Category Archives: Lord’s Prayer
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GOD, my shepherd (Psalm 23) [Sermon 6-23-2017]
Leave a commentJune 22, 2017 by jmar198013
The Psalms not only give us new language to speak to God with; they give us new and colorful ways to describe God, imagine God, and experience God. This leads to deeper and richer conversations with God. Psalm 23 imagines God as both a shepherd guiding us through scary places; and a host who wines and dines us in his own home. Other psalms portray God as a warrior, food and drink, and even a mother with a nursing baby at her breast. When we learn to imagine and speak to God with these metaphors, we learn God’s faithfulness to meet all our needs.
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Shout to the LORD, all the earth (Psalm 100) [sermon 6-11-2017]
Leave a commentJune 6, 2017 by jmar198013
Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, and he taught them a prayer popularly known as the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11.1-4). The Psalms also teach us to pray. What happens when you allow the Lord’s Prayer and one of the Psalms to have a conversation with each other? In this sermon, we find that Psalm 100 illuminates the Lord’s Prayer; and the Lord’s prayer does the same for Psalm 100.
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Don’t lead us into temptation (Luke 11.4c) [Sermon 09-04-2016]
Leave a commentSeptember 1, 2016 by jmar198013
One of the passages Jesus drew upon when the devil tempted him was Deut. 6.16: “Don’t test the LORD your God the way you frustrated him at Massah.” This refers back to an event that happened in Exodus 17. The people came to a place where there was no water, and were afraid God had left them to die of thirst. They lost faith in God, and were about ready to kill Moses. Testing God means refusing to trust that our Father is good and generous and just, and at work in our lives and in his world. It means giving up on God and going our own way. If Jesus had succumbed to any of the devil’s temptations: turned the stones to bread; enforced his will through political means; or stunned people into submission with self-promoting miracles; if Jesus had done any of those things, he would have been testing God. Because that’s not the way God had made for him. God gave Jesus the way of suffering with people and serving them. Not the way of self-promotion and self-service. Jesus still had to go through the Exodus of death and resurrection. To lead us all through the Red Sea of his blood to set us free, and bring us to the home God has promised us.
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Feed us and forgive us (Luke 11.3-4) [Sermon 08-28-2016]
Leave a commentAugust 25, 2016 by jmar198013
Jesus taught us to pray for our bread; and to pray that we will be forgiving as well as forgiven people. But he also gave us a meal—one we share every week—that binds the story of our forgiveness to the bread we eat.
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Bring in your kingdom (Luke 11.2c) [Sermon 08-21-2016]
3August 18, 2016 by jmar198013
One day God’s kingdom will come in its fullness. There will be a new heavens and a new earth. Our bodies will be raised imperishable. Death and sorrow will be no more. God will wipe every tear from every eye. We will dwell with God and God with us forever in a greened city—the new Jerusalem. Ultimately, this is what we’re praying for when we ask God to, Bring in your kingdom. In the meantime, because we pray these words, we are called to live in their light. That can mean doing things like planting gardens. Cleaning up litter. Wiping away each others’ tears, even as we cry together. Bringing healing to sick and wounded bodies. We are totally only limited by our imaginations! The point is, we bring heaven’s touch to this earth, this life, right here and now. That’s our work as disciples. That’s our work as the church. That’s God’s kingdom, working.
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Father, uphold the holiness of your name (Luke 11.2b) [Sermon 08-14-2016]
1August 13, 2016 by jmar198013
Jesus didn’t teach us to pray to an Unmoved Mover; nor to an Angry God who barely tolerates our mere existence. No, Jesus said: “When you pray, say: ‘Father.'”
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Led into temptation (Luke 4.1-13) [Sermon 02-14-2016, Lent 1c]
2February 11, 2016 by jmar198013
Jesus taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” But in Luke 4.1-13, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. These temptations are meant to persuade Jesus to take an easier, softer way than the way of the cross. They are shortcuts that embody “ends justify the means” thinking. And they appeal to comfort, power, and security.
This story should prompt us to examine what means are willing to use, or to justify, for the ends of comfort, power, and security? What shortcuts are we willing to take in our pursuit of those things? Perhaps we should pray: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from shortcuts.”
