Sunday sermon on Luke 11:1-13
I was greatly helped in my approach to this reading (as I am most weeks) by the blog site "Holy Textures". Each Monday I receive the beginning of that weeks posting, which I happened to receive before I entered the internet free (for me, my sim just not work here) Solomon Islands. The writer of this blog, in talking about the line "Hallowed by your name" by asking who makes God's name holy? The Greek he suggests is in the passive voice which means it is God who makes God's name holy. So I used that as the key to the rest of what Jesus teaches about prayer.
How does God make God's name holy? God makes God's name holy through "Your kingdom come." And what does this kingdom look like? When we who pray this prayer are willing to trust that God will "give us each day our daily bread," and that we do not need to be anxious and strive each day and to see what we are given as God's generous gift and to be thankful. At this point as a white fella from a pretty wealthy country that was easy for me to say. So what i said about that was my understanding. they needed to work our what it meant for them in Makira. For me this line invites me to be satisfied with what I have and to not constantly grasp for more. More than that, it invites me to be as generous with God's gifts as God has been, to not hold on tight and to not protect it as mine from those undeserving who I perceive as wanting what is rightfully and deservedly mine. When I act in this way then I join God in making God's kingdom come, and in making God's name holy.
The kingdom is also seen when I am able to forgive as God forgives, although this line puts it the other way around, which is quite troubling, because lets face it, if God forgives like I do, or we do, then we are all in big trouble. In part I think this leads from the line above. If we see all we have as ours and what we deserve, then we will strive to protect it, and want reparation and punishment from those who might take it. But if we see all we have as God's gift with which we are to be generous with, then we simply forgive those who take, as Francis did, and offer to give more. But i think there is more at play here. Earlier in Luke (chapter 6 I think) Jesus teaches that when we we want to take the speck out of our brothers eye then we are to first take the log out of our own eye. When we see the sin of others we are to use this as an opportunity to stop and consider our own sin. Then we will forgive, and God will forgive us as we forgive others, and so we join God in bringing God's kingdom, and so join God in making God's name holy.
We then pray that God will save us from the time of trial or temptation of seeing what we have as ours, of not being either trusting in God or thankful to God, and holding tightly on to all we have instead of joining God's generosity. We ask to be spared the temptation of being anxious, wanting more and more, thinking that I deserve all I have, and not seeing all as God's gift. We ask to be spared from the temptation of always taking specks out of our brother or sister's eye, and leaving the log in our own alone, of being hard and unforgiving. For when we fall to these temptations, when we fall in the time of trial, evil is let loose, God's kingdom is not come, and we do not join with God in making God's name holy.
How does God make God's name holy? God makes God's name holy through "Your kingdom come." And what does this kingdom look like? When we who pray this prayer are willing to trust that God will "give us each day our daily bread," and that we do not need to be anxious and strive each day and to see what we are given as God's generous gift and to be thankful. At this point as a white fella from a pretty wealthy country that was easy for me to say. So what i said about that was my understanding. they needed to work our what it meant for them in Makira. For me this line invites me to be satisfied with what I have and to not constantly grasp for more. More than that, it invites me to be as generous with God's gifts as God has been, to not hold on tight and to not protect it as mine from those undeserving who I perceive as wanting what is rightfully and deservedly mine. When I act in this way then I join God in making God's kingdom come, and in making God's name holy.
The kingdom is also seen when I am able to forgive as God forgives, although this line puts it the other way around, which is quite troubling, because lets face it, if God forgives like I do, or we do, then we are all in big trouble. In part I think this leads from the line above. If we see all we have as ours and what we deserve, then we will strive to protect it, and want reparation and punishment from those who might take it. But if we see all we have as God's gift with which we are to be generous with, then we simply forgive those who take, as Francis did, and offer to give more. But i think there is more at play here. Earlier in Luke (chapter 6 I think) Jesus teaches that when we we want to take the speck out of our brothers eye then we are to first take the log out of our own eye. When we see the sin of others we are to use this as an opportunity to stop and consider our own sin. Then we will forgive, and God will forgive us as we forgive others, and so we join God in bringing God's kingdom, and so join God in making God's name holy.
We then pray that God will save us from the time of trial or temptation of seeing what we have as ours, of not being either trusting in God or thankful to God, and holding tightly on to all we have instead of joining God's generosity. We ask to be spared the temptation of being anxious, wanting more and more, thinking that I deserve all I have, and not seeing all as God's gift. We ask to be spared from the temptation of always taking specks out of our brother or sister's eye, and leaving the log in our own alone, of being hard and unforgiving. For when we fall to these temptations, when we fall in the time of trial, evil is let loose, God's kingdom is not come, and we do not join with God in making God's name holy.
Comments