A 2022 report done by the Mental Health Million Project at Sapien labs found that people between the ages of 18-24 became fixated with one or more celebrities at 12 times the rate of their parents’ generation.

The first shall be last and the last first (Matthew 20:16)

Blessed are the meek and poor (Matthew 5)

Go and tell no one that I have healed you - Various scriptures

“Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.” -Luke 9:58 (MSG)

An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.” - Luke 9:46-48

God’s invitation is for everyday ordinary people to join him in the renewal of our world.

1. Prophet Defined: The prophets are messengers sent by God to call the People of God back to covenantal or relational faithfulness.

2. Covenant Defined: The Old Testament Covenant was an agreement between God and Israel. When a covenant is broken, the relationship is broken, and there is fallout from the broken relationship.

3. Good News: God does not just leave the people in their brokenness. He works to restore his relationship with them, the covenant through the prophets. He helps them learn to live in his new kingdom.

A few things about the book of Joel-

• There is no explicit indication of when it was written. People believe it was written during the time period of Ezra-Nehemiah after Israel’s return from exile during and after Jerusalem's destruction.

• Joel is also different because he refers to many of the other prophets.

• Joel never accuses Israel of a particular sin.

Joel teaches us that as everyday ordinary people we join God in the renewal of our world by:

• Changing our lives, not just our clothes

• Coming back to our God

• Receiving the Spirit

Change your life, not just your clothes

“Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God!” - Joel 1:13

“A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” - Galatians 6:7-9

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” -Joel 2:12-13

“Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!” 13–14 Change your life, not just your clothes.” -Joel 2:12-13 MSG

Come back to God again and again

“It is the task of the prophet to stand up in such moments of catastrophe and clarify who God is and how he acts.” - Eugene Peterson

“Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!” 13–14 Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God, your God. And here’s why: God is kind and merciful. He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot, This most patient God, extravagant in love, always ready to cancel catastrophe. Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now, maybe he’ll turn around and show pity. Maybe, when all’s said and done, there’ll be blessings full and robust for your God!” -Joel 2:12-14 (MSG)

In Exodus 34, Moses encountered the God of Israel and wrote– “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” –Exodus 34:6.

In Psalm 108, David, Israel’s most famous king, declares– “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.” –Psalm 108:3–4.

The apostle John writes- “God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” –1 John 4:8-9.

Receive the Spirit

“And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants” - Joel 2:28-29

Spiritual Practice

• Suggestion 1: Some of us really need to work on changing our lives, not just our clothes.

• Suggestion 2: Some of us need to work on really knowing who God is.

• Suggestion 3: Some of us need to be open and receptive to the leading of the Spirit.

1. The prophets are messengers sent by God to call the People of God back to covenantal faithfulness. God is consistently faithful to his people, even when we fall short.

2. The Old Testament Covenant was an agreement between God and Israel. When a covenant is broken, the relationship is broken, and there is fallout from the broken relationship.

3. The prophet's invitation is to reflect and restore a broken covenant, coming back in relationship with God and restoring the faithfulness of Israel to the covenantal relationship.

4. When the covenant is restored, the people live as God has called them to live. They understand their calling as Kingdom people and live in that kingdom reality.

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” Hosea 1:2

And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a bussell of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” Hosea 3:1-3

A Marriage:

God has chosen us from the beginning of time. He has pursued us.

Adultery:

The world was very chaotic around Hosea. Israel was split into two kingdoms. They were referred to the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. Hosea was from and lived in the Northern Kingdom. Kings of Israel kept getting assassinated. The Assiarians were pressuring the nation of Israel. So Israel had the choice to follow God or the gods of the nations around them.

Baal was the god of life and fertility. This is ironic because Baal was a false God. The people had the real God all along but chose to seek the other.

Illustration:

The cactus is a very hardy plant. It can survive extreme weather. Going from Cold to intense heat. All the cactus needs is a little water and Sun. It can not live without the Sun. What kills the Cacti is over watering. We are the same. All we need is God. But we tend to fill our lives with other things to take the place of God. We over water ourselves. We are committing Adultery to God when we try to replace him.

Restoration:

The story of Hosea does not dwell on the actions of Gomer. The story dwells on God's actions through Hosea. Buying his wife back. Cleaning her up. Restoring her.

Gomer is a picture of us.

Hosea is a picture of our God.

He will do whatever it takes to restore her to himself, even if she currently has no intention of changing her ways. - Eric J Tully

Each time you fall He’ll pick you up. He knows your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection - CS Lewis

Other examples of restoration: David, Peter, Barnabas, Paul

Spiritual Practice:

We are not perfect, we have not arrived. One of the biggest lies today is we don't have to change. We do have to change EVERYDAY.

Abide in Christ

Accept the Forgiven Life

Prioritize a Jesus Community

Ordinary time is what we call the months that are not included in the major seasons of feasting or fasting in the church calendar, such as Advent, Lent, and Easter.

“[an] intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, a life out of death, a life that trumps death, a life that is the last word, Jesus-life.” – Eugene Peterson

Most of our life with Jesus is lived in the ordinary time.

John 14-17 is known as the farewell discourse.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. –John 14:15-17

Jesus promises that if his followers seek to obey him, they will experience a Familiar Presence in every moment of life.

“God’s Empowering Presence.” – Gordon Fee

This passage emphasizes two major themes; (1) the guidance of the Spirit, and (2) the Presence of the Spirit.

The Spirit guides us.

V. 15 – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

V.21 – Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

V. 23– If anyone loves me, he will keep my word,

The good news is that he sends the Spirit to help us.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” –John 16:13–14

“the Spirit, above all else, carries on Jesus’ mission and mediates his presence… The personal functions of the Spirit are also the functions of Jesus in the rest of the book, and the sensitive reader cannot miss the connection.” – Craig Keener

Action aimed at the love of God and Neighbor is the unmistakable mark of the Spirit of Jesus.

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. – John 14:18-21

The Spirit is not a substitute for our Lord but is the real thing.

The manifest presence of God is made available to all the people of God.

The scriptures time and time again reveal God’s desire to be with his people– to dwell in our midst.

Jesus’ invitation is to wake up to his presence in every moment of life.

“Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” – John 14:22–23.

The God of the cosmos has decided to take up residence in each of his followers.

“The most effective way Brother Lawrence had for communicating with God was to simply do his ordinary work. He did this obediently, out of a pure love of God, purifying it as much as was humanly possible. He believed it was a serious mistake to think of our prayer time as being different from any other. Our actions should unite us with God when we are involved in our daily activities, just as our prayers unite us with him in our quiet devotions.” – Brother Lawrence

“Love turns work into rest.” ― Teresa of Avila

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” –Matthew 11:28–30 (The Message)

Spiritual Practice: Pay Attention.

“If you are home alone with small children whose needs give you little uninterrupted time, then you don’t need an hour of private prayer daily. Raising small children, if it is done with love and generosity, will do for you exactly what private prayer does.”– Ronald Rolheiser

A life lived in love and awareness to God is prayer.

“In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.” ― Brother Lawrence

The simple takeaway is that to come to know his presence, we must think of him often.

Pray the simple and ancient prayer– “Come Holy Spirit”.

