When I was in seminary, one of the conversations which filled our late night "bull sessions" often went something like this:

"If you could hang out with Jesus – I mean, if he were to be here, in this room with us right now – what would you ask him?"

Think about it yourselves for a moment.

What would you ask Jesus?

I’m ashamed to say, none of our responses included the request to teach us to pray.

Our responses tended to fall into two categories, one reflective of individual or collective pain, issues in our circle of family and friends or the world, which we wanted eased, corrected, fixed; and the other cognitive, a seeking to sort out and understand theological constructs or explain contradictions, ambiguities, troubling concepts: basically, exegete this teaching.

To wit, on the painful side:

"Please! Bring an end to warfare, violence, disease. Fix the world. Eliminate poverty. Restore righteousness. Get rid of tyrants, dictators, injustice. In other words, make this world a paradise; make your kingdom come NOW!"

Or, more specifically: "Help!" followed by the myriad of personal pleas for jobs, healing from disease, freedom from poverty or oppression, liberation from bondage to mental illness, substance abuse, even death, etc.

AND, on the theological side:

Certainly when you say "love your enemies," you can’t possibly mean someone like Hitler, or Osama Bin Laden, or Sadam Hussein, can you? Surely not people who are truly evil?!

Or, what is your position on "just war"? When you say "blessed are the peacemakers" – aren’t there times when it is necessary for soldiers to be peacemakers?

And so on.

Theologians have certainly been having these conversations among themselves for centuries, speculating upon Jesus’ response, trying to figure out how one position or another squares with what we know about – or, at least, what we interpret of – Jesus’ teachings, with what it means to be a Christian.

And today Jesus’ disciples have just the opportunity we’ve been talking about, perhaps even longing for: they’re hanging out with Jesus, and they ask: Lord, teach us to pray.

Lord, teach us to pray: what kind of request is that?! When there are so many other things they could have asked! At the very least they could have asked for the secret to casting out demons, or for feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. (That would certainly solve the problem of world hunger, at least!)

But: Lord, teach us to pray?

Why that particular request?

The disciples have been following Jesus for a while. Yes, they’ve seen and heard him do many wondrous things: preach and teach; fill nets with fish; heal and feed.

But they cannot have failed to notice, also, that whatever else he is doing, Jesus prays:

Jesus prays un-self-consciously, and regularly; indeed, his prayer life is integrated into everything else that he does. It is intrinsic to who he is.

The disciples must sense the power that prayer has for Jesus.

They must sense that something life-giving is occurring in these times he takes with God.

What is it about the way he prays that seems to infuse him with so much of God? So much power and presence?

Perhaps this is something available to them, as well?

And so they ask.

Jesus’ reply may surprise them.

Instead of prayer a set of rules, Jesus gives them a radically new way of praying.

Jesus offers them prayer-as-relationship.

Prayer as relationship!

It sounds simple enough – and yet prayer itself has always seemed to carry so much "baggage," to be a mystery, an unattainable skill, measurable in "right’s" and "wrong’s." The one comment I hear more than any other is that "I don’t know how to pray," as though there is a secret to what happens.

And so, Jesus’ response to the disciples bears a closer look.

Notice how he takes the whole idea of prayer out of the arena of performance, of formula, and speaks of relationship.

When you pray, he begins, say: "Abba" – Father. Some people have looked at the Aramaic word "Abba" and see it more inclusive than "Father" – translating it as "Father-Mother God." Some people argue that conceptualizing God as "parent" is off-putting for people who have been abused by their own parents. Yes, we can split hairs – this would be fodder for one of those all-night theological bull-sessions! – but the point is, – in calling God "Abba" Jesus is identifying God as loving and intimate, a God who is in relationship with the person who prays: God is someone who loves you – and whom you love in return.

hallowed be your name: Hallowed. Holy. Imagine! An intimate relationship with the Holy! In Jewish thought, the holy was to be feared. You kept your distance from the holy – it was dangerous! The Temple in Jerusalem had a "Holy of Holies," a residing place for God into which only the great high priest could enter, and that only once a year, on Yom Kippur. It was so frightening to approach the Holy that the Great High Priest tied a rope around his ankle so that if God struck him dead, someone could pull him out of this "Holy of Holies" without endangering his own life!

And Jesus is telling us that we, each of us, can be in intimate relationship with the Holy!

Instead of fearing the Holy, we can embrace it!

Your kingdom come: We express our desire to live in a Holy world, in God’s world, a world of justice, love, and peace. Notice we don’t ask God to make it happen: we simply align our own desires with God’s for the coming of this kingdom.

Give us each day our daily bread: Feed us with what will sustain us: bread, strength, courage, love, compassion, relationship. We ask for a daily portion of that which is life-giving. We don’t ask for a life-time supply; we aren’t greedy; we don’t hoard. We trust God’s constancy and provision. With enough for today, feed us.

And forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us: Again, Jesus has us pray our relationships. Just as sin comes between us and God, interfering with our relationship, so, too, does sin – all those things we say or do – or neglect to say or do! – come between us and others, interfering with those relationships. An inability to ask for – or to give – forgiveness perpetuates broken relationships and prevents the life giving process of God’s kingdom. We ask not only for our own forgiveness, for healing, but for our capacity to forgive and to heal.

And do not bring us to the time of trial. Keep us safe. We express our confidence that this intimate and holy God who loves us does not want us to come to harm. The time of trial may come for us – but it will not be God who is the agent of that trial.

How glad we can all be that the disciples made that request of Jesus!

Lord, I want the life-giving relationship you have with God!

What must I do?

One thing we know about relationships, of course, is that they don’t exist in a vacuum.

To have a relationship, one must reach out, connect, be in contact with the other party to the relationship.

Prayer is the way we reach out to connect with God.

Prayer is our part of the relationship. It is the way we love the God who loves us.

Prayer also enables us to sense God’s presence in our lives, God’s constancy, God’s availability to us.

Oh, Holy and Life-giving God!

Here I am again… Can we talk?

Of course!

God is always glad to hear from us!

Amen.