to preach about?” The other monks were confused. Some said “yes,” and some said “no;” at which point the novitiate declared “Well, then those who know what I’m going to preach about turn to the ones who don’t know what I’m going to preach about, and you tell what it is. Let’s go to the benediction!” (Reverend William G. Stell, “Perfect Love” Preached at St. Luke’s U.M.C. in Houston, Texas.)
You may have noted that Luke’s account is a far more succinct and compressed version than Matthew’s. Matthew’s version is the one we commonly use.
Interestingly, Matthew puts the prayer in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, and follows it with teachings about forgiveness, fasting, laying up treasure in heaven, the eye being a lamp to the body, having only one master and then his big teaching about anxiety. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on....but seek first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Matthew 6:25, 33)
Luke puts the prayer in another setting with a parable which teaches us more about prayer. It’s not difficult for me to think that Jesus must have used this prayer in His teaching many times in different settings. And it certainly seems natural that He would elaborate on the meaning in different ways.
So, here in our text He tells a parable about prayer immediately after He gives the model prayer. Let’s use the model and the parable to give us directions when we pray.
I.
First, when you pray, know who you are and who God is. Psalm 9, verse 10, says, “Those who know your name put their trust in you.” I like that — and we need to put that into practice - - in our prayer: Those who know Thy name put their trust in Thee. We know God’s name, and that’s the way we pray. And what is the name? “Our Father.” I know there are those who would seek to diminish the use of Father as the Christian’s primary address to God. They feel this turns God into a male figure, and that it is exclusive of females. That’s a distorted perception, and it takes feminist theology that has so many positive dimensions to it in a negative direction. God is neither male nor female — but, here is Christianity’s characteristic address. Paul affirmed to the Galatians, “God is sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts crying, “Abba Father!” (Galatians 4:6)
In Romans 8:15,16 there is this distilled essence of who we are and who God is: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship when we cry, “Abba! Father!” It is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
And we could go on. This is the characteristic Christian address - - “Our Father.”
It is the characteristic Christian address, because it comes from Jesus. When called when He prayed, He called God Father. In Aramaic the word was “Abba” which is even more intimate than Father. It is literally “Daddy”.
So in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus faced the toughest decision of His life, in His prayer He said “Father - - Daddy - - if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me.”
But the cup didn’t pass. Hanging on the cross, anguishing in pain, and dying in shame for the sin of world, He made that ultimate commitment in His prayer: “ Father - - Daddy - - into your hands I commend my spirit”.
So the very first words of the prayer tell us we’re not coming to someone from whom we have to beg, or strike a deal. We’re not coming to someone with whom we bargain, or cajole, or appease. We’re coming to a father who delights to supply His children’s needs.
The very first word of our Christian prayer — the model prayer of Jesus tells us we’re not coming to someone from whom we have to beg, or strike a deal. We’re not coming to someone with whom we bargain, cajole, or appease. We’re coming to a father who delights to supply His children’s needs.
So when we pray, we know who God is.
But we also know who we are. Because we know who we are, we pray out of our need. Look at the parable Jesus uses to teach us about prayer. It begins with need. A traveler arrives at midnight. Hospitality demands that you receive the traveler and feed him. But you don’t have anything. The cupboard is bare. So you go to a neighbor’s house. It’s midnight and you knock on the door but the neighbor admonishes you, don’t bother me, my children are in bed and I can’t get up and give you anything.
But you keep on knocking because your need is great. If prayer is anything, it is sharing our need with God.
II.
Now a second point. When you pray, do so persistently.
Somewhere along the way I read an Associated Press news report about a woman who was suing the Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, and a Catholic cemetery for $250,000 in personal damages. For seventeen years she prayed at and placed flowers on what she thought was the grave of her husband. The cemetery, however, had made a mistake - - a big mistake. They’d placed her husband’s headstone on the wrong grave and the man was actually buried on an adjacent plot. The suit claimed that the woman suffered severe emotional trauma and distress and that all her prayers had been wasted.
Well, some folks have strange notions about prayer, and certainly that woman’s was a distorted theology. But I can understand her trauma. And the picture of persistence that she presents is one we need to pay attention to.
Jesus uses a rather strange word - - that is strange to modern usage — in telling the parable. He says in verse 8 that though the person on whose door the man is knocking will not get up to give him anything because he’s a friend, “Yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”
Importunity. We don’t use that word in normal conversation. It is somewhat archaic, but in this context of Jesus’ teaching I doubt if any other word would do. To importune means to press or urge or beg with troublesome persistence. A sense of urgency is always present when we importune. This is obviously the central lesson of the parable. “Because of his importunity, the friend who went begging at midnight got what he needed.
