The 10th Sunday after Pentecost - Live Your Lives in Jesus (The Lord's Prayer)

"Live your lives in [Jesus], rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."  Prayer is part of our life in Jesus.  (Colossians 2: 6)

Prayer comes in all sorts of forms: spoken or silent; petitions for ourselves or intercession a for others; holy reading (lectio divina) or ecstatic utterance (speaking in tongues); foxhole prayers or reading the daily office; and perhaps the most common form are described by writer Anne Lamott as "Help, help, help" and "Thank you, thank you."

Although Teresa of Avila recommended that we be friends with God by spending time with God in silent prayer, unoccupied by our own thoughts or words, waiting for God to reveal God's self, many of us, like the disciples of Jesus, most often use words.  What should those words be?   We can think of them as three movements of prayer in our lives with divine encouragement.

The first movement concerns God:  When asked by his disciples how they should pray, Jesus said: Address God as the Holy One for whose reign we pray.  We often cast God in our own image, but God is other--although personal in that God cares and loves us, but not a person as we are people.  Modern theology also depicts God as containing all existence within God's self--panentheism--a way of saying that our words are weak attempts to talk about the mystery of our Creator who has redeemed us and constantly endeavors to draw us to God's self.  Paul writes in Colossians, "For in [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him. . . "

So - "Live your lives in [Jesus], rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

The second movement concerns ourselves:  Jesus told the disciples to make this request for themselves:  "Give us each day our daily bread."  Daily bread - for ourselves, what we need to sustain our lives - not for a week or a month or a year, but for today. Yesterday has passed; tomorrow isn't here yet.  We need to be strengthened today for whatever lies in our path.

Our request for daily bread isn't for "stuff" in our lives. Our petition grows out of our recognition of our "need."   In the New Zealand prayer book on version of this prayer says, "With the bread we need for today, feed us."  Our bodies need nourishment, and our spirits do as well.  We pray to God for all that we need.

So - "Live your lives in [Jesus] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

The third movement concerns how we live in community:  Jesus told the disciples to ask for forgiveness when they has messed things up, "And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.". Whether it's in this parish or in your family or in the larger community, someone will mess up something that you feel is important and will "owe" you something.  Maybe that something is greater respect, maybe that something is an apology, because we have been offended in some way.  In these instances, for the well-being of the community and the establishment of God's reign, Jesus calls on us to forgive as God forgives.  We're not talking about big offenses here, but daily moments--as in recognizing in the moment that the well-being of the community demands our not requiring the person to pay the "debt."  We can say "no problem" about the issue and the person to ourselves and truly mean it.

So - "Live your lives in [Jesus], rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

And finally, divine encouragement to pray: "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you . . ."   Be persistent in opening what is on your heart to God.  Praise God for your life and all creation.  Ask for what you need to be strengthened today.  Offer forgiveness to make the communities where we live--the family, parish and larger world--more respectful and peaceful. Never give up; never give up.

So - "Live your lives in [Jesus], rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."  Thank you, thank you!