We are blessed enough to often be surrounded by easily accessible and drinkable water. Water, as we all know, is pretty essential not only for human life, but life in general on this planet. But water, as we read in our Scripture this morning, is also essential to the life of a believer. Jesus said that we are to be born of both water AND Spirit. But like Nicodemus on that night, it can be hard to wrap our heads around what this looks like and how we can live it out. So, let’s talk about baptism together this morning. We will do this by tracing the beautiful relationship God has with water throughout Scripture and how it is used.

1. Our God defeated death; The central message of our faith is that Jesus died, was buried, and came back to life in the flesh.

2. Easter is everything. More than a day or a celebration of Spring, Easter is the climax of the Christian story. It is God’s invitation to belong to a new world, his kingdom.

3. We practice resurrection.

Water and Baptism Throughout the Bible:

We're going to DIVE straight in at Genesis and trace baptism through the unified story of Scripture. When the Story of Scripture begins, we find God and water already being intertwined. Gen 1:2 tells us that,

“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

The Spirit of Our God is near the water, ready to begin the work of bringing the world out of chaos and into Holy order through the act of creation. It shows a very special relationship between God and water, a relationship that we will continue to explore as we move through the Old Testament.

Now, we go to Exodus. We see Moses, the first priest and prophet of Israel bringing the People of God out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. As they are walking, they encounter the Red Sea. A massive body of water that stands between them and Pharaoh’s pursuing army. Yet, God instructs Moses to use his staff to part the waters. Moses wades out into the water and lifts the staff, and when it touches the water, WOOSH! The People of God walk through on dry land to the other side, safe from Pharaoh’s final threat and continuing to Mt. Siani where they would receive the Ten Commandments, the foundation to their lives as God’s covenantal community.

This covenant with Almighty God would bring them into a whole new identity, a covenantal identity. And this began with WATER. Though it is not the typical dunking we may think of, many theologians, including one of our favorites to quote here at Midtown, NT Wright, speak of how this significance cannot be ignored when speaking about God’s relationship with water and baptism throughout Scripture.

BUT it does not end there. We then move to the book of Joshua. Israel must again cross a body of water. This time it’s the Jordan River. And the Jordan is not just at a normal level, it is flooding. The water is roaring through the Holy Land. But God tells His people in Joshua 3 to take the Ark of the Covenant before them and the water will dry up so they may cross. And sure enough,

“The water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan…” Joshua 3:16

And then, hundreds of years later, a locust-eating, camel skin wearing fella called John the Baptist comes along. John is out in the wilderness, just like Israel was, calling the people of God to repentance, just like the prophets did. Luke 3 tells us that John is out here baptizing all sorts of people. And then, Jesus comes along. While John is baptizing, Jesus asks to be baptized as well. And Luke paints the picture here.

“And as he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:21-22

Jesus, the Son of God Himself, gets baptized. And once again, the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters. The Order of God is once again going to be established. And where is this happening? The JORDAN RIVER! The same place where the covenantal People of God entered the promised land is where the establisher of the New Covenant is now baptized WITH Israel in the Jordan. Scripture is like a beautiful poem that loves to rhyme.

The Great Commission:

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20

The Book of Acts:

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:38-39

“Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” Acts 8:36

“At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.” Acts 16:33

Baptism Explored:

Baptism is first and foremost about the community that is formed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Baptism is not only an isolated event for the individual to recognize the choice that they have made to belong to Jesus’s Kingdom. When we gather around a newly baptized individual, there is participation from the entire family of God.

Baptism is MORE than a private transaction. In our hyper-individualistic world, baptism is more counter cultural than ever because it is something WE do together as a family. It is not a simple act of piety by an individual but a welcoming of that individual into the much larger family of God. It is something that involves all of us TOGETHER.

Just like you are only born once, you only come into the house once. God is faithful even when we are not. Even when we lack a full understanding, when we stray away from the family house, God honors the covenant He has made. Our God is not one to abandon. He is a God of solidarity, who honors and stands with His people, even when they don’t stand with Him.

Even you who were baptized as infants, I believe our God honors that. NT Wright, along with several other of my favorite theologians were all baptized as children in Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopal traditions. I don’t have a problem with them or when they were baptized. I recognize their baptism, and I believe God does as well.

We recognize all baptism is believers’ baptism because belief is something we do TOGETHER as the family of God. When you were baptized as a baby, your blood relatives, and your church, committed themselves to raising you in the Christian faith. And as your church family now, we promise to honor that commitment and carry that responsibility together.

When we say the Creeds, we do it together. When we confess the mystery of our faith, we do it together. And when one of us is baptized, WE DO IT TOGETHER. Our community is one that invites the individual to make our shared faith their own. It always revolves around community.

The act of being baptized itself is an identification with our Lord Jesus. We go under the water, baptized into his death and rise with him in his glorious resurrection.

Whenever we doubt our place in the family of God, those physical acts, these beautiful practices that we engage in regularly are here to remind us that God never doubts our place in His house or in His family. When we feel the water, when we see the bread and cup, when we hear the splashing, or smell the body and blood, it is a holistic way of reminding our body, all of our senses, as well as our heart and mind that we belong to God and He welcomes us into His family. Baptism reminds us of our identity HOLISTICALLY so in those moments of doubt, it brings us back to the water to remind us of the faithfulness of God and our identity as His People.

Application:

Baptism:

We want to baptize you if you have not been baptized already! And we are going to be having a baptism class coming up that you can sign up for this year so we can walk you through the process of baptism.

Remembering Our Baptism:

I would invite you to take some intentional time to contemplate your own baptism. Remember where it was, who was with you, how it felt. Allow the Spirit to bring those memories and feelings to your mind so you can reflect upon them as we approach the table of the Lord together.

And I would encourage you to visit that place once again. That church, that pool, that river, wherever. Go again and sit in that space, dip your hand in the water, and be reminded of just how faithful our God has been to you as you have journeyed forward as a part of His house.

Even this week, when you see water, when you fill up that bottle or mug you brought this morning, or even when you’re cleaning up a puddle after your kids have spilled something, be reminded of the Scripture’s we read this morning. Invite the Holy Spirit to hover over the waters once again. Let us be reminded of the sacredness of water, of how God has used it, and how we now reside in our Faithful Father House as His baptized people.

“[Loneliness is] proven to be worse for health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.” - Mark Robinson

The CDC states on their website that there is a strong correlation between loneliness and increased health risks for those over the age of 50:

• Social isolation significantly increased a person’s risk of premature death from all causes, a risk that may rival those of smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity.

• Social isolation was associated with about a 50% increased risk of dementia.

• Poor social relationships (characterized by social isolation or loneliness) was associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke.

• Loneliness was associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.

Gallup states, “Experiencing significant loneliness is entangled in a larger global issue of mental health and emotional wellbeing. Recent Gallup research estimates that over 300 million people globally don’t have a single friend, and one in five don’t have friends or family that they can count on when needed.”

According to a Gallup poll conducted in January of 2023, 17% or 44 million American adults experienced significant loneliness, reporting they felt lonely “a lot of the day yesterday.”

Young adults under the age of 30 account for 24% or around 10 million adults who experience severe loneliness in America.

David Brooks, opinion writer for the New Yorker, argues that we have shifted from identity politics that emphasize our common humanity to identity politics that emphasize a common enemy.

To follow Jesus is to be community, to have friends.

