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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 29, 2007 Sermon by The Rev. Bill Van Oss, Rector
Given at Gethsemane's Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Readings       

This past week, I tried to imagine how many times I’ve prayed the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Growing up in a devout, church-going Roman Catholic family, I probably began praying it, along with the “Hail Mary” when I was 4 or 5. That’s 38 years ago.

As a youngster, I remember praying the prayer each night kneeling beside my mother at the side of my bed before I got tucked in.

I prayed it each Sunday, of course, at Mass. I prayed it at all the Catholic School masses I attended in grade school, and high school and college.

I prayed it a number of times each time I recited the rosary. I prayed it at M. P. and Eucharist and E.P. in seminary, as well as a part of my private prayer.

I’ve prayed it feverishly while driving through blinding snowstorms and on icy roads. I’ve prayed it on airplanes and on mountaintops. I’ve prayed it in boats and on the beach.

I’ve prayed it in countless hospital and nursing home rooms, at the bedsides of the sick and dying.

I’ve seen people in a coma and on the verge of death, move their lips as I prayed it over them.

I’ve prayed it at funerals, at gravesides, at weddings, at meetings and gatherings of church groups.

I’ve prayed it over and over to teach it to children.

I’ve prayed it hundreds, if not thousands of times as I’ve conducted the services of the church, leading worship and entering into worship myself.

I’ve sung it, prayed it out loud, both alone and in community and I’ve prayed it silently to myself.

I’ve prayed it with saints and sinners, at noon and 3:00 a.m. and I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

I’ve said this collection of words given to us by Jesus and revered by the church ever since more times than I can even imagine.

I’ve said this collection of words more than I’ve said anything else, perhaps, with the possible exception of, “Is there anything to eat?”

So the question is: Why don’t I get it? Why don’t I live it? I’ve prayed “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” everyday and sometimes a number of times each day. And yet I keep living according to “my kingdom come, my will be done.”

I keep praying seemingly to change God’s mind, to bend God to my will, to try to talk God into something. It’s manipulation under a prayer shawl – “God give me this…; God help this person…; God please, heal me or someone else…; God I’ve got this test; I’m in this mess; Help…” It’s Me, Me, Me.

My kingdom come, my will be done. But you’ve said it a million times: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” It’s the most difficult thing of all: to get out of the way; to get free of selfishness and self-centeredness, ego, if you like that term, and to surrender to God’s will, to be one with God and others in love – to live thy will be done.

The Lord’s prayer, and all good prayers, seeks to help us cooperate with the will of our creator: the one who loves us unconditionally, who cherishes each one of us creatures God has made, and who saves us, even from ourselves, and from our temptation to think that we are the center of the universe.

The Lord’s Prayer” is the perfect prayer, asking only that God’s kingdom may come and God’s will might be done, here on this earth as it is in heaven. It’s the perfect prayer, but I’m an imperfect creature, as you might be too.

Our wills get in the way: our notions about a kingdom that has exclusions, limits and exceptions, or kingdoms based on earthly power, on wealth, appearance or reputation.

God’s kingdom is based on more of that. God’s kingdom is about forgiveness, justice, compassion, mercy and peace – and God’s will is that those things will become a reality in our world, today.

May we pray the prayer that Jesus gave us earnestly and consciously enough that our wills are transformed by God’s will – that God’s kingdom might truly come – that this prayer might help us be the people God calls us to be. Amen.



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