Have you ever had the breath knocked out of you? I mean literally. Maybe you were roughhousing with your friends as a kid and got hit in the belly - or you fell hard on your back on the playground. It has been a long time, but I remember that feeling. When we were kids in Plano, the game we played more than anything was football. And it wasn’t really football unless it was tackle football. No two-below or powder puff for me and my friends.
It didn’t happen often but a couple of times I remember being given the ball – a hole opened up so that I could see the goal line at the end of the back yard. I started running towards it, knowing I would be the hero (or shero) of the day and – ooof - out of the blue – I was knocked down. For one or two seconds, although it felt like forever, everything just stopped!
My life flashed before me which didn’t take long for a ten-year-old… I probably prayed that I was not dying. For a second or two it was a total feeling of helplessness – lying on the ground, seeing the clouds drift in the Texas sky as my brain and heart and lungs had to communicate with each other – quickly - about how to do something that just seconds before was instinctive.
Breathe in. Breathe out. It is a familiar rhythm. Our lives depend on it. But sometimes – ooof - the wind gets knocked out of us – and things don’t work the way they did just moments before. In our story today, the disciples seem to be familiar enough with prayer; at least enough to ask about it. Perhaps some of them were around when John taught his disciples how to pray. We don’t have that prayer. There are no disciples of John anymore.
John the Baptist was very well known. Many thought he was the Christ. In a Facebook world, his personal profile would have reached the maximum number of “friends” right away. But by the time we reach today’s lesson, this popular, almost rock-star figure of the people has been executed – beheaded – by King Herod.
No doubt there was a collective – ooof – that was felt amongst the multitude of people who were baptized by John.
One of those was Jesus – who by this time in the story, has earned his own reputation - for healing, teaching, and feeding people. And for praying.
Praying, for Jesus, was like breathing. Luke, more than any of the other gospel writers, emphasizes Jesus’ prayer life.
At his baptism, Luke says “while he was praying, heaven was opened.” Before the selection of the twelve, Luke says “Jesus went to the mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night long.”
Luke says that “once when Jesus was praying by himself, the disciples joined him, and he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” Before the Transfiguration, when he was seen to be talking with Moses and Elijah, Luke says he had gone “up on a mountain to pray.”
And before the teaching of this prayer today, Luke says that “Jesus was praying in a certain place.” In Luke’s gospel, prayer is like breathing for Jesus.
Today’s reading, this instruction on prayer, is placed at the heart of Luke’s gospel. It could almost be considered a half-way marker.
Jesus is well on his way to Jerusalem. One very attentive disciple (we do not know who) observes that what seems to sustain Jesus more than anything on this long road is prayer. The disciples have already been told (in this and also Matthew’s and Mark’s gospels) that to stay on this path with Jesus they must take up their own crosses daily. It is not an easy road, as the old hymn says – and it certainly wasn’t then - so it is with a sense of urgency that the disciple asks Jesus, “Teach us to pray.”
To be honest, it is not even posed as a request – It is not “Will you please teach us how to pray?” – But it is boldly delivered as an imperative – “Lord, teach us to pray.” It is almost as if this disciple thinks their lives might depend upon it.
Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century Medieval mystic, defined prayer as “breathing in and out the one breath of the universe.” (Do it with me - breathe in – breathe out) Perhaps we get a better sense of this breathing rhythm when we put the very word on our tongues that Jesus used to address God in his native Aramaic language….Abba….
The Greek translation is Pater. The English translation of the Greek Pater is Father. But translation is always a tricky business and it is difficult to transfer some of the poetry of one language into another. – Abba – ab, ba – There is a back and forth, a relationship, an echo, both in the construction and speaking of the word. Abba
As I work with couples who are preparing to be married, we spend a lot of time on the foundation of a lifelong relationship - Communication. Listening actively and speaking assertively. Hearing and being heard – an ongoing exchange of affection and commitment between two parties which can lead to the creation of something new.
This prayer has been called the “Our Father” for many Christians over the years but metaphors are never literal. They come as close as they can to describing the indescribable. But it is important to note that the root of abba – ab – refers to the cosmic birthing of all creation. Father/Mother, Mother/Father…translations are tricky. But in this prayer Jesus invites his disciples into a new and radical relationship - to pray to and with God who is the keeper of the household called Earth – a multigenerational, multi-species, extended family.
