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Nov 08, 2020

What Now?

What Now?

Passage: Matthew 6:9-10

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Special Topic: The Lord's Prayer

Keywords: prayer, father, eternal, hallowed, commonness

With the election in our rear-view mirror, we still ask the question that is relevant: now what? After all this nation has been through in its turbulent political season--now protracted for an indeterminate period--how shall we then live?

Order of Worship

OPENING PRAYER: The Peace Prayer (by St. Francis of Assisi)
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 111:2-3,7-9
OT READING: 1 Chronicles 29:10-12
MESSAGE TITLE: What Now?
CENTRAL TEXT: Matthew 6:9-10
BENEDICTION: Romans 15:5-6

*Patrick mentioned this event in the online and in-person services:

C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce - A Virtual Presentation
Don’t miss this FREE online theatrical event!
SUN, NOV 15
4pm(ET), 1pm(PT)
Live Q&A with Max McLean to Follow
Available for streaming through Nov 18th
Register Here

Readings & Scriptures

PRAYER: The Peace Prayer (by St. Francis of Assisi)

ALL: Lord, make us an instrument of Thy peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that we may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To withhold, as to forgive
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 111:2-3,7-9
LEADER: 2 Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. 3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. 8 They are established forever and ever, enacted in faithfulness and uprightness.

ALL: 9 He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever—holy and awesome is his name.

OT READING: 1 Chronicles 29:10-12
“Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: ‘Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. 11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.’”

CENTRAL TEXT: Matthew 6:9-10
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

BENEDICTION: Romans 15:5-6
LEADER: 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,

ALL: 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

Matthew 7:7-11

ILLUSTRATIONS:

InView Media 11.8.20 Album

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  • What if anything changes for you--your commitments, your priorities--on this side of the election? What remains?
  • What’s your most common reason for thinking of prayer as a last resort rather than a first impulse?
  • Why would relating to God as a true and trustworthy father--even if your earthly versions of one leave you cold--be a thought worth meditating on--savoring even (cf. Mt 7:11)?
  • Grab your internal thesaurus. What might be a good synonym for “hallowed”? Why that substitute? Why would having that kind of regard for God be foundational to living?
  • So if these first few verses from the prayer Jesus taught us to pray are in a sense an answer to our question“what now?”--what now for you?

QUOTES:

  • "Prayer was never meant to be magic," Mother said.
    "Then why bother with it?" Suzy scowled.
    "Because it's an act of love." - Madeleine L’Engle, A RIng of Endless Light
  • The spiritual efficacy of all encounters is determined by the amount of personal ego that is in play. If two people meet and disagree fiercely about the theological matters but agree, silently or otherwise, that God’s love creates and sustains human love, and that whatever else may be said of God is [secondary] to this truth, then even out of what seems great friction there may emerge a peace that—though it may not end the dispute, though neither party may be “convinced” of the other’s position—nevertheless enters and nourishes one’s notion of, and relationship with, God. - Christian Wiman (HT: Peter Wehner)
  • As long as we see each other as outgroups we’re descending into conflict, poverty, hatred. We need something to unify us, preferably not an outside outgroup but something more… enlightened. - From a comment to the article by @slatestarcodex, “I can tolerate anyone but the outgroup”
  • It was the light, the grass, the trees that were different; made of some different substance, so much solider than things in our country that men were ghosts by comparison. . . . As I stood, recovering my breath with great gasps and looking down. . . I noticed that I could see the grass not only between my feet but through them. I also was a phantom. - C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
  • Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all. - Beloved, Toni Morrison
  • When I lay down my fears 
    My hopes and my doubts 
    The rings on my fingers 
    And the keys to my house 
    With no hard feelings. . . 
    Lord knows they haven't done 
    Much good for anyone 
    Kept me afraid and cold 
    With so much to have and hold
    - “No Hard Feelings,” The Avett Brothers [from a follower in the comments section: “This song helped me to surrender my soul to Jesus and quit using IV meth. I run a recovery house now and I have 10 months clean and sober. Thank you avett brothers. Truly.”]
  • Unless Christ can be said to reign over the world of hard facts in which Christians must live their lives, he can hardly be said to reign at all. - George Caird
  • Governments and politicians do affect our lives. But they cannot bring happiness. This point was forcefully driven home to me a couple of years ago by Mogens Lykketoft, the former speaker of the Danish Parliament and a leading social-democratic politician in Denmark. We were filming a documentary about the pursuit of happiness, and in response to a question about Denmark’s famously happy population, he said, “Government cannot bring happiness, but it can eliminate the sources of unhappiness.” - Arthur Brooks
  • Christians are called by God to be living so sacrificially and beautifully that the people around us, who don’t believe what we believe, will soon be unable to imagine the world without us. - Tim Keller

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