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| The French Cathedral, Berlin, will soon be outfitted with Wi-Fi |
Coinciding
with its country’s celebration in 2017 of the 500th anniversary of
the Protestant Reformation, which officially began when Martin Luther nailed
the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, the Protestant
Churches of Germany announced last month they would be providing free Wi-Fi in
each of its churches beginning this summer. The plan is to start with 220
churches and then get on pace to outfit 3000 more church buildings with Wi-Fi by
March of next near. While the church authorities are not intending the free
Wi-Fi to be used as a recruitment tool, it does look like they are getting a
jump on addressing a shortcoming in Germany’s technology. Most other European
nations offer more public Wi-Fi than Germany does. The church’s Wi-Fi will be
offered at no cost and will involve no passwords. People can enter the
building, turn on their smart phone or lap top, and start websurfing and
checking email, just like that. The church has decided to call these areas of
Wi-Fi Godspots. And while it doesn’t appear these Godspots will enable a
connection to God, strictly speaking, they may offer a way for people to
connect with each other in cyberspace.
Meanwhile,
in this country, hundreds of churches have figured out that they’ve been
designated as Pokestops in the past week; that is, places where people can
congregate with their smartphones and get more Pokeballs which is what one uses
to catch Pokemons (pocket monsters). Apparently it’s a good thing to be a
Pokestop. People of all different walks of life may end up gathering to get
Pokeballs side-by-side. Some churches have tried to take advantage of their
Pokestop status by offering water and places to charge phones to people playing
the game. One church even put up a sign: “Come inside for Pokeballs. Stay for
Jesus.”
The
theme here is connectivity. The church perceives itself—and is often perceived
by others—as a place to connect, as a place to send and receive information. As
it happens, our own congregation just
spent several thousand dollars from its Endowment Fund disbursement to upgrade
our outdated network system. Council last week got a brief explanation about what
Cat-6 cable is and what its benefits are.
This
morning we see that Jesus’ own disciples sought connectivity in their time. They’ve
observed Jesus and how he occasionally withdraws to connect with God, and
they’ve watched John the Baptist outfit his disciples with Cat-6 cable, and
they reach the conclusion that Jesus must be a Godspot. There is something
about how Jesus sends and receives information with God, that intrigues them. And
so they come to him and ask him to teach them how he does it.
What’s
interesting about Jesus’ response is that it is so specific. He could have just
answered that there is no right or wrong way to pray, or he could have
responded by saying, “Do your own thing,” or “Just enter the mystery of God and
the words will come to you.” Some people may have found those types of response
helpful, and in some sense they are also true, but Jesus actually gives his
disciples a clear and definite pattern for prayer, for the language we use to
connect with God. We can even assume it was the language Jesus himself was
using in his own prayers. Nowadays, given the way they teach songs at VBS, we
might assume he’d give each line hand motions, too.
The
Lord’s Prayer, as it has come to be known, is a comprehensive prayer that in a
very simple but very thoughtful way helps frame our most basic needs in terms
of God’s grace.
One
writer has noted that when the disciples ask Jesus about prayer, he responds by
teaching them about the type of God they have. It begins by recognizing that
God is a divine parent, a heavenly Father, who can be addressed not with fancy,
flowery language like you would a king or queen, but with the very words you
would use to talk to your closest friend.
In
fact, the very first word Jesus uses to address God and wants his followers to
address God is best translated as “Daddy.” To pray that this Daddy’s name be
made holy does not mean that our words have some special effect on God’s nature
but it acknowledges that while God is set apart from the ordinary, he also has
the power to come into our ordinary lives and establish his reign. When God
does this, his kingdom does come to us. And that kingdom is not necessarily a
physical place with a castle or a wall, but any time and place when God’s
sovereignty is realized, when God’s love and mercy is seen and known.
Adult
and youth leaders this week provided the opportunity for over a hundred young
children to experience the kingdom come during our Vacation Bible School. It is
always interesting for me to watch the transformation from the time some of the
children first walk in on Monday morning, many of them apprehensive and even
frightened of the experience, to the end of the week when they don’t want to
leave. Many of them cry when it begins and then cry when it has to end. They’ve
felt, even if just for a while, the sense of community and joy that God’s
kingdom will eventually bring to all of creation.
