Christ United Presbyterian Church, August 24, 2014 Sermon

The Pledge of Allegiance

Matthew 6:1-21

The Pledge of Allegiance holds a particularly interesting place in the mythology of the United States.  It is both beloved and controversial.  Since President Eisenhower added the words “under God” to it, some have treated it as a sacred text.   So before I alluded to it as a sermon title, I reacquainted myself with its history by turning to Wikipedia.  Here’s what it says:

“The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist.… The original ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and sell flags to public schools. According to author Margarette S. Miller this was in line with Upham's vision which he ‘would often say to his wife: “Mary, if I can instill into the minds of our American youth a love for their country and the principles on which it was founded, and create in them an ambition to carry on with the ideals which the early founders wrote into The Constitution, I shall not have lived in vain.”’” [“Pledge of Allegiance,”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

The part of the history that involved increasing flag sales is not the part I’m interested in.  The part that the original author was concerned with is where I see parallels between the “Pledge” and the Lord’s Prayer.”

If we can understand the prayer as a support advancing the love of God and His will for us and creating a determination within us to live our lives singularly following Christ’s vision for our lives, then indeed if the Beatitudes are the Declaration of Independence of God’s Kingdom from the powers of this world then the Lord’s Prayer is the pledge of allegiance to that kingdom.

The Sermon on the Mount is an organic whole.  Each part is tied into what came before it and what comes after it.  It is difficult to take even a piece as significant as the Lord’s Prayer and break it out of the Sermon.  Over millennia we have isolated it from the Sermon because it is the way our Lord taught us to pray, and so it becomes for us an important part of our own spiritual lives that we use without thinking about its context.  I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but if we want to understand the words and not treat them as some magical formula then it is wise to look at the context. 

One of the things that Jesus warns us about just before he gives us the prayer is this:

“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. [Matt. 6:7]”

Some folks today, even some Christians, think that fawning eloquence, using a lot of words to try and grab God’s attention, is what we need to do in order to pray.  That’s what the Greeks and Romans did when they prayed to their gods.  They viewed prayers in much the same way that lawyers in serious trial situations view their summations:  all the evidence that came before may or may not be important but if I can just find the right words delivered in the right way I can still win this trial. 

That’s the attitude applied to prayer that Jesus is warning us against.  You may recall that back in chapter 5 Jesus tells us not to bother with complicated situational oaths.  Say what you mean, keep it simple, and fulfill your word.  Now he’s saying the same thing about the way we approach God in prayer. 

He tells us that prayer is a private matter between us and God.  It doesn’t require fancy words.  It doesn’t require long-windedness.  Then there’s one more little sentence before the prayer that sometimes gets misunderstood.  Jesus says: “your Father knows what you need before you ask him. [Matt. 6:8]”  He doesn’t say “He knows what you are going to say” or “He knows what you are going to ask for.”  Jesus says:  “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” 

“Need.”  “Need.”  Not “what you want.”  “What you need.”

So understanding all of that, here’s how and what you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,
            hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
            on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
            as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
            but rescue us from the evil one.

[Matt. 6:9-13, NRSV]

It’s all of 58 words; 6 sentences.  The first three sentences are about God.  The last 3 are about others.  The last 3 are about others.  We don’t pray for ourselves alone anywhere in this prayer.  We call God by a simple and familiar name.  We pledge that we want God’s kingdom to come here among us, and just to make sure we understand what that means we say what it means:  it means that we are committed to God’s will and want it to be the ruling force here – among us – just as it’s the norm in heaven.

And then we speak the strength of our faith, but we don’t speak for ourselves alone:  we speak for us all.  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Did you hear that little pronoun.  It’s not “me.”  It’s “us.”  We are praying as members of the community of God’s children and we are praying for the faith and hope of the community. 

In a few more verses down Jesus is going to warn us against storing up earthly treasures, and here He is telling us to let God know that the faith and the love shared within our community is such that all we need is today’s necessities.  One day at a time. Further down in this chapter he also tells us not to worry about tomorrow.  We have so much faith in God’s love for us and our love for one another that we know we need (there’s that word again: need) just enough for today and tomorrow God will again meet our needs.

That one day at a time thing is tough.  As Jesus leads us through the wilderness of this world we are reminded that when Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness God fed them with manna only one day at a time.

“When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.” ’ The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. [Ex. 16:15-18]”

One day at a time.  It forces us to throw our trust on the Lord rather than on money or real estate or investments or armies.  Are you sure you want to pray these words?

Here’s the really big one:  “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  Again this is a prayer that our community is a community rooted in love and consequently in forgiveness and forgiving.  Jesus said, according to Matthew, that our forgiveness would be granted in accordance with the measure in which we have forgiven others.  That’s what it says. 

What does it mean?  You may remember that in the previous chapter Jesus talked about the inconsistent and hypocritical religious practices that undermined the true worship of the Lord.  Nonetheless many of us find it relatively easy to “forgive” others.  Psychologists can list for you all the emotional advantages gained when you forgive others. 

Jesus wants us to understand the advantages of being forgiven.

I know, we all say that we know we are forgiven.  But in your private moments, those moments of solitude when you reflect on your life do you really think that you’ve done anything that needs to be forgiven? Do you really think that you owe a debt to God?  Do you really acknowledge that this congregation has done anything ever to undermine the realization of the will of God?  Do you really accept the notion that this state or this nation has done anything that it needs to fall to its knees for and ask God’s forgiveness? 

And if you do admit those things, have you fallen on your knees before the Lord and begged – yes, begged – for forgiveness? 

We are complicated creatures. Sometimes we refuse to acknowledge the things we have done because we fear genuinely acknowledging a power great than ourselves.  We want to remain in control.  We don’t want to concede that in order to enjoy the fullness of life we must start by conceding that we owe a debt to God’s will.  We want – like Adam and Eve – to eat of the tree and be like God!

Sometimes we refuse to acknowledge the wrongs we have done because deep down we think we are unforgivable.

To learn to pray this prayer, we must begin by believing what we said in those first three sentences.  I can’t explain it any more clearly than did theologian Stanley Hauerwas:

“The willingness to be forgiven, which may require that I have my ‘enemy’ tell me who I am, is the only way that reconciliation can begin.  To pray ‘in this way,’ … is to become a citizen of God’s kingdom of forgiveness. … To learn to have our sins forgiven, indeed to learn that we are sinners needing forgiveness, is to become part of the kingdom of God. [Stanley Hauerwas, Matthew; Brazos Theological Commentary; p.79]”

“…forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” 

Volumes upon volumes have been written about this prayer.  I can’t add much to that in the context of this sermon.  I do hope to add a little more to all of our understanding of the prayer in a study this fall, but for now I will only leave you with this.  Read the words very carefully.  Consider what the words mean in the context of Jesus’ life and ministry.  Recognize that in praying these words we are committing ourselves – individually and corporately – to an eternal allegiance, an eternal faithfulness to the reality of God’s kingdom and its continuing incursion into this life.  These are not words to be taken lightly.  These are words that will lead us through this present wilderness into a new creation marked by joy!

Amen.