Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon About Prayer

Today’s Texts … Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer

Account of Abraham praying to God .. on behalf of Sodom...

Talking God down from 50…to 45…to 40… to 30… to 20…to 10

One of my favorite prayers… the idea of bargaining with God

Grace peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

amen

We reflect today on the topic of prayer.

In the gospel,

we have Luke's version of the Lords Prayer

followed by two lessons taught by Jesus

to his disciples about prayer.

In the old Testament

we have this wonderful account

of Abraham praying to God

on behalf of the towns of Sodom and Gemorah.

It’s one of my favorite accounts of prayer

because we have Abraham appearing to talk God down

from saving them for the sake of 50 and then 45 and then 40 and then 30 and then 20 and then 10.

I don't know if there is much in the way of a spiritual lesson

on prayer in that story

- though I’m sure that many a preacher

has made use of this backwards auction of Abraham

- but the idea of bargaining with God is fun to think about.

IF there is any lesson from this account about Abraham,

....I think is more about our experience of prayer

than it is how we can change who God is

or what God intends to do.

In other words,

it might have felt to Abraham

that he was making headway against

what he thought was God’s desire

to punish the city …

by bargaining with God …

but I think God’s nature

is such that God would have started with 10 or even less.

The Blessing of Communal Prayer

As we turn to the Gospel lesson

and think about the Lord's prayer,

he objected to the artificial sense about themwe can turn our brains off during wrote prayer

Helpful - when we don’t know what else to pray...

I'm reminded of an argument I had

Helpful - when we want to pray something together....

Helpful -

long ago

Pray Frequently (?)

with the same guy who I went fishing with

As i turn to the Gospel lesson and think about the Lord's prayer, I'm reminded of an argument I had long ago with the same guy who I went fishing with in North Dakota a couple weeks ago back.

Ye when we were friends in an earlier time we would have an argument about wrote wow about formula prayers and whether or not they were a good good thing he at the time I think objected to the artificial sense that one gets when someone reads a wrote prayer.

And for him, prayer involved genuine and spontaneous expression.

He objected that you can turn your brain off while you’re saying wrote prayers.

And say them without thinking

in North Dakota a couple weeks ago back.

Years ago he and I had an argument

about formula prayers…like the Lord’s Prayer...

and whether or not they were a good good thing.

At the time he objected to them

and said they seemed artificial.

For him, prayer required genuine

and spontaneous expression.

He objected that - you can turn your brain off

while you’re saying wrote prayers.

You can say them without thinking

In contrast to this,

thoughout my ministry

I have found the Lords Prayer very helpful--

and the Lord’s Prayer isn’t the only prayer like this.

There are other wrote prayers too:

Now I lay me down to sleep, and

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest...

prayers - within the funeral liturgy

all of them

can be helpful when we don't know what else to pray.

When we struggle to find the words.

They're also helpful

when we're in occasions

where we want to pray a prayer together.

I will often say a prayer in a hospital room.

And begin the prayer alone,

but then we will all join together at the end.

The Lord's prayer serves

to bring a sense of unity and togetherness.

over the many years in ministry that I have had to bring us together and also wrote prayers am I didn't think about this much until I served in hey we called the Alzheimer's unit it had a more sophisticated name but it's for people who were suffering mental impairments and when I lead worship there I can't say that I got much of a glimmer of recognition of what I i was doing or what I was saying as I was saying it among the people who were there but the moment we turn to the Lord's prayer and said our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name they were all very present with me in that moment and able to join you in prayer to God so I think the Lord's prayer is an immensely immensely helpful thing God inspired thing which is why we do it at every where ship service here there is a danger in communal prayer we canon fact turn off our brains during a road prayer and it is a good exercise when you realize that has happened to return to meditate on the words of the lords prayer as you see them there's another misunderstanding that can come from Ridge Road to prayers that I experienced growing up and that is misunderstandings that you might have about the prayer but just sort of get beaten by that I mean in the year that I was in junior high pastors kid I prayed the prayer of the Lord's prayer hundreds and hundreds of times before I knew it well but then the Lutheran Church introduced a second option in the prayer it's an option that remains with us today although we use the older version of the prayer I may pull the new one out sometime just because of what I'm gonna say next all the while I have been praying forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass I kept thinking about Mrs. Delfs yard that I used to cut the corner about 2 1/2 feet into her yard as I turn the corner to walk toward school and when I prayed that prayer all I really thought about was forgive the time when I cut that corner that foot and a half corner when we changed and use the new version of the prayer forgive us rcn oh my goodness I had opened up a whole Pandora's box of things that I was praying about to head to think about ways in which that I i had to sin and ways in which I needed to forgive others for sending against and example of a misunderstanding getting baked into a prayer and dad Can be unhelpful for us in our prayer life in today's gospel I think there are essentially three lessons that I take away their arm I can't read this text is so rich I could we good walk through it were literally word by word but I'd like to lift up three words that should describe our prayer life that come from this text

there is a danger in communal prayer we canon fact turn off our brains during a road prayer and it is a good exercise when you realize that has happened to return to meditate on the words of the lords prayer as you see them there's another misunderstanding that can come from Ridge Road to prayers that I experienced growing up and that is misunderstandings that you might have about the prayer but just sort of get beaten by that I mean in the year that I was in junior high pastors kid I prayed the prayer of the Lord's prayer hundreds and hundreds of times before I knew it well but then the Lutheran Church introduced a second option in the prayer it's an option that remains with us today although we use the older version of the prayer I may pull the new one out sometime just because of what I'm gonna say next all the while I have been praying forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass I kept thinking about Mrs. Delfs yard that I used to cut the corner about 2 1/2 feet into her yard as I turn the corner to walk toward school and when I prayed that prayer all I really thought about was forgive the time when I cut that corner that foot and a half corner when we changed and use the new version of the prayer forgive us rcn oh my goodness I had opened up a whole Pandora's box of things that I was praying about to head to think about ways in which that I i had to sin and ways in which I needed to forgive others for sending against and example of a misunderstanding getting baked into a prayer and dad Can be unhelpful for us in our prayer life in today's gospel I think there are essentially three lessons that I take away their arm I can't read this text is so rich I could we good walk through it were literally word by word but I'd like to lift up three words that should describe our prayer life that come from this text

And in earlier years, I served in an Alzheimer's unit —

I can't say that I got much

of a glimmer of recognition

of what I saying ....as I was speaking to the people

who were there.

But the moment we turn to the Lord's prayer

and said, “Our father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.”

They were all very present with me

in that moment.

Able to join with me in prayer to God.

it was then that I got a huge appreciation

for the deep wisdom of the church

in using this prayer

So I think the Lord's prayer is an immensely immensely helpful

-- God inspired — part of our life together.