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Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
57 Words with Pastor Ryan Braley
Unlock the profound wisdom hidden within the simplicity of the Lord’s Prayer. By dissecting its 57 Greek words, we promise you'll gain fresh insights into this ancient text and a deeper understanding of your spiritual connection. Our journey begins with a reflection on how this prayer, despite its simplicity, can often lose its depth in familiarity. You'll uncover how the Lord's Prayer stands in stark contrast to the elaborate prayers of its time, inviting you to identify the elements that resonate personally as you explore the subtle ways God communicates with us.
We then shift our focus to the metaphor of God as a father, examining biblical narratives like the story of the lost son. Through this lens, you'll learn about the attributes of a good father and how these reflect broader societal perceptions of male qualities. We share personal anecdotes and humorous tales about household management that blend the sacred with the mundane, showing how principles of justice and righteousness were woven into daily life. This exploration will challenge you to rethink what it means to lead a life of faith, where compassion and strength are cornerstones.
Finally, we discuss Tony Campolo's teachings on prayer, sustenance, and forgiveness, emphasizing their role in personal and societal transformation. By considering the symbolism of "daily bread" against the backdrop of economic disparity, you'll gain a new perspective on systemic issues like hunger and poverty. Reflect on how the acts of generosity and forgiveness can break cycles of negative cause and effect, and inspire you to engage in meaningful prayer that fuels personal growth and community change. Join us as we explore how these themes guide us in building a more just and compassionate world.
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Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to do a sermon on prayer, the Lord's Prayer to be exact, and we're going to just go through the whole Lord's Prayer and I'm going to talk about the different chunks, if you will, or sections of the Lord's Prayer. And as we go through it, I trust that God is alive and well, that the Spirit of God is here, and the Spirit of God is somehow always interacting with us, whether we know it or not. Sometimes we just don't. We're the ones that aren't awake to it. The problem is never on God's side, it's usually on our side. We're just kind of like numbed or asleep. So this morning, I believe that God wants to speak to each of us I really do, and so we're going to pray, and when we pray, I want you to ask God to have one chunk, or one thing I say, or one thing that it reminds you of, or just a random thought you have that God would share with you. This morning, I want it to just stick out to you. So God speaks in all kinds of ways and usually to each person it's kind of different. You probably won't get like a jet in the sky with writing behind it. Do this. You know it won't be like that. It'll be more subtle probably, but as you're listening to the sermon, what's one thing that stands out to you that jumps out that as I'm talking about it, I go that's interesting. Or your heart begins to race, or you just feel like a sense of something going on. I don't know, I usually feel it in here, and if nothing comes up and it's not an interesting sermon at all, that's my fault. So I apologize. But my hope is that something will kind of stand out to you when it does write it down on that paper, okay, and then at the end we're going to kind of pray about what to do with that thing. That kind of jumps out at you. I think that God will speak to us this morning in that way. So is that clear? So anything I say like that's good man, or that's, write it down, and it could be, I don't care if it's just one thing, even just one thing would be great, and then hold on to it, and then at the end we'll pray together about that one thing Like what might God be asking of you because of that thing? Does that make sense? Okay, now let's pray so, and I want you to pray with me. You don't have to do it out loud, but pray with me, Agree with what I'm saying, in your own sort of spirit.
Speaker 1:And I want you because you're adults, most of you even if you're a young person, god speaks to you too. So ask God to speak to you, like we can have this relationship with the divine, this mystical I know it's weird Like what is this? I don't know what to, but that's what we're doing here. So we're going to pray and ask God to speak to us, which is a big deal. So let's do that.
Speaker 1:God, we give you thanks this morning for this lovely cold weather. I love the crisp, cold mornings and I just pray, god, that you would speak to us. Holy Spirit, we believe you're alive and well and that you do want to be a part of our lives, and our walk with you has everything to do with this time and place, and not just a cloud on another planet playing a harp or something like that, but about real life and real people and real moments. So would you give us something this morning, spirit? We ask that you would speak to us and would you make it clear to us what you want of us or from us, or want to teach us or show us, and, yeah, would you bless us this morning? Now, if you agree with that, you can say this ancient Hebrew word that means I agree. It's the word amen. So, if you agree with what I just prayed, say amen. That just means I agree. Let it be so, let's do it. Okay, we have a bit of a one-off sermon.
