"Lord, teach us to Pray" (Luke 11:1)

One of the three Great Spiritual Disciplines we often focus on in Lent is our prayer life,  perhaps becoming more intentional about it, placing more stress on the pattern of prayer we take, or the time we give to it. The other two disciplines Jesus speaks about in Matthew's gospel (6:1-18) fasting, and almsgiving, are equally as important, in that they are all effective forms of discipline to help us become more spiritually fit.  

Over these forty days of Lent we are meant to reflect on our spiritual lives, what am I doing to strengthen my relationship with God and how am I doing in it.  We all from time to time become lax, our lives are busy,  and so it is easy to fall away.

The disciples in Luke’s gospel (11:1-8) no doubt recognizing their need for a more disciplined prayer life,  after seeing Jesus praying in a certain place, when he was finished they went to him, asking him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” (11:1)

These disciples would have been steeped in prayer, as Jewish men it would have been part of their upbringing to be formed in the way of prayer. Following particular prayer rituals and pattern for prayer.   As a young child the first prayer I remember learning was, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…”.  I  prayed that prayer right up through my teen years and perhaps even early adult years before I gave it up.  Only this year while I was visiting a elderly gentlemen in the hospital, after I finished having prayer with him, he said "there was always a prayer we prayed when we were children.  I don’t suppose you know it, do you?"  He couldn’t remember the words….. He was much older then I, in his 90’s.   I thought about the prayer I prayed as a child and thought will it couldn’t possibly be the same one with the age difference,  but I thought I’d try it, "wouldn’t be this one would it. Now I lay me down to sleep…”  and that was the prayer.  It was his prayer too.  That little prayer perhaps shaped and formed many of us down through the years in the way of faith. 

It was the prayer of our bedtime, and I think the gentlemen who was dying, found great comfort in it as we did as children. “If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” It spoke to us of God’s providential protection & care even in death.

Prayer forms us in the way of faith and shapes us, the disciples already shaped in prayer would have understood this and asking Jesus to teach them, was about learning from Jesus what they saw in his prayer life, and what they obviously saw between John and his disciples, "teach us as John taught his disciples"(11:1). The disciples wanted something more then a pattern or form for prayer.

Jesus response to them was to teach them to pray, using the words,  “When you pray say: Father, hallowed be your name….Your kingdom come… give us each day our daily bread…...".   It was a formula or pattern of Prayer.  The prayer we know as the Lord’s prayer, and continues to be the foundational prayer of our Christian faith today.  It is the prayer of the disciples of the Lord, one that marks their identity as Christ’s disciples.

It is our prayer of faith, one that is meant to shape and form us for his service in the world.  All too often we pray these words without even thinking about them and they become mere words rather then the prayer that it is intended to be.  That which builds relationship with the one to whom we pray, God our Father, Hallowed be thy name, to hallow God is to place God above all else, and when we do that we open our lives to be changed by God.   

Prayer is meant to change us and form us in the way of faith, and when we intentionally pray, whether it is the Lord’s prayer, or some other prayer form, we open our Lives to God.

Joan Chittister in her book, “Breath of the soul: Reflections on prayer, says, “to pray is to rivet our mind on God. “Rivet” what a powerful word meaning to fasten, to bolt, ourselves to God. “Spirituality without a prayer life is no spirituality at all, she says, and it will not last beyond the first defeats. Prayer is an opening of the self so that the Word of God can break in and make us new. Prayer is the act of beginning the process of becoming one with the one we seek”.

Jesus throughout his life embodied the practice of prayer: in Mark’s gospel (1:35) it says, “Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus went alone to a deserted place to pray.” And in Matthew’s gospel “after he had dismissed the crowds, he went upon the mountain by himself to pray” (matt 14:23).   As busy as he was, Jesus made time for prayer.  Jesus prayed about everything, he prayed all night before choosing his disciples, he prayed before healing people, he prayed when he was baptised.  And On the night before his arrest in John’s gospel (17:11) Jesus prayed for his disciples, interceding on our behalf, ‘Lord protect, them in your name you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.” 

