Genesis 18:20-32, Luke 11:1-13
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
It seems that prayer is again the focus of our readings for this week. In our Psalm we have the appeal of King David for the Lord’s continual protection and David’s words of praise for the Lord God who had kept him safe, in Colossians Paul reminds us to continue living our lives in Jesus, rooted and built up in him and in Genesis we have a story that describes Abraham’s appeals for the town and people of Sodom. Abraham’s purpose for making his appeals was likely twofold: his nephew (Lot) and Lot’s family were living in Sodom; he did not want them hurt: but there was also a humanitarian aspect to Abraham’s appeals; he was hoping to save the “good” people in Sodom and for the sake of the “good” also the “evil” people. Abraham, was putting his faith and trust in a generous and merciful God and hoping that God’s mercy would spill out onto the people of Sodom; in this reading he was asking for God’s reassurance of this. Mercy is a strange thing; first off it is usually undeserved; we, for example, believe that we as Christians receive forgiveness for our sins (and so God’s mercy), not because we deserve it, but because Jesus deserves it, because Jesus died on a cross for us and God the Father accepts Jesus sacrifice for us. Abraham knew that most of the people of Sodom did not deserve God’s forgiveness and mercy, but he asked or prayed for mercy none the less.
At a meeting of Synod-wide church leaders, on one occasion, a church leader prayed for a world leader, who was not generally regarded as humane and after we finished our prayers, the church leader apologized for the prayer and explained the reasoning for the prayer. Neither was necessary, we all knew that it is important to pray for those leaders who do not follow God’s will, and we all knew that the prayer was not in any way expressing some kind of appreciation for that leader: we know that we as Christians, should pray for those with whom we disagree, for their wellbeing and pray that they will choose a path consistent with Jesus’ will and so demonstrate the love of Jesus, at the very least, offer some mercy to those who suffer.
We should, each of us, be as bold in our prayers as was Abraham and that church leader, even though, as it turned out in Sodom, that there were not even ten who were worth being saved and the world leader did not change to offer mercy, but in the case of Sodom, God as a God of justice, allowed the few that were good, Lot and his family to leave Sodom safely. Who knows, God may yet work mercy into that world leader; as for Lot and his family the question of whether God was moved by Abraham’s appeals for mercy and justice, or whether God in his mercy simply refusing to destroy the innocent, is still out there as am unanswered question? We don’t know, but obvious to us today, is God’s willingness to be merciful, as well as just. I think that we can feel assured that our prayers for mercy are heard by God.
But an appeal for mercy is just one kind of prayer that we may offer; Jesus himself taught his Disciples a prayer to cover all of our needs. Here in today’s Gospel reading the Disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, to give them a prayer that would be acceptable to God. And so, they were taught by Jesus a prayer; a prayer we today know as the Lord’s Prayer. Martin Luther, says of the Lord’s Prayer in the Large Catechism: “Humankind is in such a situation that no one can believe. Besides, the devil, along with the world and our flesh, resists our efforts with all his power. Consequently, nothing is so necessary as to call upon God incessantly and drum into God’s ears our prayer that God may give, preserve, and increase in us faith and obedience to the Ten Commandments and remove all that stands in our way and hinders us from fulfilling them. That we may know how to pray, our Lord Christ himself has taught us both the way and the words….” In the Lord’s Prayer we pray for food and all that we need in order to live, we praise God, and call for God to imprint his Kingdom upon our world and so peace, a desire for help in obeying God’s will, a request for forgiveness along with a promise (of a sort) to forgive others, we appeal for protection against our own questionable practices and against outside evil and the prayer concludes, at least for us today, with the addition of a (sort of) song of praise (a doxology that was originally sung by King David, and is found in 1 Chronicles 29:11).
The Lord’s Prayer allows us to commit ourselves to the Lord while admitting our complete dependence upon God, God for God’s love, Jesus’ for forgiveness and mercy and the Holy Spirit for guidance and care. Prayer is of great importance for us as Christians. It allows us to be in a two-way relationship with our Lord and our God. We get to speak our minds; we get to express to God how we feel and then we get to learn and experience having a relationship with the Almighty. But there is something else here. The Lord’s Prayer provides us with an opportunity for prayer discipline. Many of us pray with words that come from our hearts and minds, some of us pray as we go all throughout the day, sharing with God our thoughts and feelings, needs, wants, fears and hopes. But there are some among us who do not feel comfortable with words and while they surely express to God what they feel and think without even trying, it is the Lord’s Prayer that gives us what they need to pray with words. The Lord’s prayer gives us the words to express all that is in our minds and hearts and so makes it possible for us to speak to the Lord. These words do not need to be questioned. None of us need to feel uncomfortable praying them. In fact, we should make it a discipline of praying the Lord’s Prayer, once, twice, three times a day or more. It says all that we need to say to God! If you do not understand all its words and meaning get a Small Catechism and read the explanation. And consider this, just as talking to a friend gets easier with each conversation and the relationship grows with such conversations, praying the Lord’s Prayer and praying any prayer to God helps us to grow our relationship with the Lord and with Jesus. And, that can’t be bad!