Practicing Resurrection:

1. Our God defeated death; The central message of our faith is that Jesus died, was buried, and came back to life in the flesh (Mark 16:9, John 20:18, Matthew 28:9, Luke 24:34, Luke 24:13-31, John 20:19 and 26, John 21:1, etc.).

2. Easter is everything. More than a day or a celebration of Spring, Easter is the climax of the Christian story. It is God’s invitation to belong to a new world, his kingdom.

3. We practice resurrection. In the words of Eugene Peterson, “The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, a life out of death, a life that trumps death, a life that is the last word, Jesus-life.”

“The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” - Matthew 10:2-4

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35

“This is where we as Christians have such a beautiful story to tell. They will know you are Christians, how? By being friends.” - Professor Dan Hasse

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. - John 15:12-27

“The named people remind us that the resurrection takes place among men and women like us—puzzled, bewildered, confused, questioning, and even stubbornly doubting friends. And yes, also singing and believing and praying and obeying friends.” - Eugene Peterson

To follow Jesus is to be in community, to have friends.

2 Barriers, 3 Suggestions:

1. Barrier 1: Hurt

2. Barrier 2: Hiding

3. Suggestion 1: Intentionality

4. Suggestion 2: Trust

5. Suggestion 3: Hospitality

Rosaria Butterfield: “In a post-Christian community, words can only be as strong as your relationships. Your best weapon is an open door, a set table, a fresh pot of coffee, and a box of Kleenex.”

“The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, a life out of death, a life that trumps death, a life that is the last word, Jesus-life.” – Eugene Peterson

The moment we reside in is becoming increasingly post-Christian.

In his work Sickness unto Death, Phillip Reiff divided Western history into three phases or what he calls “worlds;” I think his summary is helpful in understanding the moment we find ourselves.

The First World is the Pre-Christian World.

This is a pagan culture with a pantheon of gods, and spiritual creatures hiding behind every bush. The culture pushes towards belief in an enchanted reality.

The Second World is the Christian World.

To be clear there has never been a Christian culture. What Rieff argues is that the cultural momentum of this Second World pushed one toward Christian institutions. In this world, it is economically, politically, and socially expedient to be “Christian”.

The Third World as Rieff imagined was Post-Christian.

This isn’t a world that has moved on from Christianity; in so much as it is reacting against Christianity.

To be post-Christian is to become increasingly unaware of those origins, and to react against Christianity.

“Let’s face it: we have become unwelcome guests in this post-Christian world. Our children ride their scooters in neighborhoods where conservative [orthodox] Christianity is dismissed or denounced as irrelevant, irrational, discriminatory, and dangerous. Many of us go to work in places where sensitivity training has become an Orwellian nightmare… Christian common sense is declared ‘hate speech’ by the new keepers of this culture. The old rules don’t apply anymore. Many Christians genuinely do not know what to say to their unbelieving neighbors. The language and the logic have changed almost overnight.” –Rosaria Butterfield

“He [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for [Jesus] was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” –Luke 19:1–10.

Israel is an occupied territory, under the oppression of the Roman Empire. A Roman tax collector was one that collected exorbitantly-high Roman taxes, sometimes up to 50% from his friends, family, neighbors, and fellow Jews.

“To stay in such a person’s home was tantamount to sharing in his sin.”– I. Howard Marshall

But throughout the ministry of Jesus, he is consistently criticized for who he shares meals.

“…the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable…” Luke 15:2–3 (ESV)

Throughout his Gospel, Luke presents meals as one of Jesus’ basic strategies for mission. (Luke 5:27–32; 7:36-50; 9: 13-16; 22:7-23; 24:13-33)

Three types of meals that we, as apprentices of Jesus, are invited to;

1. A meal with God.

2. A meal with family.

3. A meal with the lost.

A Meal with God:

In the pattern of the early church, and in response to Jesus’ instructions to “do this in remembrance of me” we center our community gatherings around a table and partaking in the Meal that Jesus gave us.

Christ has invited us to share a meal with Him; a meal that is now infused with His story, His power, and His hospitality–it is first and foremost the meal that Jesus gave us.

A Meal with Family:

When we confess Jesus as Lord, we join the family of the redeemed. A divine household that transcends space and time, culture, nationality, and ethnicity.

When we come together as the family of God, in microchurches, we declare that we are a new family learning to live as God’s people.

A Meal with the Lost:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” –Luke 19:10.

Jesus’ invitation is for any who find themselves wandering and lost to be adopted by God the Father and to find a home in the Family of God.

It is a beautiful invitation that often begins with a meal.

“In a post-Christian community, words can only be as strong as your relationships. Your best weapon is an open door, a set table, a fresh pot of coffee, and a box of Kleenex.” –Rosea Butterfield

Practicing the meal(s)

1. Resist idealizing meals.

2. Hospitality is a posture, not a resource.

3. We are nourished for our mission by partaking of meals with God and family.

Practicing Resurrection:

• Our God defeated death.

• Easter changes everything.

• We practice resurrection.

“The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, a life out of death, a life that trumps death, a life that is the last word, Jesus-life.” -Eugene Peterson

“26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth…”28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it… 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good… 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” - Genesis 1:26-2:3

Things we learn from the creation account:

1. Work is not bad.

2. God rested.

3. We were meant for rest- it is part of our identity.

Egyptian economy of work found in Exodus 5:

v. 4 Pharaoh says, “[W]hy are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labors!”

v. 7-8 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it, for they are lazy.”

v. 9 “Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labor at it and pay no attention to deceptive words.”

v. 10-11 “I will not give you straw. Go and get straw yourselves, wherever you can find it; but your work will not be lessened in the least.”

v. 14 “Why did you not finish the required quantity of bricks yesterday and today, as you did before?”

v. 17-19 “You are lazy, lazy; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Go now, and work; for no straw will be given you but you shall still deliver the same number of bricks.”

God’s economy:

“8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” -Exodus 20:8-11

“There are limits to how much and how long slaves must produce bricks! There are limits to how much food Pharaoh can store and consume and administer. The limit is set by the weekly work pause that breaks the production cycle. And those who participate in it break the anxiety cycle. They are invited to awareness that life does not consist in frantic production and consumption that reduces everyone else to threat and competitor. And as the work stoppage permits a waning of anxiety, so energy is redeployed to the neighborhood. The odd insistence of the God of Sinai is to counter anxious productivity with committed neighborliness. The latter practice does not produce so much; but it creates an environment of security and respect and dignity that redefines the human project.” - Walter Brueggemann

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” - Mark 2:27-28

“The brilliance of sabbath is not so much in sabbath keeping but in sabbath keeping us.” -Rich Villodas

“Sabbath is not primarily about us or how it benefits us. It is about God and how God forms us. It is not, in the first place, about what we do or don’t do. It’s about God completing and resting and blessing and sanctifying. These are all things that we don’t know much about. They are beyond us, but they are not beyond our recognition and participation. Sabbath does, however, mean stopping and being quiet long enough to see, open-eyed with wonder—resurrection wonder.” - Eugene Peterson

Sabbath: a 24 hour period every week to stop, delight, and worship.

