Under New Managment

The sermon on Sunday got me thinking about Jesus talk about prayer in Matthew 6.

I would outline it as follows:

1. Prayer is not for managing people.
2. Prayer is not for managing God.
3. Prayer is for getting under new management.
4. Which shows up by becoming a forgiving person.

Jesus says that hypocrites pray so that others might see them. The heart of this is not public/private prayer, but the use of prayer to manage others. Prayer can be on the top of manipulative language. We are tempted to use it to get people to do what we want. We may want them to honor us or avoid us. It may be so that other people will line up and shut up. This is not about God, but about us.

Our desires play a role in prayer. Jesus would not have it otherwise. They can't play the biggest role, however. Otherwise we end up using prayer to manage other people.

Jesus says people who don't know God pray with many words so that God might hear them. The God who is absent - whether because he does not exist, or is just far away - is a source of fear. Prayer to such a God is more often a way of keeping him away rather than drawing near to him. We need such a God at times, but we don't really want him around. Instead of talking to him, we talk at him. So we might hope that our many words will somehow keep him distant while getting us what we want.

Asking is so important in prayer. But when we assume that God does not care or is not listening, we heap up "empty phrases" rather than talk with him. Asking becomes either conjuring or just a formality.

We must let go of managing other people or managing God in order to really pray. In prayer we adopt new management.

• Our Father in heaven: It's a family business. We are learning the trades of the heavens from our Father who works there.
• Hallowed be your name: The business of God has a name. We have a name under it. We long for the name of this work and the One who works to be honored, respected, and loved by all. When people hear the name of our business with God, we long for it to be a joy and relief to them.
• Your kingdom come. . . : Things on earth are not like they are in the heavens. The work and message we bring is how business is done in the heavens with our Father. The kingdom is not absent nor is it limited. There are just other kingdoms allowed to compete with God's work and Christ's business. We work to bring his "goods" to all people.
• Give us today our daily bread: Not wages. Our needs and wants fulfilled each day as we seek God and his work. We ask not because he is unwilling to give to us, but because we are often unwilling to receive from him.
• Forgive us. . . : The heart of our business on earth is our character. We come to offer forgiveness even as it has been offered to us. Forgiveness is central because all other goods from heaven come with it. Grudges destroy whatever good we hope to bring or to receive.
• Lead us not into temptation: The "competition" leads people into temptation and delivers them into evil in order to get what they want. To follow God and learn his work is to leave temptation behind and be delivered from the evil it will take us into.

I believe that basically the joining God in his business can be boiled down to one part of the prayer: "Hallowed be your name." On this all the other requests stand or fall. No other name can be sweeter than "Father." Where His name is not hallowed, there are other kingdoms which compete with his. His name is hallowed because he daily provides, forgives, and leads us.His name is hallowed because he teaches us to provide, forgive, and lead others as he would.

The final indication that we are in God's business is whether we are forgiving people. We forgive when we have the resources to forgive from our Father. We are under his management when we know his provision, his forgiveness, and his deliverance from temptation and evil. Without these we will not be forgiving, but hold grudges.

Perhaps the most obvious evidence of our lack of forgiveness is our anger and contempt for other people. A forgiving person is not an angry person. Nearly all of our reasons for anger do not have anything to do with forgiveness. They are self-justifying. Our anger indicates that we are not in God's business, but on our own, needing to "make it happen." This is why unforgiving, angry people are not praying people.

Seen and Heard

Do not be like the hypocrites.

They are missing out.

               They pray to be seen by people

               rather than by their unseen Father.

               Filled with the recognition they seek,

               they miss the eyes of the Beloved One.

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He goes unseen,

              hidden from the view of pride,

              invisible to the self-absorbed.

              He sees and is seen by

              those who close and lock the door

              to be alone with him.

Father, may I be seen by you,

              may your eyes light up my soul,

              may your gaze fill me.

“I see you,” he says.  “I see you.”

Do not be like those who don’t know God,

                         trying to move him with words

                         when he is already moved on their behalf,

                         covering all their bases

                         when only one thing is necessary,

                                           sitting at his feet.

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He waits in silence

               in silence he is heard.

               When I am drowned by many words,

               silence is the ark that stays afloat

               and makes room for his re-creating word,

                                                   his call for deliverance.

