Thoughts

The Lord’s Prayer (and prayer in general) really only make sense inside a life that’s involved in God’s life. A life in relationship with God and on mission with God.

If prayer seems superfluous to your life, it’s likely that you lack a sufficient sense of being on mission with God. If you don’t really need to pray, you tend not to pray. Dallas Willard said that trying to claim the promises of Jesus without intentionally following Jesus is like trying to cash a check written out to someone else: it only works sporadically. The great and precious promises are for disciples.

Following Jesus as a disciple always leads us beyond our (merely human) capacities. He leads us beyond our reliance on “flesh” and into faith, which is participation in God’s life and partnership in God’s work through the power of the Holy Spirit. This kind of life naturally leads us into the vitality and necessity of prayer.

If prayer has gotten a bit stale, if you find yourself not wanting to pray, perhaps there is a step of obedience you’ve been avoiding? Where is God leading you to step out in faith, trusting him beyond what you can accomplish in your own strength?

For me, prayer hasn’t felt “warm and tingly” for quite a while, but at the same time, I find it to be more and more vital for me. If I miss a few days because I’m traveling, for instance, I notice my soul shriveling ever so slightly. So even though I’m not feeling super “energized” or excited by prayer, I seem to be receiving something on a deeper level that I can’t fully explain.

And so it causes me to want to return to the well of prayer every morning and evening. It has become daily sustenance for me. Not a luxury but a necessity. I am more aware than I used to be of my complete inability to do anything of worth in God’s kingdom in my flesh.

A sense of being on mission with God keeps me aware of my need for God, and prayer keeps me connected to the Source of my life.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Several years ago my mother began a practice of always giving money to the homeless and poor people she encounters on the street. She told me she used to worry that they might use it to buy drugs or alcohol, and that she would feel responsible for their bad choices. But at some point she felt convicted that she didn’t need to track how they were spending the money she gave. Her giving money to the poor was a simple act of mercy, and it reflected God’s heart. So she carries cash around now and gives it to the poor and homeless whenever she happens to meet them.

According to Jesus, giving to the poor is storing up treasure in heaven, no matter what they do with what you give. In God’s economy, a gift to the poor is a beautiful, secure investment, not for yourself individually, but for all God’s people collectively and eschatologically.

Kingdom goods are are held communally because all of us trust the King to distribute justly and abundantly. We have no need of private ownership and control of our resources, since we have relinquished control to the King who does what is right.

This is why wealth is so dangerous to faith. Possessing great wealth, stored away in barns bank accounts, inexorably draws your heart toward it. And being drawn toward protecting and growing your privately-owned wealth is always being drawn away from the poor, and away from God.

This is freedom, then. Freedom to give everything away, if need be, since we are so confident in God’s care and provision for us. Free to provide abundantly for our brothers and sisters, for the poor, since we all share in God’s abundance together. If you need something, and I possess it, to hold it back from you for any reason would frankly be unthinkable, since we are organically connected as one Body.

Late capitalism would try and convince us that we are individuals who only interact with other individuals when we choose to do so. But Jesus reminds us that we are all more connected than we realize, on every level. So giving to the poor is storing up treasure in heaven, for all of us. Standing in solidarity with the poor, treating them as our own body, is to be with Jesus. I want more of that in my life and in my church.

“My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

This is Jesus’ response to those who tell him his family is outside wanting to have a chat with him. Normally I think of this little vignette in terms of Jesus’ redefinition of family, and the challenge it represents to our culture, which has romanticized the family, etc.

But today when I read it, I was struck instead by the fact that I’m part of this family that Jesus is creating. Jesus calls me his brother, his kin, because I’m trying to hear God’s word and put it into practice.

Jesus looks at me and sees the family resemblance. He recognizes his Father’s presence and work in my life. He joyfully embraces me as his brother.

“You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.”

This little phrase is a warning from God to his people repeated several times in Deuteronomy 12 as they are about to take possession of the promised land.

I was struck that the warning isn’t about the object of worship but the way of worship. It’s important to worship Yahweh, but if you attempt to worship Yahweh in their way, you’ll end up resisting and rebelling against Yahweh (all while imagining you’re worshiping Yahweh!).

I wonder if this is basically where we’ve arrived in the North American church (in general). We’re trying to worship the Lord our God in the way of the world. We are trying to slap a Jesus sticker on “all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates.”

Like what? Well,

• The way of the world is to worship celebrities. We’ve tried to leverage celebrity on behalf of God.
• The way of the world is to fear and exclude and dehumanize those who are different. We’ve rallied our congregations around the fear of the other.
• The way of the world is to seek domination over others. We’ve tried to curry favor with those in political power, hoping to leverage that power on behalf of securing our privilege.

In doing so, we’ve abandoned true worship of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and instead have begun to worship idols painted to look like Jesus.

We call ourselves Christians but fear and hate immigrants and refugees who come to us in need. We fawn over the rich and beautiful and seek their favor. We scheme for control and domination. We crucify Christ all over again.

“You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.”

So what is God’s way? Jesus Christ. We worship God by following Jesus and learning from him as his disciples. By allowing our praise to extend not just to our lips but into our lives. By allowing the Spirit to shape us into a people that are recognizably the Body of Christ. By learning to receive and embody the very life of God in all its fullness.

Then we will be those worshipers whom the Father seeks: those who worship in spirit and truth. Those who worship the Lord our God in the Lord our God’s way.