Buenos Dias, Iglesia! Good Morning Church!
*Reading and reflecting upon today’s lesson, four words hit me harder than usual, Teach us to pray. After Jesus had preached what we now know as The Sermon on the Mount, the disciples are beginning to realize Jesus’ authority and power - at least, that is my how I see it – and they approached him with a special request, Teach us to pray. My guess? We want what you have. And they got it.
The first couple of lines don’t seem so difficult. Actually, they are soothing and almost comforting, Our Father who art in heaven, hollowed IS your name.
*Thy Will be done on earth AS IT IS in heaven.
I don’t know about you, but it is here where I begin to feel a rope around my neck.
The Lord’s Prayer has a couple of incredibly difficult parts, and this is the first one which, actually, makes us think twice. This is the 1st one that makes us go like: THY WILL?BUT, What is GOD’s will? Anyone with me?
We tend to repeat phrases out of tradition, out of habit like a cockatiel, without understanding their meaning and/or context.
When we say OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN, we are praying to someone who does NOT live in this earthly realm and whose views and perspectives and expectations, and modus operandi, are not the same as ours.
But, before we continue, how about we pray? Because we are really going to need the help of the Holy Spirit in here today,
*Holy Spirit, thou art welcomed into this place.
Open our eyes to see, Open our ears to hear,
Our minds to understand, And warm our hearts to believe.
*TRUE STORY: Growing up, my father use to say,
As long as you live under my roof, MY RULES.
And, to be honest, I never gave it much thought UNTIL I moved back home.
I divorced young and with one child, I moved back home, but never thought of the whole My House, My Rules, UNTIL one Sunday morning, at around 8 o’clock in the morning, my dad stood by my bed to wake me up. I gave him a look like, you know, with just one eye, when he said,
Yeah! I know what time you came in this morning.
9:15am, at church.
I don’t remember what I said. All I remember he was he saying,
As long as you live under MY roof, Sunday, 9:15a, church.
Be there.
When we pray to OUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN, it helps to remember that God’s rules are like ours.
When we pray to OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN, is important we understand there is a close relationship between the FATHER and the FATHER’s WILL.
Remember, the disciples asked TEACH US TO PRAY. And, they asked because, I want to believe, they must have seen something different that got their attention, they liked, and they wanted to be part of it.
Now, Jesus gave us some tips. BUT, just because we say, You said that if we ask believing, or you said Ask in my name ye shall receive, does it mean I am in God’s will? I hope you are either taking notes or listen again at home, because we are going to dive into a few scriptures.
*And, we are going to start with, Luke 9:49-55.
Jesus had been roaming around the land preaching, delivering people from demonic oppressions, and feeding the multitudes. And, as they toured, his disciples were feeling increasingly powerful.
So, two things happened. At one point they encountered some people who adopted Jesus lesson using Jesus name while rebuking demons. But the disciples decided that because they were not hanging out with them, they could not use Jesus’ name against the demons, so they rebuked the guy.
Later, Jesus asked entry into Samaria, but the people from Samaria refused to welcome Jesus into the village, to what the disciples said,
Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? And, Jesus rebuked them again.
One Bible version reads:
You do not know what spirit you are of, for the son of man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings, but to save them.
Jesus is letting us know that calling GOD our HEAVENLY FATHER is NOT about God fulfilling OUR will, “but seeing God’s will on earth,” AS it happens in heaven.”[1]
In the Old Testament, the Jewish people believed that EVERYTHING, GOOD and BAD came from God. So, in John 10:10 Jesus was sets the record strait saying:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
In the midst of a fallen and of an imperfect world, we have been trying to make GOD to conform to our expectations; we have been trying to use the Scriptures to manipulate God to our benefit, when in reality The Lord’s Prayer calls us to aligh *our expectations to GOD’s kingdom, rules & expectations. GOD’S KINGDOM, GOD’S WILL. The problem is, do we know God’s will.
Because each of the gospel writers wrote for a different audience, we get some messages in bits and pieces.
We repeat phrases like, if we ask anything in Jesus’ we will have it.
Let’s go ahead and open up your Bibles or take notes, to see what it says, because this is vital:
- *From Matthew 7:7-8, who is writing to a Christian-Jewish audience, we have learned, ASK, and it will be given to you; SEARCH, and you will find; KNOCK, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. – But, Jesus was using the example of someone’s unkindness towards a fellow friend who showed up at an inconvenient time.
- *Then, from John 14:13, who is writing to prove Jesus’ divinity, we learn another piece to this type of request. Jesus said,
I will do whatever you ask in my name, [for a purpose]
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
So, I guess it is NOT “whatever.”
- *BUT, 1 John 5:14, teaches us something deeper,
And this is the boldness we have in him,
that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
So, the next question is, how do I know if what I am asking for is according to his will?
- *Let’s go to Luke 11:13. Now, Luke is a gentile writing for a gentile. So, he gets very specific writing,
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!’
*Again, my dad use to say My House, My Rules, and from the Lord’s Prayer we learn God’s Kingdom, God’s Rules.
Jesus came to us to teach us about how to live in God’s kingdom, undoing the works of the evil one.
*How?
- Loving your neighbor and your enemy as yourself. I know that’s a HUGE OUCH for many, but those are Jesus’ words;
- We have the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that give us a lot of words for living;
- Also,Philippians 4:8 tells us about our daily lives: whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
- Luke 4:18-19, he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
When we pray Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, is like my daddy: My House, My Rules,
- We acknowledge we are not on the same plane, but we are willing;
- We are willing to conform to God’s will;
- We are telling God, may my priorities be yours and not the other way around;
- It is about: loving God, God’s way;
- And last, Matthew 28 sends us to make disciples teaching them all things, mainly TO LOVE like Jesus.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind/strength. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
“Here’s the thing about this kind of radical prayer. You cannot pray this prayer without being drafted into action to see God’s will done on earth.
It is about DEPENDING ON & SURRENDERING ONTO the Spirit of God,
to see GOD’s will done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
*ARE WE WILLING?
[1] https://danieldarling.com/2016/10/teach-us-to-pray-thy-will-be-done-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven/