7-28-19 Readings & Sermon

A reading from Hosea.

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of Horedom, for the land commits great whoredom for forsaking the Lord.

So he went and he took Gomer, daughter of Diblim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

And the Lord said to him, Name him Jezreel, for in a little while I will punish the house of Yahu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

She conceived again and bore a daughter.

Then the Lord said to him, Name her Lorahama, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel, or forgive them, but I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God.

I will not save them by bow or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.

When she had weaned Lo Rahama, she conceived and bore a son.

Then the Lord said, Name him Lo Ami, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered.

And in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God.

The word of the Lord.

Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to into fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ.

When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you live together with him when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.

He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them.

Triumphing over them in it.

Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink, or observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.

These are only a shadow of what is to come.

But the substance belongs to Christ.

Do not let anyone disqualify you insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on vision, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking and not holding fast to the head, from whom the holy body nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews and grows with a growth that is from God, the word of the Lord.

The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Luke.

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us, and do not bring us to the time of trial.

And he said to them, Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.

And he answers from within, Do not bother me, the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed.

I cannot get up and give you anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence, he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given you.

Search and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened for you.

For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Is there any one among you who is your child asks for a fish, you will give a snake instead of a fish?

Or if the child asks for an egg, will you give a scorpion?

If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

The gospel of the Lord.

A priest, a minister, and a guru were discussing the best positions for prayer while a telephone repair man worked nearby.

Kneeling is definitely the best way to pray, the priest said.

No, the minister said, I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to heaven.

You're both wrong, the guru said.

The most effective prayer position is lying down on the floor.

The repairman could not contain himself any longer.

He said, Fellas, sorry to interrupt.

The best praying I ever did was when I was hanging upside down from a telephone pole.

In the gospel today, Jesus not only told the disciples to pray, but he taught them how to pray.

The lesson he gave them became the pattern for prayer that we all know as the Lord's prayer.

Now, Jesus intended the words of this prayer to portray the spirit of our prayers instead of just specified words.

For Jesus' prayer was not a form, but a force, a power.

Prayer was vital and influential in his life, and it should be the same for us.

Prayer can take many forms, but it's often difficult to find the time or the energy to focus and really engage in prayer.

The disciples wanted to learn to pray, to integrate prayer into their lives, to understand and to deepen their relationship with God, and to find the right words to offer.

Jesus taught the disciples that their prayer should be God-centered.

The glory of God's name and the advancement of God's kingdom were to be their primary concerns for prayer.

The same should hold true for us.

Now, when we face life's problems, we can do one of two things.

We can faint or we can pray.

Jesus helps us and the disciples to develop an attitude of dependence, he teaches them and us to come to God as our Father and not as our employer.

We're not to make requests, we are to make requests, not demand earning.

We're to realize our constant need for forgiveness, not to shout in pride, see how great I am.

We're to request deliverance and not just promise, I'll try harder.

Now Jesus never met anyone he couldn't forgive.

People he met were no better and no worse than the people that we meet every day.

Some were strong, some were weak, some, some were fortunate, some had experienced bad break after bad break after bad break.

Jesus loved them all.

God is the same.

He hears the prayers of all of the world's people, regardless of age, wealth, or any social limitation.

No one is too insignificant to be in his concern.

So does that mean that everything we ask for in prayer we get?

No.

Sometimes God says yes.

Sometimes he says no.

Sometimes he'll say, not now.

And sometimes he says, no, but I've got something better in mind for you.

Be patient.

God is the one who can and will provide us with what we truly need to live the life that we're called to live.

Now, prayer is not a five-minute exercise in your daily devotion.

It means that we have a desire for God's will in our life.

God wants us to live in the here and the now on this earth.

His eagerness is found in the gifts of his son and the words of the Lord's prayer.

Our Father who art in heaven represents the joining of heaven and earth.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, models our surrender to God's will.

Everyone that is indebted to us refers to offenses similar to those we've committed against God, in which we have to ask forgiveness.

We must pray this prayer from a believing heart that is submit sincere and submit to God's will.

The purpose of prayer is not to get our will done in heaven, but to get God's will done here on earth.

I'm reminded of a little story I heard years ago about a woman who was so desperate for a husband that she knelt before a statue of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus and prayed, Blessed Mother, please send me a man.

I am so desperate and so lonely.

Now, an altar boy who was standing in the shadows heard the prayer and wanted to have a little fun with this lady.

So he said in his little baby voice, No, you can't have a man.

The woman replied, You hush up, you young pup.

I'm talking to your mother.

We must be that secure in our relationship with God before we can bring our prayers to him.

Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it's laying hold of his highest willingness.

Because he knows us and he loves us, we will never be afraid of the answers that he's going to give us.

Prayer is a powerful force available to us.

It's an inner openness to God, which allows his powers to be released in us.

God helps us to be a people of prayer.

When we believe and do our best to get right with God, with our fellow believers, and yes, with ourselves, death is something that we're not going to be afraid of.

God is a loving parent.

He knows our needs and will grant us anything in the world that's in our best interest.

He knows what makes us stronger and what will make us ultimately weak.

He knows our potential.

He also knows our breaking point.

He knows what it will take to fit our soul into his kingdom.

A good father only gives his children what's good for them, and God is more inclined to give us what we need than even the best human father ever would.

We need God's guidance in this world, and we must pray daily for that guidance.

The disciples discovered that through their prayer.

God gave them great power to help others, the same power he gives to us.

When we pray, God often answers our prayers in ways that we don't realize.