“Sabbath moves us from production to presence. Sabbath is not just a rest from making things; it is rest from making something of ourselves.” - Rich VIllodas

“People who keep Sabbath live all seven days differently.” - Walter Brueggemann

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.” -Hebrews 4:9-11

“if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and…. we are of all people most to be pitied.” –1 Corinthians 15:17, 19

To be culturally disenchanted

In Taylor's work The Secular Age, Taylor suggests that in the past 200 years, we have told, and been told a disenchanted story.

Living out a disenchanted story is not just giving up on believing in the supernatural; it includes a sense that science and technology have an explanation for every question we may ever ask.

“You never understand everything. When one understands everything, one has gone crazy.” – Phillip Anderson

“You think that [humans]--can figure it all out? This to me seems so crazy! It cannot possibly be true! What they figured out is one particular response to their actions, and this response gives this universe, and the reality that is behind this is laughing! ‘Ha ha! They think they have found me out!”–Paul Feyerabend

Disenchanted stories leave us desperate for answers to all of our questions– and only leave us left with a sense of emptiness.

And is it possible that in telling this disenchanted story we’ve lost something essential?

Might it be that the story of Easter is an invitation to a life of wonder?

“The women who had come with [Jesus] from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment. – Luke 23:55-56

24 “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” – Luke 24:1-3

“4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” – Luke 24:4-5

To their shock, instead of the body of their King– they are greeted by two heavenly messengers with a question that will rock them to their core– “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

“6 He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” – Luke 24:6-7

“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” –Luke 24:26–27.

The Bible is a library of ancient writings, of both divine and human origin, that tell a unified story that leads to Jesus.

“all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.” – Romans 3:23

The Resurrection is Jesus' victory over death, sin, and the Evil one.

“The good news is that the one true God has now taken charge of the world, in and through Jesus and his death and resurrection. The ancient hopes have indeed been fulfilled, but in a way nobody imagined. God’s plan to put the world right has finally been launched. The ancient sickness that had crippled the whole world, and humans with it, has been cured at last, so that new life can rise up in its place. Life has come to life and is pouring out like a mighty river into the world, in the form of a new power, the power of love. The good news was, and is, that all this has happened in and through Jesus; that one day it will happen, completely and utterly, to all creation; and that we humans, every single one of us, whoever we are, can be caught up in that transformation here and now. This is the Christian Gospel. Do not allow yourself to be fobbed off with anything else.” – NT Wright

“And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.” –Luke 24:8-12

θαυμάζω | thaumazō

1. marvel

2. be atonished

3. wonder

Luke’s strange tale of Easter has wonder right at its center.

1. The women were perplexed by the empty tomb…

2. The women were frightened by the appearance of the angels

3. Peter went home marveling, [in wonder] at what had happened…

   “The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, a life out of death, a life that trumps death, a life that is the last word, Jesus-life.” –Eugene Peterson

Cultivating a Sense of Wonder

1. Pay attention to Beauty.

2. Open yourself up to the gift of others.

3. Consider the Resurrected Christ.

Pastry Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer writes this, “I believe that it is possible to master a craft or a skill at home as long as you have two things: one will come from me, the other comes from you. I will give you the proper information and tools to allow you to understand how to execute a given recipe, but your contribution—the patience and persistence to work at it—is just as important. Many of you have learned to play an instrument, to knit a beautiful sweater, or to excel in a sport. You did not learn to play that Bach chorale well enough to play for an audience just by looking at the music on the page and playing it once. First you memorized the keys on the piano, then practiced scales, then played the piece and practiced it over and over and over again. When you learned to knit, you first mastered the different stitches and how to manipulate them, then you made a scarf before you tackled making a sweater. In pastry it’s the same: you must learn to make and pipe proper pâte à choux and pastry cream before you can make good éclairs.”

Elizabeth Dunn, freelance food writer, wrote this about “easy cooking” in the Atlantic, “The problem is that none of this is actually easy. Not the one-minute pie dough or the quick kale chips or the idiot-proof Massaman curry, every last ounce of which is made from scratch, from ingredients that are sourced and bought and lugged home and washed, peeled, chopped, mixed, and cooked…The decision to cook from scratch may have many virtues, but ease is not one of them.”

I forgot that French pastry is hard; it is not easy.

We have forgotten that anything worth mastering or worth having is often hard.

Life with Jesus is a journey to the cross. As we will see today, you cannot have resurrection life without death.

• Holy week begins with Palm Sunday, today, which signifies Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

• We then have Maundy Thursday, which is this Thursday, in which we reflect on Jesus’ service to the disciples as he washes their feet at the last supper.

• Good Friday occurs, as you guess it, on Friday. On this day we observe the death of Christ.

• Holy Saturday in which we observe Jesus’ time resting in the tomb.

• AND finally, Easter Sunday in which we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

Prior to the gospels, we have already read and witnessed the first three acts of the unified story of scripture

1. Creation- God creates a beautiful world and all that is in it, including us. He then designates us as his partners and collaborators in running that world.

2. Fall- Being that God built freedom into human nature and because humanity willingly made and continues to make poor choices, the world has gone horribly wrong.

3. Israel- Through the nation of Israel, God sought to save the world. However, Israel, much like all of humanity, continued to mess up. And thus through the prophets, God promises to send a Savior, a messiah, to save Israel from their self-destructive tendencies. These tendencies led Israel time and time again into enslavement. And this is where we find the Israelite people as we approach the gospels: oppressed by the Roman Empire and waiting for a king to rescue them.

We then learn of Jesus’ birth, the birth of a king that seems all wrong.

• Instead of being carried by a queen, he is carried in the womb of an unwed teenager.

• Instead of being born in a palace, he is born among animals.

• Instead of being greeted by the most esteemed of society, he is visited by shepherds.

Yes, the party will be wonderful as detailed in vv. 19-29:

• the gates of righteousness, the gate of the Lord, will open and let in the pilgrims;

• the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone;

• This is the day the Lord has made;

• blessed in the name of the Lord is the one who comes;

• give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Except, in the words of N. T. Wright, Jesus took Psalm 118 further and deeper. “His preparation for the ultimate festival meant that, having taken refuge in the Lord, he ended up crying out that God had forsaken him. He put his confidence in the Lord, but the princes strung him up anyway. He was pushed hard. and fell, and nothing happened except more beating. He was punished severely, and he was indeed given over to death.”

Dr. Joseph Nyguyen defines it as spiritual peace or wellbeing of the soul. It is freedom from having to have our lives turn out in a particular way. It is surrender. And this type of surrender says even if my life doesn't turn out the way I want it to, I will still trust. This doesn't mean we don't have desires or plans but rather we learn that our desires and plans do not run us.

1. Am I on this journey with Jesus in the hope that He will fulfill some of my hopes and desires?

2. Am I ready to sing a psalm of praise, but only as long as Jesus seems to be doing what I want?

3. Am I ready not only to spread my cloaks on the road in front of Him, to do the showy and flamboyant thing, but also now to follow Him into trouble, controversy, trial and death?

Three questions–

1. Why should we trust the Bible?

2. What is the Bible?

3. And how should we engage with the Bible?

Why should we trust the bible?

“Our trust in the Bible stems from our trust in Jesus Christ… I don’t trust in Jesus because I trust the Bible; I trust the Bible because I trust in Jesus. I love him, and I’ve decided to follow him, so if he talks and acts as if the Bible is trustworthy, authoritative, good, helpful and powerful, I will too… Even if some of my questions remain unanswered, or my answers remain unpopular.” – Andrew Wilson

We trust the bible because Jesus trusted the bible.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. – Matthew 5:17 ESV (emphasis added)

What is the Bible?

