Luke 11:1-13 from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
 
The Lord’s Prayer
 
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” So he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, may your name be revered as holy. May your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
 
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’  I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asked for an egg, would give 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!”

     When I was very little, my family lived in Texas for two years. As I was reminded this week, and every time I return, there are lots of creepy, crawly creatures in Central Texas. When we were living in a little trailer in San Marcos, the town where my sister Kellie was born, things occasionally got in that trailer. As you know, you can make a nice home in a trailer, but they aren’t always the most impermeable types of dwellings. I was about four and sitting on my bed, playing with my stuff animals when I moved one and saw something that wasn’t supposed to be there: A scorpion! In my bed! Kids who live in Texas learn early not to mess with a scorpion, so I immediately yelled for my dad, who came and dispatched the creature. He then got some duct tape and covered the vent that he thought the arachnid had used as an unsupervised door. Jesus assumes in today’s scripture that most parents would do what mine did (not leave a scorpion around a child).

     Our cat and house sitter, Kathryn, sent me this text message last week as Tasha, the dogs, and I rested in a hotel room in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: “Hi, Chrissy! Came back to the house after dinner to see this snake (dead) in the kitchen. Have y’all ever seen snakes in the house before?” No. No, we had not. She had already gotten the remains out of the house by the time she texted us. I called to her to check in. Kathryn, who is from Texas, where many snakes are poisonous, and who is often quite afraid of them, had no idea what kind of snake was in our house or even if it was alive when she first saw it. Without knowing what kind of snake it was, she grabbed up all the cats and stowed them in rooms away from the snake. Then, fortified by talks with her mom and friends, she went to check the snake and try to figure out what to do with it if it was alive. Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for the snake, it wasn’t.

     The cats, whom she had tried to protect, had protected her first. Well, kind of. It was a garter snake and was of no danger to anyone larger than a small frog or long earthworm. But, still, Kathryn didn’t know all of that until we talked and I let her know that it wasn’t a dangerous snake. I also let her know that it was probably Snowball who dispatched the snake, though Annie the kitten is also a contender. She made sure to give Snowball extra treats and brought home a new cat toy for everyone to share. In today’s scripture, Jesus, who also grew up around snakes, many of which were poisonous, also assumed that most caregivers wouldn’t leave a snake around someone vulnerable.

     Because I know many of us in this room realize that scorpions and snakes are generally only a risk to humans when the creatures feel the need to protect themselves from humans, I am sure you didn’t hear Jesus’ words about them as him calling for their destruction. What I hope you heard instead is that it is the role of the caregiver to protect the vulnerable. Good caregivers do not hear a request for sustenance and give danger instead. In her commentary on this text, Rev. Niveen Sarras notes that Jesus understands God to be like a good parental caregiver when speaking to the disciples. Talking to those who might already be fathers or who assumed that the one day would be, he said, imagine yourself as a parent and what you would do for your child. Assume that God’s generosity is even greater than the generosity you would show your own child. Assume that your relationship with God can be as personal and intimate as that between a parent and a child. Within this kind of intimate relationship, one can ask for help and comfort. This is the heart of the kind of prayer he taught them: it builds intimacy and makes space for requests for support.

     Jesus’ disciples have asked him how to pray.  As Jennifer Wyant notes in her commentary, Jesus prays often in the book of Luke. She also points out that by this part of the Gospel, we’ve already had five different stories of Jesus praying (Luke 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:18; 9:28). Seeing the depths of his connection to God, fostered, in part, by his regular prayer life, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray.
None of the scholars I read in preparation for this sermon argue that the Lord’s Prayer is the only way to pray. Instead, in Luke and in the version of this story in Matthew, Jesus’ goal is to teach them a form that they can adapt to different purposes. Within that form is the acknowledgement of the relationship at the foundation of the prayer (one that is generous, intimate, and caring) as well as some examples of the kinds of stuff that is appropriate to pray for. Naveen Sarras points out in her commentary that, while it has become common for Christians to address God as a parent, specifically a father, over the centuries, in Jewish prayers,  in the cases where God is called a father specifically, it is usually related to the “election and adoption of Israel.” She cites Deuteronomy 32:6 as an example: “Is not [the Lord] your father, who created you, who made you and established you?” Fathers had the right to appoint an heir and adopt new members into a family. Again, God is understood to be building relationships and connected people to each other.

