Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (Lord's Prayer 1)
This is the first in a four part sermon series during the month of August on the Lord's Prayer
Am I asking for trouble on a hot August morning with a title like this one? "Now I lay me down to sleep." "Now I sit me down to sleep, the speaker’s dull, the subject deep. If he should stop before I wake Give me a poke, for goodness sake." But, in its original version, it’s a childhood prayer, isn’t it?
My success in prayer has been intermittent. There have been times when I’ve gotten a glimpse of it, but I haven’t been able to keep it in my sights. I have had a life-long struggle with consistent praying. I confess that with embarrassment. Because for Jesus, prayer was crucial.
Where did Jesus shed great drops of blood? Was it at that rigged trial before Pilate? Was it while he staggered up the hill under the weight of the Cross? He shed great drops of blood at prayer in the Garden. The Bible tells us that it was with "strong cryings and tears" that Jesus placed his requests before God. Sometimes I wonder, "what if I had been there during his agony, and watched the way he suffered in prayer?" I wonder if I might have thought "It’s too bad He can’t be like His three sleeping friends. They found spiritual peace in the eye of the storm." But when the crunch came, who fell back and fell away? Jesus, the eternal Son of God, prayed.
Today and for the next four Sundays we’ll think together about prayer, and specifically about this prayer in Luke 11. My thoughts come mostly with the help of Haddon Robinson, who happens to be a Baptist, and Oswald Hoffman, who was a Lutheran pastor heard around the world on The Lutheran Hour.
By Luke chapter 11, his disciples had been with Jesus almost two years. Did they come to him and ask: "Lord, teach us to preach?" Did they ask, "Lord, teach us how to do miracles?" No and no. They came and asked: "Teach us to pray."
Where did Jesus begin? "When you come to pray," Jesus says, "you are to say, ‘Father’." That means that in prayer, we come to a place of friendship, safety, provision, nurture and integrity. Does the word "Father" evoke something harmful for you? That’s because whoever gave the word pain for you was a stranger to this True Father. Jesus says that in prayer, the word that should come easily to our lips is Father.
And what do we say to the Father? "Father, hallowed be your name." How did your parents decide to name you? If you have children, how did you decide to give them the names that you gave them? Sometimes "Bob Smith" will be changed to "Kareem Alujawon". Or Cassius Clay will be changed to "Muhammad Ali." Or Tom Maracle will become "Tawny Eagle Feather." I met a man recently whose Indonesian name ran to about 7 unpronounceable syllables. He changed it to "Jim".
When we pray, "Hallowed be thy name," we are speaking about God’s character. We are asking that in our lives, God will be God to us. We will not try to whittle him down to our size. We will not try to manipulate God. No, we want God’s name to be honoured in the way we pray and in the way we live. In our choices, in our activities, in our fun or at work, our desire is that God will not be embarrassed by us when we take His name for our own.
Are there names that I respect more than God’s? Names of friends? Names of family? Names of political leaders? Names of entertainers or celebrities? Jesus says when you pray, first say, "Father, hallowed be your name." So Jesus says, when you pray, talk to the Father about His person.
Then speak to him about his program. Pray, "Father, your kingdom come."
I saw a newspaper ad for a Brantford church’s sunday sermon. It was going to be about "God’s Plan for the Ages." Does God have a plan for the ages? Sometimes, you’ll see earnest well- dressed people standing on he corner downtown selling Watchtower Magazines. I saw two tabloid newspapers at the K Mart checkout counter last week. Both of them headlined news about the end of the world and the return of Christ. They say that they know where history is going. Well, how about it? Is all of this mess headed anywhere?
The Bible tells us that history is God’s story. That story came to a great climax in the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. And it will be fulfilled when Christ comes back to rule, when people and angels will join to sing his praises. Every knee on earth shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That’s where history’s going.
The story begins when the evening and the morning were the first day. Out of the darkness came light. Out of the wanderings came the promised land. Out of a bad Friday comes resurrection Sunday. After great turmoil comes peace. In the darkness, when we are most filled with terror, do we look forward to that day? Do we pray, "Your kingdom come?" But what use is it to pray for God’s shining triumph in the future, if today, in the small, two feet of earth that I occupy, Jesus Christ does not rule? Am I willing that all these little kingdoms that mean so much to me will be torn down, so that Jesus Christ will rule? So, Jesus said, before you pray for anything else, talk to the Father about His person and about His program.
Having spoken to the Father about the Father, Jesus says we can talk to the Father about the family, about all of us together. He says we can pray, "Give us each day our daily bread." We can ask him for the basic necessities of life. Many of us have freezers full of food. So we hardly take this seriously. But in most of the world, this is a basic request. We are asking God to provide what we need as we serve His kingdom, and he will supply.
We can also ask the Father for provision for pardon: "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." Who has any problem remembering to pray for daily bread? My stomach rumbles and tells me that I’m hungry. And if I’m really hungry, I can pull into Tim Horton’s or McDonald’s and get filled. But isn’t it easy to forget that I also need daily pardon?
If we really make this request sincerely, aren’t we revising our estimate of ourselves downward? "Forgive us our sins." Isn’t that an admission that we are sinful persons? When we admit that about ourselves, isn’t it easier to understand the foibles of others? What is it like to come to God and say, "Please, Holy God, forgive my sins. But this person has offended me, and I am so holy and I am so righteous that it is unthinkable that I will extend forgiveness to that person."?
What would it be like to pray: "Lord, deal with me as I have dealt with others. She has offended me, she has hurt me badly. Lord, I just don’t want to put up with it. Please deal with me as I dealt with her."
Part of being in the family of God is that we are a forgiven fellowship. Knowing the forgiveness of God gives us an opportunity and a motivation to forgive others.
Finally, Jesus says when we talk to the Father about the family, ask him for protection. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." That’s a way of saying, "Lord, you have the power to take us past the traps that lurk on our way. We depend on You to do that."
I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt that said: "Lead me not into temptation. I can find the way myself." Don’t we like temptation? Isn’t that why we watch certain films, and read certain books? Don’t we like to dance, but fail to pay the band? Who really wants the consequences? This is not just a prayer: "Lord, keep us from being naughty boys and girls." This is to recognize that the enemy of our souls would destroy us if he could. And what he wants to do is to separate us from God, to convince us that God is not a Father, but an enemy, that our little kingdoms matter, that our names have to be established, that we have got to go out an hustle to get our daily bread, - and to forget about temptation. That temptation is to be a stranger to God.
When we pray to the Father that we will be delivered from temptation, what we’re really praying is, "Lord, when I’ve got the inclination to sin, keep me from the opportunity; when I have the opportunity to sin, keep me from the inclination."
When you talk to the Father about the Father, talk to him about His program and His person. When you talk to Him about the family, talk to Him about provision, pardon, and protection. When you pray, say, "Father."
