Scripture text: Luke 11:1-13
A lot of folks, perhaps many of you as well, have spent this week watching the RNC from Cleveland. The big pageantry of a national political convention only happens once every four years when the parties come together to nominate a presidential candidate, so everyone’s always enthralled by the spectacle of it all.
From New York Magazine
An unwritten purpose of these get-togethers is unity. That was certainly true this week with the Republicans and will also be true this coming week with the Democrats. Both parties have come through a contentious primary season, but it’s time for things to come together to prepare for the national election in November. Whether they were or will be successful in this endeavor, I’ll leave to more knowledgeable minds. But the idea of unity has been on my mind. What does that mean exactly?
The dictionary definition of the word unity is “the state of being united or joined as a whole,” which isn’t all that helpful because it begs the question of what does mean to be united or joined. The reason I’m diving into all this is because, at least in practice, the idea of unity seems to be “agreement in all things.”
And yet that’s never the case. One of the other things that pops up in these election cycles are these little quizzes and surveys on the internet. Who am I most like? Which politician running for office reflects my beliefs best? You take the quiz and you find out you’re 76% aligned with Ted Cruz or you’re 87% aligned with Bernie Sanders or whatever. But I’ve never seen anyone take such a survey and come out “I’m 100% aligned with anyone.” So not only do these disparate folks running for the party nominations not agree with one another, neither do their supporters align fully with them as well. “Agreement in all things” never happens. Politics is personal and we rarely find that anyone out there fully lines up with our own personal beliefs.
You know what else is personal like that? Religion. And much the same story could be told about our relationship with the Church. The ELCA is a church denomination that has doctrines and dogmas, social statements and theological stances, all of which I can virtually guarantee that no one sitting in the pews agrees with 100%. I don’t and I’m even a pastor of that church.
And then, of course, there are all the different denominations of the Church, which all have disagreements with one another. Sitting at Amy’s funeral, listening to Pastor Josh give his sermon, there were these moments when I was “Yep, that’s spot on” but also “Nope, that’s not how it works.” He said a lot of good things, but I didn’t agree with everything. And that’s to be expected. He’s a Baptist and I’m a Lutheran. If he were here to critique my sermons, he’d undoubtedly be the same way. The church does not agree on all things.
Worship? Well, there’s a far cry between the hand-waving slain-in-the-spirit rowdiness of a Pentecostal revival and the smells-and-bells high pageantry of a Vatican mass. The Bible? Well, we all use different translations and certainly different interpretations. Social issues? Don’t get me started. Some condemn gays, others welcome them. We’re all over the map on just about everything.
What brings us together? The easy children’s-sermon answer is Jesus, but even that’s not as simple as it appears. Even the Bible gives us four different pictures of who he is.
But there is one thing that all churches do. It’s the one practice on which we all agree, the one thing we all do together. And it was a gift from our Savior. We all, all of us, pray the Lord’s Prayer. On that, we are united.
And it’s a good thing onto which to be united. For it does not just unite us with one another, it unites us with the God we serve. The Lord’s Prayer, in addition to being a prayer, is also a mission statement, a dedication of purpose. Here is what God is going to do and we, as his followers, are called to help him do it.
Our Father in heaven. Your name is holy. Your kingdom will come into this world. Your will will be done in this world. All will have all that they need. Our sins will be erased and we in turn will seek to erase the sins of others via forgiveness. All will be protected from evil and temptation to do evil.
That’s our faith in a nutshell. There it is. It’s what we come here for each week to receive, reassurance that these things are true. It’s what we go forth into the world to give to it. This is what God is doing. Rejoice and be glad.
Jesus’ parable that serves as an explanation of the prayer in our Gospel text today is a good one. Friends care and love one another. Friends help one another, sometimes even when it isn’t convenient. How much more then will God, who loves each of us beyond words, do for us and for all? God’s mission is to do good for his creation, for his people, as a loving father would.
Luther makes the point in his explanation of the prayer in his Small Catechism that God’s going to do all these things regardless, but we pray because we want to be a part of it. His mission becomes our mission. The love of the father becomes our love for others and for ourselves.
I spoke last week about the importance of why. Mary chooses to understand why while Martha rushes about in purposeless busyness. The Lord’s Prayer is our why. Here it is. Why are we here? Because God is holy and bringing his kingdom into the world. Why do we do what we do? Because we’re making that kingdom real for the people of the world, by providing where there is need and forgiving where there is wrong. This is what we do. This is why we are here.
It’s what all Christians strive towards. Each one of us is in a different place in our faith journey. Some more mature and wiser than others and that’s okay. But we all have the same goal: to see that kingdom come to pass. And given the world we live in and the things that have happened of late (both in the grander scheme and the personal within these very walls), the hunger for that is all the stronger.
The kingdom IS coming. God’s will WILL BE done. All will be provided and cared for. Tears will be dried. The hungry given food. The sick their cure. And all will be loved. I want that world, that kingdom. And I know you do too. So does every Christian everywhere. And so does our God. Amen.
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