Jesus’ prayer was intentional as our’s should be too, not praying only when we can make time for it, or when we feel we want to, or to pray only when we are in need or in trouble, as a comment I heard recently, “if we pray only when we are in trouble, then indeed we are in trouble.” Prayer is what firms  up our relationship with God and with one another, and it is being consistent at it that we become more faithful to it.

A disciplined prayer life doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time and it takes effort. With so much to pray about, praying for ourselves, for others, and for the situations in our world, everyday there is something, or someone new to add to our lists of prayer concerns:  someone else is sick, someone has died, someone is in trouble, and at times we even become perhaps overburdened by it, that any kind of prayer life for ourselves feels even more of a burden.   And it can be, but our prayer is not to be so much about what we do, what I do, the prayer we offer up, as it is about God. Coming into his presence and just being in that moment, sometimes is prayer enough.  God knows our hearts, all we have to do is trust him to it.  Recently after hosting a Quiet Day, as I was taking  the prayer request from the prayer tree in one of the stations, one of the women said, we forgot to pray for these individuals during the closing prayer.  I said no, I prayed for all whom we brought to prayer here today, but I said, the real prayer for these persons and situations happened when you brought them to mind, and wrote your prayer request on that piece of paper." That was when you lifted them to God. Prayer takes place when and wherever we bring someone to mind, in that moment of concern, caring, or simple thought, we bring them to God, and let God do the rest.

Perhaps the most poignant image we hold of Jesus praying, is in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his arrest. Jesus praying to the Father says, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done”  and ‘then an angel from heaven appeared to him, and gave him strength.”  Jesus In his anguish prayed it says, “even more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” (Luke 22:44).  Embodied in the life of his prayer, Jesus in communion with the Father, took on the sins of the world.

As we Journey through this Lenten season reflecting on our Saviour’s journey to the cross, we are given this time to consider our own spiritual acts of discipline. One of them being prayer, there are many others, but it is with an intentional focus on what we do and how we do it, in prayer and other forms of discipline that we become strengthened for the journey ahead. Embodying the word of God in our prayer and in our life, we serve him more faithfully in the world.  And so, let the prayer of the disciples, be your prayer too, “Lord, teach us to pray,” that it will bring you more firmly planted in your relationship with the Saviour to Easter.

Amen, God Bless.

"Is not this the Fast that I choose:...."(Isaiah 58:1-12)

Ash Wednesday the day that Marks the beginning of Lent, the season of repentance over these next forty days.  A time when we reflect on our own mortality, marking our foreheads with ashes with the words you are dust and to dust you shall return.  What does this all mean to us today?

Traditionally in the church this day was as if it were a day of mourning, reflecting on our sin and sinfulness that we might strive to live better.   Recalling the Ash Wednesday service from my early years growing up in the Anglican church, I can remember our school day beginning with all the children being marched of to church for the Ash Wednesday service.  And while I am sure at the time we had little understanding of what it was all about, or why we were doing it, we knew that there was great significance in it for us. When we left the service to go back to school I always remember the overwhelming solemn feeling I came away with, but yet feeling so much better because of it.  It was as if I knew that somehow I had been given another chance, perhaps to get things right again.

That opportunity to get it right,  is what Ash Wednesday is really about, it is about recommitting ourselves to having a better relationship with God.  And why we put ashes on our foreheads as a sign of our recommitment to that relationship. 

St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, says, “we entreat you on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God.”(2 Cor 5:20b)  We are to put our life right with God.  “As we work together with him”(6:1), he says.  We work with Jesus, we don’t do it on our own, but through Christ working in us, we make the change that is needed.  That is what lent is about making space for God to move in, that we might live more fully in him. 

