Eglise Evangélique Libre de Bergerac

Good morning, and thank you for being prepared to listen to my sermon twice as Sandrine translates it for us into French! Thank you, also for allowing me to change the order of our service so that we can worship and pray together after I have spoken on the subject of prayer. Rene has also been very kind to allow me to change the order of service even though he had already started to prepare for a ‘normal’ service before I let him know I wanted to change things around! Thank you Rene.

I want to speak on prayer, not because I am an expert on the subject, but because it is such an important dimension of our lives as Christians. I was also stimulated, as I am sure many others of you were, by some of the remarks that Emmanuel Alavarez made on this subject when he visited us several months ago. But firstly I want to read some scriptures on which to base my remarks – because it is the scriptures above all, and especially the words of Jesus, that must guide us in our thinking and speaking. Please turn with me to Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 – 15. (Roger to read, then Sandrine!)

Verses 5 tells us that the Pharisees loved to be seen praying in public, but Jesus realised that public prayer could so easily become a way of ‘showing off’, of boasting, to others about how holy or spiritual we are. So Jesus tells his disciples to go to their room and pray in secret, so that God who sees in secret might reward them publicly.

Prayer is NOT a public display of our spirituality – it is an intensely private relationship with God. We do not pray to impress other people – we go to God to express our love for him; to express our concerns, hopes and fears to him for him to encourage and strengthen us. We go also on behalf of other people in need that God might bless them and help them. I dare to suggest that if we cannot, or do not pray in private, then we cannot pray in public. Prayer is, first and foremost, an individual talking with God – his or her holy, heavenly Father. We need to pray regularly and conscientiously in private as an act of worship and adoration to God and on behalf of the many, many needs that there are in this needy world of ours.

But prayer is, naturally, also a very important public activity. And I want to spend most of our time this morning on looking at what public prayer is. If you know the passage in Luke’s gospel chapter 11 in which Jesus teaches the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ (Notre Père) he does so because the disciples ask him ‘Lord teach US to pray.’ His response is interesting in that he always uses the plural form of address – Our Father; give us; forgive us; lead us; etc, not My Father; give me; forgive me; lead me….. So though prayer is a private, individual thing, it is also a collective act by the community of God’s people. The first thing to remember therefore when praying in public it that we should normally use the we us form of address rather than the I me form. As Emmanuel Alavarez reminded us, when we pray in public, we do not just pray for ourselves, we are leading and directing others in their praying as well. It would be artificial to insist that we can never use the singular form of addressing God, but it is a good principal to remember that when we pray in public we should follow Jesus’ teaching and address ‘our’ Father; asking him to accept ‘our’ thanks; to lead ‘us’ and guide ‘us’, etc.

So how do private and public prayer differ? When we pray in private there is an intimacy with God, and a freedom in that intimacy to express our love and devotion, our joy, sometimes our hurt and frustration, and even at times our anger. In private we can reveal our heart to God – and he can respond to us and to our very individual needs. Think how a husband and wife might express themselves to each other in private, and how they might in public. In private there are intimacies and endearments, there are sensitive issues to share which would be totally inappropriate in public. The relationship is still the same in public, but the way of expressing that relationship is quite different because others are looking on and listening to their conversation. So it is in prayer. Paul says, for instance, that in private he prays in tongues, but in public he prays in one of the languages of his day – Latin, Greek, Hebrew – so that his hearers can understand. When we pray in public, it is the Body of Christ praying and he or she who leads our prayers must remember that they do not just pray of themselves.

Now let us look a bit more closely at the Lord’s Prayer (Notre Père) Thank you, Jean Jacques for preparing our transparency for us. Let us look at it now. (Put up the transparency)

When we come before God, Jesus tells us that we can call him Father! Though there are many passages in the Old Testament which describe God as Father, normally the leaders and prophets addressed him as ‘Lord’. But Jesus gives his disciples clear teaching that we can approach God knowing we have this special relationship with him, that of a son or daughter to a much loved father. Sometimes we forget that immense privilege. Let us constantly remind ourselves of how very special and close our relationship is with God. BUT first of all, Jesus says, remember that our heavenly father is HOLY. The letter to the Hebrews states that we must worship God with reverence and awe because our God is a consuming fire. I remember, in a church we attended in England, a certain young lady would sometimes lead our prayer meetings. She would get so excited that she would raise her voice to a shout, she would stamp her feet and raise her arm and clench her fist as she prayed, she SO wanted God to answer her prayer there and then!! And I used to think of that verse I have just quoted from Hebrews and to reflect that I would never talk to my own earthly father like that, yet alone my holy heavenly Father!! Let us beware that we don’t forget how holy is this loving God to whom we are speaking. Let us not abuse the privilege we have of coming freely into his presence to pray.

“May your kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus urges his disciples to pray firstly not for themselves, nor for their families and friends but for a world in need. That the world might be brought into the kingdom of God and that God might reign over all. In the book of Revelation an angel declares loudly that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. In 1Timothy chapter 2 verses1 – 4, Paul urges Timothy and the church for which he is responsible to pray for kings and all who are in authority so that we might lead quiet and peaceable lives. In our public praying it is right that we pray for kings and queens (!), presidents and prime ministers, and all who are in positions of authority. We have a Christian responsibility to pray for them. I have noted with interest that most Sundays the English church in Limeuil prays for President Chirac but here in Bergerac the French church seldom does!! And it certainly never prays for the Queen of Great Britain!!! I wonder why that is? Are we perhaps too concerned with our own needs, or the needs of our church, or people we know, that we forget those larger responsibilities that are ours? Let us remember to pray for our region, our country and the world as Jesus himself taught us.

But, truly, we have needs in this life, and we are told to pray for them. In Jesus’ day, so many of the people around him suffered cruelly under the Roman occupation, and were almost at starvation point. They needed to pray, in truth, for bread for the day. We have very different needs in our affluent western world, but needs we have. We should not be reluctant to ask our generous God to supply our needs. Again Paul says ‘My God will supply all your needs according to the riches of his glory.’ Let us not be shy to ask, and to remember those many millions of our brothers and sisters all over the world for whom ‘daily bread’ is by no means certain.

I will not say anything of this subject because this was what I spoke about on the last occasion I preached here! Except perhaps to ask the question, ‘Have you forgiven….?’ Have you?

How much evil there is in the world around us: evil to seduce us and bring us down. No wonder Jesus told his disciples to ask their heavenly father for help and strength to overcome the evil that surrounds our lives. Almost every time I use my computer I am invited to visit unhealthy web-sites which tempt me to enter a life of self-indulgence and sexual liberty that by any standards is immoral and self-destructive. Every time I watch television I am invited to spend, spend, spend on items that are supposed to make life happy and self-fulfilling, but in truth are empty promises aimed at getting money out of my pocket and into someone else’s! Let us pray daily and together publicly as a church that we are not led into temptation, but that our lives are exemplary in their holiness, their integrity, their love and care for others, so that we may truly glorify God, because, ultimately……

So that, Jesus taught us is how we should pray – not a rigid formula but a pattern for our prayer, in particular for our times of public prayer. Can we remember these things as later on this morning we come to our time of open prayer?

So. let us now stand and affirm what we have read and heard by saying boldly together the Lord’s Prayer (Notre Père) on the transparency.