RCL Proper 17C [i]
27 July 2025
Church of the Epiphany
Surrey BC
Introduction
About the year 150, a Christian scribe in Alexandria found himself in possession of two older Christian documents. One was a catechism or a collection of teachings about how a person should live their life. This collection of teachings probably began its life as a Jewish document that a later Christian edited to suit a Christian audience. The second part was longer and was a guidebook to how the Christian community should conduct its communal affairs: baptism, eucharist, church organization and prayer. This second part likely began its life in the rural areas of western Syria. Our Christian friend in Alexandria put the two documents together and called it, “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”. [ii]
In the second part the original writer responds to a question from their community: “How and how often shall we pray?’ The writer’s answer is wonderfully simple: Pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day – when you rise, when you are in the middle of your working day, when you bring the day to an end. [iii] Pray as our Lord taught us in the Gospels according to Matthew and Luke.
“Father, . . . “ [iv]
With this one word the evangelist Luke reminds us that prayer is a conversation that is based on our relationship with a living and personal God – not a set of rules, not an abstract philosophy – but a relationship with the One who created all that is, seen and unseen, the One who knows the hairs on our heads and the needs of our life.
Now, it is no secret that calling God ‘Father’ is not easy for everyone. Because this is about a relationship with God, how we talk about God is important. For some, ‘Father’ conjures up memories of safety, nurture and compassion. For others, ‘Father’ brings up past traumas, disappointments and pain. For more than thirty years I have been involved in our church’s efforts to find language that is faithful and fair, life-giving and hope-creating, so that we can all join in prayer and thanksgiving. This is a task that will never cease.
But I will say this. As important as it is to find words that help us talk to the One who made us, who redeems us, who sanctifies and sustains us, there is something that is even more important. What is more important is that we do talk to God. If we are uncertain about what words to use, then pray with the words we have. God, who knows the secrets of our hearts, will sort things out.
“ . . . may your name be revered as holy . . . “ [v]
One of the words used frequently these days is ‘whatever’. When my children were younger and I was trying to make a point about something, one or other of them would dismiss the point I was trying to make by saying, ‘whatever’. I quickly and firmly banished that word from their conversations with me. ‘Whatever’ means ‘I don’t care’ or ‘Your words don’t matter’ or ‘It’s all irrelevant’ or something to this effect.
Just as words matter, names matter as well. A name brings a host of associations that we make when we hear it. Speak the name of a national or provincial politician and watch the reactions around us. Speak the name of a loved one who has died, whether recently or in the past, and we can quickly be overwhelmed with memories of what they looked like, what they loved to do, what they said to us at important moments in our lives.
When we speak about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and Jesus, the God of Peter and Paul, we are releasing into this moment all the stories, all the memories, all the hopes that are bound up in this name. To speak of God as ‘creator’ is to remember that all that exists is holy and loved by the One who created it. To speak of God as ‘saviour’ is to remember that we have ‘erred and strayed’ from the paths of life and that the One who saves us brings us back on track. To speak of God as ‘Spirit’ is to remember that in every moment of every day the One who breathed life into Adam is breathing life and new possibilities into the world.
“Give us each day our daily bread.” [vi]
We live in a world filled with anxiety. For many people in this world, it is an anxiety about food and shelter and safety from violence, oppression and conflict. For those of us who live in place of relative safety and prosperity, we worry about whether we will have adequate retirement income, about whether the traditions and communities we have loved for so long have a future, about whether our children and grandchildren will enjoy good lives.
God knows the depth of our anxiety as well as how some of it is generated by the choices we make or do not make. To pray for ‘our daily bread’ is a prayer that we grow in trust and in confidence. It is only when we have trust in God and confidence in the gifts God has given us that we are able to transform anxiety into hope and hope into action.
“And forgive us our sins, as we forgive everyone indebted to us.” [vii]
When I look at the world around us, I see people and societies that are unable to forgive. It is as if the only treasure some people and some societies hold is the wrongs that have been done to them. By holding on to these ancient wrongs, they are actually preventing genuine healing and reconciliation. They are caught in a web spun by the spider of resentment and revenge. In that web they shall soon be consumed from within.
Forgiveness is not forgetting. Forgiveness is choosing to create a future that is not defined only by our past. Forgiveness means acknowledging both our sins and the sins of others, but then taking the risk to build new relationships that are not simply repeating old patterns. Forgiveness means that we will not allow ourselves to be held hostage by what has gone on before.
“And do not bring us to the time to trial.” [viii]
It is not always easy to believe in a living God who is actively at work in the world to bring about a new heaven and a new earth. I do not doubt for a moment that almost every Christian, if not every Christian, has had a moment of trial, a moment of doubt, perhaps even a moment of despair. But those moments come, and we must face them with hope and in the confidence that God is at work in us, through us and even despite us.
Conclusion
Almost fifty years ago, my teacher, Bishop Michael Ramsey, spent a whole day pondering two words: “Our Father”. He knew what the writer of “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” knew: In these few words we find all we need to nurture our relationship with the Creator, with the Christ, with the Spirit. So pray them three times a day. Pray them slowly, phrase by phrase. In the silence after each phrase let our hearts, our minds, our souls reach out to talk with the One to whom we are praying. And we will find the faith, the hope and the love we all seek.
[i] Hosea 1.2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2.6-15; Luke 11.1-13.
[ii] “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Commonly Called the Didache”, edited and translated by Cyril C. Richardson in Early Christian Fathers, The Library of Christian Classics, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1953), 161-179.
[iii] Didache 8.2-3.
[iv] Luke 11.2b (NRSVue).
[v] Luke 11.2c (NRSVue).
[vi] Luke 11.3 (NRSVue).
[vii] Luke 11.4a (NRSVue).
[viii] Luke 11.4b (NRSVue).