Lectionary 17C Pr 12
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
July 24, 2022
Genesis 18:20-32
Psalm 138
Colossians 1:24 – 2:7
Luke 11:1-13
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Would you please pray with me – May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
The text for our consideration today is these words from the second reading, the Letter to the Colossians: Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
This letter, attributed to St. Paul, was written to the church in Colossae perhaps in 60 or 70 AD; that would be about 30 years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
Just as foretold in the Acts of the Apostles, Christianity was spreading from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Colossae was in Asia Minor, part of Turkey today, and it was part of the Roman Empire. Christians gathered together in homes for worship on a regular basis and this was a break from their everyday lives, lives that were lived waiting for Jesus’ return because they were certain it would be any day now, won’t it? Lives lived under the iron hand of Roman rule. Lives lived under the threat of persecution. Lives lived while Nero was fiddling. These were people in need of encouragement and hope.
And to them, Paul wrote the words of our text: as y’all have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so y’all walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as y’all were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Y’all – because these words in the text are not singular individual pronouns – they are plurals, as are nearly all “yous” in the Epistles, and indeed in the New Testament.
Now, one of the things that we have that the Christians in Colossae did not is the compilation of books that we call the New Testament. The Scriptures they would have relied upon were the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. And they would have had various writings by leaders in the faith. This letter is one of those. The letter was sent to the Colossians and would have been read aloud to the assembly and would have been shared throughout the house churches in Colossae and even those in nearby towns and cities.
Paul wanted these believers to be strengthened and encouraged and so he urged them on – you have received Christ, but this isn’t a one and done – no; walk in him, be rooted in him, be built up in him. Hold on to the faith you were taught and abound in thanksgiving. This is a description of what it means to persist throughout their daily lives, to hang on, to be focused on eternal life together in Christ.
Our gospel reading is from the Gospel of Luke and this gospel is filled with images of persisting: Widows appealing to judges for justice, a woman sweeping her house to find a coin, a baker kneading masses of dough, a shepherd searching for a sheep, and, here in today's Gospel, a friend knocking on a neighbor’s door in the middle of the night, knocking persistently.
I don’t know about you, well actually I do; for us, these last few years have required an extra portion of persistence. Because sometimes it seems that Nero has been fiddling. Yet in the midst of this, I know that I have received Christ and I, along with the Christians in Colossae and along with each of us gathered here and along with Christians around the world and throughout time -- we are called to walk with Jesus day in and day out.
So my question today is, “what does persistence, what does this daily walk, look like” After years of Covid and uncertainties too numerous to count, how do we keep going? During this time of threatened inflation, what do we hang on to? After years of mass shootings and political bickering, how can we persist in our walk, rooted and built up in Christ and abounding in thanksgiving?
The gospel reading today teaches one of the most basic ways of persisting – prayer. When Jesus was by himself at a time of prayer, his disciples came to him and said, “teach us to pray.” And Jesus did. And the Lord’s Prayer continues to be a treasured part of our corporate worship and our individual devotional life today, over two thousand years later.
And I want to share this with you. There is a new translation of the Gospels that's been recently published: It's called the First Nations Version. It was created over the past twenty years to express the Gospel in the language and context of Native American people. It has some new and refreshing ways to hear the Scriptures that are faithful to the text and responsive to Christians far removed from the Christians in Jerusalem.
For example, in the First Nations Version, today's Gospel reads like this:
Another time, after Creator Sets Free (Jesus) had finished praying, one of his followers said to him, “Wisdom keeper, teach us how to pray in the same way Gift of Goodwill (John) taught his followers.”
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) smiled and said to them, “When you send your voice to the Great Spirit, here is how you should pray:
“O Great Spirit, our Father from above, your name is sacred and holy. Bring your good road to us, where the beauty of your ways in the spirit-world above is reflected in the earth below.
“Provide for us day by day – the elk, the buffalo, and the salmon. The corn, the squash, and the wild rice. All the good things we need for each day.
“Release us from the things we have done wrong in the same way we release others for the things done wrong to us. And guide us away from the things that tempt us to stray from your good road.”
Then Creator Sets Free (Jesus) added, “Suppose you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘I need three pieces of frybread! A relative of mine has come from a long way to see me, and I have nothing for him to eat.’
But he says to you, ‘Quit bothering me! I cannot help you. My children and I are all in bed.’
Do not give up! If your friendship is not enough, then he will do it just because you will not give up asking.
“So, keep dancing your prayers, and the way will open before you. Search for the ancient pathways, and you will find them. Keep sending up your prayers, and they will be heard.”
“Keep dancing your prayers...” What an image! This image of prayer as dance also resonates in the Old Testament, where David danced “before the LORD with all his might,” or the psalmist proclaimed that God has “turned our mourning into dancing.” And when the Israelites came to the other side of the Red Sea after their release from Egypt, Miriam sang and danced in thanksgiving.
What would our lives individually and our life together, our walk with the Lord, be like if we had the persistence to keep “dancing our prayers” until the way opens for us?
Many of us have difficulty and challenges in our prayer life. It may seem that we are pounding on the door of heaven and wondering if anyone is home. Yet, we dance. Be it a waltz or a two-step or a cha-cha or even the chicken dance. Yes. We dance.
And in this, I want you to know this – our praying – our dancing – is not an isolated and singular and individual act. Brother Martin once wrote that in our prayer – indeed in our dance – we are joining in with all of Christendom, Christians of all time and place and they are right there with us beckoning us to and joining us on the dance floor.
Just as Paul prayed for the Colossians that they may have knowledge and wisdom and understanding, so, even, today those prayer are offered for us. We stand among all the saints of Christendom “dancing our prayers” to our good and gracious God. And in this, we walk together in Christ, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, abounding in thanksgiving.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
