Today, we tackle what some might consider the toughest verse in all of the Lord’s Prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. Do we really need to ask God not to tempt us? And what does it look like to be “delivered” from evil? To begin to answer these questions, we will turn to the gospel of Matthew and consider Jesus’ own experiences of temptation and deliverance.

As we continue in The Lord’s Prayer, we now get even more personal to consider the issue of forgiveness. Frankly, we need to be forgiven and to forgive as much as we need daily necessities like bread. This morning, our own Tyler Milley will talk to us about our ability to forgive others which comes as a response to our being forgiven. Stanley Hauerwas writes: [Forgiveness] is not so much an act of generosity toward our fellow offending human beings as an act of gratitude toward our forgiving God.”

“Give us today our daily bread”. Here’s where things start to get a bit personal, maybe even a little uncomfortable. If we didn’t see it before, here’s where we realize that praying the words Jesus gave us has relational, political and economic implications. As we truly consider the idea of receiving daily bread from God as a community, we begin to ask questions like: “What about people on the Downtown eastside?” and “Should we purchase RRSPs and life insurance or not?” There are no easy answers, and no “official CapChurch stance” on these issues. But I am delighted that we can talk freely as we gather, ask honest questions, and come to answers (even different ones) together. (Kim Pierrot)

“Jesus did not come urging us to think about him or to feel deeply about him. When he called disciples, he did not come seeking our disembodied individual spirits. Jesus came inviting us to join up with his kingdom. When we see him healing people, casting out demons, we are to know that ‘the kingdom of God has come upon you’… In saying ‘Your kingdom come,’ we are acknowledging that faith in Jesus is not simply an idea or an emotion. It is a concrete reality of which we are to become part” (Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon).

 With its radical request: “Your kingdom come,” the Lord’s Prayer has the ability to function as a sort of pledge of allegiance for us as Christians. But how do we pray it without slipping into an unthinking ritualism that avoids the tension and concrete reality it addresses? What kind of community do we need to be in order to pray the Lord’s Prayer with integrity?

I have prayed the “The Lord’s Prayer” for most of my life, and only recently have I realized how radical it is. I love what Frederick Buechner writes about it: “We do well not to pray this prayer lightly. It takes guts to pray it at all. We can pray it in the unthinking and perfunctory way we usually do only by disregarding what we are saying.” Anyone up for doing some gutsy praying?

At its heart, this prayer is a communal call for God the Father to make things right on earth, as in heaven. And as we heard from Mark Wollenberg last week, praying the way Jesus taught leads us towards participating in God’s ways of justice in this world. So, for the next 5 weeks, we ask: “Lord, teach us to pray” in the hopes that
Jesus will change both our community and the world in which we live as we learn and pray His prayer together. (Kim Pierrot)

There’s already so much waiting in our lives. Here at Cap, our children wait for Christmas, for snow, for a long-awaited birthday. And as adults, we await babies being born, surgery dates, and financial security. Some of us have waited years for the pain in our bodies and souls to abate, others of us are waiting to see how our children will turn out. Many of us are impatient to see loved ones who are far away, impatient for a break from exams and term papers, impatient for you to reveal the next step in our lives.

Sometimes our waiting is filled with anticipation, and joy. Sometimes the waiting is too much for us and we are filled with dread for what lies ahead.

Gracious God, we are waiting for you.

We wait for you to come and make things right in our world—to bring hope to the poor and needy, to bring refugees home, to bring healing for the physically sick and emotionally wounded. We wait for you to come and shine your light in our places of work, in our schools, in our families and in our city. We wait for your return to earth in power and glory, that your will would be done on earth as in heaven, that your justice would reign once and for all, and that all would see and receive the Prince of Peace.

Sometimes we think you are hearing and responding to our prayers. Sometimes we wonder whether our praying does any good.

Gracious God, we are waiting for you.

We wait for you to give us more of your Spirit here at Cap. That the community in which we live might be transformed by your Holy Spirit working in us and through us. We wait for you to bring us on to maturity as a church, that all the gifts you have given us might be evident when we gather. We wait for your word that you are bringing us through Jenn Ohlhauser this morning.

Gracious God, we are waiting for you.

As we wait, would you come and meet us. May we recognize You when You come to us.

Gracious God, we are waiting for you. Come, Lord Jesus, come. AMEN

Have you ever yelled at God? Ever protested to the Almighty? King David did. David protested “the ungodly who prosper” –this reality was very “painful” for him (Psalm 73:12,16). Jesus also protested when he prayed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

Psalm 94 is known in the Psalter as a “community lament”. One third of the psalms are laments, but Psalm 94 is more of a protest than a lament. The Psalmist is praying against exploitation, arrogance, and evil. I imagine that not lots of your prayer life is spent praying this way. Today we are going to learn from the psalmist how to pray when you are anger, fed-up, and irritated with the injustices all around.

“Psalm 88 is that member of the family nobody knows what to do with. He’s at all the family reunions, and his name comes up in all the jovial stories, but nobody wants to get caught alone with him in the living room. He’s awkward… irrational… strange. So he sits there and everyone goes outside and explains why he’s so strange and how he fits into the whole family dynamic. But nobody takes the time to really listen to the strangeness and let him explain himself, and maybe change how everyone else views the family.” (www.rustyparts.com)

By listening to the “strangeness” of this psalm, and by hearing from those in our midst who have spent time praying it, we will be better equipped to approach God when life doesn’t make sense or seem destined for the “happy ending”.