The Prayer of the Kingdom

What Is Prayer?

Today, after many weeks, we’ve finally made it to the other side of the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve covered each petition and some we’ve even given two weeks. I truly hope that you have enjoyed journeying through this prayer. It is my conviction that when we truly understand what we read in Scripture, that it takes on a whole new meaning and relevance in our life…and most importantly, we can put into practice what we read so that it has an impact not only on us, but on our families and our communities as well.

Today’s sermon doesn’t cover a petition in the prayer but rather focuses a bit more on prayer itself as a Christian discipline. What exactly is prayer anyway? What does it involve? What do we do when our prayers are answered…and what do we do when our prayers seem to be unanswered? All of these are excellent questions and likely deserve a sermon of their own, but today I want to touch briefly on all of these points as we wrap up the Lord’s Prayer, the Prayer of the Kingdom of God.

But before we go too far we need to come to a good definition of what prayer is. And thinking about defining prayer reminds me of a story I once read. The story involves a man and his son. The two of them were out for some father and son bonding at the local diner. They were seated, ordered their food, and as they were waiting, the father leaned over to the son and said, “Son, let’s just have a moment of silent prayer before the food comes.” Both the boy and the man bow their heads at the table and presumably say their prayers. After the boy appeared to be finished the father turned to him and said, “Son, what did you pray for?” The son, indignant, turned to the father and with an astonished look on his face said, “How should I know dad, it was a silent prayer!”

“Out of the mouth of babes” or so the expression goes! And why do I say that? Well, because for so long as I’ve been studying theology, people assume that all prayer has to have words, that prayer is basically just a conversation like an email chain. We send an e-mail to God’s customer support line and we wait for a reply. Sometimes that e-mail gets flagged as “urgent” and other times we think it just might go to the junk bin right away like one of those unsolicited advertisements we all get for weird health cures.

But does prayer really act like e-mail? Does prayer require words? And just what is prayer anyway?

I want to first dispel the myth of prayer like e-mail. Now first, let me set the stage. There is a generational preference in ways of communicating—have you noticed that? People my age (early 40’s) and younger often prefer to communicate by electronic means. We prefer e-mail and text messages. Some of us, myself included, are very uncomfortable with phone calls. Unlike a text message, a phone call is a live conversation—you have to think on your feet and reply. With a text message or an email, you can think, ponder, weigh your responses carefully before hitting send.

Does this make one type of communication right and the other wrong? Well, no. But you need to be aware of who you are interacting with, right? There are some folks from older generations who also love e-mail and text messages. I was quite surprised when I entered ministry about who used e-mail, text, and social media, it tended to blur and challenge my stereotypes. But these generalizations work because they describe the broad swath of folks in a particular category.

So how about God? How do we communicate with God? And here we need to talk about two related but separate concepts—communication and communion. Prayer, as a spiritual discipline is meant to accomplish both—not just the first.

Communication

So, first, communication. Communication can be defined as the passing of information, ideas, thoughts, and feelings between one or more parties. The emphasis in communication is the transfer of data from one point to another. E-mail, what we just talked about is a great way to express simple ideas, but having coffee with a friend or loved one is a better way to express our emotions. So, communication comes in various forms that can be used to transfer the content of our minds and hearts to others. It can be simple, it can be complex. It can involve words, but it can also be silent as people look upon our expressions, our body language, our general demeanor. And so too with prayer. Prayer can use words to express our thoughts and feelings, but prayer can also be silent as well because we know that God can sense our thoughts, feelings, read our body language, just like a trusted friend. And as Paul tells us in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit who dwells in us who believe can pray in and through us when we don’t know how to pray as we should. It’s never just us alone. The Spirit of the Living God dwells in us and is always ready to help us.

Communion

But another aspect of prayer is simply to spend some time with someone we love. That’s why the sacrament of bread and wine is called Holy Communion. We don’t do that by ourselves do we? We always partake of the sacrament with others. It doesn’t have to be many—where two or three are gathered, right?—but it’s not a solo endeavor. We gather around the table with Jesus as the host and we gather with our sisters and brothers in Christ—those who we are (supposed to) love, right? We spend time with them, we care about them. We enjoy fellowship with them. We long to be with them when we’re apart.

This is an aspect of prayer that is often lost in modern discussions of prayer. Prayer is more than just a time to fire off a laundry list at God. It’s more than a session of “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.” But because of some trends in modern America, this has come to dominate our prayer life.

First, we live in a materialistic culture that equates acquisition of new stuff as a positive, even moral good. “The person who dies with the most toys, wins” as the expression goes right? And so, for the believer steeped in a culture like this, it’s natural that our prayers would be shaped in some way like this. After all, doesn’t the Bible say “ask and it shall be given to you?” It does, but in context, it’s all about doing the will of God. When Jesus gives this prayer to the disciples and the surrounding context on prayer, he assumes and expects that the person praying wants God’s will above all else to be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. I hate to break it to you, but sometimes it’s just not God’s will that you have a Mercedes and a boat (and no I’m not thinking about other people here, that’s just my own materialistic wish list).

But secondly, we don’t live in a culture that is very steeped in a culture of deep prayer. Now, don’t get me wrong, America is still a very religious country. Belief in God is still going strong. But as we know, church attendance and other measures of communal religious belonging are in steep decline. How can people learn the faith unless they do so in community? How can they be a part of the body of Christ if they try to live as single-celled organisms?

