christmas to do list

As I said in my sermon a few weeks ago, this is a prayer that shouldn't be rushed. Jesus didn't teach us to pray words that can be rattled through in no time at all. Because it is so well known and either said or sung on so many occasions, it is easy to do so without any real thought to the meaning of this prayer. You could almost call it a mantra and it becomes meaningless then.

Think of this prayer as a kind of "index" or "contents" as you would find in a book. Both are indicators that point to the substance of the topic. This is consistent with the way the rabbis in Jesus' time taught people to pray. Let's look at the 'table of contents'

1. Worship of the Father
2. God's Kingdom
3. God's will/guidance
4. Our daily needs
5. Forgiveness and relationships
6. Spiritual warfare!

I suggest, that as you say this prayer, you dwell on each of the headings and talk to God eg 1. telling God, that you know he is a 'great big God' and that you love Him. 2. What a fantastic Kingdom He has created - not just this planet, but way, way beyond these limitations into the Universe(s) and the still unknown/unseen. You get the idea. Try it and see how your prayer life develops as you talk to God

Two versions of the Lord’s Prayer are recorded in the Gospels. Jesus taught his listeners a longer form as part of the Sermon on the Mount, and this is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel (6:9-13), when he told them to “Pray then in this way...” The version in Luke’s Gospel (11:1-4) is a shorter form, and is a response by Jesus to a request: “… one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples’”. Some scholars suggest that both these versions are authentic, with Jesus teaching the Matthean version early in his ministry in Galilee, and the Lucan version some time later.

Each individual part of a prayer is known as a “petition”. Matthew’s version contains seven of these, while there are five in Luke’s Gospel. In Matthew, the first three address God, while the remaining four are related to human needs and concerns. It is only Matthew that includes the lines “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”, and “rescue us from the evil one” (or “Deliver us from evil”). The fact that the Lord’s Prayer does not feature in Mark’s Gospel suggests that its origins lie in “Q” – the hypothetical document which is believed to be the source of material that is found in Matthew and Luke but not Mark.

However it came to be part of our liturgy today, we can be thankful that we have a teaching

about prayer from Jesus himself. The beauty of the Lord’s Prayer is that it is both simple and

sophisticated, humble and assured, and, above all, universal. It enables all Christians of all ages,

creeds and colours to pray with confidence. As the Archbishops of York and Canterbury put it in a joint statement:

“At the heart of our prayers will be words that Jesus himself taught us. It is simple enough to be memorised by small children and yet profound enough to sustain a whole lifetime of prayer.”

  The Sea of Galilee, was like a huge lake with small fishing towns all around it and Jesus did a lot of his preaching around this area; this is also where his disciples had fished. It was surrounded by high hills and this is what caused the wind to blow very strong around it. 

Jesus had been preaching all one day and when evening approached I should imagine he was exhausted. So, he said to his disciples “let us go over the other side”. He was probably wanting to get away from the crowds for a little while. Well, that night when they set off for the other shore, Jesus just curled up where he was in the boat and immediately fell asleep. Now remember, the disciples knew this lake; they fished it and they understood that it could get rough. But that night, it must have been a really terrific squall that got up and it was so bad that it terrified the disciples. 

Can you imagine how they felt; there was Jesus, sound asleep and they thought they were going to drown. Didn’t he care about them? Then, when they awoke him, he just calmed the waters of the lake , stopped the wind and told them off for not trusting him. Where was their faith? All they could think of was, ‘crikey, who is this man who can tell the wind and the sea to be still and they do?’ I can just imagine how they felt; they thought they knew him, but never thought he could do that. But all Jesus was saying was – ‘why didn’t you trust me, why were you scared? I am here with you’.

This story is saying to us; here is this amazing man, the Son of God, who can do anything, even tame the wind and the sea and yet all he wants from us is for us to know that he is here to look after us and wants us to give him our trust and love – he will never let us down.

Just as God is the Father of Jesus, he is also our Heavenly Father. Jesus tells us to call God, ‘Abba, Father’, just as he did. Surely this then means we are adopted into God’s family; we are all brothers and sisters with Jesus and each other in the eyes of God.

 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up  from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the  Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice  from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well  pleased.’

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be  tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and  afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you  are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’

Matthew 3:16-4:3

Where did that thought come from?! We’ve all had the  experience of thinking something strange and wondering where the idea  came from. If it’s a good thought, we might say “I would never have  thought something like that! It must be God.” If it’s a bad thought, we  may feel that it reflects badly on us – or that it must have been the  devil that put it there.

Our inner voices are a vital part of our conscious experience. They  are also the fabric of our prayers. If we are wise, we learn to discern  which ones are to be listened to. Jesus was obedient to the Spirit, who  led him into the wilderness, but then he heard the voice of the tempter.  This voice questioned what the voice from heaven had said at his  baptism. Indirectly, it helped him because, in his dialogue with this  voice, he clarified what his vocation as Son of God was to be. It would  not be about self-serving miracles, about human glory, or avoidance of  suffering. It would be a life of service and self-giving.

We know now that many people hear voices (out loud) who are not  mentally ill. It is not the hearing of voices that we need to be afraid  of. We all hear voices. We need courage to listen, and wisdom to discern  what they mean.

   Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain  village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a  sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he  was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to  him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do  all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered  her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many  things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better  part, which will not be taken away from her.’ 

Luke 10:38-42

What is the passion in your life? Do you spend a lot of  time wishing you could do something else, particularly at this moment of  global crisis?

Martha welcomes Jesus, and she serves Jesus in practical ways. She  wants to do the right things. How can this be wrong? Somehow, amidst the  mental activity and busy routine, she risks losing the one thing that  is needful. She is understandably cross with her sister. Perhaps she is  jealous? Does she really want to be at Jesus’s feet too – or is the  activity a way of avoiding that?

Our passions to do what is right are vital to society and human  wellbeing, and we cannot do without them, but they easily become an end  in themselves. They lead us away from other priorities. They master us  and consume us. Mental and spiritual wellbeing require that we keep them  in context.

After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose  and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting  on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was  deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made  this vow: ‘O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your  servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to  your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a  Nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor  intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.’

As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her  mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice  was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her,  ‘How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your  wine.’ But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I  have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out  my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless  woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all  this time.’ Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace; the God of Israel grant  the petition you have made to him.’

1 Samuel 1:9-17

Have you ever found yourself not knowing what to say when  someone cheerily said “How are you?” Perhaps you felt awful, but didn’t  like to say so? A friend of mine had this experience once when leaving  church. She decided to be honest, and said that she felt terrible. The  unheeding reply was “Oh – that’s good!”

There are unwritten expectations about how people should behave, just  as there were when Hannah prayed in the Jerusalem temple. Mental ill  health makes it difficult or impossible to fulfil them, and our  unwillingness to be honest about such things contributes to the stigma.  By conferring stigma on those who suffer from mental ill health, or even  on those who simply give honest emotional replies to everyday  questions, church and society make things worse.

Unlike God, human beings cannot see what is in someone's heart –  unless they share them. However, if we ask, we need to be ready for  honest answers, and honest answers make vulnerable people more  vulnerable. If we join in with God, in searching out one another’s  vulnerabilities, we need to get more like him in loving and accepting  what we find.

• Look at Psalm 139:1 “O Lord, you have searched me and known me”.  God loves you and really knows you. Read the Psalm, slowly more than  once every day for a week.
• Choose one of the things God says about you and stick it next to your bed on a post-it note.
• Whenever you feel misunderstood repeat the truth on a post-it note.

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until day-break.

Genesis 32:24

It has been said that if you cannot  stand your own company when alone, you should not impose it on other  people! Perhaps this is unfair? Some of us (especially the extroverts)  only really get to know ourselves in company with others. However,  isolation does have a way of confronting us with some of the things that  we try to avoid. We say that our “demons” haunt us in a sleepless  night, but sometimes it is God who haunts us in our solitude.

Jacob, fleeing from one set of problems, in the  family of his in-laws, is returning to another set of problems back in  his own family in Canaan. He is not really alone, he has a large family  of his own, with many maids and servants. Despite this, as home gets  closer so does the reality of the family conflict that he has avoided  for so long, and so does the weight of the burden that he alone carries.  In the solitude of a sleepless night he finds himself wrestling with a  man who will not disclose his name. Given his fears, we might conclude  this man represented Jacob’s demons, but Jacob comes to a very different  conclusion. “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is  preserved” (verse 30). Judging by Jacob’s experience, seeing God may  sometimes be a real struggle, but it is nonetheless a blessing. In the  light of the following day, Jacob is reconciled with his brother.

We may not want solitude, but sometimes life forces  it upon us. It is easy to focus on the loss of companionship and loss  of opportunities that isolation brings. Sometimes, however, what we  really fear are the reminders of the things that companionship and  activity usually help us to avoid. Scary though these things may be, God  may well be in our midst, waiting to bless us.

Turn to me and be gracious to me,  for I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart, and  bring me out of my distress. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and  forgive all my sins.

Psalm 25:16-18

Loneliness is an experience that we can  all relate to, but almost 1 in 5 people in the UK often or always feel  lonely. The figures are higher for the elderly and for young people. If  you are lonely, it would seem, you are not alone but that is unlikely to  provide much comfort. We are social creatures. We need to feel  connected to others.

It is possible to feel lonely in a crowd, or in a  marriage. It is equally possible to be alone and not to feel lonely.  Feeling lonely and being alone are different things. Loneliness is more  about the company that we would like to have and do not have, the  discrepancy between the way things are and the way we would like them to  be. 

Enduring loneliness can be both a cause and a  consequence of mental ill health. The Psalmist is lonely and afflicted,  distressed, and troubled. In Psalm 25, loneliness is associated with  troubles of the heart or, as we might say, depression and anxiety. Pain  and trauma can create, and perpetuate, our feelings of loneliness. We  can feel abandoned even when others are trying to show that they care.  We may feel that others do not understand what we are going through. 

The Psalmist turns to God for help, and asks that  God will turn to him. Prayer is not a magic solution for loneliness.  Nonetheless, like the Psalmist, we can be honest before God; there is no  need to pretend. We turn to God for God’s sake, not simply to ask him  to fix things. God is always there, even if it does feel as though he  has turned away. When feeling lonely, turning to God, and asking God to  turn to you, is not a bad place to start.