Speaker 1:Next we're beginning a sermon to the prophets, but today I want to talk about the 57 words that make up the Lord's Prayer in the Greek language, and so we're going to talk about the Lord's Prayer. So this is the title of my sermon. It's called 57 Words. Now, this is a prayer that's pretty old 2,000 years old to be exact and many of us are familiar with this prayer, which maybe is part of the problem, because when you're familiar with a thing, it makes it kind of easy just to kind of gloss over. But I want to look at just what's underneath the surface of this prayer and what's going on behind the scenes a little bit, and see if we can't kind of I don't know uncover some new things.
Speaker 1:There are two versions of it. One's in Matthew's gospel, which we heard Sarah read Thank you, sarah. One's in Luke's gospel. Luke's is a bit shorter. It could be that Luke was just. It could be that Jesus had said this prayer a number of different times and they were recorded in different ways. Maybe he changed the wording a little bit here and there. It could be that his disciples took the prayer and kind of morphed it a little bit here and there, but the main parts still hold up in both prayers and even when we say it today there's these main parts that are still present in all of them.
Speaker 1:Now here's an important backdrop piece. In the ancient world a lot of people prayed. Most folks prayed, believed in a god, the gods. It wasn't like an abnormal thing to pray. The Jews were, of course, praying people. They had lots of prayers. They prayed three times a day. But even other folks prayed a lot to the gods or again to God. And the thing is, most of those prayers were very wordy and complex and complicated and they had to use the exact right verbiage, otherwise it wouldn't work. It was like a magical formula, almost like abracadabra kind of a thing, and they were long and verbose and complex.
Speaker 1:And in the middle of that kind of a setting Jesus says when you pray, pray like this, and it's very simple. He uses simple language, down-to-earth language. It's pretty straightforward, not that hard, and I would say, even as you're praying it, the words can change. There's no magic in the words themselves. That was what he's sort of pushing against, like this idea that you have to get it exactly right, but just pray as you pray.
Speaker 1:Pray like this, and he gives them this pretty straightforward way of praying. And here's why they ask him. They ask a rabbi, he's a rabbi, he's a Jewish teacher. They here's why they ask him. They ask hey, rabbi, he's a rabbi, he's a Jewish teacher. They say rabbi, teach us to pray. A very common thing to ask a rabbi in the ancient world and most students would ask their teacher hey, would you show us how to pray? And when the rabbi would respond? He'd answer by praying Say, yeah, here's how you pray, pray like this, and then you would pray. And here's the deal.
Speaker 1:When they would do that, they were showing the students how they thought about the world, what they thought was important to them, what things were vital and important in discipleship and following the rabbi, how the rabbi saw the world. They call it his yoke or her yoke, like this is how I see the Torah, the law, how we're to live in faithfulness to God. He's giving them his own framework for how he sees the world. So one rabbi might say hey, listen, disciples, the most important thing is intellectual rigor, because if you get your mind right and think right, you'll behave right. Another rabbi might say, no, no, the most important thing is joy and celebration and feasting Like I want to be a part of that rabbi's tribe, if you know what I'm saying. Like that's like. Another rabbi said no, the most important thing in the whole world is how we take care of the poor. They all have their own framework and this is Jesus' framework for how he sees the world. So when he responds like hey, here's how I see the world, here's my framework, my yoke and my interpretation of the law. Are you with me so far? Then he begins and he gives them his answer. He says our Father, who art in heaven. Now, before I go any further, let's talk about our Father quickly.
Speaker 1:Some of you in this room might be a bit unease or a bit nervous with the fact that we might call God a male. Now, some of you might be nervous that I am saying. There are folks who are nervous that we call God a male. I see both of you, I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I'll say a couple of things. One is that when we talk of the divine of God, words are all we have. How can we limited people, who are limited in time and space, with our own cognitive abilities and language? Language is limiting, you know, that's how we mostly communicate, not only, but it's mostly so how do we talk about a thing that is inherently non-created, a divine, transcendent, ineffable, untangible kind of? How do we talk about God? I don't know, but words and images and pictures and metaphors, that's all we have, and they're all imperfect. None of them are perfect, but it's all we have, and so we might as well use them. And so we draw from our own experiences. We're like, oh, god is kind of like this, or God is like that, not perfectly, but kind of and so we say God is a father, like a father. God is like a warrior, god is like a judge. There are other scriptures that are actually more male or feminine kinds of attributes. God is like a mother eagle or mother bear. Watch out for mother bears. Mama bears are pretty tough. God is like a midwife. There's all these language, all these images of God in the Bible, and so I would say don't get hung up on that too much, because words are all we have.