“[Christ’s] sayings were no repeal of the former [the Old Testament], but a drawing out and filling up of them.” – Chrysostom

The Bible is a library of ancient writings, of divine and human origin, that together tell a unified story that leads us to Jesus.

A Library of Ancient Writings

It is a collection of writings, with well over 60 authors spanning thousands of years, composed in several genres.

of Divine and Human Origins.

David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared…– Mark 12:36a.

The Bible’s origin is a divine and human collaboration– a perspective some have called the incarnational model of scripture.

A unified story

The bible can broadly condensed into three genres–

1. Narrative (44%)

2. Poetry (33%)

3. Discourse (23%)

A unified story of scripture in five parts–

1. Creation

2. Fall

3. Israel

4. Jesus

5. New Creation

That leads to Jesus.

“And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” – Luke 4:20-21 ESV

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me.”– John 5:39 ESV

How should we engage the bible?

Studying the Bible

• The Bible Project.

• Biblia.com,

• Biblical commentaries

• Study Bibles.

Being formed by the Bible.

Jesus’ imagination and thought patterns are so thoroughly saturated in the scriptures that he puts his suffering in the context of a longer story.

“When we submit our lives to what we read in scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God's. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.”― Eugene Peterson

There is no technique or strategy to shape by the Scripture, there is just a posture.

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” – Luke 12:15

“Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” – Luke 12:33

“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”– Matthew 19:24

American Gospel: the more we have the happier we will be, more stuff is what we need.

The French sociologist Jean Baudrillard argues that atheism hasn’t replaced Christianity, shopping has.

“When we lose our divine center- our source of security- we have an insane attachment to things.” –Soren Kierkegaard

The problem isn’t just stuff. It’s also the place that stuff occupies in our heart.

Problem 1: Inward Stuff

“No servant can serve two masters… You cannot love God and love money.” – Luke 16:13

“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort” – Luke 6:20,24

“where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21

Problem 2: Outward Stuff

“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” – Luke 12:15

“Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail.” – Luke 12:33

“Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – Matthew 6:25-33

Soren Kierkegaard reflects on how we are to pursue the kingdom of God in light of this passage saying- Should a person get a suitable job in order to exert a virtuous influence? His answer: no, we must first seek God’s kingdom. Then should we give away all our money to feed the poor? Again the answer: no, we must first seek God’s kingdom. Well, then perhaps we are to go out and preach this truth to the world that people are to seek first God’s kingdom? Once again the answer is a resounding: no, we are first to seek the kingdom of God. “Then in a certain sense it is nothing I shall do. Yes, certainly, in a certain sense it is nothing, become nothing before God, learn to keep silent; in this silence is the beginning, which is, first to seek God’s Kingdom.” – Soren Kierkegaard

One Solution: Seek FIRST the kingdom of God.

“[Christian simplicity] is an inward reality that can be seen in an outward lifestyle or choosing to leverage time, money, talents and possessions toward what matters most.”– Richard Foster & Mark Scandrette

Further Resources:

Celebration of Disciplines by Richard Foster

Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

4 Simplicity practices:

1. Think before you buy

2. Get into the habit of giving things away

3. Live by a budget

4. Cultivate a deep appreciation for the little things.

   “In everything, love simplicity.” – Saint Francis de Sales

As the Church of the West, we are far more familiar with the God of the mountaintop than the God of the wilderness. When suffering crashes into our lives we often wonder where God is, and Lent is an annual practice that teaches us to find His presence in our wilderness.

Word’s that describe silence: disruption, unsettled, agitated. Do those words come close to describing it? We don’t experience silence often.

When we leave this place, we are immediately greeted by the sounds of a large city. There are the mechanical whirling of automobiles, never ending construction, and the voices of the people going to and fro. In our cars, there is the constant beeping telling us that we really should put a seatbelt on that we drown out with our favorite sports commentator, podcast, or playlist. Or maybe you have a kid who does all the noise making you could ever need.

We can all empathize with the “white noise” of the world today whose volume knob has been turned all the way up to 11. On top of that, PEW research has shared that 22% of US adults struggle with feelings of loneliness during a typical week, which start rising exponentially with young kids, teens, and adults who regularly engage with things like social media.

Long story short, we have a world that does its best to drown out silence and medicate loneliness with noise. When we look at the world this way, it makes total sense why we would look at a period of silence with words like disruption, unsettled, and agitated. It is not something that comes naturally to us. And that is why, during the Lenten season, it is ever more important to talk about.

Confronting Comforting Loneliness:

We fear silence and we fear being alone.

The last person we want to be with is ourselves. We fear what will be uncovered. We fear the shadowy side of ourselves, the compilation of all of our worst traits that we know all too well. We fear the voice of the critic that brings forth accusations.

There is a time for silence and solitude, and a time for engaging back with the crowds.

Richard Foster, “Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.”

Christ Green, “We’ve made a world where it is easy to think that we can control what our experience is like all the time.”

That is the beauty of silence and solitude. It is where we enter into the mystery, the unknown, and realize that God is already there and has always been there. That is how we confront and sanctify loneliness.

Vision for New Horizons:

The Prophetic Imagination, a work by Walther Brueggemann describing how the prophets of the Old Testament had a two-pronged duty when trying to bring the people of God back into their roles as His covenant people when they had fallen astray. Now, when we hear the word “prophet,” you may think of several things: YouTube personalities screaming about an election or a recent event in the Middle East, crystal balls that predict future events, or even a bad movie depicting what they think the end times are going to be like. This is our culture’s view of prophecy, and though it can try to pass itself off as “Christian,” the reality of biblical prophecy is much deeper. When a messenger from God comes to His people, they have a lot more to say about God and His relationship with his church.

Prophetic Critique is the work of a prophet when they have to show people that things are not as they are supposed to be. This may include calling out things like idol worship, social and economic injustice, as well as periods of exile and wilderness.

Prophetic Energizing is when the prophet energizes the people of God for the work of ministry. If things are not as they should be, then we have work to do! We have wrongs to right. We have alternative kingdoms to live in!

This is where silence, solitude, and the prophetic imagination collide so beautifully. The New Testament tells us that we are not only a royal priesthood, but a prophetic people. When the Spirit descended at Pentecost, the same Spirit that emboldened the prophets for critique and energization entered the people of God. It is the same Spirit that we declare we believe in every Microchurch when we say the Apostle’s Creed. It is the same Spirit that is within us, guiding us as we go throughout our day to day.

Sense of Freedom:

John Mark Comer, “Anybody remember this? Waiting at a bus stop, stuck in traffic, sitting in the theater before a movie, in the back of a less-than-enthralling political science class with nothing for your mind to do but wander through the infinite realm of possibility? While it is easy to sentimentalize something as inane as boredom, none of us, honestly, wants to go back to a pre-digital world. We’re more efficient than ever. I get more done in less time than I ever dreamed possible a decade ago. But again, pros and cons. We now have access to infinity through our new cyborgesque selves, which is great, but we’ve also lost something crucial. All those little moments of boredom were potential portals to prayer. Little moments throughout our days to wake up to the reality of God all around us. To wake up to our own souls. To draw our minds’ attention (and with it, devotion) back to God; to come off the hurry drug and come home to awareness.”