Jesus in the gospel for this day, (Mt: 6:1-6,16-21) speaking to the three spiritual acts of Piety, shows how even these can be used for ones own self-glorification, or gratification rather then for the purpose of strengthening our relationship with God.  The Pharisees were known for putting on great shows of piety and while they were the ones who were supposed to be the teachers of faith, the religious elite, in the sense that their practice should have set an example for others to follow, in essence it was creating self-worship, rather then worship of God.

They were becoming devoted to self, giving alms in a way, that others knew what they give, rather then giving for the sake of contributing to the work of God in the world. There prayer life and fasting became acts of show, so that others could see how righteous they were, rather then about spending time with God, enhancing that relationship.

Lent is a time for us to consider too, how our own acts of spiritual disciplines could become about self or show rather then about our relationship with God. About what we do and how we do it, placing self-importance on that, rather then about spending time with God, or giving because our heart calls us to give, in caring for the least among us.   

In the old testament reading the prophet Isaiah speaking to the people of his day, when they complained that they were doing all the right things, but God was not responding to them.  He says,  “look you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers, you fast only to quarrel and fight and strike with a wicked fist.  Such fasting you do today will not make your voice be heard on high.”  (Is.58:3b-4) Although the people performed their acts of repentance, they did not change their ways.  They continued to live in the same old way, and so their acts were purposeless, no point to them.  Fasting is an act of devotion that is meant to turn our hearts toward God, with a commitment to change, to turn our lives around,  live more fully as God intends us to live. 

Perhaps fasting is not something even taken seriously in our culture today,  but if it is something done for lent over these forty days as a self-decipline, or has a religious practice through out the year, then there should be some thought put into it as to what this is about and why.  It should be about creating not only a positive change for oneself, perhaps physically if it is giving up chocolate or some other self indulgence,  or over-indulgence for that matter, but also about spiritual improvement.  It should also create change in our relationship with God and with  others.  Jesus (speaking of those who were putting on public shows of piety), said, “truly I tell you, they have already received their reward.”(6:2b)

If you are going to fast from anything this Lent, make it count, it should cost you something. There should be some real commitment in it.   Don’t just go through these forty days with the end result or goal to be just that, you made it through these  forty day and start doing the same things again, make it a change that contributes, gives back in a way that will last.

Isaiah speaking to the people of his day about their wrongful understanding of what God expected of them, says , “is this such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?    “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break the yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house….?(Is 58:6,7).

Let your fast create real change, maybe there is some charity you can step in and help out with, give a hand at some neighbourhood function in your community, there are a million things that one can do to help the least among us, just take a look around you.  Or has Pope Francis said in a recent article posted on ‘what to give up for Lent this year’, he said, “you should give up indifference toward others. “ “Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades.”(Christopher Hale, “Pope Francis’ Guide to Lent).

 Yes,  we come with a humbleness of spirit to have our foreheads marked with ashes on ash Wednesday,  not as a sign of our own religious piety, but as a sign of acknowledging our own need for repentance. Recognizing  God’s gracious favor toward us we intend to try harder. In other words the mark of the ashes are a sign of our acknowledging that we haven’t done as good as we know we could have done, in following after Jesus and we want to do better. 

Perhaps our prayer life haven’t been what it should be, perhaps our giving hasn’t  been up to par, perhaps we have committed some wrongdoing  or other,  that we haven’t made right, and we need to make our confession, or perhaps offer forgiveness to another. But unless we make a serious effort to follow through, to change, to do better, then , all the ashes in the world will do nothing for us in bettering our relationship with God.   

As Jesus says in the gospel, “do not store up treasures for yourself on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6:19-21)

God wants us to commit our lives to him, in that we strive to do better, and we do that through following our practices of piety not with our self in mind but with God in mind, asking God, as the psalmist says, to “create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit with in me.”

 Ash Wednesday calls us to spiritual reflection, it calls us to reflect on our own acts of spiritual discipline, prayer, fasting and alms giving, and to consider how it is we might need to change or improve the way we do these in our own lives that they might better reflect who we are as a people of faith, those who believe and trust in God.

So I Invite you in the name of the Lord, to Keep a Holy Lent…. 

Amen, God Bless.