From the beginning of the biblical narrative to the end, God is a God of conversation and community. He speaks and He gathers. That is what God does. That is who God is.
God is a “God of conversation and community.”
That is how Robert Kolb sometimes describes the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has a good reason for this. Even before the beginning, God existed in eternal community as Father, Son, and Spirit. Then, this communal God started speaking. Through His Word He brought all of creation into existence. After making man by Himself (the only part of the prelapsarian creation that was not good), He made community for the man by starting the first family. From there, His speaking and His gathering continued. He spoke to Abraham and brought from him and his unlikely wife a family through whom He would bless all nations and redeem all creation. He stuck with this family through good times and bad. He heard their pleas and spoke to them through prophets. Even when they separated themselves from Him and one another, He continued calling them back to Himself and one another. Finally, in Jesus, His speaking took on flesh. And what was the first thing Jesus did as He began His ministry? He gathered a new community around Him. From these disciples, and through their speaking, He has continued gathering. With the words His people speak in His name He continues to bring together Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, men and women from every nation, people, tribe, and tongue. This speaking and gathering will continue until the very end when He will gather from the ends of the earth that great and wonderfully diverse crowd of Revelation 7.
From the beginning of the biblical narrative to the end, God is a God of conversation and community. He speaks and He gathers. That is what God does. That is who God is.
And that is a good place to start a sermon about prayer, because the whole idea of prayer in our individual and self-serving society is often completely mis-imagined and hopelessly misinformed. In other words, if we want to get prayer right (which this text can help us to do), we need to get God right first.
The gathering character of God the Father appears immediately in this text as one of His disciples asks Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Notice the plural pronoun. Also, notice the anonymity of the disciple who asked the question. This disciple was asking as an individual, but he did not speak only for himself. Maybe Luke left him unnamed to emphasize that he was coming to Jesus on behalf of the gathered community. Jesus’ reply responds in turn by giving this community a corporate prayer.
The gathering character of God the Father appears immediately in this text as one of His disciples asks Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Unlike Matthew’s version, Jesus does not begin this prayer with “our” (apparently, many copyists, however, felt like this was an oversight; see the variant readings that try to harmonize this with Matthew’s version in your Nestle/Aland Greek text). But the missing pronoun does not change the fact that the prayer is thoroughly communal. “Give us... forgive us... as we ourselves forgive who is indebted to us... lead us...” Jesus is teaching them to pray together as a gathered community. It is not too much of a stretch to say He is also encouraging them to pray for one another.
This is worth pausing on to contemplate as a corrective to the idea that prayer is primarily a private line between me and God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his classic “Life Together,” notes how one’s approach to prayer reflects the kind of love that exists among members of the community.
“Thus, this spiritual love will speak to Christ about a brother more than to a brother about Christ. It knows that the most direct way to others is always through prayer to Christ and the love of others is wholly dependent upon the truth of Christ.”[1]
Bonhoeffer is really helpful here. The “truth of Christ” is the foundation of our conception of prayer. It is also the foundation of our “love of others.” Jesus, after all, is the one who has reconciled us both to the Father and to one another (Ephesians 2:14-16). Perhaps, this is why He includes in this prayer that our continued request for His forgiveness is so closely related to our willingness to forgive one another.
This might be a good Sunday to encourage your hearers to pray the Lord’s Prayer for others. You could speak to them like this: Rather than asking God to give you (yourself) daily bread, pray He would provide daily bread for members of your congregation who need basic support (this might require encouraging your hearers to get to know the members of their congregation a little better). Rather than asking God to forgive you of your past mistakes and recurring sins, pray He would forgive the Christian people who have sinned (and may be continuing to sin) against you. Rather than asking God to lead you away from temptation, ask He would protect His Church on earth away from the various schismatic and separatistic temptations which continue to plague the Body of Christ.
As Luther reminds us in his explanation, God invites us in the Lord’s Prayer to imagine that He is our dear Father, and we are His dear children. That is really good news, but not only for us. It is good news for all of God’s children.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Luke 11:1-13.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Luke 11:1-13.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
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[1] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community, trans. John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1954. 36.
