Colossians 2:6-19

Get real! People are just looking for something genuine and real. So often people are trying to sell us something and we rightfully question their sincerity. And there are so many philosophies and psychobabble out there. Most of it is shallow and meaningless. You just want to cut through all the hype and find out what is real; what matters. When life gets real you want something real to depend on. You want genuine friendships and relationships. You want quality commitments from ourselves and others when the it really matters. You want people to be genuine and not fake. Take off the mask and let us see who you really are. Risk some reality so that your loved ones can be real with you.

Just as we seek genuineness in our society and relationships we need that in our religion. Sometimes religion can be fake. I don't care if you are high church or low church; emerging, contemporary or traditional. It is so easy to hide under the rituals and practices and traditions and not be real. It is so easy to come to church and put on the mask of the good church going religious person and not be real. It is so easy to go through the motions and hide our real selves behind the church clothes and church songs. Sometimes we try to hide ourselves from God, maybe we are not even being genuine in ourselves.

The world sees the lack of realness in the church today. They characterize it in popular comedy. The "church lady" character from Saturday night live is one example. There is an ongoing debate between the generations about how we dress for church. I am happy to say that dress has never been an issue here at Grace but it has been a topic of conversation. Older generations say you should dress up or at least dress nice out of respect for God. The younger generations say we should be real and wear what makes us comfortable. If we have a friend in Jesus we should dress to go to his house the same way we would dress to go to our best friend's house. So people going to contemporary worship services dress in casual wear, while those going to the traditional service dress in suits and dresses. But I have found it is just as easy to lack genuineness in a pair of "holy" blue jeans and a t-shirt as it is in a dress or suit.

So, get real.

Paul is saying to the Colossians that they need to be real. Times have not changed a whole lot since then. Just as now there were a lot of people trying to sell their philosophies and psychobabble. In the first century angels were popular and there were those who had claimed that an angel had visited them and given them some special knowledge. They could impart this knowledge to you if you would go through certain rituals. They were called mystery religions. There were others who claimed that they had a secret knowledge that would explain everything. Only those smart enough and clever enough to comprehend and grasp this knowledge could be saved.

Also then as now there were people who hid behind rituals and traditions. They taught that you had to keep certain special days as holy and they were only hiding their true selves behind ritual practices and laws. They were the original church lady's dressing up and chiding anyone who would break any of their rules of conduct and decorum. Their religious practices were impeccable.

But it was all false Paul said. He said don't let people judge you by what days you worship and at what hour or if you celebrate their holidays. Don't worry about people who practice false humility and worship of angels. They have lost touch with what is real.

Paul was telling the Colossians to be real because Jesus is real. Jesus is real. I am not talking about the historicity of Jesus; that there actually was a guy named Jesus who did what the bible says. I am assuming that. I mean Jesus himself was genuine and real.

Just look at his life. He was born a refugee in a stable and had to flee for his life before he was 3. At the age of 30 he left the family business to go and teach and heal. He called real people like fishermen and tax collectors and even a political radical.

And the way he dealt with people was real. When he faced the false piety of the religious leaders he called them to task. When wine ran out at a wedding he made more. When a woman met him at the well wearing a mask of shame, he engaged her in some real conversation and touched her soul. When a tax collector climbed a tree to see him he said, "Let's do lunch." When the people were hungry, he multiplied loaves and fish to feed them. When a woman was in custody for the capital offence of adultery, Jesus unmasked the hypocrisy of her accusers.

Jesus is real so we need to get real. You call yourself a Christian. So is Christ really the most important thing in your life? Are you a Christ person? Do you wake up each morning and live your life for Christ. Do you seek to serve him in your work and play and leisure and family?

Being a Christian is not about the ritual and traditions. It is not about following a bunch of rules. All these things can be meaningful. As Paul said, "These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

Jesus is the real thing. You may wear a mask and not be genuine with people. But let down your defenses with Jesus so that he can make you real. Then you can be a real Christian. Get real, for Christ's sake.

Luke 11:1-13

Communication is important. It is key to any relationship. Ask any marriage counselor. One of the most important things in a marriage is communication. If you have children you know how important communication is there. Especially as they get older, we have to keep those lines of communication open.

Without quality communication of some kind a relationship will fall apart. This is also true of our relationship with God. Not because we have some information that God does not know about. God knows all our needs before we can voice them. Some might say "well if God already knows our thought and needs why do we need to say anything to God. Well, my wife knows that I love her. Does that mean I don't ever have to tell her? She knows it, but she still likes to hear if from me from time to time. We have to maintain communication because we are in a relationship with God. The communication is not for God's sake but for ours.

