Category: A people of prayer

The story so far… I am preparing a sermon on the theme of “A people of prayer” to be preached on February 9th 2020 at St Mark’s Staplefield Common. The readings are: Matthew 6:5-8 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28 On Day 1 I recorded my initial impressions of the theme and the two set readings. On Day 2 I read around the Bible passages a bit more thoroughly to gauge the context. Day 3 saw me looking at commentaries, starting with Tom Wright. Yesterday I moved on to William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible. Today I’ll finish Barclay, and then I’m looking at some more commentaries.

Saturday evening approaches, so I need to start putting the sermon together. With only 10 minutes of sermon to play with, I need to have a sharp focus. Two approaches spring to mind:

Private or corporate?

The rule of three: 3 things about God; 3 about us; yesterday, today and tomorrow; Father, Son and HS.

If this were a 20 minute sermon for Slaugham, I’d move from the first idea into the second. The second for me has the most significant things: keeping God at the forefront; the tension between Father and Heaven; outward-facing prayer; Probably that, then.

I like to start with a hook, something personal, or something amusing. It needs to catch people’s interest, but it must not be the only thing that they remember afterwards! Or if it is, it must contain the kernel of what I’m aiming at.

Something personal is often good, because people are interested in you, and if you don’t have anything of yourself invested in your preaching, well it could be anyone.

I’m reminded of the first great commandment: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We have to remember that this is the FIRST. The second reminds us that this isn’t all self-centred. Our, we; not I me mine.

This passage isn’t pointing us away from corporate prayer; it’s pointing us towards meaningful prayer, towards prayer that has the intimate connection that one of the commentaries mentioned.

Jesus provides a model of prayer. Praying corporately often uses set prayers –  everyone can pray together, there’s no waiting for someone else to finish. But there’s a danger that we do what Jesus warned about – we just try to get through it. It becomes mindless repetition. So let’s take the prayer and make ourselves mindful of it:

The Lord’s Prayer is top-and-tailed with God. The doxology was added later, but gives the prayer a pleasing symmetry. 3 things about God: 3 things about us. 3 spheres of time; 3 persons of God.  

I’m going to start by revisiting each of my sets of notes, and just copying from each what I think might go into the sermon. I’ll wind up with too much, but pruning is an excellent way to give the sermon focus.  When I’ve got that into some sort of order, I’ll post it.    

The story so far… I am preparing a sermon on the theme of “A people of prayer” to be preached on February 9th 2020 at St Mark’s Staplefield Common. The readings are: Matthew 6:5-8 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28 On Day 1 I recorded my initial impressions of the theme and the two set readings. On Day 2 I read around the Bible passages a bit more thoroughly to gauge the context. Day 3 saw me looking at commentaries, starting with Tom Wright. Yesterday I moved on to William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible. Today I’ll finish Barclay, and then I’m looking at some more commentaries. 

I said yesterday that Barclay included a long section looking at each part of the Lord’s Prayer in turn. I found more here than I expected:

First line: our (not my) Father in heaven. He is holy, despite the familiarity of ‘father’, he is far above us; he is powerful. Remember the orthodox Trisagion “Holy God, Holy strong/mighty, holy immortal, have mercy on us”

Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed (hagios) conveys a sense of separateness, of difference. God is not like us. Remember that in Hebrew a name is not just a handle, it’s a thing’s nature, a person’s personality and character. So now we speak God’s name, and we speak of his nature. We cannot treat it like any other; it is unique. When we remember God’s name (YHWH or Jehovah) we call to mind his character, his nature. The nearest English equivalence for this is ‘Reverence’. Barclay feels this requires a constant awareness of God, and I’m reminded of Brother Lawrence,  and of the nature of God. From this reverence, there follows an obedience, a desire to please which itself is part of reverence.

This is captured by Wordsworth in his Lines composed near Tintern Abbey:

“And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:”

Let your kingdom come: let your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. The kingdom of God is a running theme through the Gospels and letters of the NT. Christ speaks of the Kingdom in the past, the present and the future. Barclay considers this line as being an example of the parallelism common in the Psalms; that is to say that the two halves say the same thing, but in different ways. The Kingdom of God is life on earth where God’s will is as perfectly done as it is in heaven. Heaven on earth.

When we say “Thy will be done” we could adopt all sorts of attitudes to the statement. Resignation, resentment, or as an expression of an earnest desire, accepting God’s wisdom as to what is best.

Daily bread: all sorts of interpretations of this line have been made; the bread of life – Christ himself; the bread in communion; spiritual food. The simplest explanation is often the best: what we need now, today. Our essentials. And remember this is not ‘My essentials’ but ‘Our’. Interestingly the only other place the Greek word used in this prayer has been found is next to an item in an ancient shopping list, so maybe ‘essential’ is the right idea.

