Lord, Teach us to Pray

Lord, teach us to pray! was the request, petition, the plea from Jesus’ disciples (Luke 11:1).

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us, each day, our daily bread. And forgive our sins, in the say manner that we, ourselves, forgive everyone indebted to us.

And bring us not to the time of trial.”

This very familiar prayer, found in both Matthew and Luke, though in varying forms, has been foundational for many Christians in our developing prayer life. If we’ve not been taught directly the words of this prayer, we certainly have ample opportunity to hear them recited each week in Sunday worship service; by nothing else, sheer repetition itself provides for a well-worn path that ingrains these words into our brain, and at the start of ‘Our Father . . .” many of us are capable of following along, almost without thinking about it. But, Jesus’ instruction is not limited to the ‘what’ to pray, but extends to the ‘how’ and even to the ‘why.’

The opening stanza, in addition to paying God the proper respect for being GOD, it affirms that ‘we’ are not God. In praying these words, we acknowledge that the order of this world, this cosmos, this culture and community lack a functional expression of God’s hopes, God’s intent, God’s Will in our life; “Your Will be done . . .”

As the Body of Christ, praying weekly, daily, each moment – faithful brothers and sisters lift the petition – “Give us, each day, daily bread . . .” and in doing so, the prayer is for our daily basic, human needs to be filled; yet how many across this world, this cosmos, this culture and community suffer not only a lack of food, but an absence of human contact, a shortage of dignity, deplorable living situations, dearth of meaningful purpose and guilt and shame compounded by a want of forgiveness as well. ‘Why is this’ we wonder silently (or maybe not so silently).

The abundance of basic daily sufficiency, from food to forgiveness, is the tangible expression of God’s Will and the Divine Kingdom we earnestly pray for week after week, day after day, moment by moment. Why does God not answer: Is God not listening? Or are we not listening?

The strength of faith, the power of our convictions as the Body of Christ is that this prayer is not a list of hopes we offer up to God for God to attend to, if God so chooses; but by Jesus’ own words to his followers, comprises the fullness of what God is doing to provide Life for the lifeless, to shine light on those living in darkness. Do we not see it? Can we not sense it? Watch for it; wait for it; expect it.

Jesus goes on in the 11^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel to explain that the active part of prayer is NOT just in the petitioning (vs. 9). Prayer is not a passive activity we engage in to make our wishes known to God, but is coupled to action: seek and knock. Now, this activity is not a blind search for something in a haystack; we’ve been told what is good, what is right, what is God’s will – (providing for the abundance of daily sufficiency may also be expressed “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly “(Micah 6: 8]): God answers our prayer - - how vested are we in seeking out the answers, knocking on the doors of possibilities? And how open are we to walking through the doors that present themselves, trusting that God has already provided for Life (abundant daily sufficiency) for all? Do we see it? Will we sense it? Watch for it; wait for it; expect it.

Here in this part of the Body of Christ, our prayers are for life, vibrancy, and a faithful and meaningful purpose here in Phoenix, Oregon. I firmly believe that God has plan, a hope, and a will for 1^st Presbyterian Church of Phoenix. It’s not something that we have to plan out and offer up for Divine approval but rather accept it by living into God’s Will for this community, faithfully seeking-out every expression of God’s kingdom here in this part of the cosmos. Doing so will entail joyfully and faithfully listening for God’s guidance, in all circumstances- from the seemingly large and grandiose to the mistakenly small and mundane. Toward that end, your Session hopes to be more transparent as to what the needs of our congregation are.

The filters in our furnace are in need of being changed. While this may seem like a relatively small duty to perform, what’s needed is not simply a person to change the filters one time, but for the means for them to be changed on a consistent basis. Whether this is one person who routinely checks and changes the filters, or one person who schedules different persons to change the filters, the HOW this monthly maintenance happens is less important than THAT it happens. And when we consider that furnace failure will amount to $10-15K in replacement costs – suddenly this becomes of even greater importance. How has God provided for this aspect of our ministry to be accomplished at 1^st Presbyterian Church of Phoenix?

Who prayerfully discerns the answer to this, and many other questions facing our congregation? Structurally this falls to your session, but over the past many years, energies and persons ablity to commit to serving this function have waned – leaving the bulk of the prayerful consideration and work to reside on fewer and fewer people. We face a crisis of leadership in that for 2012, we have no returning elders to sit on the Session of 1^st Presbyterian Church. I believe God is providing the course through this crisis, but the congregation must prayerfully commit to searching out and discovering this pathway and support those who will walk through the doors of possibility. It will be through faithful commitment and loving support that we will come to know in greater ways the blessing of Life God holds for 1^st Presbyterian Church of Phoenix.