Matthew 6: 7-21
January 29, 2023
I’d like to share a brief story with you…

I presided over a funeral service earlier this week. I had never met the person who I helped commend, or if I had it was in passing. She had attended a funeral service I had done about four years ago and the message of grace that I delivered at that service had stuck with her.

I spoke with the woman’s daughter as I was preparing the service. Her mother, she said, shared the gospel with the people she met in her work at retirement residences and long-term care facilities. Her daughter then shared a story that made me wish I had known the woman more than just in passing.

She was sitting in the hospital waiting room after a chemo treatment. The woman was in her wheelchair sitting in excruciating pain as she waited for her ride home when she noticed another woman … also in obvious pain … sitting nearby.

The woman got out of her wheelchair … slowly walked over to the other woman … said something to her … and then prayed over her. The woman  put her own pain aside and sought to comfort the other person. She prayed until her ride home arrived.

What and for whom we pray is shaped by our experiences … by our place in the world … and by our particular priviledge.  A prayerful life reflects our identity and our relationship with God..

 “How’s my prayer life?” is a question that we each should ask ourselves from time to time.

Asking this question gives us an opportunity to consider how we pray and for what … if there is something that colours our petitions to God … if others are truly the focus of our prayers. Prayers … as Jesus instructs … are intended to take the focus away from ourselves and to the state of the world around us.

It is when we put words to our relationship with God … and we hold God at the centre of our lives.

In today’s reading from Matthew, Jesus instructs the gathering on the shores of the Sea of Gaililee about our relationship … our intimate relationship … with God. And prayer is a central piece of that relationship. It is when we lay bare our fears and concerns.

At the time of Jesus’ sermon, Jewish customs called for adult males to pray morning and evening … three times in the direction of Jerusalem … and before and after meals. The customs also called for prayers in positions such as bowing or standing.

Gentiles prayed as well.

And it wasn’t uncommon for Gentiles to pray publicly … to proclaim their prayers for all to hear … and pray for what they wanted or needed in the most ornate language they could muster. They could go on and on … like an praying Eveready Bunny.

And if they made it beautiful enough … they would gain attention and a reputation for their apparent piety. 

Jesus gives the disciples the prayer essentials …  no fancy language is needed … no grand gestures are required … no public performance is necessary … this is just the basics.

Jesus tells the gathering not to over-inflate the language in their prayers … that God already knows the people’s needs. He then tells them the structure that their prayers should follow … what should be included … just as he tells the people what should be avoided.

Prayers … faithful prayers … do not mince words.

Scholar Ulrich Luz says that the prayer outline Jesus provides in Matthew’s gospel is not theological statement or meant to sum up Christian doctrine. It is a model to help others to pray … to forge or strengthen their relationship with God and with one another. 

Jesus’ instructions are delivered in Aramaic … the language of the people … rather than in Hebrew, which was the language of the synagogue and the temple. By doing this, Jesus removes the corporate aspect and control of prayer and anchors praying deeper in people’s hearts.

With Jewish and Gentile followers coming together, offering a uniform structure for common prayer makes sense.

The instructions are necessary so that when they go out to make more disciples … the proper form and content are shared and consistent within the community of believers.

Today’s instructions are a reminder of where the focus of our prayer in life should be placed … away from ourselves and toward ways we can free others from the things of this world that shackle them… the things that keep them away from fully realizing God’s grace … and away from the things that are necessary to bring God’s kingdom to the earth.

Food…

Forgiveness… abundant forgiveness

Mercy…

Salvation…

These are things that are not to be stored or held back, but rather they are to be put into full use … and help bring equity and belonging to the world.

Prayer as it follows the form shared by Jesus this morning calls for us to do more than simply offer lip-service to the world’s injustices. It calls us to recognize the shackles placed on people by commercial and political interests … and name the suffering … the hardship and the inequity caused by those interests and be a means to address them.

Prayer is an affirmation that God works through us to bring people into new life. 

A prayerful life calls us to be in community … and it calls us to liberate others just as we have been liberated … just as it did in that hospital waiting room. 

It calls us to focus our hearts on things that enrich the lives of others and it calls us to remember the effect of the grace we have received.

Later today, we will gather for our annual congregational meeting. It is our yearly congregational checkup.

It’s when we review the past year and look toward the coming months and what they may hold for our ministry in the community. Perhaps, we each can take the opportunity to have a spiritual checkup, as well … to ask ourselves, “How is my prayer life?” or even “what have I been praying for?”

This is an opportunity to reflect upon how we can work toward a reality where people’s basic needs like food and housing are met … about how we can bring people in from the edges … and more closely live into our call to love and to serve.

And that most certainly is something we all can pray for.

AMEN