Luke 3:15-22

Today it is traditional for the church to reflect upon the baptism of Jesus. Before Jesus' earthly ministry began he went to the Jordan to be baptized by John. And at his baptism the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove. And God spoke out of heaven and said, "You are my beloved son with you I am well pleased."

Matthew Mark and Luke all tell us the same basic story. But they tell it in different ways. Mark the shortest of the Gospels gives us the basic facts of the event. Matthew includes the fact that John at first did not feel worthy to baptize Jesus but Jesus said that "all righteousness" must be fulfilled. The distinctive thing about Luke is that he emphasizes that the after Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit descended while he was praying.

Prayer is a very important theme in Luke. Luke emphasizes that at important junctures in Jesus' life he prayed. At his baptism, before choosing the 12, on the mount of transfiguration, in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed. Luke, who also wrote the book of Acts, continues this theme of the importance of prayer in the early church. In Acts the disciples are praying when the Holy Spirit descends at Pentecost, the church is praying when Peter is freed from Prison by an angel, Paul is praying when an angel appears to him on the sinking ship to give hope and direction. Put simply things happen when God's people pray. And Jesus is a prime example of that truth!

So what might Jesus have been praying about? There are any number of things. After his baptism Jesus would go into the desert to have a showdown with the Devil. He might have been praying about that. There were many other people being baptized. He may have been praying for them. Jesus would leave his mother and family behind to preach and heal and then die. He might have been praying for them. He may have been preparing himself to spend three years on a road that would lead to the cross.

But I think Luke gives us a hint of one thing Jesus was probably praying about. Luke tells us in the verses just before that John was arrested. Of course John was not arrested until after Jesus was baptized. But at the time of Jesus' baptism the political wheels that would lead to John's arrest and death were already turning. Luke wants us to see that Jesus' baptism happened in the context of John's immanent arrest.

Among all the other things Jesus may have been praying about this was certainly near the top of the list. Jesus' cousin and friend, coworker, herald: John the Baptist was about to be thrown in prison and beheaded. And Jesus was praying. Don't miss the importance of this. Jesus prayed in the face of life's trials.

But also don't miss what happened as a result! Jesus prayed and the heavens were opened. Jesus prayed and the Holy Spirit descended in a tangible form. Jesus prayed and God spoke, "You are my Son, with you I am well pleased."

When God's people pray things happen! As followers of Christ we should follow the example of our Lord and pray in the face of trials and things will happen. What will happen? The heavens will open! "Of course when the preacher says that heaven will open he is speaking entirely metaphorically and figuratively."

No, I am not! I believe that the heavens are really opened when God's people pray. When we open our hearts to God in prayer we are in the very presence of God. Through Jesus we have direct access to God. This is why at Jesus death on the cross the veil that separated the people from the presence of God in the holy of holies was torn allowing us access to God. Through Christ our great high priest we can address our needs to God directly.

Do you know how significant this is? I can pick up the phone and call the White House and I might get to leave a message on some voice mail or maybe I will speak to a switchboard operator if I am lucky, but I will never get to talk to the president. I seriously doubt that any message I leave will ever make it to the president. But I can bow my head in prayer and God will hear my prayer directly! I am not talking about the elected leader of a third of a continent. I am talking about the creator of the cosmos! And because of Jesus the heavens are opened and God hears my prayer!

So when God's people pray the heavens are opened. What else happens? The Spirit descends in a tangible form? First of all what is the Holy Spirit. Some people get confused about this. I actually heard a life long member of the United Methodist Church say, "We're Methodists we don't believe in the Holy Spirit."

Let me assure you Methodists most certainly do believe in the Holy Spirit. Jesus in the Gospel of John describes the Holy Spirit as a counselor or someone who stands by us. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will give us the abilities we need to serve God and to persevere in this world. The Holy Spirit is the source of things like love and hope and joy and peace and knowledge and wisdom.

The best definition of the Holy Spirit is "God with us." When God's people pray the Holy Spirit descends. And if comes in tangible ways. You can feel the peace and the assurance of the Holy Spirit.

When God's people pray things happen. The heavens are opened, the Holy Spirit descends in a tangible way, and God speaks. The problem is that most people are not listening. Some people assume that God isn't going to talk to little old me. But we are talking about the Almighty infinite God of the Universe. God is capable of carrying on a personal conversation with every living person at the same moment without breaking a sweat.

So what is God saying? The answer to that will be different for every person. But at the heart of any message is the same thing that God said to Jesus. At his baptism God said to Jesus, "You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased."

In the same way God is saying to each and every one of us: "You are my beloved child, you make me happy." God is basically saying to all of us, "I love you and I am here for you." But we don't hear it because we don't expect God to actually speak to us individually. But when God's people open their hearts to pray thing like that happen!

When God's people pray things happen: The heavens are opened, the Spirit descends, and God says, "You are my beloved child." So pray. Take time to bow your hearts and heads and pray. Speak your mind to God and listed for God to speak back.

Pray and expect things to happen. Expect to experience the presence of God. Expect the Holy Spirit to touch your heart and life and stand by you. Expect God to speak to your heart and mind.

Jesus prayed in the face of the trials of life. You should pray in the face of your trials. And expect things to happen!

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!

Matthew 6:5-13

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 an 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 green 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 green furniture. That talk keeps the lines of communication open.

This maintenance of communications is important to any relationship not just marital ones. But too often that aspect of our relationship to Jesus is ignored. It 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 "Our Father who is in heaven." Immediately this establishes the kind of relationship which the prayer has to the prayee. 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 it is easy for little children to produce the sound Abba. And 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, theologically 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 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 are dependent 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. 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 one's knees with 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

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 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." Its your move.