Forgiveness: there are at least 5 Greek words translated ‘sin’ in the NT. The first refers to missing a target – failing to be what we might have been. The second refers to stepping across the line – honesty, truth, kindness. The third is a slipping across, an impulsiveness, a momentary failure. The fourth refers to lawlessness, perhaps doing what we like, despite knowing it to be wrong. The fifth and last word is the one used in Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer – and it means a debt, a failure to pay what is due.  There can be no-one human who can claim to have perfectly fulfilled their duty to God and to others around them. We can think of this as a failure of reverence, a failure of consideration, the promotion of self.

Why is our forgiving relevant to being forgiven? From a sense of justice perhaps? Robert Louis Stevenson rose from his knees in the middle of family prayer as he came to this line, exclaiming he was not fit to pray this prayer. He had an unforgiving spirit over some issue, and knew if he had not put things right with his fellow men, he could not hope to do so with God.

To forgive, Barclay suggests we need to understand – there is always a reason people do what they do. We must learn to forget, to put away the hurt. This is harder. We must learn to love – that unconquerable benevolence, that undefeatable goodwill which will never seek anything but the highest good of others, no matter what they do to us or how they treat us. This requires Christ in our hearts.

Temptation: The Greek word is better translated ‘test’. The meaning is not so much an attempt to seduce a person into evil, as it is to test his strength and loyalty, his ability for service. Temptation is not designed to make us fail, but to make us stronger and better. * Barclay downplays with notion of spiritual battle, but that seems consistent with his general theology (at least to me).

Other commentaries

RT France Tyndale NT Commentaries

I’m only going to pick up strong affirmations of what I have already noted elsewhere, or new/different approaches or interpretations as I read this.

Again we find the warnings about ostentation. France identifies the Gentile invocations and incantations rather than the Jewish set prayers, as the target regarding babbling and meaningless mechanical repetition. He also identifies this as a disciple’s prayer – only they can call God “Father”.

France feels that the use of ‘us’ and ‘our’ makes this a communal as well as individual prayer, but emphasises the avoidance of a self-centred approach to prayer. He also picks up the tension between “our father” and “in heaven”.

France takes a more eschatological view of “Thy Kingdom come” than Barclay, but still emphasises the importance of applying it to obedience today.

“As we forgive” – there is some interesting discussion of the Greek grammar here, suggesting that a translation such as “as we also forgive” or “herewith forgive”is possible, or even helpful. This allows us to avoid the implication that our forgiveness depends upon us forgiving others. France’s commentary on vv 23-35 suggests that forgiving is not so much a prior condition for being forgiven, but that forgiveness cannot be a one-way process. Like all God’s gifts, it comes with responsibility.

Michael J Wilkins – NIVAC

The focus in prayer should be on the intimacy of communion with God in one’s heart, which is at the centre of all prayer, whether it happens to be given publicly or privately. The Lord’s Prayer (or the Disciples’ prayer?) is a model for the disciples. It wasn’t intended for slavish repetition, which is actually condemned earlier in our passage.

This commentary speaks of the use of Abba (or ‘abinu – our father) but my Strong’s for this verse says the Gk is pater, much more formal. And the Gk Interlinear at Biblehub.com confirms this. But of course, I forget – Abba and ‘abinu are Hebrew, Pater is Gk. Would Christ have used Abba here? A quick search suggests that Abba would have been the only word available in Aramaic for Father, and so was less informal than is often assumed. Although this reduces the tension between “Our Father” and “in heaven”, it certainly doesn’t remove it. Wilkins also points out YHWH was not to be uttered, a mark of its utter holiness.

Kingdom: in the Qaddish we find “May he rule his kingdom in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, speedily and soon”. We should not be surprised at notions of the Kingdom being in the present.

Wilkins also suggests that forgiveness of sins is proof that the disciple’s sins are forgiven. I find this harder to accept. I think Christ makes it clear that failure to forgive prevents us receiving forgiveness. Whether this is because of our inability to accept forgiveness or God’s unwillingness to offer remains a moot point. I don’t like to think of God withholding forgiveness. On the other hand I find the prospect of the unforgiving disciple, like Stevenson, stumbling on this line and finding a dart of remorse driven into his heart a much more likely scenario. We know we must forgive, and we often find it so very hard until we are presented with the reality of needing forgiveness.

Next step: to find a thread and condense something from all this. St Mark’s expects only 10 minutes for my sermon; only around 1000 words. Bless you.  