Speaker 1:And also, I think there are some folks in this room who get nervous about God being a father because you didn't have a good father growing up and maybe you had a father who was distant or emotionally absent or who was super judgmental or was always disappointed in you, who just didn't give you what you needed, was quick-tempered, maybe authoritarian, had little patience for you and didn't like you, or vice versa, and I get that as well. But here's what I want to say when the word father is used in the Bible, it's always in a certain way, and when God is called a father in the Hebrew Bible, it's always in a framework of tenderness and compassion and mercy. Now, most often God is called father to the people of Israel, so he's called the father and Israel is called the son of God. So the father and the son. And here's an example In Hosea, god says this about Israel, his son.
Speaker 1:It's a metaphor, right? Son? When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I called my son. I loved him. Yeah, this is the heart of God. God is always as a father, is tender and full of compassion and mercy and love and strength and fortitude.
Speaker 1:In fact, my favorite story in the whole Bible is the lost son. It's found in the gospel of Luke, and Jesus tells us about a father and two sons. And the father is the God character, his beautiful picture of the father who lets his son leave, who's compassionate, long-suffering, endures suffering for his son and endures shame. He runs when you don't run. In that ancient world it's a shameful thing for a father to run, but he does that. He kisses him. It's the picture of God as a father. He's compassionate, tender, merciful, slow to anger, quick to love, patient. He shares himself, shames himself. Yeah, that's what God is as a father. So when Jesus opens our father or, more explicitly, it's the father of us this is what father means. This is tender compassion.
Speaker 1:Also, fathers in the ancient world and I actually tell you, good ones anyway are generative, they create, they're protective, they're strong, they're brave, they show the way. These are all attributes of what it means to be a good father or a good male, and I don't think we should shy away from those. I know that in our day maybe some male attributes get a bad rap, but there's some good ones that we've got to maintain and keep hold of. And so these are things, men, we should be ascribed to be, like that kind of thing. And there are female ones as well, like I said, a mother bear, a mother eagle, a midwife. It's beautiful, these attributes of God. So there you go. Fair enough, oh, so there's this.
Speaker 1:Calling out a father in this prayer is not just a biological thing. A father in the ancient world is the one who oversaw the household. Now, again in our world, the word patriarch gets a bad rap today, and for good reason in many places. But a patriarch in the ancient world was very generative in giving. They oversaw everything. They didn't hoard their resources or use their power to oppress or dominate. They had all the resources to take care of the whole tribe, the whole family, the whole village. They were very caring and loving. They would do whatever it took to take care of the whole place. So the father, in this metaphorical way, is the one who takes care of the household. Does that make sense? All right, it makes sense to a couple people. Thank you for your encouragement. So the father is the one who runs the household, and how you run a household is very important. Just ask my wife Like there are certain things you do and don't do in a household.
Speaker 1:Am I right? And there's order to a household? There should be anyway. Like, for example, I learned recently that I load the dishes wrong. I've been loading them this way for 24 years and no one told me. I'm just doing it and all of a sudden I noticed one day she's coming behind me fixing what I had done. What are you doing? You don't do it right. I do it, fine, they get washed and no, you don't do it.
Speaker 1:I also learned this we have these things that hang over the front of our oven. They're called towels and they're made for drying. You know this. Right, a towel is to dry, not these towels. I learned if there are pictures on them or words, you don't use them. That is a foreign language to me. I don't know what you're talking about. That is a towel. No, ryan, don't use that. I also learned that, hey, we clean up our house not because someone's coming over, but because someone might potentially happen to come over. Oh, okay, once in a blue moon, when someone drops by the Braley household. It'll be clean. But how you manage the household is important, right? So the father, in this case father, mother, especially in some households both they're the ones that run the household. How you run it is important. Things like food and schedules and discipline and forgiveness and labor and sharing of resources these are all part of managing a household. And how you handle the household and how you manage it is important.