More importantly, is that when we pray, God influences us to show Christ's love to others, just as a Samaritan did for the beaten man in the parable.

Jesus' ministry here on earth demonstrated what spirit-filled and a spirit-directed life looks like.

He promised the same to the disciples.

And we read in the Acts of the Apostles that when the Spirit descends on the community, they begin to live the spirit-filled life of Jesus.

The poor were cared for, dead were raised, the blame and blind and lame were healed, the crippled walked, and three times when the disciples were imprisoned, the doors were opened and they were set free.

But today's gospel is still about trust.

It's about letting go of our resentments, our doubts, and our fears.

It's about believing that there's never a storm so wild that he cannot bring us to safety.

There is no night so dark that God's light cannot penetrate.

There's nothing going to happen to us that God's grace cannot handle.

To the unbeliever, prayer is an exercise in futility.

But to the believer, prayer is powerful and the most reliable force that we have in the world today.

God has promised us that He does listen and hear our prayer.

Do we know how to pray as we should?

Do we speak to ourselves, or are we really speaking to God?

Do we merely ask for something, or do we ask to be transformed?

Can we say, in the words that I once saw on a bumper sticker, Christ changed my life?

The problem with our prayer is that we may not be earnest enough.

In his book, Celebrating Liturgical Time, Bishop Neil Alexander gives us a simple formula for prayer thanksgiving plus supplication plus doxology.

This is the simple and ancient form of prayer that would have been second nature to Jesus and the disciples.

When we pray, our first instinct is to what?

Ask for something of God.

I mean, that's fair.

Scripture tells us that we're to ask, to seek, to knock.

So supplication or asking for something is often our motivation for entering into prayer.

But on what possible basis might we dare approach God in prayer?

I mean, given that God is creator and we're creature, what emboldens us to ask something of God?

Since Jesus is Redeemer and we're the redeemed, why would we think that we're doing anything more beyond that redemption?

To put it very broadly, the answer is tradition and thanksgiving.

We dare approach God in supplication because we give our humble thanks for all of God's goodness and loving kindness to us and to what He's made.

Thanksgiving makes supplication possible.

Now we don't stop at thanksgiving and supplication.

We turn to doxology.

When we pray, we don't seek guarantees, but we confidently pursue the will of God, humbly offering our supplications to God as an act of faith and then letting go of them and allowing them to take place in the matrix of God's goodness and his mercy towards us.

Well, that should naturally lead us to a burst of doxology, our praise to God.

It's though we have prayed our supplication and we say, God, come what may, we still praise you, we bless you, and we give thanks to you.

A young police officer was taking his final exam for the police academy, and he read this following situation and question in his exam.

You're on patrol in the outer city when an explosion occurs in a gas main on a nearby street.

On investigation, you find that large hole has been blown in the sidewalk, and there's an overturned van nearby.

Inside this van, there's a strong smell of alcohol.

Both occupants, male and female, are injured.

You recognize the woman as the wife of the chief of police who happens to be at a conference out of town.

A passing motorist stops to offer assistance, and you recognize this man who is wanted for robbery.

Suddenly a man runs out of a nearby house, shouting, his wife is expecting a baby, and the shock of the explosion has made the birth imminent.

Another man is crying for help, having been blown into the canal adjacent to the explosion, and he cannot swim.

So describe in a few words what action you would take.

Young man thought for a moment, picked up his pen and wrote, I would take off my uniform and hide in the crowd.

Many of us see our life as a Christian in the same way.

We see the Christian life as trying to juggle five or six balls at one time while balancing a jug of water on our head.

And when the pressure gets to be just too much, we want to give up and hide in the crowd.

We spend our time trying to pass what we perceive to be God's holy exam.

There's a perception in the church that it's only when we reach some sort of spiritual plateau that is when we're going to be able to pray.

I suggest to you this morning that Jesus had a very different perspective on prayer.

When Jesus was asked how he should pray, he gave us a model.

And it starts with the words, our Father.

The term Father shows us a personal and intimate relationship between him and us.

So what does it mean?

I say the first implication of God being our Father is the need for us to have respect.

As I said earlier, probably the greatest problem we have in society nowadays is a loss of respect.

A respect for people, a respect for property, a respect for others.

As Christians, Jesus calls us to respect God, and we'll do so because the prayer tells us, hallowed be your name.

The second implication is that we're going to obey.

As it says, Thy will be done.

Jesus tells us, if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.

My father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.

We're going to want to do this because God's got our best interests at heart.

Thirdly, is a provision for our needs.

A good father provides for his children.

When you were a child, would you even think twice about asking your dad for something?

The Lord's prayer reminds us of this in the words, give us this day our daily bread.

I think one of the things that attracted people to Jesus was his ability to put things, the things of God, so simply.

When we pray, your kingdom come, we're praying, Lord, I want you to do your thing.

You see, a triumphant faith is more than occasional chill bumps in church.

It's more than just singing how great thou art.

It's doing the will of God in our everyday living.

To abide in Christ requires faith and commitment.

We must not sit passively by just waiting for answers.

We must be busy doing God's will while we're waiting.

Yielding our will means accepting his answers to our prayers.

Prayer is the most powerful weapon for combat against our corrupt and secular world.

We can't survive without it.

The best way to honor God is to pay attention and be careful of how we live our lives.

We're to live our lives in community, hand in hand, heart in heart with one another.

How we get along with each other says a great deal about how we love God and the kind of people that we want to be.

In the Lord's Prayer, he showed us how simple our relationship with God is.

God cares for us as any good dad would.

Come to think of it, this prayer might give us a different perspective on our relationship with God Himself.