The story so far… I am preparing a sermon on the theme of “A people of prayer” to be preached on February 9th 2020 at St Mark’s Staplefield Common. The readings are:

Matthew 6:5-8

and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28

On Day 1 I recorded my initial impressions of the theme and the two set readings. On Day 2 I read around the Bible passages a bit more thoroughly to gauge the context. Day 3 saw me looking at commentaries, starting with Tom Wright. Today I move on to William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible.

A note about William Barclay: I find his writing often very perceptive and thought-provoking. He is occasionally quite unorthodox however, so look up his Wikipedia entry before accepting his ideas as gospel! It is always a good idea to know where the writer of a commentary is coming from, and to avoid accepting all they say as being authoritative.

Here are my notes:

The reward motive is mentioned 3 times by Jesus in this chapter, and elsewhere – Mt 5:12 , Mt 10:42 , Mt 25:14-30

Jesus didn’t hesitate to talk in terms of reward and punishment.

Barclay says that action which achieves nothing is futile and meaningless, and that to banish reward and punishment from religion is to accept that injustice has the last word, that love and justice have no place in it.

Jesus was not thinking of material reward. And it appears that seeking reward is not the way to gain it. Life is not a balance-sheet. The rewards are spiritual, and Christian rewards only have value for a Christian.

The first reward is satisfaction.

The second reward is more work to do! When you win the Championship in association football, your reward is to compete in the premiership – a great deal harder. When we achieve spiritually, we move onto the next thing, and it will be harder. Gaining promotion doesn’t give you an easier life!

Finally there is the reward of the vision of God, the presence of God.

In each of the sections of Matthew 6, Jesus tells us how NOT to do it first.

The great Jewish prayers, the Shema and the Shemonah ‘esreh were to be prayed thrice daily. But there were those for whom this was a performance, and others for whom it was a gabbled necessity. [Clare College grace springs to mind, where the scholars vied to see who could deliver the Latin grace in the shortest time]. Because devout Jews were expected to pray at 9am noon and 3pm a man might stop to pray wherever he happened to be, so public prayer was not unusual. Others chose to go to the Temple at the hour of prayer.

Any system is just a system. There is a danger we give the system the significance we should give to God. The Jewish system made ostentation very easy.

Jesus laid down 2 rules for prayer:

• All true prayer is offered to God (and not to other men)
• The God to whom we pray is a God of love, more ready to answer than we are to pray. We do not need to coax, pester, or batter God to answer our prayers. His desire is to give.

And yet we pray “Thy will be done”, because we God knows best. [BCP matins – “as may be most expedient for them”]

The Lord’s Prayer is a disciple’s prayer; not a child’s prayer, not a family prayer. Unless you grasp its spiritual significance it is meaningless.

In the Lord’s Prayer, the first 3 petitions have to do with God and his glory. The next 3 are to do with our needs. We have three essential needs, each in one the 3 spheres of time through which we move. Bread, for the maintenance of life today. Forgiveness to deal with the mistakes of yesterday, and protection to deal with the temptations of tomorrow. Bread for today is the domain of God the Father; forgiveness is Christ’s business; protection in the spiritual battle is the Holy Spirit’s domain.

Our Father: I, me and mine have no place in this prayer. We recognise God as the Father of all. If we can call the creator of the universe “Father” then it must be a friendly place. If he is “Our” father then we all know him and each other. This prayer is not about self, even when prayed in solitude.

There follows a very lengthy discourse about each phrase and line of the Lord’s Prayer. I’m going to skim through this, because I suspect most of it will not be relevant to this sermon, although it might make a series all on its own.

More tomorrow – Bless you!

The story so far… I am preparing a sermon on the theme of “A people of prayer” to be preached on February 9th 2020 at St Mark’s Staplefield Common. The readings are:

Matthew 6:5-8

and 1Thessalonians 5:16-28.

On Day 1 I recorded my initial impressions of the theme and the two set readings. On Day 2 I read around the Bible passages a bit more thoroughly to gauge the context. Today I’m starting to look at commentaries.

Tom Wright – Matthew for Everyone. Not really a commentary in the academic sense, but often a good place to start, with good ideas presented simply. Here are my notes:

The Lord’s Prayer is deeply meaningful, not some magic formula. We can pray it with our minds as well as saying it with our lips. It uses ordinary language.

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus calls God “Father”. What does it mean to be able to call God “Father”?

This is a prayer for the Kingdom of God to become fully present; not for us to be snatched away to heaven, but for the beauty and glory of heaven to be turned into an earthly reality. The prayer starts and ends with God. If we don’t do this there is a danger that our prayer becomes self-centred, when it should be outward-facing, addressing the needs of the whole world.