Speaker 1:In the Hebrew consciousness, the Hebrew mind, there were words for this. They used these two words. One was justice and one was righteousness, and in the Hebrew it's these words. It's the words mishpat and zedekah. By the way, sam Bake you guys know Sam Bake, he was my slides guy in the first gathering. He saw mishpat. He goes awesome and I go. What he goes looks like mosh pit. I guess Sam likes the mosh pit.
Speaker 1:Now again, justice, another word that's been sort of co-opted in sort of political ideologies today. But justice like just when things are ordered well and there's fairness and equity in the household. Right, everyone's had enough to eat and you all got to bet on time. Righteousness is like when things are in right order. It's a Hebrew way of talking about how the house is ordered, is it ordered properly?
Speaker 1:The Torah was all about this how you handle yourself and how you handle your business and your social relationships, because everything matters. Everything, from the little to the large, it all matters. Everything matters, it's all important. We tend to differentiate between, like, the spiritual and the physical, but in the Hebrew mind, it all matters. Everything is sacred and holy and a part of walking with God in a faithful way. So the great Abraham Joshua Heschel says it this way. I love this. Now, hang with me on this quote. It's a doozy, but I love it.
Speaker 1:He says the meaning of awe. By the way, we could use some awe today, couldn't we? I know, in our materialist culture we just tend to look at things as just this is all there is. But there's something more right, and we would do well to be people of awe. Watch a sunrise every now and again, watch a river flow, look at animals. You know, yeah, we would do well, I'll keep going.
Speaker 1:The meaning of awe is to realize that life takes place under wide horizons, Horizons that range beyond the span of an individual life or even the life of a nation, generation or era. Life is bigger than just you In this place and one era, one century, one nation. It's this big, wide thing. It's incredibly wide. Life Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in the small things the beginning of infinite significance. In small things we can find the divine. We can notice God in sunsets and rainbows and the laughter of a baby and getting an equation right in math class. These are all incredibly sacred things. To sense the ultimate in the common. You've ever been in traffic and thought, oh, this is lovely, I love God, this is so good? No, but it's possible To feel the rush of the passing, of the stillness, of the eternal.
Speaker 1:Because everything matters, it all matters. Whether or not you use chat, gpt to submit that essay in class when you aren't spoiled, that matters. Don't look around. What you do with your cigarette butts when you're done with them matters. My pet peeve at stoplights drives me crazy. It matters how you treat your employees. If you're a boss, it matters how you treat your boss who's a jerk to you and isn't good. It matters, it all matters.
Speaker 1:Forgiveness affects our physical, biological health. Did you know that it actually impedes your health when you don't forgive people? So is our household being run well? By the way, I forgot one thing. So, kelsey, if you go back, when we talk about household, what's God's household? The Father, god, his household is the whole earth. So in Psalm 24, go back one more. Maybe it's a couple of calcium. Yeah, in the Psalms, david writes the whole earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. This is the household of God, the whole thing. The way you could say in the Greek is it's he father of us. So it's this communal global community. How is this global community being run, this household that encompasses all of us? How is it being run? Is it being run well? Then he says Father in heaven. Now, here's what heaven is.
Speaker 1:Now some people think oh, heaven is, you know, sitting on a cloud, playing a harp all day. Erase those kinds of images of heaven. Heaven, I would just say so. Just start over from scratch with your idea of heaven. Heaven is just the place where God dwells. It's God's dwelling place and it's not disconnected from here. It's not somewhere else, it's not somewhere else. God is here, as close as the air in your skin. Now we don't interact with God in a very explicit way. There's like a veil Again, I'm using metaphor here, so bear with me. There's some kind of a separate sort of but God is here, he's not somewhere else. So heaven is a place where God dwells. Also there's this Somehow we read that the heart of this prayer is that what's happening in heaven would come down to earth or would come to earth.