One
young girl who is not a church member here sobbed in the hall on the first day,
crying, “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” because her father had dropped her off and she
felt lonely. I believe her heavenly Daddy must have heard that as a prayer because
pretty quickly she came to know He was very much present with her. One of the
youth group volunteers came up beside her, sat down with her and comforted her and
slowly integrated her into the class. Imagine how that young girl now will
perceive connecting with God in church. Imagine how any person entering a
church or encountering a Christ-follower out in the world would perceive God’s
kingdom coming if Jesus’ disciples were to come alongside the suffering with
such parent-like tenderness.
Once
Jesus tells his disciples to begin with God’s name and God’s kingdom, the Lord’s
prayer focuses on the three basic needs that humans have. Daily bread, forgiveness,
and deliverance. Daily bread, as Martin Luther explains, is not just food, but
anything we need each day for life. Like the manna that the ancient Israelites
gathered every morning, Jesus instructs his disciples to concentrate on what is
needed only for this day.
Forgiveness,
as the prayer implies, is never something that happens in a vacuum. We often
think of it this way, however…as if whatever happens between me and God stays
that way. However, God’s forgiveness, even if it is held and announced
privately in the heart of one person, is always something that affects the
whole community. When God forgives us, we are made new. A change occurs in us
that cannot help but be shared, then, with others around us, which is why
Jesus, in this prayer, links God’s mercy to us with our mercy to others.
To
pray for deliverance from evil or the time of trial is a realization that God
is ultimately responsible for our salvation from the world’s brokenness, that
at some point all our accomplishments and all our accolades will not be able to
help us overcome death or estrangement from our Creator. That task will be up
to God, and it is good news that the one who is teaching us this prayer is also
the one who will go to the utter end and experience total estrangement on the
cross on our behalf. He will place himself in the very time of trial for us. When
it comes to connectivity and connection with God, you see, it is ultimately not
our prayers or our words that do the trick, but God’s decision in Jesus to be
with us in the hall when we’re crying, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” in the moment of
need, at the point of loss and suffering.
Because
I think all of us, at some point, have struggled with prayer. We’ve stumbled
over how to put our feelings and thoughts into words that God would like and
understand. We get intimidated by God’s holiness and purity—and the fanciness
of church—especially when it’s matched up with our imperfect speech. We expect
our prayers to be eloquent if God will hear them.
And
while Jesus clearly gives us a pattern to follow and some words that will never
get worn out, Jesus also assures his disciples that God hears and listens with
our true needs in mind, just like a father will give what’s best for his child and
a friend will come through in the middle of the night for a buddy in need. There
are no special words you need to say when you knock on a neighbor’s door for a
loaf of bread in the middle of the night when you’re trying to help someone
else. It’s in the knocking itself when the petition occurs. The point is not necessarily
the words, but the position we are in when we come before God…not as people crafting
a list to Santa Claus or a person forming a To-Do list for a lackey but as a
child who is in need…a child in need of love and guidance…a child who trusts
and listens.
A
year or so ago Melinda and I were having some friends over for dinner. One of
the people coming over had been diagnosed with something serious and was
preparing for some intense and risky treatment. Believe it or not I stressed
for days about how I was going to offer a prayer that would appropriately call attention
that situation but not get overwhelmingly emotional or make it too central. I
tried to think about what exactly I was praying for and how to craft the right
words. The moment finally came. We all circled up and joined hands for prayer. All
my time for preparation and forethought had run out and I was going to have to open
my mouth and pray something. I bowed my head and closed my eyes and then words
began to flow…
But
they weren’t my words. Nothing was coming out of my mouth. They were words from
a familiar voice that surprised me. One of the children among us—an 8-year-old
in this congregation—had seized the moment before I had, in front of all those
people, like a child humbly asking for an egg or a fish. So natural, so
pleading, so confident. “Now where in the world did she learn to do that?” I
thought to myself. Who has modeled talking to God like God’s just a friend or a
parent who needs no magic words but who listens and knows what we need? Ah-ha! People
in her community of Jesus-followers must be teaching her prayer, must be
helping to connect her to her heavenly Father.
Oh,
that they could teach me again! And again! This place, I realized, must be some
kind of Godspot, after all.
Thanks
be to God!
The Reverend Phillip W. Martin, Jr.
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