Pastor Michael Cofer
Matthew 6:1-15
Part 7 of our series on The Sermon on the Mount
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I think every Christian knows someone in their life who is just a fantastic pray-er. You know who I’m talking about. They open their mouths and poetic verse oozes from their lips like honey. They quote scripture, they say exactly what you’re thinking, and they could talk for half an hour straight and not feel the least bit self-conscious. When the Bible Study teacher asks if anyone would like to lead the prayer, everyone in class looks directly at that person.
Do you know one of those prayer rock stars? You ever look at one of those folks and say to yourself, “I wish I could pray like that.”
I’ll be honest, I like when those folks say prayers with me, because I feel like something deeply spiritual is going on. I’ve been thinking about that this past week as I’ve read over the Gospel lesson for today where Jesus teaches us about prayer, and I’ve really been disappointed in myself. As it turns out, the little Pharisee inside of me is still alive and well.
Let me set the scene for you in Jesus’ day. Jews in that time had prescribed times for prayer, The most important being 3 times a day, morning, noon, and evening. The custom was to go to the synagogue to pray – in fact, some taught that only prayers offered at the synagogue would be heard by God. So three times a day, all of the Jewish people gathered at the synagogue. Which afforded the prayer rock stars three opportunities per day to stand on the synagogue steps and inflict their overly pious and exhaustive prayers upon all of the regular folks who passed by.
Can you imagine that sort of self-righteousness one of those guys would have to carry? Can you imagine the kind of resentment it would generate? In the minds of those folks going to synagogue there was a broad chasm between the “righteous” and the “regular” folks.
Of course, we know that God hears every prayer offered in faith, whether eloquent or simple. We know that, but deep down do we believe it? Or do we draw a line between the regular folks and the spiritual rock stars?
¬¬¬I will confess to you that I struggle in this area. I mean, when I come into worship, I expect a certain level of polish and professionalism in what I do here. When I pray up here, I try to make it sound a little fancier than I usually speak. When I preach, I try to be insightful and clever and occasionally funny. I am fairly concerned with how I look to you all. And as soon as I start worrying about how I look, I’ve already failed in the most important thing I can do on a Sunday; I’ve failed to worship God.
Jesus calls the Pharisees “hypocrites.” We take that to be a pretty technical term which means something like, “someone who doesn’t practice what they preach.” That’s a pretty good definition, but I think we can do one better in this context. The word “hypocrite” is actually a Greek word that means “actor.” What the Pharisees are doing when they pray is not so much a failure to practice what they preach as it is simply play-acting. They are pretenders putting on a show. They are by no means engaging in spiritual communion with God.
Take for example Mr. Hugh Laurie. Mr. Laurie is an actor best known as doctor Gregory House. On TV he is an exceptional doctor, able to discover and treat the obscurest and deadliest diseases with ease and even contempt. Here’s the thing: Hugh Laurie’s job is not to be a doctor; it is to make all of the rest of us think he is. His goal isn’t to make sick people well; it’s to make us all think he’s making sick people well.
And that’s what was happening to worship in Jesus’ day. Prayers weren’t about talking with God. They were tradition and a status symbol. It was a way of letting everyone around know that you’re one of the “good” people.
God doesn’t want his people to pretend to pray. He desires a real, genuine connection; and we need it. Sure, if you come to worship to impress people with your religiosity, you probably will. And that’s all that you’ll get out of the experience. That’s what Jesus means when he says that the play-actors “have already received their reward in full.” But that is a vain, shallow, and inconsequential thing compared to the opportunity to actually speak with the God of the universe.
Well, after all of the warnings and prohibitions about how not to pray, Jesus follows up with a simple how-to for prayer, which we call the Lord’s Prayer. I have to say that it is ironic that this prayer has become for some people a sort of incantation – a prayer that has power even if you don’t take the time to think about what it means. It can become one of those prayers that Christians pray as a cultural habit – which is exactly the kind of thing that Jesus was warning us against.
The Lord’s Prayer is short, uses plain language, and yet somehow wraps up the whole of Christian life, and it becomes with a fundamental reframing of our relationship to God in those two short words, “Our Father.” That’s the posture we ought to adopt in our worship.
God isn’t a far off, mean-spirited judge who delights in finding fault in you. He isn’t the type to play favorites. He doesn’t take days off. He is a Father in the truest and best sense of the word. We don’t have to earn his love – much to the chagrin of the Pharisees. God loves saint and sinner alike, which is handy since each of us is both of those. He blesses us with good things, and disciplines us when we need it. He is invested in helping us grow up to be mature, and good, and a blessing to other people. He has plans and dreams for us, but gives us the freedom to make our own mistakes. And when we fall down he picks us up and gives a fresh start. And never, ever loves us any less.
So when we pray, we aren’t trying to wear God down with babbling and repetition, like the child pestering their parent with an interminable series of “please, please, please.” We aren’t trying to impress God with a flowery poem or academic treatise. We are just kids, speaking to our Father with simplicity, honesty, and respect.
God doesn’t need you to be a rock star. He just wants you to be the person he made you to be. He loves you too much to ignore your prayers. He promises to hear wherever, and however you pray.