Speaker 1:And so things are being done well in heaven, are being done well in heaven, the household in heaven is being run properly. Things are as they should be, you could say, in heaven. So heaven is the ideal. It's the place where things are as they should be. On earth maybe not so much. Here's a picture of earth. Can you guys all see that? Now? Here's how things ought to be, here's how they should be. There we go. I fixed it. Anyone notice the Chiefs record they lost. Anyone know who they play today? Okay, you get the idea. Thank you for indulging my lame humor. Heaven is the place where God dwells, where things are as they should be. It's the ideal. It's another reality, not bound to this reality, because in this reality there's some constraints, but there it's not. Which means this If things there are better than they are here, and if the goal is to bring those things here, then things can be better here. And if the goal is to bring those things here, then things can be better here. Do you hear me Some of you need to just hear this Like things can be better here.
Speaker 1:They call this prayer the hymn of hope because things can be better. We ask questions like have we peaked? Is this as good as it gets? Are we going downhill to hell in a handbasket? This has been a terrible week in terms of headlines. Some violent things have happened atrocities, murders. I mean these attacks. It's been crazy. You guys know the headlines and we say that almost every week. It feels like but things are not how they should be. But will they get any better? Or are we kind of done, or are our best days and years behind us? This is a prayer of hope Because the prayer is like no, no, things can get better. But here's the caveat we have to help, and I'll tell you why in a minute. But things can get better. This is a hymn of hope. This prayer, this points to another way of being a human and living in an ordered household that's ordered in a different way. Our place, this place, can be more like the place where God dwells, the heart of this prayer is that the place where God dwells the way it's ordered and run the way things are enacted, that that would come to earth. Notice the direction. This isn't a prayer about leaving earth or about what happens when you die. It's a prayer about the melding, the mixing, the merging of heaven and earth into one, that this was to be more like that place.
Speaker 1:Okay, just checking in. Anybody write anything down on their paper yet? Okay, a couple. Okay, a couple. Okay, awesome, good Making sure I'm not just talking to myself up here. Benny says okay, holy is your name, hallowed be thy name.
Speaker 1:Now here's a name in the ancient world so it really can be rendered. May your name be made holy. Name was very intimately connected to your identity and your essence, your reputation, your character. So your name was synonymous with your essence and who you were and your reputation and how you handled yourself, and so a name was very important. A good name was vital to have in the ancient world. It reflected who you were. So in the Proverbs it says this it says a good name is more desirable than good riches, having a good name. When people say your name, they're like oh yeah, that's a good person. I like that person. They stand for good. That's important. In the ancient world, it was even more important.
Speaker 1:And so how the household is run and the order of things is very much tied to the name of the person who's in charge. In this case it's God. So God's name. The prayer is may his name be made holy. May the household be run in a way that does his name justice. May we not mar the name of God. May we hold it and handle it with holiness, because it's a holy name and we want to respect the essence of who God is.
Speaker 1:And so you could ask is our household being run well? Right now? I'm going to answer for you. It's really easy no, in some ways, yes, but in some ways no. And people get mad about that, like oh God, and they blame God. And I get mad about that, like oh God, and they blame God. And I get it Because in some ways, god is the manager of the household and things are not being done well. It, then, is an invitation for you and I to take part and to get involved, because it's not being run well. Who's running it Well? Maybe the people of faith ought to have a say in how things are being run. I don't mean politically, although maybe it's that too but how are we behaving in the world? Does the way we behave in the world bring honor to God's name?
Speaker 1:There's this ancient law that says don't take the Lord's name in vain. Now, when I was a kid, I always thought that that meant just don't swear Like, don't say G, fine, fair enough, that's probably the bare minimum. This, really, in the Hebrew it means don't carry the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. You don't carry it in vain Because how you carry the name of God matters. The job of Israel was to carry the name of God into the world. That was broken in a way that showed them how a properly ordered house would look like. So carry it in a holy way. So how you carry your life in the name of God it matters, it's important. Your job is to show the world how the house should be ordered, fair enough. Then he says may your kingdom come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is a politically charged word in the angel, especially in the Near East, in the Galilee region, because, remember, the Jews had conquered sorry, the Romans had conquered the Jewish people and they were ruling them from afar, but they were ruling them with an iron fist and with oppressive you know power and greed and all these horrible things. They weren't good leaders and they ruled from afar through the Herodian dynasty. Now remember King Herod. Herod, last name of the great, from our Christmas Eve sermon. Herod was in charge and then he dies around 4 AD. When he dies, he splits his dynasty into three and one goes to each of his sons and one of his sons, this handsome fella, herod Antipas. He gets the Galilee region. And Herod Antipas was not a good dude, I mean, he had a bad father. So there you go, and he was violent. He was oppressive, in fact. So when Jesus is talking about all these things that sound like revolution, he's doing it in the shadow of the Roman Empire and under the nose of Herod Antipas. And Herod finds out and his disciples Jesus' disciples they come to him. Hey, jesus, herod wants to kill you. Yeah, because he's undermining Herod's reign and rule, because he's talking about another way of being, another kingdom being birthed right in this place, right here, right now. Herod was a violent guy. He's the one who had John the Baptist killed.
