“A Hard Line in the Lord's Prayer!?” on Luke 11:1-4 by Neil and Virginia Lettinga – June 29, 2025

Last Sunday, Andreas opened our summer series on prayer saying that prayer is a challenging topic. And he's right, isn't he?

Neil & I suggested that we talk about prayer this summer because though prayer is a challenging topic, it is part of our daily lives as people who try to follow Christ. So we're not suggesting that we're experts on prayer, or that we can explain how prayer works. We're talking about our lives with Jesus.

The Bible tells us that Jesus prayed. Often. And we're trying to follow Jesus. We're talking about conversations with God. Some conversations are quick. Some are slow. Some are easy and comfortable, some are awkward. Often our conversations with God are somewhere in between.

Our focus today is going to be on a bit of the example that Jesus gave to his disciples -- and gives to us -- about how to pray. This is called the Lord's Prayer. But before we focus in on that, we'd like to think about what was shared about prayer last week in TCC. If you missed it, you missed hearing a great set of stories and insights about prayer! Last week Andreas reminded us that while many in our community have been in the middle of suffering and hardship, and a rough season for prayer, we sometimes forget to tell our good stories about prayer.

Then Andreas scooped the baby so that Nadia could share about a concern they had lifted in prayer... only to be surprised with an answer far more timely and concrete than she had anticipated. It was a great reminder of how God works around and through our concerns and requests to him -- working in His own way.

Then Andreas asked if anyone else had a prayer story to share. One by one, wise, sweet, and thoughtful stories were shared. If you were in the building last Sunday, probably different themes stuck out for you. God works that way. We heard an amazing variety of different reflections on prayer. One of the things that struck me was how what was shared about prayer fits with the title of a book by Anne Lamott. I'm not particularly recommending the book and the author. She isn't everyone's cup of tea. But the title caught my attention when it was published in 2012 -- and it still resonates with me. The title is “Help, Thanks, Wow: Three Essential Prayers.”

"Help, Thanks, Wow." Can you recognize those as categories for many of the prayers you raise to God?

Last Sunday, Nadia's story was a "help" prayer that turned into a "thanks" prayer -- as was Marisa's. Cindy shared a glorious "wow" prayer. Mike and Chris and Betty each shared stories of prayer as a mix of hope and disappointment yet discovering Jesus alongside us on the muddy path of life.

The Bible gives us examples of prayers of "Help, Thanks, and Wow,” too. Much of Psalm 42 is a prayer for help. Psalms 8 and 19 are wonderful "Wow" prayers. Psalm 106 sandwiches the story of ancient Israel inside a "Thank you." Psalm 100 is a famous "Thanks" prayer and stanzas of "Thanks" fill Psalm 9 and 69 and many other prayers in the Bible.

All the same, when one of Jesus' disciples asks him to teach them to pray, the example that Jesus gives isn't a help, a thanks, or a wow. Luke tells us:

1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

3 Give us each day our daily bread.4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” (Luke 11: 1-4)

It's a little different than the version from Matthew 6: 9-13 we used at the end of our earlier congregational prayer time, isn't it?

Both Matthew and Luke share this prayer. They have slightly different words but with very much the same emphasis. Matthew's version is a little longer and is the version used most often in church services. Both Matthew and Luke embed the prayer within a similar but not identical set of teachings from Jesus. Neither the shifts in wording nor the shifts in context should surprise us. Jesus is a good teacher. A good teacher repeats lessons for his students and helps them think about the lessons from different sides. I think we should see this in the two slightly different versions that the Bible gives us.

For centuries and around the globe Christians have shared this prayer together.

The closing words of praise in the Lord's Prayer weren't there in the version that Jesus taught. They were added about the same time as the New Testament books were gathered together. "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen." The Holy Spirit seems to have pushed these concluding words of hope and praise into the hearts of Jesus' followers early on!

Perhaps you learned the Lord's Prayer as a child? Maybe you grew up in a tradition that repeated it every Sunday? Or perhaps it's familiar but not something you think of often?

N: When I was growing up in a Christian Reformed Church, the Lord's Prayer was recited aloud by every one every Sunday at the end of the congregational prayer.

V: When I was growing up in a Christian Reformed Church, I was surprised to discover that many Dutch families recited the Lord's Prayer before supper every night. I thought it was strange to recite that prayer instead of thanking God for the food!

The Lord's Prayer is not a "Help, Thanks, or Wow" prayer. But it is the prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples. So it is worth thinking about and paying attention to.

There have been hundreds of books written about the Lord's Prayer, and if you've gone to church for many years, you may well have heard dozens of sermons about the Lord's Prayer. But familiar or not, there are two requests in this prayer that often worry Christians. The worrisome requests are both in verse 4 in Luke's version of the prayer.

4 ‘Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

And lead us not into temptation.’

 We'd like to look at the first of the two requests for our remaining time today. "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." Maybe we'll talk about the second one some other Sunday.

