Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Luke 11:1-4

One day, the disciples asked Jesus an incredibly basic question--how are we talk to God? What does God want from us? Ritual? Poetry? Hymn? Psalm? What are we to say that will help us to know that we are heard?

So Jesus taught them to pray...

FATHER
God is not unknown, untouchable, unapproachable, or disconnected. God is a parent. God brought us into being in love. God remains with us in love. Yes, love sometimes carries with it a strong and profound "NO," but it would not be true love if it did not. Most often God's love means infinite patience with us as we act like the defiant children we are. God waits for us. God waits for us to come to our senses. We can approach God, not in abject terror, nor in dismal self-abnegation, but as a child meets a loving parent--with openness, being who one is, and knowing that in that embrace, there is security, compassion, and most of all--acceptance.

HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME
But God is God. God is not a projection of our hopes, dreams, wants, or desires. God is not an infinite, omnipotent ATM, there to serve our every demand. No, God is the source of all being. God is the power that governs all that is. God is omnicompetent to meet every mess we create and suffer through. God alone can overcome death. God alone can be in every moment--past, present, future--simultaneously. God alone can hear every voice that speaks as if it were the only voice despite the billions crying out at once. So, God is God, and we are not, thanks be to God.

YOUR KINGDOM COME
Therefore, we need to meet our God on proper terms. This encounter is not a meeting of equals. This encounter is not a gathering of great powers to sort through the world. This meeting is between child and parent. To be in this meeting, remember always that we are the children. That relationship never reverses. So, as we meet God we do not do so petulantly demanding that we get what we want. No, the proper and only presentation we can make is, "Not my will, but Thine be done." Even Christ approached God thusly. In this way, we open ourselves to fullness of God's love, allowing that omnicompetent love to find a way through life, not closing it off by presuming and assuming we already know better--an invariable dead end. In so doing, Christ turned the cross from abysmal disaster into the redemption of all creation. Think what might come of our impending valleys if we follow suit...

GIVE US OUR DAILY BREAD
We also need to remember always that God's providence, mercy, and grace are not simply there for the crises, but that God feeds us daily with what we need for each day. As we grow still and open ourselves to the ineffable presence of God, we find there is enough. There is enough for whatever it is we face, no matter what it is that we face. Every day we need certain basics to see us through that day. Opening ourselves to God, we find them. We find them in one another, just as 5000 found enough for dinner when they had only meager provisions. God will get us through today.

FORGIVE OUR SINS
Now comes an inescapable self-assessment--we make mistakes. We are imperfect. I know that may come as a shock to some of us, but it is the truth. We will say things, do things, and think things that do nobody the slightest good whatsoever. We will fall silent, refuse to move, and refuse to engage our brains creating quagmires through simple inactivity. God can clear the decks. God's grace is there to ensure that there are no last chances, only next ones. God always brings tomorrow. But we have to ask for it. We have to see ourselves for who and what we are. We have to be honest. We have to come clean--not for God's sake, but ours. No addict can enter recovery if she never sees the problem.

as we forgive those indebted to us
There is an addendum to the above prayer--grace is only real as we become gracious in and of ourselves. We find God's redemption--we will not be cast aside. We will not be rejected. We will be allowed room to make amends. Therefore, we have no business whatsoever refusing that same space to another. If someone hurts you, create a space for reconciliation. Offer mercy. Offer time for them to come to their senses. Do not hit them, love them. Sure, there will be those who take grievous advantage of such grace. So what? We are with God. All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well. Being gracious directly bonds us to that divine presence and power.

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
But life is hard. There are so many reasons to ignore every single point so far mentioned. It is tempting to do so because that seems much easier than trying to live by these incredible dictums. "Just leave me alone," is a common human response to any instruction. Let me be. The current wave of Libertarianism's popularity stems from exactly this cry--our leaders keep messing with us, so let's be done with them. Leave us alone. We can make our own way. So very tempting, but also so very mistaken. Left alone leaves us alone--isolated, on our own to deal with the mess, and cut off from love that requires community to do its work. So, we end by praying that God will never leave us alone. Keep us from ourselves. Keep in contact. Keep us in contact with one another. There is hope. There is help. There is healing.

The disciples wanted a prayer. Christ gave them love. The disciples probably only heard the words, memorized them, shut down their minds, and recited them. Don't do that. Hear the words. Take them in. Live them. BE them.

That is how to pray.