It's Good to Be Home
Proper 12C
Gen. 18:20-32; Luke 11:1-13
7/25/10
Lorraine Ljunggren

        I wonder how many times in our lives we have said or thought the familiar words, “It's good to be home.” I hope that each of us has said or thought that at least once in our lives.

        Late Monday afternoon, after being away from you and from Raleigh for a couple of weeks, when Jim and I unlocked our door and crossed that familiar threshold, I think I exhaled an audible sigh of relief. Having wrestled the traffic between southeastern Pennsylvania and Raleigh, traveling the eastern corridor which inevitably means stop-and-roll traffic for miles south of Washington, D.C., and then navigating the last few miles on I-440, it was good to be home.

        It was good to be home even though our travels to serve as Co-Chaplains at the Episcopal Chapel of the Good Shepherd at the Chautauqua Institute proved to be a fine experience. The hospitality of the Episcopal Cottage was marvelous. Everyone was, however, wishing the Cottage's air conditioning extended beyond the living room on the first floor especially since western New York was having their version of a heat wave! Our time spent in continuing education that week was top drawer, with speakers of national note coming together to unpack the theme of Ethics in Leadership. I'm writing a series of reflections for our newsletter, The Messenger, based on my experience at Chautauqua. On a lighter note, we got to see Tim Conway the last night we were there. You have to be old enough to have seen originally or in re-run the T.V. shows McHale's Navy or the Carol Burnett Show to know who comedian Tim Conway is. But, at age 76 he is still very funny!

        It was good to be home even though our travels next took us to Cooperstown, NY, home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I found myself feeling very emotional in the section devoted to the women's baseball league made famous by the movie A League of Their Own and in the section on the Negro Baseball League which chronicles the story of how Major League Baseball became open to men of many colors. And, I even confess, touching Lou Gehrig's locker was moving. It was then good to go on from there to visit family and revel in the change of scenery which comes from being away from home.

        But when I unlocked the door of St. Mark's and crossed that familiar threshold, I believe I exhaled another audible sigh of relief. It was good to be home again. Being Episcopalian and having a framework of prayer which is, at least in most ways, consistent from church to church, meant that when we entered the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at Chautauqua, Jim and I could feel very much at home. Our common prayers provide us with a home away from home whenever we worship in another Episcopal Church. But, there is still something mysterious and reassuring coming home to this space, this altar, this pulpit, to see your loving faces again.

        Our week in and week out worship of God does, indeed – in fact, shape us into a community of God's people – into a place of refuge in which we come to experience intimacy with God and with one another that is very special, which differs from the other places of our lives. Part of what shapes us is words which become familiar -- the rhythm of many voices praying the same prayers.

        The disciples of Jesus certainly understand this – they understand the need for refuge and for intimacy. Their hearts desire both. They find both of those qualities in the presence of Jesus – in the person of Jesus – in the remarkably intimate relationship Jesus has with God, the One Who Is Father and Mother of Us All. The longings of the hearts of those who follow Jesus include the longing for as intimate a relationship with God as Jesus has – and we are like those first followers – we long for that intimacy with God – to feel deep within ourselves a refuge I believe only faith can provide us.

        And, so, one day as Jesus finishes a time of prayer, his followers say, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” What follows in Jesus' response is a summation of prayer-full practices grounded in their shared Jewish tradition [especially in the Kadish from The Talmud and a doxology found in 1 Chronicles 29:11-13].

        “The prayer gives expression to some of Jesus' central concerns: love and trust toward God, forgiveness and hope.” (Aaron J. Couch, Currents in Theology and Mission, 7/29/07.)

        We might notice that Luke's version differs in some ways from Matthew's. “Luke's rendering of the Lord's Prayer has five imperatives. In contrast, Matthew's longer prayer (6.9-13), which is a part of the Sermon on the Mount, has seven imperatives.” (Synthesis, 7/25/10, p. 1) And is the basis for the one we use in the Book of Common Prayer.

        In both places Jesus addresses God using a parental image which underlines the intimacy which exists between God and us as children of God created by and in the image of God. God is acknowledged as being the Sanctified One whose very name is to be hallowed – that is, considered Holy. Luke's version asks very simply that God's kingdom come. The whole of Jesus' ministry focuses on making real the kingdom of God – the dream of God for this world in the here and now and not limited to a distant unknown future. Jesus then says we are to acknowledge our need for the practical in asking God to daily keep giving us bread. Not just a one-time request, but to keep giving us what our bodies need in the course of our lives.

        Then notice in Luke these phrases: “And forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone indebted to us.” (Lk. 11:4) In contrast, Matthew asks that God forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. This is a subtle and often overlooked difference. Luke uses the Greek word hamartia – the word we translate as 'sin' which is an archer's term for 'missing the mark' and is the same as one of three root words for 'sin' found in the Hebrew Bible – the only scriptures Jesus and his first followers have. In either case Jesus is clear about our need for mutual forgiveness whether we have failed in our relationships with others or theirs with us.

        Luke's version closes by asking God literally not to lead us to the test, or put another way, “do not bring us to the time of trial.” The truth is, every human being faces temptations – every human being ultimately experiences trials and sometimes tribulations. If we acknowledge in our prayers that God is with us in the trials of life and if we trust God to be present with us each moment, I believe we will find both strength and courage to face those trials.

        One writer says, “The Lord's Prayer contains the whole of Christian teaching in code—just as the whole of a living creature is encoded in its genes. Every kind of prayer is found there, too, from sheer adoration to contemplation to penitence to petition, and the whole things is intercession, since the petitions are all for us and not for me. … The Lord's Prayer contains all the truth and mystery of the Christian way to God.” (HolyTrinity-SaintAnskar.org quoted in Synthesis)

        If we took a poll asking why we pray the Lord's Prayer week in and week out, it would be interesting to find out what we truly think. The Church includes the Lord's Prayer in Sunday worship because Jesus offers it as a way to build intimacy in our relationship with God and with each other. Jesus is intentional about the community aspect of this particular way to pray. Perhaps it's best we always pray this together because our other prayer-times are either so condensed because of our busyness or so fleeting because we are always in a hurry that this is one time and one place in the week when we can pause – we can catch our breath and focus. We can find common ground in this prayer.

        Praying the Lord's Prayer each week can cause us to think and feel that “it's good to be home.” The words are familiar. After a time they spring automatically to our lips. And I trust that even on those days when the automatic aspect seems to outweigh the spiritual aspect of the Lord's Prayer, the result is still our common prayer offered to God – the result is still our taking to heart Jesus' teaching us how to pray. And on those days when the words resonate deep in our souls, the universe is a better place and we are better people for having prayed together.

        There is something about this prayer that will be with us for a lifetime. I've been in many a nursing home and by many a bedside as someone begins the great transition from this part of life to the next part, and almost without fail, the Lord's Prayer is a common denominator linking us to God and to one another – the words spring from lips thought to be too tired to go on. This prayer, which we may often take for granted, still works – still does what Jesus hopes it will do – still opens a door to a place of refuge and a relationship of intimacy with God who is Father and Mother of us all – still teaches us to pray. Amen.

©2010 Lorraine Ljunggren