We also pray for forgiveness, a particularly Jewish and Christian theme. Jesus’s assumption must be that we need to pray for forgiveness on a regular basis, every time we pray: a sobering thought, but matched by the comforting news that forgiveness is readily forthcoming. This is followed by the immediate assumption that we ourselves will be forgiving. The heart that doesn’t grasp the relational significance of forgiveness won’t be open to accepting forgiveness when it is offered. How often to we continue to condemn ourselves when God has already offered us forgiveness?

Finally we pray about temptation and the evil one. We recognise we are on a spiritual battlefield: we are not well-armed, and need all the assistance we can get!

The story so far… I am preparing a sermon on the theme of “A people of prayer” to be preached on February 9th 2020 at St Mark’s Staplefield Common. The readings are:

Matthew 6:5-8

and 1Thessalonians 5:16-28.

On Day 1 I recorded my initial impressions of the theme and the two set readings.

So let’s look at our readings:

Matthew 6:5-8

The context is practising righteousness to impress others. I recall seeing a description of integrity (or morality) as doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

Chapter 6 starts with giving secretly, then moves on to prayer. It describes people praying ostentatiously on street corners or in the Synagogue. Then goes on to the Lord’s Prayer, quietly, with an economy of words, and secretly in your room.

Then moves on to fasting, treasure in heaven, trusting God, and not judging others.

So the context is always going to be about personal prayer rather than corporate prayer. It doesn’t denigrate or make any judgement about corporate prayer; it just isn’t about corporate prayer.

1Thess 5: 16-28

This is about personal (and corporate?) behaviour. Rejoice, pray, give thanks. Paul treats these as lifestyle choices. We choose to rejoice and give thanks. We look for things to be thankful for; we count our blessings. We pray – there are always things we wish were different, and God knows our hearts. But choosing to share these things with God means we acknowledge God’s place in our lives, his power to change the world, and that is surely what he desires.

Do not quench the spirit, do not treat prophesy with contempt. Listen to God as well as talking to him. Prayer is a two-way conversation. If we babble continuously (see Matt 6) we are not listening. Our old rector used to say “Are you listening, or just waiting to speak?” Well, are you?

I searched in the Gospels in OliveTree Bible for the word ‘pray’, and got 29 hits, 6 of them in our passage, but spread across all 4 gospels.

Love your enemies and pray for them.

…he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

…to place his hands on them and pray for them.

Sit here while I go over there and pray.

Watch and pray…

…should always pray and not give up.

I pray for them…

At first glance there seem to be two things here: Jesus goes away to pray by himself, in solitude. He also prays for specific other people, sometimes in their absence, sometimes when they are present, sometimes even laying hands on them.

A people of prayer is next Sunday’s sermon topic. The readings are:

Matthew 6:5-8

and 1Thessalonians 5:16-28.

Reading these two passages immediately brought me back to last Sunday’s scribble. Alone or together? Well of course it’s both. Jesus always went to the synagogue, but he went to pray alone.

I also realise that different people pray in different ways. In Soultypes, Sandra Krebs Hirsh and Jane AG Kise examine the different soulwork (their term) preferences of people with various personality types. Here’s a brief extract:

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

“I attended a writers’ workshop at a retreat centre. One evening our leader dismissed the group to work on an assignment identifying our strengths as writers and our aspirations for the coming year.”

Introvert – “I couldn’t wait to get to my room – the evening session had covered so much and I was ready to organise my thoughts. The next ninety minutes flew by as my pen filled the paper. For me, this quiet time alone on the retreat was the most meaningful segment of the weekend.”

If this person was asked to participate in prolonged group discussions with no time for reflection, they might think they were struggling spiritually.

Extrovert – “They chose to use each other as sounding boards, tossing out ideas and dreams to allow those listening to give input on the patterns and strengths they saw. At breakfast they were still bubbling about the insights they had gained through their discussion.”

If this person attended a silent retreat with long periods for pondering a single idea, they might think they were struggling spiritually.

……………………………………………………………………………

I’ve got some starting ideas. I need two things now. One is time to ponder what I already have. This gives opportunity for God to speak, to inspire, to point me the right way.

The other is to give myself a better grounding in the Bible. So tomorrow I’ll start looking at what I find about prayer in the Good Book, starting by going back to the two set passages.

I use quite a few Bible translations and versions. Although I have a good library of proper paper books, I usually use Olive Tree Bible on a tablet. I have lots of Bibles available instantly, I can search and annotate, I can copy verses, and I have good commentaries instantly available too. I also use e-Sword, mainly because of the macros available to copy verses straight into MS Word.

Mentioning commentaries, I will be going to these after looking in the Bible itself. Primary source first.