Speaker 1:So a kingdom is about order, how you order things, how you structure systems and rule of law and these kinds of things, and they knew kingdoms in this ancient world. So the first hearers would have known this. They know that, oh, kingdoms are about violence and oppression and force and how it's structured to benefit those on top and nobody else. So the first hearers were like this is not a good idea. You know kingdom. But Jesus is like no, no, no, I'm bringing a different ordering. It's going to be wildly different. In fact, read the Sermon on the Mount. It's an upside down kind of kingdom. It makes no sense but nonetheless it's a different kingdom. He's birthing a new world order in the middle of the old world order and it makes people mad. It's the kind of thing that will get you killed, and it does. It gets them killed. It's very dangerous to talk about a new kingdom replacing an old kingdom.
Speaker 1:By the way, a quick side note when Jews talked about God, it was not some set of abstract doctrines they would memorize. It was rather a way of ordering your life in the real world, because everything matters. It wasn't like, hey, let's just argue about our religion being better than other religions or memorizing this sort of book. It wasn't that at hey, let's just argue about our religion being better than other religions or memorizing this sort of book. It wasn't that at all. It was how you lived out your life, and what you believe about God was fleshed out in your life, so folks could see them like, oh yeah, you're a Jew. Yeah, yeah, because of the way you behave in the world, and so how you think about God should impact how you live in the world.
Speaker 1:For example, go ahead next slide how you run your business. If you run a business, how do you run it? Do you pay fair wages? Is your bottom line just money, or do you care about impact socially or in terms of the environment? Who do you hire? How do you hire? Are you a good boss? You have a door? Who do you hire? How do you hire? Are you a good boss? Do you have a door? Or how are you as an employee? Do you show up on time? Do you lie or cut corners? How do you live? How about your children? How do you raise your kids? Are your kids jerks? Are they good people? Do they do chores around the house? Do they just lay around? Do you discipline them? Do you say good things over them or are you negative with them? How about how you treat others? Are you kind to other people, even those who no one likes or no one knows? Are you not kind to people?
Speaker 1:How about the creation? Remember the first temple? In the Jewish mind? The first temple, or the incarnation, was the creation that God dwelled on the earth and the planet. It was not just something to be used and thrown away, but how we treat the forest and the rivers and lakes and animals and our hunting ethics and fishing ethics these all matter. So how do we treat animals and what are our stances on environmental issues and these kinds of things? It matters. And how do we think about systems? And yeah, because here's the deal, our faith is not a private thing. We love in the modern world to think this is my private, it's between me and God, and I get that. I'm not asking you to get up on the soapbox on downtown street corners Maybe you need to but I'm just saying your faith isn't private. It lives itself out in your life, how you behave in the world.
Speaker 1:In the first couple of centuries you couldn't call yourself a Christian. You had to have people accuse you of being one. They're like I know you, dude. You forgive your enemies. You're a Christian. I know you give things to the poor. You're a Christian. It was like a derogatory thing. I mean, if folks saw our lives now, would they wonder if we were Christians? Would they be like, are you?
Speaker 1:My friend, kelsey, is back there. She's got a team of people from Central and there's these two refugees that are living in Uganda right now. It's a mother and a one-year-old boy, and they've fled Sudan because of the unrest in Sudan. So they're living in a refugee camp and her hope, kelsey's, is to work with this organization in town and bring them to Minnesota and to help them find a new place to live, because there's nothing there for them anymore. Their home has been destroyed. So there's a team of them. I know that Peterson's are helping out and others, and if you want to help, talk to Kelsey, but we're going to raise like 4,000 bucks it's nothing To help bring them over, teach them English, get them assimilated into their job and maybe have them come to Central with their kid one-year-old kid Because how we live in the world matters right.
