Bible Text: Matthew 6:1-15 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
Every year at the Vancouver Island Presbyterian Women’s Retreat the Saturday night event is basically a skit night. On the Saturday afternoon scripts are put out and people are invited to get into groups and choose a skit. Now, this might surprise you, but this is usually my least favourite part of the retreat. I don’t know what it is, but maybe the slap dash- pre-scripted skits just don’t really grab me. And so when Sharon Scott said she would like the four CVPC women to do a skit I rolled my eyes, and told her I would endure it just for her and I made her pick the shortest skit. As the evening unfolded it turned out that there was one script left and it required 8 people and it was the longest. As I sat back and tried to watch as they haphazardly tried to get people to participate my impatience grew and I just grab the skit, assigned people parts and told them I would fill in any blanks. So, instead of just participating in the shortest skit, I was now participating in two skits and had a lot of dialogue. Interestingly enough both skits were about prayer and the lengthy skit had various people engaging in prayer-mostly in the worst way possible. Either it was a teenage girl praying that her crush will notice her, or the Father in the family praying using big words that no one understood, or a boy asking if God can make sure his parents let him use the car on Saturday night. One of my characters’ prayer went something like this:
“Ok. Guys. Tonight’s the big game so let’s pray together as a team…..God, this is a really big game. Brother Andrew’s team is a better team and a bigger team. I mean, look at those guys. It’s David and Goliath all over again. We know that you are often on the side of the underdog; well, “Underdogs R Us! So God, you must be on our side! Let’s face it; we always lose to them, so we figure it’s our turn. That’s only fair, you know. So help us wipe them out. Help us smash them to oblivion! Help us annihilate them! In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”
What us CVPC women didn’t know is we would be following this skit with our own. And it was of a very different flavour. It was a moving skit about the Lord’s prayer. It went something like this (SKIT).
Prayer. Prayer is actually often harder to define then we originally think and yet Jesus reminds us that it is supposed to be a simple task. Kierkegaard said, “Prayer does not change God but changes him who prays.” Poet Novalis said, “Prayer is to religion what thinking is to philosophy.” Artist and writer Linda E. Knight said, “Through prayer…God quenches our thirsty souls, revives our parched hearts, and leads us to a higher place where peace, and joy and love will be ours forever.” When the disciples turn to Jesus and ask him to teach them how to pray, Jesus responds with both a how to and what to do. Eugene Peterson’s the Message describes it this way, “When you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace. The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and He knows better than you want you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.”
It’s important to catch something that Jesus’ says. Jesus is stating that the very act of prayer demonstrates a trust in the nearness and readiness of God. Prayer is how we often come into God’s presence. But when Jesus teaches the disciples this famous prayer he is also pointing out that the Lord’s Prayer makes it clear that it does not preclude our need to ask, directly and pointedly, that God’s will be done on earth. While God may know what we need better than we know ourselves it is still part of the prayer process to acknowledge that need. I suppose in that way prayer is also therapeutic.
Scholar’s find that Matthew’s Gospel is governed by the Lord’s Prayer. Albeit that it is a short prayer it has incredible power in any context and it has the possibility of transcendence. It is supposed to remove us from the routine, from what is normal and help us experience communion with God. It is actually for that reason why I have switched it up this morning and throughout the summer. Instead of singing the familiar words as we normally do each Sunday. We are going to take the time to read the words. Adjust our usual routine in the hopes that something new will enlighten us despite the familiarity. This is after all the Lord’s prayer. It is a prayer that although it is for each one of us it is also a prayer for the entire kingdom of God. Later on in this chapter Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” This prayer is prayed each Sunday because if we genuinely mean it, it is prayer asking for God’s kingdom to be a reality on earth, just as it is in heaven. We should be praying this prayer all the time because God’s will has not been done. The world is far from heavenly most of the time.
This morning I have also chosen to return to words that you may be familiar with from your childhood. There is often debate on whether we should be trespassers, debtors or sinners. Many traditions say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” while others say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” and then a more modern version is “Forgive us our sin as we forgive those who sin against us.”The short answer is that all are correct because the point is not what we call ourselves or others but rather that we ask for forgiveness and seek to forgive others. Part of the challenge is of course that Matthew isn’t the only Gospel that records the Lord’s Prayer. Luke also writes a version and there are differences. Historically, however, the first English translation of the Bible by John Wycliffe in 1395 uses the term debts, actually he uses an old English word dettis. William Tyndale’s English translation in 1526 uses trespasses and it is Tyndale’s translation that the first Book of Common Prayer used when it was writing the Anglican liturgy. Luke’s version of this prayer actually uses an Aramaic word, ḥôbâ which can be translated as either debts or sin. Hence why we have various versions. While I grew up being a trespasser, I certainly appreciate the more modern use of the term sin, as it is something we can understand a bit better. However, according to the original Greek, the most accurate word is debtor. Matthew uses the term ofeilhmata, which means “those things that are owed.” For Jesus there was a recognition of real debt for the Jewish people as they owed all of their livelihood to the Romans. And as I think about the situation in Greece this week we are literally swimming in a world full of debt.
Perhaps it is for that reason why this prayer is so important today, perhaps even more important than when Jesus first taught it to his disciples. Imagine what it would be like if God’s will was done on earth, where no one lived in debt, no one had want for daily bread, no one would be afraid, and all who have a sense of God’s presence among them. O God in heaven, reveal to us your holiness and majesty, and set the world right. Do what is best so that above and below are in harmony. Just as you nurture us with the bread of Heaven, nurture us each day. We carry many burdens, we trespass on land that is not ours, we sin against those who we call friends, and we are in debt. Forgive us and help us to in turn forgive others. Keep us safe from ourselves and from that which is evil in our world. Because you are the one in charge. You are ablaze in beauty and wonder. May it be so.