In Matthew's version it is "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." (Matt 6:12)

Why do we feel uncomfortable praying this? My personal answer is that it is hard to forgive others. Hurts and offences are so much part of our lives and culture that we barely notice when we don’t forgive. Sometimes we forget instead of forgiving. Walking away is often easier than forgiving.

I know that gathered in Telkwa this morning is a room full of bruised hearts and souls. We ache…because someone we thought was a friend said unkind words or did unkind things. We ache… because our words were taken the wrong way. We hurt someone we care for. They shouldn't have taken it that way. We ache… because we’ve been betrayed by people we trusted. Or because we accidentally betrayed a friend or a trust ourselves and have not been given the chance - or created the chance - to make it right. We ache… because we needed words of comfort and we didn’t hear them. You ache… because you care and are sensitive.

Christian speaker Ronald Rolheiser asks: “How can intelligent, caring and sensitive people possibly reach their 40th, 50th or 60th year without such heart aches that it is natural for them at times to want to lash out or curl inward?”

Maybe you have felt that in yourself. But this isn’t just a middle-aged issue. Young people are also emotionally bruised. Middle school may be as difficult as middle age. Those in high school would probably have no problem telling us about bruised feelings and squashed self-esteem. University students – bright, talented, and charming are full of disappointments, violence and bitterness.

We all live lives in which others owe us debts and have sinned against us. And we live lives in which we owe debts and we have damaged others.

In Aramaic – the language that Jesus spoke, there is a single word that means both debts & sins.

But in Greek, (the language the New Testament writers used) like in English, there are two different words. When we see Luke choose one word and Matthew choose the other, it is good for us to remember both meanings. They both fit. We need to forgive both sins against us and debts people owe us.

And forgiving is hard. Sometimes painfully, impossibly hard. Sometimes forgiveness is given but it can be very complicated. And yet in the middle of the prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples, he tells us to say to God, "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors."

Think about that a minute. Surely Jesus means us to think about it. And to think about it as we talk to God. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."

The 16th century reformer Martin Luther told his students that “the continuing/constant forgiveness of our neighbours is the first and most important duty of Christians, second only to faith and the acceptance of forgiveness.”

Forgiveness is the "first and most important duty of Christians -- second only to" believing in Jesus and accepting his forgiveness!” It's an interesting twist on the great commands to Love God and Love your Neighbour, isn't it? Luther sees forgiveness at the heart of love.

Forgiving again and again may be the first and most important responsibility of loving parents. You know this, don't you? You forgive the 2 am infant screams. You forgive the 2 year old temper tantrum. You forgive the 5 year old hockey puck through the window. You forgive the 13 year old driving the lawnmower into the pond. Some forgiving is harder than other forgiving. Some forgiving includes consequences.

But your love doesn't give up. Forgiving doesn't stop. In love, forgiving is continuing and constant.

So in the middle of the Lord's Prayer, I find myself asking for God's help to forgive others. Maybe you do this too? Are there people you need help forgiving? Asking God's help in forgiving is surely in sync with what God wants us to ask!

V: I read a biography of Harriet Tubman, a former slave and an activist on the underground railroad. A section from her diary has stayed in my memory. In that section she rejoices that she "now knows for sure

that I am saved and among God's elect, for I woke up this morning suddenly aware that I no longer hated my former slave master!" Tubman wonders how this can be so, but rejoiced that "I no longer loathed the lying, woman-beating monster. I am free, thanks to the forgiving heart my Saviour made in me!” (rough paraphrase)

It is a marvelous work of God, isn't it, to hear Tubman's testimony? It isn't a resolved situation. It isn't a world set right. But Tubman herself is freed from the cancer of a justified hate. And she praises God for it. It was not her determination or willpower that did this. God's grace healed and freed her. And it gives me hope for God's help in erasing the smaller debts and cuts that have scarred my heart. And yours.

As Miroslav Volf puts it:

“God is the God who forgives.

We forgive because God forgives.

We forgive as God forgives.

We forgive by echoing God’s forgiveness.” (FC p 131)

How do we echo God's forgiveness?

Are there people that God is calling you to forgive?

Are there grudges you need to let go?

Today's entire message has, in some ways, been a call to confession. So let us finish it with prayer.

Prayer

Our Father

Great and loving God,

Your name is holy -- help us to honour it.

May your Kingdom come and your will be done --

    we long for your fullness in our hearts and our lives,

    in our land and across the planet.

Give us what feeds body, heart and soul this day.

Forgive us our sins and debts we pray.

Help us to follow you in forgiving and in giving grace.

Protect us from evil wherever you lead.

In all this we need your help, Spirit and Saviour.

Yours is the Kingdom and Power and Glory.

Forever and ever, Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

People of God -- called to be both forgiven and forgiving, the Apostle John announced that

 God is light and in God there is no darkness at all.

If we walk in the light as God is in the light,

we have fellowship with one another

and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Trust in God's love and forgiveness

And expect to see echoes of his love and forgiveness

roll out in your life as well!