Prayer is the main mode of communication for Christians. Through prayer we relate to God. It is the basic day to day communication that keeps the relationship alive. Without regular prayer that relationship can fall apart; not from God's side but from ours. And amazingly many Christians don't know how to pray.

But that's nothing new. Jesus' disciples saw his prayer life and asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. That lesson is found in Luke Ch. 11. It sounds amazingly like the Lord's Prayer that we say each Sunday. The version we use is the one found in Matthew from the Sermon on the Mount. Both are examples Jesus gave for us to learn from.

The first thing that Jesus establishes in his sample prayer is the relationship between the one praying and God. He says, "Father, hallowed be thy name," or as Matthew reports it "Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name." That is the relationship we have with God. God is our Father. But we know that elsewhere Jesus uses the Aramaic word "Abba" for father. "Abba" is the word that small children use for the father. It is more like "Dada" or "Daddy" than the formal "Father."

When my children were small and I had been away for the day they would come running to me at the door yelling "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." That is how we should come to God in prayer. I remember one time I was away at Annual Conference and Kaitlyn got her finger shut in a door and broke them. I few days later when I got home she and Mary came running to me "Daddy, daddy, daddy." And immediately Kailtyn showed me her fingers and said, "I brote my finders." She wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know but it was still important for her to show me.

So we come to God as small children come to a father. We come as those who are completely dependant on God. But this is not ordinary earthy father. This is our heavenly father whom we hold as holy. Earthly fathers can abandon and mistreat there children, but this is our heavenly father who never abandons or mistreats us.

Another key part of this prayer is "Give us each day our daily bread." First there is the request. Some people think they shouldn't ask for anything for themselves. But Jesus told us to ask for the things we need. So we should ask and seek and knock.

And we should ask each day. I think some people think they can just pray once and say, "God take care of me" and be done with it. But we are to depend on God on a day to day basis. Do you remember the story of the exodus? God gave the children of Israel bread form heaven. But just enough for each day. He did that to teach them to trust God daily.

And we are to ask for our daily bread. Bread was a main staple for the people of Israel. We should ask for those things we need. Too often we focus on things we want but don't really need. And there is nothing wrong with voicing those wants but it is important that we acknowledge that God gives us all we need.

Another main component of this prayer is confession. Jesus said that we should pray, "forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation." Too often Christians stop with the daily bread and don't get to this point. We should regularly as for forgiveness. None of us is perfect - yet. We have all done things, maybe even things we were unaware of, that have hurt God and our neighbor. We should ask for forgiveness.

But that the same time we have to be willing to forgive others. Matthew's version says, "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." I think that most Christians don't realize what they are saying that this point in the prayer. We are not just asking God to forgive us. We are also asking God not to forgive us if we do not forgive others.

This is not merely an admission of past mistakes it is also a resolution to not sin in the future. We ask for forgiveness but then we ask for guidance so that we are not led into temptation again. This is true repentance. It is a desire to turn away from evil and turn to God.

Pray. Keep those likes of communication open. It's not hard to do. You don't have to have a carefully prepared speech. Just start talking.

God is just waiting for us to talk. Not because we have anything to say that God doesn't already know. But simply because God loves us, and God wants to hear from us.

God will listen. There are times that earthly friends will ignore us, but not God. There are times that people will mistreat us, but not God.

So talk. God is listening. And you know what? God might have a few things to tell you too!

Luke 11:1-13

My wife, Melissa, really takes on a lot of the responsibility for maintaining our marriage. Sometimes Melissa and I will be sitting on the sofa and she will turn to me and say "Talk to me." She doesn't tell me what to talk about. There is not topic or subject provided. She doesn't request any specific information. The content of the talk is irrelevant. One time I had trouble finding something to talk about. The weather was too boring and football season had not started. So we talked about furniture. The idea is that we just relate to each other - that we talk for the sake of talking.

Melissa hasn't had the psychological and theological training that I have had, but she taught me something about relationships. In a unique way she knew that communication was important. Without it any relationship will fall apart. Especially a marriage in today's world. Spouses need to be in touch with one another. But communication is difficult to start if you are out of practice. So from time to time Melissa will open up those lines even though they are not immediately needed to convey specific information. She knows that sometimes it is important just to relate to one another. And that is true even if you are just talking about the weather or furniture. It may seem meaningless on the surface, but that meaningless talk keeps the lines of communication open.

This maintenance of communications is important to any relationship not just a marriage. But too often that aspect of our relationship to Jesus is ignored. Our relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship to a Christian. Yet many Christians have trouble talking to God. Some don't even know how to start. By talking to God I mean praying. And without some exchange of words that relationship will break down - not from God's end but from ours. That is probably why Jesus taught his disciples to pray and in the teaching of the Lord's prayer we have an example that can help us to learn to pray or to pray more earnestly.

