Sermon Notes

6 5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “Pray, then, in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
may your name be revered as holy.
10 May your kingdom come.
May your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.
14 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
(New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, NRSVue)
6 5 “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat? 6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace. 7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and He knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
14-15 “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part. (The Message, MSG)

Matthew’s Gospel consists of six major divisions, and our lesson text for this week emerges from the second section (4:17–11:1) which includes Jesus’ most well-known teaching—the Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29). In these chapters, Matthew presents how Jesus’ ministry begins to incarnate God’s salvation for the world as he announces God’s reign, calls disciples, teaches on the kingdom/kin-dom of God, and heals individuals of diseases and demons. All of these combined activities gave 1st century Jews a picture of what Life in God’s Kingdom looked like and how the kingdom/kindom life should be lived out. For those individuals who were born into, and lived their whole lives under the oppression of the Roman Empire, the teachings of Jesus would have been radical. His declaration that the people should, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” would have been received as a revolutionary rejection of Roman imperialism and its dehumanizing systems.
The idea of the “empire” or “kingdom” of God brings to mind traditions within the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament that characterize God as Israel’s king. (Consider the enthronement psalms of the Psalter.) God rules over creation, humanity, and the nations of the world as a just and beneficent sovereign. However, God’s reign is rejected by many nations of the world, it is an eschatological reality—meaning it has been announced and established by Jesus, but it has yet to be fully realized. At the end times (eschaton in the Greek language), Jesus will ensure God’s rule is implemented over all of the cosmos. Therefore, according to Matthew, the empire of God is “already” here and “not yet” here at the same time.
Contemporary Christians well understand the tension between the “already” and “not yet” that Matthew’s gospel reflects, and Matthew 6 reveals. Like 1st century followers of Jesus, we wrestle with oppressive imperialist systems that consistently dehumanize people who are not the dominant society within the United States. However—in faith—we believe the kingdom/kindom of God is a present reality because of the life, ministry, passion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Although we must contend with those who reject the very idea of an equitable and egalitarian kingdom/kindom of God, we yet embrace Jesus’ teaching on the power of prayer as testament to our relationship with God and trust in Divine rule in our lives.

While the Gospel of Matthew is named after “Matthew” who was a tax collector and disciple of Jesus, it was not written by him. This title is an honorific designation title that reflects the literary customs of ancient Greco-Roman culture and writing from which it emerges. Like all four gospels within the New Testament, Matthew’s Gospel reflects the social, political, and religious concerns of its late 1st century context. Because Matthew references the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the gospel reflects a post-70CE context of conflict between Jesus-followers and the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Jewish leaders of synagogues. Jesus envisions a new kingdom of God that Matthew calls the Church (ekklesia in Greek) which reshapes society by radical community and care for the “least of these.”
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ first speech in Matthew’s Gospel, his most famous sermon, and at 109 verses, is the longest teaching/preaching ascribed to him within the gospel. In the “Sermon,” Jesus teaches on the character and practices of disciples who are committed to the establishment and maintenance of the kingdom/kin-dom of God. Seven times, he refers to God’s kingdom/kin-dom (5:3, 5:10, 5:19–20; 6:10, 6:33; 7:21) making it clear that this is its central theme. For Matthew, the establishment of God’s kingdom/kin-dom occurs when humans work to alleviate oppression in all forms and reverse injustice anywhere. Jesus opens the “Sermon” in chapter 5 with The Beatitudes, that characterize the “blessed” as those who experience suffering and those who mitigate suffering by embracing and producing God’s justice. In chapter 6, additional works of justice—mercy, prayer, and fasting—are noted as the primary activities of those who authentically embrace God’s kingdom/kindom by working to eradicate injustice. The Lord’s Prayer (6:9–13) is essentially a prayer for God’s empire to become a reality and a template on how to pray properly.