     Sarras also points out some cultural differences that would have shaped the disciples’ understanding of a father-figure. She notes that disciples who had been raised in Gentile Greco-Roman families understood fatherhood to have total control over the lives of their children and grandchildren. She says, “For example, a father decides whether his newborn child will be raised in the family, sold, or killed.” Jesus had to make sure that parenting generally, and fatherhood in particular was rooted in care for children and “act[ing] redemptively on their behalf.” The love in the relationship helps the child be confident that their parent will care for them, not harm them.

     Once they understood who to pray to, Jesus taught them a prayer format he had learned in his Jewish family and synagogue as he grew up. According to Rachel Levine, Jesus likely based the style of prayer he taught his disciples on an important Jewish prayer called the Amidah or the Shimoney Esreh. This, and others, were said regularly as part of keeping the promises of the covenant with God. I found a modern English translation of the prayer by Theodore Lichtenfeld that I’ll share with the whole sermon on the blog later this week. In current Jewish practice, there are also physical movements that accompany this prayer and parts to add during different holy seasons and in response to different parts a worship service. The Amidah would likely have been considered what Levine calls the “the minimum prayer we can say and be confident that we have fulfilled our obligation.” Jesus’ prayer is simplified further.

     You may have noticed that Luke’s version is a little different than the one in Matthew that most of us have memorized and we’ll say later in this very service. Here Jesus covers six areas of life:

• Father, may your name be revered as holy.- a reminder of the covenantal relationship between the one praying and God
• May your kingdom come.- a prayer for God’s reign of love and justice to arise in this time and place
• Give us each day our daily bread.- asking for help for basic needs
• And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.- a prayer for forgiveness and a reminder to forgive
• And do not bring us to the time of trial.- a request deliverance

Put more simply by Wyant, this is a summary of what we need most when we come to God: God’s presence, our needs met, forgiveness, and salvation.

     It is a shame that too many of our modern politicians have cheapened the idea of prayer in response to tragedy. They offer up “thoughts and prayers” and often, it seems, little else. This, combined with many believers’ experiences of “having prayer unanswered,” can make praying seem like an unnecessary, unreliable practice. I won’t tell you that if you pray the right way, like you’re saying some kind of password to God, that God will automatically do what you ask. And, I don’t think if something doesn’t happen that you prayed for, that means God is hurting you for some reason. I will bring us back to Jesus, in Luke, who seems to use prayer as a way to shape his own life into one of both contemplation and action.

     Remember, Jesus prays a lot in Luke, but he acts a lot, too, healing and teaching and comforting. His prayers connected him to God, to his community, and to the people he served. The rhythm of pray, act, rest, pray, act, rest sustained him into his greatest trials. When he taught his followers to pray, he taught them to remember the love at the root of their faith and to speak bravely of what they needed to survive. He reminded them of the call to make amends and forgive. And, he reminded them of the coming reign that they were a part of building. He didn’t tell them that God would fix everything if they said the right magic works. He did tell them that God loved them enough to listen when they asked. Let us all remember this God of good gifts. And, may we be part of delivering them. Ask, and we shall find God in each other.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Jennifer S. Wyant: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17-3/commentary-on-luke-111-13-6
Niveen Sarras: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17-3/commentary-on-luke-111-13-5
Rachel Levine: https://www.biblescholars.org/2013/05/the-lords-prayer-and-the-amidah.html
​Here is a modern translation of the Amidah, including the parts added for different season: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/278574?lang=bi

Galatians 6:1-16 New International Version
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. 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. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!
Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

     I am sure that I’ve shared this story before. But, it’s been a week when I’ve watch too many people delight in abandoning people in need. It is good to be reminded that our faith calls us to bear one another’s burdens and to hear about some Christians who did so out of great love. In the year before he married, Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock served a small church in East Tennessee in a town on Watts Barr Lake. Dr. Craddock was ordained in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, a sister denomination of our own United Church of Christ. The UCC and DOC share many ministries together, including some summer camps and international missions. We have some interesting differences, too.