There is so much freedom found when we can get off the hurry drug, or the white noise of normal, and come back to the reality of God all around us.

So, how do I practice silence and solitude?

First, let’s sanctify the small moments. Sanctify means “to make holy.” So when we say to sanctify the small moments, we mean to look for the small moments of quiet and invite God into them.

Second, make intentional time to practice silence and solitude. Find a closet, a park, or a breakroom to be a holy space where you can be alone with your Father in heaven who loves you. Find the time to cut out the white noise and look inward, to face the thoughts and impulses that we hid from everyone else and bring them before a compassionate God who knows just what it is like to do this whole human thing.

Finally, be ready for your silence and solitude to be interrupted.

John Mark Comer, “There are times when what you really need is alone time with Jesus, but, well, life happens. People happen. You set aside time to Sabbath or pray or just take a night off with no plan, but then you get a text from your boss, a minor crisis at work. Your two-year-old swallows a LEGO Kylo Ren. You Google ‘Closest emergency room.’ Your roommate had a bad day and could use a chat. Two hours later and they are still crying… Y’know, ordinary life stuff. Sound familiar? You ever feel like, try as you might, you just can’t get time to rest? You’re in good company with Jesus himself.”

As the Church of the West, we are far more familiar with the God of the mountaintop than the God of the wilderness. When suffering crashes into our lives we often wonder where God is, and Lent is an annual practice that teaches us to find His presence in our wilderness.

Eugene Peterson calls spiritual disciplines, like abstinence and fasting, “voluntary disaster”.

We live by phrases like, “the heart wants what the heart wants.”

The result is that we find ourselves in a wilderness of competing desires.

In the language of the New Testament, this is the tug-of-war between your flesh & spirit.

In Freudian thought, this is called the pleasure principle.

pleasure principle

1. is decision-making that works toward immediate gratification and avoidance of pain, in order to satisfy biological or psychological needs.

It is to do whatever feels good at the moment.

In the language of New Testament the pleasure principle, this move toward instant gratification, is called “the flesh.”

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh –Ephesians 2:1–3.

Fasting is the practice of going without food and drink(excluding water) for a period of time.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” –Genesis 3:1–6.

The fall of humanity is deeply connected to food; or more accurately, our inability to resist instant gratification.

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God –Galatians 5:19–21.

The Genesis narrative demonstrates that we have the propensity to abandon God’s best, in favor of a quick fix– instant gratification

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” – Matthew 4:1–4.

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” – Matthew 6:16–18 (ESV)

Jesus assumes his disciples will fast because it helps us fight the flesh and feed on the Spirit.

31b “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” –John 4:31–34.

“[Fasting] is body talk—not the body simply talking for the spirit, for the mind, or for the soul in some symbolic way, but for the person, the whole person, to express herself or himself completely. Fasting is one way you and I bring our entire selves into complete expression. The Bible, because it advocates clearly that the person—heart, soul, mind, spirit, body—is embodied as a unity, assumes that fasting as body talk is inevitable.”– Scot McKnight

“Fasting helps us to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain the Kingdom of God.” – Andrew Murray

But Jesus also assumes we will mess it up.

In the midst of Lent; we commit ourselves to fasting as we journey with Jesus toward the cross.

“Sometimes, the call is made to fasting, and sometimes to a feast.” – St. Athanasius

So, how do I practice fasting?*

1. Pick a day and try it

2. I suggest fasting (going without food and drink) twice a week for twelve or twenty-four hours.

3. I would also suggest working your way up to longer fasts.

4. This may not be drastically different than your normal busy life. The goal is to be intentional with it.

*If you’ve ever suffered from an eating disorder or live with a diagnosed medical condition, you should consult a doctor, therapist, or pastor prior to fasting. Fasting is a helpful practice given to us by Christ, but notice that fasting is not intended to harm the body. Rather, it is designed to bring the body and soul into alignment.

If you’ve suffered from an eating disorder it is our belief that you can experience healing. With time, community, and Spirit’s help– healing is possible.

How do we pray in seasons of wilderness or suffering?

First, we learn that Jesus suffered.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. –Isaiah 53:5

Second, we learn Jesus routinely responded to suffering with prayer.

Jesus prayed amidst grief

“10 [King Herod] sent and had John beheaded in the prison, 11 and his head was brought on a platter…12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. 13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.”
- Matthew 14:10-13

Jesus prayed amidst exhaustion

“But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” - John 5:15-16,

“And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.” - Matthew 14:23

“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” - Mark 6:31

Jesus prayed amidst anxiety

39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45 And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” - Luke 22:39-45

“And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives.” - Luke 22:39

In Jesus’ greatest moment of suffering, he prays because he has practiced it.

Suffering can draw us away from God but it can also draw us closer to him.

Two things to practice during lent:

1. Abstinence

2. The Lord’s prayer

“In the end, darkness is not explained; it is defeated. Night is not justified or solved; it is endured until light overcomes it and it is no more. In the meantime, we do not stop asking our questions of God. He allows us to ask them when we need to because he loves us. And we bring our perplexity into the prayers and practices of the church so that they can shape and direct our own questions. Through its prayers, practices, and gathered worship, the church tells us over and over again, “This is what God is like. This is his name. This is how you know he loves you.” - Tish Harrison Ward, Prayer in the Night

As the people of God, tell time differently.

Whether we are aware or not, our calendars shape us.

As the Church, our calendars are patterned after the life of Jesus.

In each season, we are guided to reflect on a different moment in the life of Jesus. This is a guide that year over year shapes our identity, our practices, and our story.

Advent & Epiphany – God with us.

Lent – God prepares us.

Easter – God for us.

Pentecost – God in us.

Ordinary Time – God through us.

Lent is a season of preparation; dedication to repentance, abstinence, and fasting in order to prepare one’s heart for the celebration of Easter.

Lent is a season of preparation in the wilderness.

The Wilderness in Genesis

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.”–Genesis 1:1-2

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. –Genesis 2:5–6.

cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
–Genesis 3:17-19

Genesis 3 closes with humanity leaving the Garden and returning to the wasteland of their own making.

The Wilderness in Exodus

16…‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” –Exodus 7:16.

And in their idolatry and stubbornness, they live as nomads in the wilderness for forty years.

The Wilderness in 1 Kings 19

“Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And [Elijah] arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.”

And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper [or a thin silence]. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”–1 Kings 19:7–13.

There Elijah confesses his distrust of God; he repents of his mischaracterization of the God of Israel. God meets him in the wilderness, but that's only after Elijah abandons his post and gives ups.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the biographers of Jesus, each tell the story of our Messiah’s experience in the wilderness of Judea.

“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan [river] and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil.” – Luke 4:1-2

And that ancient serpent makes an appearance again; tempting Jesus to turn rocks into bread, to give in to ambition, and to take power for himself.

Jesus patterned His life off the story of scripture and the love of his Heavenly Father.

In response, may we pattern our lives after the one who overcomes the wilderness.

And Lent is an annual practice that stips back distractions and teaches us to find His presence in our wilderness.

The main theme of Lent is repentance.

“return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger,abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.–Joel 2:12-13 (ESV)

Fasting is the practice of going without food and drink(excluding water) for a period of time.