We pray to the One who knows each of us by name and in whose image we are made – the One who breathes life into all of creation – the One who births all of us and wants the best for all of her offspring – a divine parent – ungendered and multi-gendered. Not distant and remote but personal and familiar – as close as our very breath.
Here we are – still learning how to pray this prayer and live this prayer as if our lives depend on it…as if we depend on God.
But maybe it has become too familiar. A memorized, static collection of words instead of a living breathing prayer that connects us to God and, as a result, to all members of the household of God.
Receiving daily bread – so that we might offer bread to others.
Receiving forgiveness for sins – so that we might offer forgiveness to others.
Resisting temptations that can harm the household – so that we might join our hand with others in caring for the household.
Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 had to make an emergency landing last year after an engine explosion. Out of the blue, literally, came this unexpected moment where quick communication and cooperation was required.
Of course, airplane travelers nowadays have flown more than once or twice. We have heard the safety drill before take-off so many times that we go back to our book or turn up the music on our headphones.
“In the event of a decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically appear in front of you. Pull the mask towards you. Place it firmly over your nose and mouth and breathe normally. If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person.
In the iPhone age in which we live, there were pictures instantly shared from this flight. If you saw them, you will have noticed what they revealed. No one had placed their masks over both their nose and mouth – as instructed - so that they might breathe normally in order to then help others if needed. No one.
Fortunately, the plane did land. Tragically there was one fatality, but it could have been so much worse.
Have we stopped listening? to each other? .... to God who brings us into relationship with each other? ….. Without listening, is it even possible for us to be heard when we have something to say?
If this is the rhythm of communication – of prayer – listening and hearing, speaking and being heard – has this become an occasional, only when absolutely necessary exercise?
Maybe we have not heard what we wanted to hear. Maybe we have cried out and heard nothing back? Maybe we have had the wind knocked out of us one too many times and have just given up.
Luke mentions one more time that Jesus prays - at his crucifixion. “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And finally, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” After he said this, Luke says “he breathed his last.”
That is what the oppressive political system of Rome had hoped.
That is what the hungry, sick, and impoverished multitudes who were drawn to him on the hillside feared.
What they didn’t know was that he had taught his disciples to pray….
What they didn’t know was that his disciples made this prayer become their own because they asked for it, demanded it as if their lives – and maybe even the lives of others - depended on it…
What they didn’t know was that this prayer brought the disciples of Jesus into a persistent relationship of affection, commitment, and collaboration with God towards the fulfillment of God’s prayer…the creation of something new… a kingdom of heaven on earth – a commonwealth of God’s reign - where all are valued – no one is told to go back home but all are welcomed home…
Friends, there is a world out there that is gasping for air…. Here at Royal Lane, our Social Justice Team has heard God’s call for us to join hands with others in addressing…
Immigration Reform, particularly for Muslim and Central & South American immigrants.
Healthcare Access, for people who lack adequate and affordable healthcare.
Racial Justice, for people of color in our community.
The cries for help are legion… and we are reminded that five years ago a man of color named Eric Garner was knocked down in a chokehold by the authorities and ignored as all that he could manage to say eleven times was “I can’t breathe.”
Have we stopped listening? to each other? .... to God who brings us into relationship with each other?
There are so many Eric Garners – out there and, truth be told, sometimes even in here.
Sometimes the wind gets knocked out of us and we just can’t breathe.
But Luke says that the Holy Spirit – the same breath of God that hovered over the waters at creation and later came down as a dove at Jesus’ baptism – is always at the ready, without exception for all of us, when we ask.
Prayer for Jesus was like breathing.
At his crucifixion, what they didn’t know was that three days after he breathed his last, he would be resurrected.
He breathes anew in us today so that we might ask, seek, knock, find, create, and reimagine the life sources of oxygen that God provides for us and needs us to offer as sustenance for others.
The breath that is in us, when we pray with abba/Father/birther of all creation as Jesus did, is the breath that we are able to offer the world. It is the breath that creates, sustains, and redeems all of creation.
With God’s help, let’s try it together…
Breathe in as the Church….
Breathe out as the Body of Christ…
May it be so.
Amen