     For one, in DOC churches, the lay people pray over and serve communion. In our tradition, someone must be ordained to bless the elements. They also usually have communion every week, which is less common in the UCC. Another difference is with baptism. While people of all ages are baptized in the UCC, many people are baptized as infants or very young children by request of their parents. In Disciples churches, most people are baptized when they are old enough to make their own statement of faith. They are usually fully immersed in water, too, either in large baptismal fonts their congregations or in the lakes and rivers near their congregations. The story I read of Dr. Craddock’s took place on an Easter Sunday, when a bunch of people were going to be baptized.

     Following one of the oldest practices in Christianity, this church welcomed new members through baptism on Easter Sunday. The whole church gathered together on the lakeshore at Sundown. Remember, this is Tennessee. While the lake water wouldn’t have been super warm, it would have been safe enough for baptisms at Easter. Dr. Craddock and the baptismal candidates waded out together and, one by one, he would baptize each of them into the Body of Christ. As they finished, they would wade back to shore where the rest of the church had gathered and built a small fire. The longer-time members would be singing and cooking some supper to share as the newest members gathered round. Then, the newly baptized and the pastor would go and change into dry clothes in little booths that the congregation had constructed with great care for just this purpose. Finally dry, everyone would gather around the fire.

     Over the years, this church had developed a practice in response to baptisms. They did it every year, and Dr. Craddock described it as always starting the same way. Glen Hickey, a long- time member, would introduce the new members. He would say their name, where they lived, and what they did for a living. The new folks would shift closest to the fire and the rest of the church would create a circle around them. Once all the new folks in the inner ring had been introduced, the long-time members in the outer circle would begin to go around and introduce themselves in a unique way. They wouldn’t say where they lived and what they did for a living. Instead, they would offer a service.

     For example, if I were a member of that church, I might say, "My name is Chrissy and if you ever need somebody to come and feed your cats, please call me." Then, the next person might say, “My name is Tasha and I can tell you if that weird rock you found is a meteorite.” This would continue all around the circle, with everyone in the church taking a turn. "My name is Earl. If you ever need anybody to chop wood, please ask." "My name is Bernice... if you ever need a ride into town, I'm happy to help." "My name is Beverly and if you ever need somebody to sit with someone who is sick, call me." "My name is Jonathan and if you ever need somebody to watch the kids, they can come to our place." One by one by one, they all shared their name and a burden they might be able to help bear.

     Then, they would eat. Food they cooked fresh and brought from home and purchased at the corner store on the way to the lake. Then, they'd have a square dance right there by the side of Watts Bar Lake. They'd dance long into Easter Sunday night. At some point, as Dr. Craddock told it, when it was the right time, a man named Percy Miller would stand up and say, "Time to go." They would clean up the food and pack up the dishes. They'd take down the changing booths and carry coolers and camp chairs and guitars to the car, and they’d all head home. Percy would be the last person to leave, making sure everything got cleaned up and the fire got put out. In the collection of stories of his that I read, Dr. Craddock shared that he was pretty overwhelmed the first time he experienced all this. He didn’t start these practices during his pastorate. They predated him, and he learned them right alongside the new baptized people. The first year that he was a part of the celebrations, he shared that all he could really do was stand next to Percy, who was busily kicking sand on the fire to put it out, and try to take it all in. That first Easter at the church, Percy looked at him and said, "Craddock, folks don't ever get any closer than this." Dr. Craddock believed him.

     “Bear one of another’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.” When Paul closes out a letter to a church or group of churches, he often has a kind of a wrap up at the end. Today’s reading is the wrap up. First, he has a few of what Sheila Briggs calls “maxims by which to judge their behavior.” If you are living by the fruits of the Spirit that we talked about last week (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), it will be reflected in your behavior. If someone messes up, you’ll treat them gently. You will avoid the things that tempt you to rupture relationships. You’ll help one another when things are hard. Sarah Henrichs says that Paul’s description of Christian behavior is characterized by radical mutuality where you “assist one another and evaluate only yourself.” This isn’t an easy life, but it is a life in Christ.