We need to remember that not only in our intercession, but in all of our praying, we may not sense an immediate response. There may be delay - - long delay. Long, long delay! It may even seem that God is saying, “I cannot give you what you ask.”
The problem of “no answer” or at least no apparent or immediate answer, is one of the plaguing problems of prayer. It’s not easy, against all appearance of failure, to continue to pray - - to hold fast, believing that God will hear and answer. We need to importune with the assurance that God will respond.
One key lesson of the parable is to be found precisely in learning what lies behind the importunity. That is our need for confidence in God. Get that. We continue to pray - - we pray persistently — because we have confidence in God. There is no higher honor we can bestow upon God than to believe in Him undauntingly. To have confidence that despite the agonizing delay or devastating silence or painful apparent refusal an answer will come. It may not be the answer we expect. And it may not come on our own time table. But the answer will be right for us. It will be a blessing. If we accept and respond to the answer, it will bring good to us and glory to God.
So, when you pray, be persistent.
III.
Now this final point. When you pray, be expectant. You may have noted that the final doxology of The Lord’s Prayer — “For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever” is not in either Luke or Matthew’s Gospels. The early Christians added this. And how right they were to do so.
I could hardly pray the Lord’s Prayer without that doxology. It’s a great affirmation of expectation.
So, when you pray open yourself to be surprised, expect miracles. Is there anything bolder in Jesus’ teaching than His promises about prayer. He placed no limitation on what God would do if we would ask and believe, and then be open to receive in God’s way, in God’s time. Hear that word of Jesus which clinches his teaching (vss 9-10: “Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and it will opened to you. Everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.”
As already indicated, one of our biggest problems in a consistent prayer life is no answers, or apparent no answers. Or, what appears to be a “delayed response from God.”
Our approach to prayer is too mechanical. Our question is “Does it work?” And we seek answers to the question out of a distorted notion of what it means for prayer to work.
I don’t want to over-simplify. But here is a simple truth. Prayer is relationship with God, communion. So prayer is working if it is shaping our relationship with God, if it impacting the way we live life, the way we relate to others, our willingness to be obedient and serve.
That’s the heart of it. That’s the reason persistence is essential, and that’s the reason when you pray you are to be expectant. This God - -our Father, to whom we pray, and to whom we’re related is the one who said through the prophet Isaiah: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:18, 19)
And He spoke a final word through His son in the book of Revelation: “Behold I make all new things new.” You can be expectant, praying to a God like that. And you can be sure that prayer works because prayer is our relationship with God, our communion with the Father.
Jo and John Walt are lay Christians, who have been to China twice, each time for a year — Jo to teach English, John to teach Law — but their mission was to live and witness for Christ.
Their work was in Xian and they wanted to go back...to give another year. But for some reason, and we can imagine why, the government refused to grant them an invitation to teach in Xian. But, then to their surprise, they received an invitation to go to a university in Shanghai. They didn’t want to go. They had never thought this would be the city in which to work as Christians, primarily because Shanghai has always been a political hot-bed and they felt governmental pressure would be oppressive. So they prayed, and prayed, and prayed, persistently and expectantly. It became clear they should go. But here is the clincher. Because of past experience, they expected God to affirm their decision with some sort of confirming sign.
A couple of weeks later, they were in Destin, Florida on vacation. On Sunday, they intended going to one church, but ended up going to a 7:30 a.m. service at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. A layman, probably what the Episcopalians call a “Permanent Deacon” served them the wine of Holy Communion.
They didn’t know him; he didn’t know them. They later learned he was a captain of one of the fishing boats. When he came to them, kneeling there to receive the Lord’s Presence, he stopped, set the chalice down, laid hands on them and prayed for them. Now, remember these folks did not know each other. And this man did not do this with anyone else. Only with them. And he prayed for their ministry, though not naming it specifically. And he prayed for their family.
After the service, Jo and John stayed to meet this fellow, to thank him, and to tell him how special it was. It was for them a kind of consecration for their mission to China.
When the Captain heard this, he was moved and surprised. Smiling broadly, he said, “I have a gift for you.”
You’re going to find this hard to believe unless you believe in a God of wonderful surprises. Sometime before, for some reason the Captain did not know, back when “smile buttons” were popular, and some Christians coined the phrase, “Smile, Jesus loves you”, this man had had smile stickers printed — little round stickers with the big smile; and the words “Smile, Jesus loves you.” And would you believe? He had some of those printed in Chinese.
So, John and Jo are going to China with a thousand little stick-ons of a smiling face and these words in Chinese: “Smile, Jesus Loves You.”
But, more than that, they are going to China with tremendous confidence and excitement. God, in a surprisingly fresh way, has confirmed their commitment. They’re going in prayer — persistent and expectant prayer because they know God is “Our Father”.