The Lord's Prayer teaches us a lot. The first thing it teaches us is the kind of relationship we have with God. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray he told them to begin "Father." Immediately this establishes the kind of relationship which the pray-er, the one praying, has to the pray-ee, the one being prayed to. It is the relationship of a child to a parent. But we know that Jesus often times refereed to God as "Abba." "Abba" is the Aramaic word for a father. But it really doesn't mean "father." The best translation is "Da-Da." "Abba" is what little children call their parents in Aramaic speaking regions. Like "Da-Da," "Abba" is easy for little children to produce. We are like little children who have trouble producing the words we need to say to our Daddy in heaven. So Jesus taught his disciples through his example to pray "our Da-da in heaven."

This point cannot be overemphasized. We need to constantly remember what kind of relationship we have. When we pray we are not praying to some distant God off in the far reaches of the heavens. Jesus didn't say "Pray 'Our illustrious Patriarch somewhere off in heaven." No he said, "Pray 'Our Daddy in heaven." The relationship we have with God is one of a small dependent child on their parent.

God is like a Mother or Father to us who cares for us. God was the one who birthed us into existence. God is the one who feeds us what we need. God knows better than we do what that is. God is the one who protects us and keeps us warm. And when we sin and make a mess, God is the one who changes our diapers, spiritually speaking.

The Lord's Prayer teaches us the basics of our relationship to God, but it also gives us a model for designing our prayer lives. It contains all the aspects of prayer which it is important for maintaining the relationship we have with our Daddy in heaven. First of all it contains praise of God. "Hollowed" or "Holy is your name" is praise of God. The first petition or request is "Thy kingdom come." Matthew adds, "Thy will be done." Both make the point that in all our prayers our goal should be the fulfillment of God's will in our lives. And so we make that our first prayer. The prayer also contains a petition that God will give us the bread we need for each day. Unfortunately this is where many people's prayer lives begin and end. We just ask for what we want or think we need. But asking God to provide the things we need to live is important. It acknowledges the fact that we depend on God. The Lord's prayer also contains an element of confession. We should ask God to forgive us of the sins we commit. Forgiveness is not a one time deal. We still sin from time to time and are in need of God to forgive us.

There is nothing magical about the words of the Lord's Prayer. This is obvious in the fact that there are two versions of it recorded in the Bible. The "Lord's Prayer" that we say every Sunday or daily is the one found in Matthew. But God's Holy Spirit led Luke to record an abbreviated version. Jesus did not intend that his disciples always pray the exact words he gave them. But he did tell them to pray in that way. Our prayer lives should be similar to the Lord's Prayer. It should contain elements of confession, petition and praise.

I believe we should say the Lord's prayer in our daily prayers. Not because it is magical, but because it is a bench mark which we can use to judge the strength of our prayer lives.

The prayer Jesus taught his disciples is a model for our prayer lives, but it is important to remember that prayer is just talking to God. While I believe it is useful to use written prayers or forms of prayer like the Lord's Prayer to aid our prayer life, prayer itself is just talking. It is just like the conversations which you would have with someone you love. Prayers don't always need to have a clear purpose. It is often the purposeless conversations that mean the most. Husbands how would you like it if your wife didn't say a thing to you in the morning, just because she had no specific or important information to convey to you. Wives how would you like it if the only thing that your husband said to you in the morning was "Give me my breakfast." Try saying "Good morning God." Try talking about the weather. Of course God already knows what the weather is. But that doesn't mean God doesn't want to talk about it.

Prayer doesn't need to be done on your knees with your eyes closed. Kneeling or bowing one's head are good. That posture expresses reverence. And closing ones eyes blocks out other distractions. But we can pray with our eyes open if we need or want to. You can even pray when some pushy salesperson is getting on you nerves. Try saying a prayer sometime when you are driving or walking. That time can be well used strengthening your relationship with God.

When I was in college I discovered the importance of this. In order to keep up with my studies I utilized every waking moment. I discovered I was wasting about half an hour a day just walking places like to class the cafeteria. So I started praying. After a few days I ran out of things to say and I started listening. Try talking to God when you are walking your dog or driving to work.

God is with us here today and is trying to establish a relationship with each of us, or to strengthen a relationship which already exists. And God is sitting next to each of us, and God is saying "Talk to me." God is not requesting specific information. We don't have any information God doesn't already know.

Our heavenly Daddy is with us and is saying: "Son, how was your day." "Daughter it looks like rain." "Child, I love you." God is saying "Talk to me." It's your move. What will you do?

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