God will provide

 Scripture Luke 11:1-9   Message

11 One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  2-4 So he said, “When you pray, say,

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”

5-6 Then he said, “Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don’t have a thing on hand.’

7 “The friend answers from his bed, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s locked; my children are all down for the night; I can’t get up to give you anything.’

8 “But let me tell you, even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he’ll finally get up and get you whatever you need.

9 “Here’s what I’m saying:

Ask and you’ll get;
Seek and you’ll find;
Knock and the door will open.

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I sat in my Worship and Church Music class at Christian Theological Seminary following along intently as one of my classmates presented the Pastoral Prayer she had written as an assignment, which was to be followed by the Lord’s Prayer.  When she reached the end of her prayer she said, “Now let’s all recite the Lord’s Prayer together.”   I went slightly nuts, screaming (silently, inside my head) “Recite???!!!  No!!!  We PRAY the Lord’s Prayer together.”  After all, the disciples said to Jesus “Teach us how to pray.”

Several weeks ago we heard the news that “Pope Francis has officially approved a change to the translation of the Lord's Prayer found in Matthew 6:13 that replaces "lead us not into temptation" with "do not let us fall into temptation," which many scholars say is a better translation of the original text. The Pope said he thought the current English translation was not correct because it implies that God leads people into temptation, an action that is against his nature as a good and holy God.” (Christian Broadcasting Network 06-04-2019)  Someone asked me whether I was going to make the change here.  A. The Pope really doesn’t determine what we do here.  B.  We already have enough different versions of this prayer.  At every church you sort of have to guess whether to use debts, sins or trespasses, although no one gets huffy if someone in a “debts” church says “trespasses” by mistake.  And C.  I’m not in charge of that decision. 

One thing that bothers me about this prayer (not counting the “lead us not into temptation” part) is that the disciples simply ask Jesus to teach them the way they should pray, not for the exact words to use, and  yet we memorize it.   So I chose the Message version today, in order that we might hear familiar instructions in a different way.   

I will say that presenting this prayer with different wording doesn’t always work.  In that same class on a different day, another classmate had re-written the Lord’s Prayer in non-gender specific language - which is not an easy thing to do! - and no one recognized it.    But let’s try, anyway.

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.

Father - set the world right.  At General Assembly we attend business meetings.  We hear reports and discuss resolutions that take the sense of the Assembly on a variety of topics deemed to be important.  These are not binding on congregations, but speak to issues that the people at the Assembly consider to be important.  There were many, but I will only talk about a few.  One of the first resolutions presented came from the General Youth Council.  That’s right.  A bunch of high school students!  Their resolution titled “Spirit of Active Listening” called on the Assembly, all its participants and all the many expressions of the CC(DOC) in the United States and Canada, “to Hear and Listen to all voices as we respect our brothers and sisters in faith, free of judgement and preconceived notion, recognizing and accepting our common humanity.”  One person who stood to speak in favor introduced himself as a Trump conservative, and with tears in his eyes, thanked the Youth for this resolution, for he had felt silenced.   The resolution passed unanimously.  Father, keep us forgiven and forgiving others.

Another resolution “A Call to See and Respond to the Crisis of Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence” calls on all of us to become educated about these issues - which affect way more people than you would hope - and be safe places for people to come forward asking for help.  Too often churches are not safe places, pastors don’t understand the issues involved or how to counsel on these topics, denial and shaming are rampant.  We, here in this congregation, are called upon to use the educational resources available to us to educate ourselves and our children and become truly safe places for everyone.  Father keep us safe from ourselves and from the Devil.

A third resolution I want to lift up was “An Invitation to Education for Welcoming and Receiving the Gifts of Transgender and Gender-Diverse People”.  Many people spoke eloquently and passionately in favor of this resolution - none came forward to speak against it.   It calls upon the denomination to produce and share resources for pastoral care and inclusion of trans and gender diverse people, and to learn new ways of speaking in order to be inclusive of all persons.  For example - instead of saying “Brothers and sisters in Christ,” I might say “Siblings in Christ.”   It means trying to know what pronouns to use if we are not certain how a person identifies so that we are not saying “he” when a person identifies as “she” or even as “they.”   It seems to me like this isn’t all that different from learning to use non-gender specific language for God in seminary, except that making that mistake in seminary only affected the grade on my paper.  Making a mistake with a living person causes real anguish and pain.  Educating ourselves, and asking our transgender and gender-diverse siblings for their help in that education, is important if we truly believe All means All.   Father keep us safe from ourselves and from evil.

Some were celebrating the passage of this resolution on Facebook, and one woman said, “I am leaving the Disciples.  It is no longer the church in which I was raised, when a pastor who lives with her boyfriend, unmarried, can preach at me.”   All of those responding assumed that she was talking specifically about accepting the LGBTQ+ community into her congregation. Some were considerably less than loving in their responses, so I guess they hadn’t read the Spirit of Active Listening Resolution? Last night I suddenly woke up and realized  she had several times mentioned her unmarried pastor who is living with her boyfriend … and that no one had spoken to that.  Naturally, I could not find the post when I looked for it.  I am sad that this woman feels unwelcome in her congregation, and that our Church, which preaches All Means ALL, still allows some to feel silenced and unwanted.  Lord, Help us listen to each other - to all their words, not just some of them.   Keep us forgiven and forgiving others. 

Jesus told his disciples to pray for the things they need, and assured them that God would provide, if they asked - although they may have to knock and yell so loudly it wakes the neighbors..  

He said, 

“Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.”  

He assured them that God will always answer prayers. And God will provide precisely what we need at the very moment we need it.  Of course, what is provided may not look like what we thought we needed.   If we pray for three square meals a day then having to get food at the SMART Center and dinner at Christian Cafe may not look like an answer to prayer.  If we pray for our health to be improved, losing a highly stressful job may not look like an answer to prayer.   If we pray for patience we will get many opportunities to learn patience. (Do not pray for patience! or strength.  Just sayin’)  Sometimes the answer to prayer comes through another person, or words on a billboard, or a Facebook discussion on a General Assembly Resolution or a volunteer opportunity (like fostering kittens) - and it may take us in the opposite direction of where we expected to go.  But whatever we need, God will provide even if we do not recognize God’s hand.   Father, reveal who you are.

When we pray, let us ask for what we need - for those things that Jesus told his disciples are important.  Let us ask God to help us to hear when others speak.  To speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.  To remember that all persons are God’s beloved - even people we don’t like or approve of.  Let us ask God to help us to give where we see need.  To forgive when we have been injured.  To love even when we are not loved.  To keep us safe from evil, and from ourselves.  And God will answer our prayers.