"Danger of Familiarity"
Maple Shade School, Mrs. Lamb, a basement classroom in an old building….naptime, a construction paper traffic light to let us know when we could stop or go in certain places of our room….and every morning after the pledge of allegiance, sitting down to hear a scripture reading and praying the Lord's Prayer. The year was 1962. I was in Kindergarten. At five, I had no idea the storms of controversy raging in the country. Then one day school started as usual, standing for the pledge of allegiance, but then, no scripture, no prayer. Just like that, with nothing being said one way or the other by Mrs. Lamb. (How many of you remember your Kindergarten teacher?) At the ripe age of five it didn't seem to me as if the foundations of Christendom and been shaken. Nor, I have to admit, had there seemed to be much of a connection between what we did in our opening exercises at school, and with what I learned in Sunday School.
The kids and I have a game we play on long car rides. We pick a word and say it over and over again, seeing how long it takes for it to become a meaningless nonsense word. Some of the sounds are quite funny, but in its repetition, the word has ceased to have meaning.
The repetition of our car game, the rote of the opening of a school day…both dangers of knowing something so well and repeating it so often. You can say it so quickly the words no longer have meaning or effect. Anything we say or do all the time has that danger. In the pledge of allegiance….for which it stands becomes Richard stands, we sign letters 'sincerely yours' no matter what the body of the letter, ask 'how are you?' not even pausing to hear a response. And almost every Sunday we pray the words that Jesus taught us to pray…saying: "Our Father, who art in heaven.."
We come to Luke's version of the prayer in our gospel reading today. "Lord, teach us to pray," Jesus' disciples ask. As we have been for the past several weeks, we are in the discipleship section of Luke's gospel. So again, we can assume that something in this question the disciples ask is geared towards learning what it means to be a disciple. In the midst of all the possibilities Jesus could have answered what he tells the disciples is striking. He does not go into a discourse on the theology of prayer, the nature of prayer, how you should pray, the positions of prayer. What Jesus does give them is an example: "When you pray…"
Lord knows we can complicate just about anything. The disciples in the gospel stories were just as good at that. They came to Jesus wanting a lesson on prayer just like John's disciples got. They were perhaps looking for a discussion on prayer, a long lesson. A formula maybe like the complex "Prayer of Eighteen Petitions" that a conscientious Jew was to utter three times a day in that time. It begins with: "Lord God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob! Most High, Creator of heaven and earth! Our Shield and the Shield of our Fathers!" And that is just the first line. In contrast Jesus simply says to bring yourself to God: "Our Father…" And after the prayer gives them a tongue in cheek parable pointing out that God does not need to be browbeaten into submission before acting on our petitions.
By saying this prayer so often we run the risk of ignoring it. But it is not simply a rote action we do every Sunday because our liturgy will fall apart without it, it is not a magical charm that will shield us from life's evils. Jesus gave it as not only the definition of prayer, but as the defining way of life for discipleship. It is a teaching not so much about the words we pray or the proper formulas to use, but the attitude we bring. God doesn't need to hear about all the wonderful attributes God possesses. God doesn't need to be convinced how wonderful God is. God needs none of our flowery words. It is we who come to God in need. Hence the simplicity of greeting that Jesus gives the disciples: "Our Father"…in Aramaic, Daddy. Like children we come before God. And in this prayer we bring ourselves before God so that God might work in us.
In the movie Shadowlands, the film based on the life of C.S. Lewis, Lewis returns to Oxford from London, where he has just been married to Joy Gresham, an American woman, in a private Episcopal ceremony performed at her hospital bedside. She is dying from cancer, and, through the struggle with her illness, she and Lewis have been discovering the depth of their love for each other.
When Lewis arrives back at the college where he teaches, his friend, Harry Harrington, an Episcopal priest, asks him the news. Lewis hesitates. Then, deciding to speak about his marriage to Joy instead of the cancer, he says, "Ah, good news, I think, Harry. Yes, good news."
His friend, not aware of the marriage and thinking that Lewis is referring to Joy's medical condition, replies, "I know how hard you've been praying….now, God is answering your prayer."
"That's not why I pray, Harry," Lewis responds. "I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God; it changes me."
When all is said and done, and after we've read all the books written about the Lord's Prayer, maybe that is what this answer to the disciples is about. Not a formula of prayer with specific necessary words, but a teaching of our prayer attitude which then becomes a lifestyle. It is about how to be disciples. This is the way we pray…to know that we have no choice but to pray this way because it is what keeps us human and hopeful. That act changes us and reminds us that God is with us…Abba above. And it is that which has us turn and face the world unafraid and sent out. May the words of this prayer we pray so often fall fresh on us each time, calling us to be disciples of Jesus Christ, walking in the way God calls each of us.