Abstinence is the practice of creating margin in our daily schedule for the purpose of reorienting our lives towards Christ.

Corporately we will practice this on Ash Wednesday and every Sunday with 15 minutes of preservice prayer.

“To lead us not into temptation and deliver us from the evil one”– is to request that God might rescue us from the darkness within ourselves and outside ourselves.

“Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil” – Eugene Peterson

The shockingly simple observation of this prayer is that we live in a warzone– a conflict our souls testify to.

“In Rwanda, I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him.”–Roméo Dallaire

The Biblical Cosmology

The scriptures propose that all the evil we encounter in our world is either a direct initiative or a painful ripple of the disorder introduced by the Evil One in the garden.

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.” –Luke 4:1–2.

The temptation Jesus faced was subtle in nature.

“Nobody believed he was real. . . . That was his power. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”—Keyser Söze

The subtle touch of the Evil one.

For as much as we like to think of ourselves as rational and independent beings, we are all shaped by powers small as microscopic biochemicals and as large as inherited notions of gender roles and stereotypes.

Contending with the Darkness

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:12

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”– Jude 3

“Fight the good fight of the faith.” –1 Timothy 6:12.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” –1 Peter 5:8–9.

We pray and act.

Let’s abandon the false dichotomy between prayer and action. We can be a community of prayer, gospel, and justice. Prayer and action–held together.

“The Christian story dares us to believe that the work of prayer is not so far away from the gift of sewers, that hands lifted in prayer and the scientific commendation of hand-washing flow from a shared source. Our work of prayer participates in and propels our public work of restoration.” – Tish Harrison Warren

“By giving us this prayer, then, Jesus invites us to walk ahead into the darkness and discover that it, too, belongs to God. –Tom Wright

In Praying, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One” we are reminded that we are in the midst of a conflict but a conflict that has already been decided.

Learning to contend in prayer–

1. Learn to pray with your body.

2. Learn to pray with your emotions.

“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”― Karl Barth

Authenticity

The true irony of our current cultural moment: we crave authenticity but lack the foundation to admit that anything we do, think, or feel is really wrong.

In this environment, where many of us are craving authenticity, and honesty in our own lives, the lives around us, and even in the church, the practice of confession can be both refreshing and uncomfortable as most truly authentic things are.

1. This prayer becomes both a prayer we recite and a guideline or pattern for our prayers. It is where we go when we wonder, Jesus how do we pray?

2. The Lord’s prayer also reveals that prayer is both communion and collaboration with God. Oftentimes we view prayer as simply communication with God. But it is so much more than that. This prayer reveals that we commune with God the father. We take time to simply remember he is a father and then we collaborate with him. And thus, as Alex explained last week, we are not merely passive stage props in a prewritten cosmic drama. We are creative partners with God in the writing, directing, design, and action that occurs on the stage of history.

3. And finally, this prayer reminds us that the essential foundation of Christian prayer is that God is love and he likes us.

On Sin

First and foremost, before we jump into confession, I want to briefly define sin as the two concepts are so connected and often misunderstood.

God’s desire for us, as his creation, has always been a life of beauty, justice, and love. It’s important to understand that what God deems as sin is not bad because it is forbidden– it is forbidden because it is bad- it sits in opposition to his foundational desires for us. Lead-based paint isn’t bad because someone passed a law; someone passed a law because lead-based paint is bad for you.

“[Sin] is an unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness.” – Saint Ignatius

• Psalm 51

• Daniel 9

• Mark 1

• Luke 19

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” – Luke 18:9-14

If sin is not simply what we have done but also what we have left undone, then we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and therefore, God does not need our confession, we do.

Sin is not simply what we have done but also what we have left undone.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22: 37-40

Quite simply sin is not just what we have done- even though there is plenty of that to go around. It is also what we have left undone.

So sin is not simply what we have done but also what we have left undone.

We are all sinners in need of forgiveness.

“We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.” – CS Lewis

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9

God does not need our confession, we do.

1. Confession is NOT a magical incarnation that controls God or forces his mercy to flow.

   “[E]veryone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It does not say they shall be saved if they confess 5 times a day- if they discover the magic formula. But all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord.” – Acts 2:21

2. Our admission of sin does not diminish God’s grace as repeatedly outlined in the scriptures

   “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

3. Our prayers do not add to the redemption accomplished on the cross

4. Our prayers never add to God’s knowledge which is already complete.

If sin is not simply what we have done but also what we have left undone, then we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and therefore, God does not need our confession, we do.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Confession is an invitation to approach the forgiveness of ourselves and others like that of the running father. In our sin, we are all one of the brothers, but in our forgiveness we have the love and give the love of an embarrassing, dotting, unabandoned, father with open arms.

So what do we do? How do we practice confession? We begin with the pattern Jesus has outlined for us in the Lord’s prayer:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. We confess. We take several moments to reflect on the actions of that day or the previous day and ask God to bring to moments where we were unlike him. Then recite the confession prayer just as we prepare to do so now.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me[a] anything in my name, I will do it.” – John 14:12-14

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” –John 15:7

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” –John 15:16

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” – John 16:23-24

Why is it that Jesus says ask for anything in my name and you will receive it but I don’t always receive it? This tension sits at the very core of why many of us do not pray for what we need.

If God disappointed me once, will he not disappoint me again?

If God didn’t answer my prayers before, why ask?

If God’s ways are higher than my ways, what is the point in praying for what I need? Does he even care?

I think many of us have simply stopped petitioning for our daily bread as Jesus instructs in the Lord’s prayer. But as we will see today, petitioning is still a worthwhile task.

This prayer becomes both a prayer we recite and a guideline or pattern for our prayers. It is where we go when we wonder, Jesus how do we pray?

The Lord’s prayer also reveals that prayer is both communion and collaboration with God. Oftentimes we view prayer as simply communication with God. But it is so much more than that. This prayer reveals that we commune with God the father. We take time to simply remember he is a father and then we collaborate with him. And thus, as Alex explained last week, we are not merely passive stage props in a prewritten cosmic drama. We are creative partners with God in the writing, directing, design, and action that occurs on the stage of history.

And finally, this prayer reminds us that the essential foundation of Christian prayer is that God is love and he likes us.

PETITIONING FOR THE KINGDOM
This prayer is not the only place in which we see bread or food as a central component of Jesus’ life.

“His parties weren’t simply a matter of cracking open another bottle for the sake of it; the prayer to the Father for daily bread was part of his wider and deeper agenda.” – N.T. Wright

At the very heart of this demonstration-turned-teaching sits a foundational biblical symbol of the kingdom that can be traced all the way back to the Old Testament, to the Israelite people.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, my cup overflows.” – Psalm 23:5

“On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines.

And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud over all people; he will swallow up death forever.

He will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth.” – Isaiah 25:6-8

“Give us each day our daily bread” reminds us of a kingdom in which every day we will have daily bread and plenty of it.

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33

Part of our petition for personal needs is Jesus to come and make this world right. May the party, may the feast continue.

PETITIONING FOR OURSELVES
However, the verse “give us each day our daily bread” is not just about petitions for God’s soon and coming kingdom, it is also about the right now.

How wonderful it is that God does not look down on our needs, that he doesn’t sit up in the clouds on a throne and sneer at our pathetic, needy bodies. He cares.