And this leads me to a fully-orbed definition of prayer. Prayer is that spiritual discipline in which we, both individuals AND the community of believers spend time in the presence of God. It may be in totally silent contemplation. It may be in pouring out our hearts to God. It may be some combination of the two. But the measure of true prayer is a sense of fellowship with the Triune God and a sense of peace and security of knowing that even if we don’t receive the answers to prayer that we expected, at least we know we’ve been heard.

Answered Prayer

So now that we have a definition of prayer, the question of what do we do with answered prayer becomes pertinent. Because, with the broad definition of prayer I’ve just provided, it should go without saying that not all prayer is going to have an answer, right? Not all prayer is a laundry list of requests. Some prayer time is just meant to be spent seeking God’s presence and enjoying time with God. There are no answers required in that kind of prayer, though we can certainly feel that God communicates and gives us guidance during these times of prayer.

But there are those types of prayer that involve making requests. These are those times of intercession when we pray for ourselves and others who are in need of healing, provision, or comfort. And as we know, God many times answers these prayers. God provides healing, comfort, and provision.

And in those times our attitude should be one of genuine gratitude. You see, it’s not just that God is supposed to answer our prayers. No, that would make God some kind of non-sentient Sky Genie or Cosmic Slot Machine in which you put in your coin (prayer) pull the handle and wait to see if you’ve won.

No, prayer is more relational than that. God is our parent. God, like a parent knows exactly what is right in every situation that arises and can judge what is appropriate for each situation. Sometimes it is God’s will to answer in the way we ask---and yet many times God acts in ways that seem round about or circuitous. But would we say that prayer was unanswered? No, because perhaps we didn’t have the correct categories to comprehend the entire situation. Maybe that person had other issues more pressing that needed addressed first, etc.

Unanswered Prayer

And this leads me to the uncomfortable topic of unanswered prayer. What do we do when our prayers go seemingly unanswered? I know many parents have prayed for their children and those prayers seem to evaporate and not bear fruit. The child seems bent on rebelling, turning aside from them and God. And yet the parent still prays. Is this a futile effort?

The short answer is no. Sometimes God says a flat out “no” to a prayer request. For instance, it is not God’s will that I win the Mega Millions Jackpot. First off, I don’t play it. But secondly, I know that it is not God’s will for me to hoard wealth and take it from other people. That’s a pretty clear example.

But there are other prayers that we pray that seem to be in accordance with God’s will, that seem to be just “right” and we feel that in our souls.

In those cases the answer might not be a flat out “no” but perhaps it is a “not yet.” Perhaps the timing isn’t quite right. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned first, a relationship to be formed, a circumstance that needs to come about before the answer to prayer is implemented.

But ultimately, and this is the most difficult lesson to learn of prayer, something I’m still learning by the way, is to learn to accept hearing a “no” to our prayers—even when it is for something that would be a genuine good.

Ultimately, we need to recognize that God does love us and that God is ultimately working things for good for us and those for whom we pray. That’s not always a great comfort to those with unanswered prayer or those that fail to receive healing. But it is an acknowledgement that we don’t have all of the answers right now but that there are certain circumstances that will become clearer to us perhaps as we grow older and wiser, or perhaps when we meet the Lord.

Some Final Thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer

I know for some of you it will be disappointing that I don’t have all of the answers to why we don’t receive answers to our prayers, especially for the healing of illness or the ending of injustice and oppression. But I hope this final section of the sermon will give you some food for thought as you yourself pray and ponder these issues.

The Already/Not Yet of the Kingdom

The first thing I want to mention as we wrap up is the idea that the Kingdom of God is here already in the world, but it is not here yet in its fullness. Jesus is already king of the world and rules from heaven…but God’s will has yet to be done on earth as it is in heaven—or why else would we pray for that?

There still exists evil in the world like sickness, violence, injustice, and oppression that need to be resolved. It is indeed God’s will that these be eradicated but that is a process that is in progress not an accomplished fact.

It is up to us, as Kingdom People, to be at work on those issues. We can’t expect—nor does God expect of us—that we just leave it all to God. As the song says, “we’ll work til’ Jesus comes.” We’ll be at work in the world to do good to all we can in works of charity and mercy. We’ll work to stop violence and bring reconciliation. We’ll expose evil and remove it’s power. And we’ll partner with God in this way to participate in the salvation of the world.

But all the while we are aware that even with our best efforts, the ultimate victory will not come about until Jesus comes again and sets the world to rights. Then evil will be vanquished. Then disease will be done away with. Then the healing of the nations will be complete.

Community and Communion

Finally, I want to emphasize again that the Lord’s Prayer is a communal prayer and a communion prayer. It is a communal prayer because in every petition the first person plural is used. It’s “Our Father” not “My Father.” It’s “give US this day our daily bread,” not “give me...” etc. This is a prayer to be prayed in and by the church.

Does that mean we should’t pray it alone? Of course not. But what it does mean is that when we do pray it alone (and we should), we need to be reminded that we are joining a chorus of prayer prayed by Christians through the ages and around the world. I would venture to say that there is no time on earth when the Lord’s prayer is not being lifted up to the Father. It is the constant prayer of the faith that from monasteries and hovels alike gets raised to the throne.

And it is that communion, that joining in prayer with the saints from time and space that unites the church together in prayer. We jointly, the billions of believers across church history and the earth’s vast geography lift our common prayer to the common Lord. From many cultures, one prayer is raised.

Let us not grow weary of prayer. Let us seek God and seek God often. Let us spend time lifting our petitions before God but let us also spend time just basking in God’s presence. Let us rejoice always and pray without ceasing. Amen.