     In her commentary on this text, Brigitte Kahl wonders if the challenges of living in the Roman empire is wearing on the churches in Galatia. Paul is telling them that to follow Christ, they must construct a community that would consistently “go against the grain of the dominant order.” The culture they lived in had some really rigid social hierarchies that Paul believed the church was called to push against. Kahl wonders if some of the Galatians are finding this kind of resistance to the requirements of the empire to be tiring. Many of us certainly know that is hard to constantly be pushing to stay alive. For those who are finding themselves fatigued, Paul returns to the farming metaphors. “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” He says whenever we have the opportunity to do so, “let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.” Notice that “for the good of all” part.

     While we might start with bearing the burdens of the Body of Christ. We don’t end there. The new creation that we are a part of, the covenant that we get adopted into, makes us free to serve all. Our faith does not call us to be stingy with grace, for the Spirit has never been stingy with us. Filled with the Spirit, let us prepare warm fires, good food, clean shelter, and spaces for dancing. We might be tired. But, we aren’t doing this alone. My name is Chrissy. And, I’ll watch your cats for you. What burden will you bear for the one who needs it?

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Brigitte Kahl: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14-3/commentary-on-galatians-61-6-7-16-2
Fred Craddock, Craddock Stories, eds. Mike Graves and Richard F. Ward, Chalice Press, 2001
​Sheila Briggs' notes on Galatians in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Sarah Henrichs: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14-3/commentary-on-galatians-61-67-16-3
​

    Tasha and I live on land filled with things we did not plant. Our home is the farmhouse on what had been a working farm for nearly a century and a half. We purchased after two other families aside from the original had had the opportunity to shape it into a more modern home. Part of living there for the last eleven years has been learning what has been planted before us. This includes fruit trees. They are mostly apple trees, some plants by the most recent previous owners, some in the woods that probably were planted for hog feed or for cider. There are also two pear trees. We lived in the house five years before we saw one pear. Out of eleven years total, we’ve had maybe 3 summers with any pears at all.

     I think one of the reasons that the apostle Paul’s work come to be understood as authoritative was that he preached and taught clearly, using metaphors that people understood from their everyday lives. When he wrote this letter to the churches in Galatia, he used two that would have been immediately comprehensible. He talked about slavery and he talked about fruit. I must note that Paul lived and worshipped among enslaved people and also enslavers. He could have done a world of good had he told the enslavers to free everyone. It is a shame that he didn’t. Perhaps his assumption that Jesus was coming back soon prevented him from seeing abolition as the moral imperative that it was because he thought people would be free soon. Regardless, it’s a gap in his theology that I wish were not there. 

     Back to his metaphors: questions of slavery vs freedom and what it means to grow a good harvest were real questions with real stakes to his first listeners. There were legitimate risks to their freedom. Or, they were dealing with the moral quandary of owning someone. If they farmed or relied on food farmed locally (not shipped in from halfway around the world as we often do), a late frost or an infestation of bugs or a drought meant hunger and the threat of starvation for many. Paul learned from his time as a Pharisee to take his faith seriously... life and death seriously... so he would use life and death kind of metaphor when he preached and taught about it.

     Paul understood the law to be more than just your ideas about your faith. He understood it to be the ways your faith shaped your actions in the world. Paul said that the central ethic of the law is that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. As we discussed last week, while Paul did not believe that Gentiles needed to adopt all Jewish rituals and practices born of interpretation of the law in order to fully follow Jesus, he did believe that they needed to follow the central ethic of the law. In fact, Paul found love to be so central to both following Jesus and to properly interpreting the law that he said that followers of Christ should be willing to understand themselves as being enslaved by their love of neighbor.

