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Praying The Jesus Creed
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Matthew 6:9-13 New International Version
9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’Praying The Jesus Creed
This past Wednesday evening we began to take a look at what is called by Dr. Scot McKnight of Chicago, The Jesus Creed. The beginnings of each Wednesday and Sunday message come from a chapter in Dr. McKnight’s book, The Jesus Creed. This title is not something thought up by the publisher to catch the attention of readers, it’s what McKnight calls the answer of Jesus to one of the many scribes who was either trying to trip him up or measure the depth of his insight (Mark 12:28–31). But the title certainly caught my attention.
I would not have put the words Jesus and creed together. Yes, I know the church has had creeds almost from the very beginning. Scholars tell us the phrase “Jesus is Lord” is likely the earliest creed of the church. It was a creed of protest, even of civil disobedience. If the current emperor took the silly business of emperor worship seriously, then all citizens of the empire were required to appear once per year before a shrine dedicated to emperor worship, crush some incense over the burner and repeat the words of worship, “Caesar is lord.” The Christians couldn’t do it because they knew the truth—Jesus is Lord.
I also know, of course, that among the things that happened in the first few centuries of the Christian church was the crafting and debating of various summaries of Christian doctrine. In other words, the church found it necessary to write down what it was we believed about God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed are the best known examples of these documents. But although the creeds are all about Jesus and if it were not for Jesus there would be no reason for any creed, the idea that there was a creed that was part of Jesus’ life was not an idea to which I had given much thought.
Jesus was, of course, a faithful Jewish worshipper and would have known what is called the Shema. In the Hebrew scriptures, which of course at the time of Jesus was the only Bible, the Shema is found in Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Daily, when awaking and when retiring, the observant Jew repeats these words. These words would have been on the lips of Jesus every day of his life. He would have been taught these words as a child. These words tell us what Jews through the centuries believe it means to be a person of spiritual integrity—one loves God with one’s whole being.
This is what we looked at in some detail this past Wednesday and if you want to pick up the notes, they are available at the back of sanctuary and in Friendship Room. Today we want to move a little bit further along by examining what happened when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. The text is from Matthew 6:9–13. If you are able please stand as we hear the reading of the gospel.
To talk about prayer in a sermon is at first glance about the safest thing a pastor can do. If I were preaching about creation today, there is a good chance that someone would approach me afterwards to say that either I had given too much credence to the concept of evolution or that I had been soft on the authority of scripture by suggesting creation did not take place in six 24 hour days. But no one is going to serve up roast preacher if I say I am in favour of prayer. How could that be criticized?
And yet, our experiences of prayer are very different. There is a very gentle tug of preferences that goes on between our worship team and me. We have had all sorts of conversations about what it is that draws people into worship. This is our goal. Our worship team aims at excellence, but not because they are performing. They want every song and hymn to speak to someone’s spiritual experience or need. I craft the words of the sermon with care, not because I want you to be impressed with my ability to use a dictionary or style manual but because I am convinced the Bible is God’s Word for us. It will not surprise you, I’m sure, to hear that I am drawn into worship by a well-crafted, even well-worn liturgy. Others find such worship forms to be cold and impersonal. So it is with much care that I tell you today that Jesus gave us a liturgy upon which we could hang our prayers.
The request of the disciples is something that could have been expected. Scholars familiar with the ancient world tell us that teachers would often offer their followers a sample prayer. But there could have been something else going on here.
In his Bible Background Commentary, Craig Keener tells us that during this time in the ancient world Jewish scholars were debating the use of set prayers. The issue was that Jewish practice had come up against the pagan practices of the world of which Jews were a part. The prayer practices of some piled up as many titles of the deity addressed as possible, in the hopes of securing his or her attention. Other prayers reminded the deity of sacrifices offered, attempting to get a response from the god on contractual grounds—I did this for you, now you owe me.
Keener goes on to say the rabbis of Jesus day came down this side of the argument: a set or fixed prayer was acceptable if one’s intent was genuine (p. 62). It seems likely to me then that what the disciples were asking Jesus was where he stood on this matter of set or fixed prayers. What Jesus does is similar to what he does with the Shema—he interprets and re-configures a prayer with which all the disciples would have been familiar.
At the time of Jesus there was a prayer called the Kaddish. The word means sanctification. This is the prayer:
Magnified and sanctified be his great name in the world he created according to his will.
May he establish his kingdom during your life and during your days, and during the life of all the houses of Israel, speedily and in the near future.
And say Amen.
Let’s have a look then at what Jesus does in the model prayer that he give his disciples:
The Kaddish The Lord’s Prayer
Abba (Father)
Name magnified and sanctified Name magnified
Kingdom established soon Kingdom established
Bread
Forgiveness
Temptation
What Jesus has done is to take a statement of faith and amend it to include a focus on both God and others, and, he has also taken a well-known prayer and amended it in the same sort of way.
Again take a look at what Jesus has done. The model prayer begins with love of God petitions: may your name be hallowed; may your kingdom come; may your will be done on earth. These are similar to the petitions of the Kaddish.
Jesus adds love of others petitions: give us our daily bread; forgive us our sins; lead us not into temptation. Do you see what the Lord has done for our spiritual formation and particular our prayer life? He has made sure the framework on which we hang our prayers is up to the job.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. Years ago when we lived in Cobourg and I was the pastor at Calvary Baptist Church, our pastors’ group held an exchange of preachers each January during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. One year I was the preacher at Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church. When you looked at their worship folder there was no order of service. I think it was important to them to give the impression the worship simply flowed as the Spirit led.
The reality is that the worship leader met with me prior to the beginning of worship and showed me the order he had drawn up for what he referred to as “the preliminaries.” It had a different feel to it but it was as much a set liturgy as what was being used that morning at St. Peter’s Anglican Church.
The point I am getting at is that all of us will hang our prayers on some sort of frame. As a child what did you call the pastoral prayer? We just called it the long prayer—it just went on forever. I have heard it referred to as the around-the-world prayer, because it mentioned every missionary and foreign country the pastor had ever heard of. A few weeks ago someone commented on one of the prayers read by a worship leader. “You wrote that, didn’t you?” How did they know? It was easy—it sounded like me.
You and I are going to hang our prayers on one frame or another. Jesus helps us by giving us a frame that is up to the job. You see when we pray, it is not about us, it is about God. Richard Foster, a great scholar in the area of spiritual formation says, “In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after him: to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves.” As Lauren Winner of Duke University puts it, “Liturgy is not, in the end, open to our emotional whims.”
Let me finish off by drawing our attention to the one other amendment made by Jesus to a prayer that would have been familiar to his disciples. He begins his model prayer with the word Abba, Father. You may remember this story that I have told a number of times. Years ago, in the days when airplane passengers exited on a set of stairs to the tarmac, the German theologian, Helmut Theilke was on a trip to Cairo, Egypt. Just ahead of him was a man returning home, and when he reached the bottom of the stairs, he was spotted by his son who was waiting with his mother at the terminal building. The boy broke free from his mother and came towards his father shouting, Abba, Abba—Papa.
In what we call the Lord’s Prayer, I believe Jesus is giving us a worthy frame on which to hang our prayers. It is worthy because it daily reminds us of this vital truth: we are guided in prayer by our love for God and our love for others and in such prayers our fellowship with Abba deepens. That’s the goal. It truly does not matter if you pray using your own words or the words of a trusted guide. What matters is your relationship with your heavenly Father and the Son through whom you know the Father’s welcome. The words Jesus gave us always point us in that direction. Let’s pray together now as he taught us: Our Father…