Issue 1: We are too proud and independent.
Issue 2: We worry in God’s direction.
Issue 3: We neglect to turn outward.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
And yet, I still think there is hope for us. Jesus obviously thought there was and gave us a tool to help. So when we struggle with a petition, first let’s start with Jesus’ pattern:

Let’s begin with contemplative prayer.

Then begin interceding for those around you.

Petition for your daily bread.

In his Gospel, Luke gives special attention is to Jesus’ prayer habits– here are a few examples.

“great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” –Luke 5:16

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles” –Luke 6:12–13.

“28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.” –Luke 9:28–29.

When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
or we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
– Luke 11:2–4.

“Your Kingdom come” is a practice known as intercessory prayer.

Intercession is to pray for someone else.

"If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer: Intercession is a way of loving others. Intercessory prayer is a selfless prayer, even self-giving prayer. In the ongoing work of the Kingdom of God, nothing is more important than intercessory prayer” – Richard Foster

In praying “your kingdom come” we pray not just for ourselves, but for our whole world.

God’s original intention was that we would be his collaborators, free and intelligent beings, partnered with Him in ruling the world.

“… God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”–Genesis 1:26(ESV).

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” – Genesis 2:15–17 (NIV)

From the beginning, we’ve been intercessors, the in-betweeners, the mediators between heaven and earth. Given the freedom and authority to care for creation on God’s behalf.

Where freedom exists, evil is always a decision away.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” –Genesis 3:6 (ESV)

But despite it all, God never gave up on his vision of free collaborators; and so in the most surprising of decisions He comes to Earth in the form of a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus.

In Jesus, that identity that was corrupted in our rebellion is restored.

We are not pawns in a cosmic story, destined to play a part, we are invited to help God direct the world.

“We are not merely passive set pieces in a prearranged cosmic drama but we are active participants with God in the writing, directing, design, and action that unfolds. Prayer therefore is much more than asking God for this or that outcome. It is drawing into communion with him and there taking up our privileged role as his people. In prayer, we are invited to join him in directing the course of the world.” – Skye Jethani

Prayer is not a charade, where God does what he is planning, and pretends we were of some help.

“God’s response to our prayers is not a charade. He does not pretend that he is answering our prayer when he is only doing what he was going to do anyway. Our requests really do make a difference in what God does or does not do. The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best…of course this is not the biblical idea of prayer, nor is it the idea of people for whom prayer is a vital part of life.” – Dallas Willard

When we pray things that were not going to happen, happen.

“When we pray we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House, where it is sorted among piles of others. We are engaged, rather, in an act of co-creation, in which one little sector of the universe rises up and becomes translucent, incandescent, a vibratory centre of power that radiates the power of the universe. History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being.” – Walter Wink

We have been given a profound invitation to help set the world to rights through our prayerful intercession.

“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”― Karl Barth

“The only way to learn how to pray is to pray.” – Teresa of Avila

A study published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization in 2021, found that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, prayer Google searches “rose on all continents, at all levels of income, inequality, and insecurity, and for all types of religion, except Buddhism.”

The researchers concluded that the global rise in religiosity or spirituality happened because “people pray to cope with adversity.”

“Our culture is increasingly abandoning anything that resembles orthodox Christianity in favor of a generic or sentimental kind of spirituality. This has caused many, including those within the church, to embrace a distorted vision of prayer. They seem to think that prayer is little more than a form of self-therapy but with a spiritual facade. In some places it’s seen as a self-improvement practice that any health-obsessed person should do, like working out or eating quinoa.” – Skye Jethani

Christian prayer should be concerned with relationship not results. To whom we pray is more important than how we pray.

LUKE 11

This prayer for Jesus followers has become both a pattern and a script for those in the Christian tradition. It is a guideline for prayer AND simultaneously, a prayer we regularly recite. It is the place in scripture we go to when we ourselves wonder, “Jesus, how do we pray?”

This is why for the next several weeks leading up to lent, we will be unpacking each line of the Lord’s prayer in a teaching series entitled “Teach Us to Pray.” Each week we will focus on a different aspect of prayer as reflected in the Lord’s prayer.

Week 1: Communion

Week 2: Contending

Week 3: Petition

Week 4: Confession

Week 5: Mission

GOD AS FATHER

Jesus begins the Lord’s prayer reminding us that our communion with God as father is the foundation for all of prayer- it is the starting place- it’s everything. The who of prayer is God our Father.

The opening line of this prayer, “Our Father in heaven” would have been shocking even scandalous to the ears of Jesus’ 1st-century audience for a few reasons:

As aforementioned, God was never referred to in an intimate way but always in a formal and reverent one.

Prayers in the 1st century for both Jews and non-Jews were generally formulaic in approach using words to compel a reluctant God to act.

Our Father in heaven, these four words changed the way we relate to God and thus the entire nature of prayer. In defining the who, Jesus changes the why, when, where, what, and how of prayer.

BREAD FOR A NEIGHBOR

“And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” – Luke 11:5-8

“Ancient Israel was an honor-based culture and highly communal. A person’s reputation was of paramount importance, and their reputation was inexorably linked to their extended family and community. Failing to provide bread to an unexpected visitor, which is the core problem in Jesus’ story, would not only bring shame upon an individual but also upon the entire village.” – Skye Jethani

The point is remarkable simply: God does not answer prayers because of our reputation but because of his.

In one simple story, Jesus takes the focus of prayer off of our own righteousness or even our dedication to God. And he places the focus of prayer on God’s desire to retain his reputation as a good loving father who gives his sons and daughters what they ask regardless of the quality of the asker.

God answers prayers not because of our reputation but because of his reputation. And he is known as a good father.To whom we pray is more important than how we pray.

GIVER OF GOOD GIFTS

“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”’ –Luke 11:11-13

As mentioned beforehand, the betrayal of God as a good and loving father was a scandalous idea for Jesus’ first-century context. God was rarely referred to in an intimate way. He was almost always referred to formally and reverently.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” –Genesis 3:1

Interestingly enough, in Genesis 2, God is referred to over and over again as Yahweh Elohim or Lord God. But when the serpent comes onto the scene in Genesis 3:1, twisting God’s words and creating half-truths, he refers to God by only using the word Elohim. Scholars call this keeping the abstract but dropping the personal. It would be like calling someone by their title and not their name.

RESTORATION OF FATHER
According to theologian N.T. Wright, there are nearly half a million words in the Hebrew Bible yet God is only portrayed as father 15 times.

But then we turn to the New Testament. Gone are the days of reserve or distance. There is a new tone, a new familiarity, a new narrative. Jesus calls God father 65 times by the time you finish the gospel of Luke and over 170 times by the time you reach the end of John.

It is only in proximity to the Father God of love that we “grasp how wide and long and high and deep” God’s love is for us

We must stop thinking of prayer as simply communicating with God and start communing with God.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
We do this through a practice commonly known as contemplative prayer.

Contemplative prayer, as defined in the Handbook of Spiritual Disciplines, is a way of being with God without wordiness relying on God to initiate communion and communication.

“Let your heart rate decrease. Know that you’re already bathed in the Father’s love, and ask simply for what you need, in the assurance that the One to whom you’re speaking is already cupping His ear in your direction.”– Wesley Hill

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” – Matthew 6:7-8