Worship Service: 10:30 a.m.
I know that my Redeemer lives!
What joy this blest assurance gives!
He lives, he lives, who once was dead;
he lives, my ever-living Head!
He lives to bless me with his love;
he lives to plead for me above;
he lives my hungry soul to feed;
he lives to help in time of need.
-Samuel Medley, 1775
The Lord’s Prayer is a beautifully crafted and easily accessible prayer to pray… except for one small phrase. “Lead us not into temptation.” It seems very odd that we would need to ask God to not lead us into temptation. It seems like he would do that automatically. Why would he intentionally make us deal with temptation or trial? To deal with this tension, Pope Francis changes the phrase to read, “Do not let us fall into temptation.” Other traditions have changed it to say, “Save us from the time of trial.” All these are attempts to make sense of a prayer request that seems to misunderstand who God is.
As we focus on this part of the Lord’s Prayer this week, I believe that the jist of this teaching is Jesus reminding us of a powerful truth: unless God leads us, we will always fall into temptation and worse. This part of the Lord’s Prayer is a plea for God’s guidance in our lives. We are asking God to lead us and guide us, to give us wisdom and discernment as we go through life. We are praying with the old hymn: “Lead me, guide me along the way. For if you lead me, I cannot stray.”
There is a litmus test for forgiveness. There is a way to tell if a person has been forgiven - even a way to tell how much they’ve been forgiven. Jesus shares this indicator with us when a woman sneaks into a party and begins washing his feet with her tears. We learn that this woman had lived a sinful life. She had made choices that were immoral and deviant. She had to sneak into this party because she never would have been invited. When the host objected to this turn of events, Jesus said, “Her many sins have been forgiven - as her great love has shown.”
Love is the litmus test of forgiveness. People who have experienced the power of forgiveness cannot help but love. They love Jesus most of all because they know what he has done for them. But they love others as well, because love spills out in all directions. This week we are praying, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” God has indeed forgiven our sins. And so perhaps a fitting paraphrase is, “Forgive us our debts and increase our love for you and for others in a way that is consistent with how much we’ve been forgiven.”
I remember hearing a story about a Cambodian man who felt God’s call to minister to Cambodian peasants who had been pushed off their land and forced to live in camps outside of town. These camps were in swamp land and lacked sanitation. The people had no access to healthcare and rarely found enough to eat. This missionary spent the first few years working to improve conditions. He drained the swamp (literally!). He helped people build homes. He brought in doctors and dentists to provide medical care. When asked how he knew to do all of this, here was his reply: “In the age to come, people won’t live in swamps without roofs, medical care, or food. So I just tried to make the camp more like God’s kingdom.”
This week we are praying for the Father’s Kingdom. We are praying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Perhaps the best way to start is by imagining a challenge, obstacle, or struggle once heaven has been poured out over it. What is different for this person when God’s kingdom comes upon them? How does this situation change when heaven floods into it? Jesus invites us to pray his glorious future into our difficult present.
In any conversation it’s crucial to know who we are talking to. We talk differently to our friends than we do our spouse or our boss or our teacher. It makes a difference! When we begin our prayer, Jesus wants us to be crystal clear about who it is that we’re praying to. We are praying to our Father. Isn’t that amazing? Naturally, Jesus could claim God as his Father. But Jesus is not just telling us about his prayer life. He is telling us how we should pray. We get to call God “Our Father.”
But Jesus also reminds us that he is a different kind of Father. He is in heaven. Not only is he as close as a father, he fills the universe with his presence. He is a Father who can do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine. Don’t just spend time in prayer this week. Spend some time this week reflecting on the amazing Father to whom you are praying.
It’s a practice in many Christian traditions to give up something for the season of Lent. In the Roman Catholic Church red meat is the usual sacrifice. This has led to all kinds of new and delicious ways to eat fish. Other denominations in the liturgical church tradition also have observed a lenten sacrifice. Maybe you choose to give things up for Lent too.
Here are a few things I can tell you about this practice. It won’t bring you good luck. It won’t make God love you more. You may or may not grow closer to Jesus if you do it. The real value in giving up something for Lent is in remembering what God gave up. He gave up His only Son. He sent Christ to the world to be the sacrifice for us. As you experience the inconvenience of giving up something in your life, remember the deep pain of the sacrifice God made for us. Most of all, think about the incredible love for you that drove God to do it.
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