Father, close my mouth and ears

              as you did the door of the ark.

              May the flood of noise

              always be outside our place.

“I hear you,” he says.  “I hear you.”

I am seen.

I am heard.

         What else would a father do?

             The heavens are open to me.

        I need not make a name for myself,

             only call out yours.

        I do not have to make things happen;

             I need only be remade.

        Each day you care for me

             as one who knows what I need before I ask.

        As long as people owe me recognition,

             I am collecting.

        Allow me to let it all go

             so I am free to seek your recognition.

        There are many things that shine,

                         many things that call,

             but only you are worth seeing and hearing

                         in everything.

I am seen.

I am heard.

I am free.

( A meditation on Matthew 6:5-17 for my fellow Embers)

Hope in the Kingdom of God: The Gospel

Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. . . .  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  (Romans 8:24b, 25, 26b)

This then is how you should pray:  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. . . .  (Matthew 6:9)

The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.  (Romans 14:17)

Hope and prayer are tied together.  As Paul writes, "Who hopes for what he already has?"  It is no accident that his next section deals with prayer: "We do not know what we ought to pray for."  The prayer of faith springs from the hope that delivers me:  "That faith and hope that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel."  (Colossians 1:5)

Without hope, faith has no basis.  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  (Hebrews 11:1, KJV)  As an idea gives birth to an invention or a feeling sprouts into a desire, faith stands on hope.  Hope waits for and eagerly anticipates what is not yet seen.  It is not wishing, but joyful anticipation of what is yet to come.  Faith naturally springs from hope as its consequence in the present.  What is truly hoped for is trusted in.

One of the truest expressions of faith in God is prayer.  It acknowledges trust.  If I do not trust, I do not pray.  Prayer without trust, without faith, is just religious babble.  "And do not keep on babbling as the pagans do, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him."  (Matthew 6:7-8)  How does God know this?  It is not so much because he his omniscient, but because he loves each person so deeply that he knows them so well.  This is the prayer of faith: knowing the God who knows me as a dearly loved child.

Such prayer also springs from hope.  If I do not hope, I do not pray.  Prayer without hope is just fatalism.  It takes the words "Your will be done" in the wrong way.  Instead of joyfully anticipating the work and will of God in this present age, hopeless prayer anticipates abandonment instead of deliverance, predictable outcome instead of joyful surprise, keeping the trinkets of this world rather than acquiring the treasures of God's kingdom, turning away quickly in disappointment rather than waiting patiently for the wonders of God.

Hopeless prayer is like a king's servant who was commanded, "Put this money to work," but on the return of the king says, "I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man.  You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow."  The conclusion of the king: "I will judge you by your own words.  To everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away."  (Luke 19:11-26)  Hopeless prayer receives little and even that little is lost.

So my prayers express my faith and my faith is the substance of what I hope for.  Jesus focuses my hope on the kingdom of God in his model prayer.  His kingdom is not a matter of external matters like food, drink, or mere religious practices, but of living with and in his Spirit who "intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will," in accordance with God's kingdom.  I think that the Lord's prayer is an expression of what I am to hope for.

The good news according to Jesus is this: "the kingdom of God is near."  This is not opposed to other expressions of hope, but stands in concert with them.  Another famous passage of the good news is 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, which can be summarized, "Christ died for our sins.  Christ raised.  Christ appeared."  The King is near as is his kingdom.  He redeems each person from his slavery to sin, defeats all sin and evil through his resurrection, and appears to each person to invite them into his kingdom.

Lord, I have often neglected the hope you have given.  I have wondered about where my faith goes in trials and temptations.  I see now that it goes where my hope lies.  I find myself like a lot of people: without hope.  I see that is also without God.  Please deepen my hope, so I can eagerly await what I do not see.  Amen.

Faith is opposed to sight.  Hope that is seen is no hope at all.  This means not that I need to live in complete ignorance.  Faith is not opposed to knowledge, nor is hope without knowledge, since it lives in those "who have the firstfruits of the Spirit."  No, faith and hope are opposed to sight because what is seen is temporary and passing away.  What is seen holds no hope since it will leave me empty.  It is the God who is unseen that I hope in and his kingdom that rules over all and yet remains holy and hidden in these days.