     For those who have never lived under the fear of being enslaved, I think this slavery metaphor doesn’t have quite the same punch as it did for the first hearers of Paul’s words. I have often wondered that for people who haven’t lived with the stories of very recent family’s enslavement or who live under the threat of enslavement themselves, this metaphor of freedom and slavery is harder to grasp. Slavery was almost never a choice people made for themselves, and in the rare occasions it was, it was a sign of the utmost desperation of the newly enslaved person. We can’t forget that every aspect of the enslaved lives were in someone else’s control. Even as some slaves might have had some privileges, like the influential Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 9, their freedom was always bent around someone else’s desires.

     I think that’s why Paul found the metaphor powerful. He wanted the ethic of love to have that level of power in a Christian’s life. Maybe slavery was the closest condition he could imagine that would approximate the level of control he believed that one’s faith should have in their life. He believed that people should behave as if they had zero options but love. As I have said before when preaching on this text, I am uncomfortable with an educated, free Roman citizen using this metaphor so easily. I actually think having the choice to love is far more theologically engaging being coerced into love.  

     I do think his reworking of the image of freedom offers some corrective to how he talks about slavery. He is very clear that God, through Jesus, is calling people to freedom. He needs, though, to make sure that people don't think that freedom that Jesus’ followers indulge in some kind of every-person-for-themselves lifestyle. The Freedom of Christ is not radical individuality. It is radical connectedness... a freedom for one another... a freedom that binds our futures to the well-being of our neighbors. This is where the metaphor of the fruit comes in. He believed that you can cultivate the behaviors that create freedom for one another. While I can’t hang with faith as slavery, I can be here for a conversation about faith as cultivation. The Spirit will show you a way to live bound to your siblings in Christ that is also free of the parts of the law that emphasized love of God and love of Neighbor.

     For Paul, Love becomes the law around which Christians organize their lives. Law becomes the defining feature of not only the individual's orientation towards God, but towards other people. Faith extends outward, into community, and is cultivated through love in relationship with other humans. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are what he calls the fruits of the Spirit, the products of faithful cultivation. Notice that each one of these aspects of love will help you build stronger relationships. One cannot be in genuine, healthy relationship with God, or anybody else for that matter, without these facets of love.

     My preaching professor, the Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton, wrote a book about Galatians. In it, he noted that all of the things Paul believed to be a danger to the fruits of the spirit (enmity, strife, jealousy, quarrels, dissention, envy, and anger, etc.) are forces that disrupt relationships. Even Idolatry is a kind of disruption, that is a disruption of one's relationship with God, the foundation of love that makes all other relationships possible. Dr. Braxton also pointed out that Paul didn’t think sin was just about the stuff an individual does and doesn’t do. It also about how you behave in community and how you cultivate relationships.  Love allows you to build communities that function in the ways God intends. Love allows you to turn your attention outwards, mirroring God's own attention to humanity through Christ. The paradox of faith as Paul describes it is that we are utterly free from the forces that can destroy us and completely bound to our neighbors and God.

     I have spoken several times of the tree in our neighbors’ yard that has five different kinds of apples grafted on to it. I really like the idea of a church being like a grafted tree growing a bunch of kinds of apples. Even though they started out separate, they have grown together, creating a stronger and healthier tree than before, a tree full of delicious and robust flavors. I also like that this kind of tree doesn’t just happen. It is an intentional product that can only exist because we make it happen. Church is like that. So is faith.
Beloveds, we are in a season where unloving actions are being richly rewarded. We are living in a season where love of neighbor is being dismantled by anti-immigrant hatred. In this particular season, we are being encouraged to abandon our transgender neighbors in hopes of security a little bit of safety for ourselves. Vengefulness and hoarding are the tools of the powerful and many Christians have succumbed to them. It is all the more important to love when loving out loud feels dangerous. We may be struggling like those two pear trees in mine and Tasha’s orchard, unsure if we can bring forth good fruit in a challenging season. Let us live in the hope that growth is possible and never forget that the Holy Spirit is tending these trees with us. It will take all the experience, hard work, and luck that we can muster, but I believe the harvest is not yet lost.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Fred Craddock, "The Softer Side of Pentecost" in The Cherry Log Sermons (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001)
Alicia Vargas https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2874
Sarah Henrichs: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1684
Elisabeth Johnson: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=612
​Brad Braxton, No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience, (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2002)