Speaker 1:So on earth, may your kingdom come, will be done. May your will be done. So will there's a will that God has, a plan he has for the creation, for the cosmos. It's like this thing is bending towards the will of God. Dr King said that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice, and so it's the same idea. He was a very you know, dr King was a very faithful Christian, and so, like, what is the will of God, and is there a thing bending towards it? There's this ideal that we have that God has his will for us to be done, which means you have a part to play. I'm just telling you, as your pastor, you have a part to play. You have a role to play. You have something to do. How you play out your part in the household matters as well. And he says on earth so may your name be hallowed, may your will be done and your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. All three of those are the same. The goal is for heaven and earth to merge, and so it's not about somewhere else, some other time after I die, but it's about here and now, which means this I think I have a slide at the end.
Speaker 1:This is, for me, anyway, the antidote to hopelessness and meaninglessness and cynicism. The antidote to hopelessness and meaninglessness and cynicism, because many of us are like what am I doing with my life? Or this is all going to hell in a handbasket. This is all just. You know what no one's good, everyone's terrible Life is. I get that, but no, you have some things to do. You have a part to play. God has given you a mission.
Speaker 1:If you don't know what you're doing with your life, start by ordering the household in a better way. How would you want it to be ordered? Where do you see injustice? Where are you angry about things? Get to work, get a shovel, let's get going. There are things to do in this household. There's some broken places. May we jump in and help out.
Speaker 1:The great Tony Campolo says this about it. He says it isn't about just getting a ticket to go into heaven. It's not what we're doing here. It's about becoming an instrument of God to transform this world, to make this world more like heaven, the ideal. Does that make sense? Okay, thank you over here. You guys are feeling it. I love it. Then he says give us this day our daily bread I'll skip the middle part there, kelsey. Give us this day. Gluten-free wafer is available upon request, of course, but give us this day.
Speaker 1:Bread was a very charged word to use as well in the ancient world because people were hungry. A majority of the folks in Palestine were peasants. Taxes were astronomical. Some scholars say that they were taxes high 90 percent. Some scholars say that they were taxed as high as 90%. You thought your taxes were bad 90%, you guys? That's crazy. They were poor and the ones at the top were living like kings because they were getting all this wealth and a majority were poor, couldn't afford food. Do you know why? Folks were following Jesus? Because when they would show up, he'd feed them. He even says oh, a lot of you just came here because you wanted to be fed, fair enough. So bread is a very charged political word and people were hungry back then. And here's the sad reality In our world today, people are still hungry. There's a problem with bread even today. Did you know this? How about this stat?
Speaker 1:In 2023, between 713 and 7.5 million people were undernourished. That's a lot of millions of people Undernourished. About 1 in 11 people were undernourished One in 11, undernourished in the world. About 2.8 billion worldwide can't afford a healthy diet. 35% of the global household of which the father is in charge they can't have food.
Speaker 1:Tony Campolo one time at this college said he's like he gets up there, he preaches. Tony Campolo one time at this college said he's like he gets up there, he preaches. I have three things to say to you guys. One, 30,000 people died of malnutrition last night. Two, most of you don't give a damn. He actually said a different word, but I don't know if I can get away with it. And three, more of you are offended that I said damn than the fact that 30,000 people died last night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's enough food in the world to feed everybody. Why can't we feed everybody? There's these systems in place. There's wars and factions and despotic leaders and there's a lack of sharing. There's all kinds. It's complex, I get it. There are places we try to give America tries to give aid, like humanitarian aid. They can't get in because you have these militia groups protecting the poor people Not protecting, but keeping the food out. They can't get food in there. It's broken. So bread is a very palpable, powerful idea and it has everything to do with economy and structures and leadership and poor government and militias and distribution and all these things are important.
Speaker 1:By the way, in the Hebrew Bible, when the Israelites were wandering around in the desert. God provides them. This is where you think about there's this principle. When you're reading the Bible it's called the principle of first mention. You go back to the first time it's mentioned. Daily bread is first mentioned in the Hebrew story. When they're wandering around the desert and they have nothing to eat. They're in the desert. What are you going to eat out there? Snakes Maybe, but God gives them manna. It's like this bread type thing. And he says hey, take enough for each day, I'll provide for you. So every day they woke up, give me enough for today. And every day God would provide, because the kingdom of God, the order of God's household, is about abundance and provision, not about scarcity and fear. So he provides for them. And, by the way, if they took more than they needed, remember what happened they rotted.