5 “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat? 6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace.
In the opening verses of the lesson. Jesus discusses two kinds of prayer. The first is the type of prayer that seeks to draw public attention to the person who is offering the prayer. They want to be known as one who is spiritual and holy. His religion gives him status, and by public prayer, he maintains and feeds it. The second kind of prayer is private “relational prayer.” This is prayer that seeks time with God for the purpose of ensuring that they are consistently being molded by Divine purpose into the vessel that embodies God’s kingdom/kin-dom—ensuring that God’s reign goes forth.
Jesus, for teaching purposes, draws a distinct line between the two, but we must acknowledge that most people will fall somewhere between the two extremes. It is also important to understand that no one can read the mind and intentions of another heart. What might seem to be the height of arrogance may only reflect upbringing. Or gentle, quiet prayers may come from one who has no private prayer life at all. Jesus’ instructions are for us to know and personally apply His words and to let the Holy Spirit guide and train our hearts in these matters.
So Jesus advises us to go into our rooms and shut the door. Jesus simply meant that there are places and ways to pray that are only between the Father and us. By entering such places, we demonstrate that we believe that God is always present and ready to meet us in the solitary places of life.
7-8 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and He knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.
In verses 7-8, Jesus contrasts “secret” prayer with the prayers of the prayer-ignorant. He describes ignorant prayer as the repetitious babbling of many words. Ignorant prayer is about the manipulation of spiritual forces and entities that do not generally care about you as an individual. Jesus teaches the following:
• We must not pray “like the ignorant”—praying to God without knowledge or relationship .
• We should not engage in repetitious babbling—praying without real content.
• We should resist using many words, just to be heard—praying with an attitude that God is not listening and therefore must be manipulated to answer.
In answer to this, Jesus says that our Father knows what we need even before we ask. We are praying to our Father, which means that we are in a family relationship. We are part of His life, and He anticipates what we need. We can come to Him as transparent people. We can come before Him glad, sad, or mad, and He will be there in full understanding. Manipulation is not required.
9-10 Like this: Our Father in heaven, reveal who You are. Set the world right; do what’s best—as above, so below.
In verses 9 -10, Jesus teaches that we should use the familial term, Father, to indicate the loving parental relationship. As an invocation to the Lord’s Prayer, this parental nomenclature provides a theological framework for our prayer language. As parent, God loves us, protects us, provides for us, instructs us, disciplines us, touches us, holds us, kisses us with a parents love and we bask in that Divine touch. So many people focus on the creator/creation, command/obedience aspect of our relationship with God and we forget that God is also a loving parent. When we approach God in prayer, we should above all remember that God has a parental womb-love for us.
Jesus then says we should “honor our Father’s name” praying that God will “reveal who, You are.” This petition is both a request and a posture. As a request, we are asking for the knowledge of the name of our Father to fill the earth, thus revealing who God is. This harkens back to Exodus 34 and the character of God as expressed in the revelation of the Divine name. The Divine name reveals that God is loving, patient, longsuffering, kind and just. When we honor God’s name, we acknowledge the character of God and we pause to lament the things that bring God’s name dishonor: injustice, judgment without mercy, hate, discrimination, oppression, apathy, and the hypocrisy of religiosity instead of spirituality. As a posture, we can begin our prayers with worship, praise, and thanksgiving because we know who God is and what God has done.
We also should ask for God’s kingdom to come. We pray for the spread of the Gospel and the establishment of the rule and reign of the Father in the hearts of people. We pray for the welfare of the distressed and oppressed. We pray for physical healing, deliverance, change of hearts, broken relationships, and the eradication of systems and empires that prevent the rule of God’s love and justice. This is the central theme of the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord’s Prayer.
11-12 Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
The petition for God to provide three meals is a petition for that which is necessary for daily survival. The word for “daily” is epiousios, which brings to mind the idea that we should not pray with anxiety about our what we need. Obviously, food is one of those requirements. However, beyond food, we have other requirements such as shelter, clothing, health, freedom from systematic oppression, and forgiveness which depends upon a reciprocal relationship of forgiving others. We owe a debt that cannot be repaid. However, in response to God’s forgiveness, we release the sin debt of others towards us through forgiveness.
12-13 Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything You want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.
This portion of the prayer is perhaps one of the most difficult to understand. Yet, we should interpret these verses in light of concerns about personal temptation, testing that can come from God, and God’s overcoming of all evil (Satan/Devil) in transforming the world. Personal temptation comes from those things that we fixate on that can draw us out of God’s will for our lives, and cause us to embrace imperialist thinking instead of God's kingdom/kindom. The idea of testing comes from the things in our lives that God allows to happen in order to try our resolve. The notion of the prevalence of evil in the world comes from the reality that in specific individual terms (Satan/Devil), or general terms (the presence of evil) is always actively working to co-opt people to its values, thinking, and its worldly “kingdom.” Human nature is weak and are naturally enticed by the world. Through prayer, we can become a different kind of person.
14-15 “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.
In the final verses of the lesson, Jesus notes there is a link between receiving forgiveness from God to our active forgiveness of others. We can’t expect God to be gracious to us if we are not gracious to others. Jesus’ prayer assumes that we have forgiven others before coming before the Father. The notion that we don’t ever have to ask for forgiveness is hubris, pride, and in itself is evil.
The issue of forgiving others comes down to two things:
• Gratitude. We have been forgiven an enormous debt. Our forgiveness cost the Father the life of His Son in exchange. Our forgiving others is simple gratitude. How dare we not!
• Emulation. By forgiving, we emulate the character of God; we honor God’s name. God is known for mercy and forgiveness. When we show mercy and forgiveness, we are not only striving to be like God, but we are also embodying the love of God to others.