Speaker 1:Hoarding sometimes makes things rotten. You ever notice that? The proverb says this. I love this. It says give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. That's all I need. Otherwise, if I get too much, I might disown you I don't need you anymore or I may become poor and steal. But my wife and I, we travel around and when we meet folks who are asking for handouts. We don't usually give out money just because it's hard to know what folks are going to spend money on. It's hard to kind of we usually give. Think about food. We'd keep food in our car and just give out food all the time. You can't go wrong with feeding people. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so that's it. May we have enough manna for today and forgive us of our debts. I'm burning daylight. Forgive us of our debts, sorry, yeah.
Speaker 1:In the ancient world people believed that your actions, every action, had one like natural consequence. It was unavoidable, unbreakable consequence. So if you did A, b would follow. There's no way to break that cycle of just. If you did this, you deserve that. But the Jewish Christian religion acknowledges the meaning of every action but it says hey, but there is a possibility to break this cycle. We call this forgiveness. It breaks the cycle. You did A, but I'm going to forgive you and break it and we're going to not go to B. So forgive us of our debts and break it.
Speaker 1:And he also, as it's in this prayer, it's like he's like saying and suggesting you're going to need to pray this often, you have to pray it regularly. Which is sobering the fact that we're going to have to ask for forgiveness all the time. So if that's, you, get used to it, get good at it. It's okay, ask my kids. I'm pretty good at it because I have to do all of them, but it's also hopeful. Like that we can have a way forward and he links them. Forgive us as we forgive others. Like your open heart to give forgiveness allows forgiveness to come from god and from them. It's like this open giving and receiving. When you harbor, unforgiveness comes from God and from them. It's like this open giving and receiving. When you harbor unforgiveness, it's hard to be forgiven. Your heart gets closed off. It's hard to even forgive yourself when you won't forgive others. It's very much linked.
Speaker 1:Also, the word debts we often will translate as sins or trespasses. Debt just means that what is owed to other people, so it could be a transgression of a sin. It also could be literal monetary debts. In the Hebrew culture they did not want people to get debts that were too big, because the poor get poorer and the rich get richer and when you owe somebody money, when you owe them money, you're vulnerable. They can take advantage of you. You're always in fear. You ever owe somebody money, you're like, ah, it's looming over you. Also, if you are owed money, it makes you vulnerable because you can become bitter when you seem like you owe me money. You become resentful.
Speaker 1:When me and Katie loan money out, we don't say it's a loan, we just give it out. We're like we just, hey, let pay back when you can, but we let go emotionally, because you know debt can tear away the fabric of society if you let it. You know it comes in between people and relationships. So when you loan money, let it go, you can tell, hey, pay it back, but in your own mind it's a gift because it'll destroy you if you don't. And here's the thing Sometimes you have to let go of what you feel is owed to you. You owe me. A lot of folks today think they're owed something. Let that go, man. That's baggage.
Speaker 1:Lastly, then he says, lead us not into temptation. It's not that God leads us into temptation, but it's like, hey, keep us from contributing to the brokenness in the world around us. Just keep us good, keep us here, keep us where we are, help us to order our lives well, order the household well, keep us in tune with what you're doing. God May that, what's being done in heaven, be done here on earth. Help me to contribute to that. Keep me in a good place. Would you please stand? It's 57 words. It's short and I wish I had like four weeks to unpack it some more.
Speaker 1:But this hymn of hope is individual. It's also communal. The first half is about God. The second half is about us. It's a conversation between the divine and humans and it has everything to do with how we order the household, how the parents are organizing, how we contribute and help out.
Speaker 1:So we're going to pray it and then, as we pray it and as we sing, write something down, if you can, that stuck out to you, and then ask God, why this God? And what do you want to do with it now? What's my role when I leave here? What am I supposed to do? And if you want help, talk to somebody, talk to Sonia, myself or Kirsten or Ben Isabel and process. What am I being called to do here because of this? So we're going to do it by, unless you can pull up the slide. I don't know if you can pull up the Lord's prayer, oh, perfect. So, lord, teach us to pray Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen.
