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Pentecost 6 As You Deserve

June 22, 2008

Christ the King

Kenner, LA

Prayer of the Day:

Teach us, good Lord God, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we do your will, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

The Prayer of the Day which we spoke earlier, is brand new to us. We’ve never heard or seen it before. It was written for our new hymnal. And, as most of you know by now, I really like the appointed Prayers for the Sundays of the Church year, because they are so well written, so thoughtfully composed. Today’s especially. Listen again (or better yet, read it from page 7 in your bulletin).

It’s always a good thing to make sure we know what we’re praying for. And this prayer asks for a lot, so I’m just going to go through it carefully, one step at a time.

It begins, Teach us, good Lord God. Hold it right there. Because we’re saying something pretty controversial at the outset. We’re admitting that we could learn a thing of two from God; that he has something to teach us.

Well of course he does, as we all know. But the problem is, we don’t usually want to hear it, do we. In fact, we often ignore what he says anyway. A good part of our sin is that we go through most of life as a bunch of spiritual know-it-alls, don’t we. “Who me, learn something from God; hey, I’ve got it all figured out on my own.” Except, we don’t. So it takes a rare moment of honesty to admit it and humbly pray, Teach us, good Lord God.

And what follows at that point could be anything. Teach us how to love, to be patient, to forgive, how to pick up our cross and follow Christ, how to live in newness of life.

But our prayer today is, Teach us, good Lord God, to serve you as you deserve. Wow. There’s another twist. Usually, in our prayers, we’re asking God to give us what we think we deserve! Isn’t that right? (Can I have an “Amen”?)

We’re usually praying, “God, you and I agree, don’t we, that I deserve such and such? Please make sure I get it. ‘Cause it’s only fair.”

But when have we ever prayed that we might give God what he deserves. I think this is a first for me. How about you? ( That’s OK, you don’t have to answer).

And what might that be? That is, what exactly does God deserve? Well, we want to be out of here in an hour or less, so make out your list later. But here are a few for starters, at least as the author of this prayer, considered. To give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward.

That would be a rarity. And perhaps there are some saints among us who could actually pull that off with God’s help. But most of us aren’t even trying.

But what a life’s ambition that would be, to serve God as he deserves. To give and not to count the cost. What a turn-around that would be. We’re always counting the cost of our efforts, aren’t we, and sometimes use them to justify our lack of involvement. I’ve hear it said a thousand times, “I used to do a lot at the church when I was younger. Now I’m going to sit back and let others take over. It’s their turn.”

Or, To fight and not to heed the wounds, as in “fight the good fight of faith.” But again, we often hear folks complain, “Do you know what so-and-so over at the church said? After all I’ve done. It’s really hurt me. And I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get over it.” We are so easily wounded by others, especially in the church, even though we begin every service together confessing what a miserable pack of sinners we are. No, we don’t need thicker skins; we need more forgiving hearts. In today’s Gospel, Jesus warns us that we need to pick up our cross and follow him. Sounds like we’re in for lots of wounds. So we pray that he would help us to “fight and not to heed the wounds.”

And next, To toil and not to seek for rest. Well, I’m about to leave town for what I hope will be a restful vacation, so let’s skip that one. No, it’s a reminder that the mission our Lord sends us on is never over.

And finally we pray that he would teach us to labor and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we do your will.

There is no other reward. And that’s because we’ve already been graced, gifted, blessed “up front,” before we’ve even lifted a finger. Most of us are paid for our labor after we’ve worked. God doesn’t operate that way. If he were to reward us only for what we’ve done in service to him, it wouldn’t be much, would it.

So God turns the tables on us. We see it at baptisms, especially the baptism of infants. God redeems us, signs, seals and delivers us into his kingdom before we’ve done a thing. And we spend the rest of our lives, serving him to the best of our ability out of sheer gratitude, thankful for everything he’s already given us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In today’s Second Lesson, St. Paul describes how baptism links us to the death and resurrection of our Lord. And for most of us, this all happens when we’re still babies, to highlight what a gift God’s grace and mercy are, without our labor.

But when we do grow up, as we become aware of who and Whose we are, we want to discern our Call to serve God. So the reward is simply knowing that we’re doing God’s will, that we’re responding to his love as he wants.

This is a beautiful, new prayer, And I’ve hardly scratched the surface of what it might mean for you. So take your bulletin home, clip out this prayer, put it on your refrigerator, and pray it every day until you have it memorized, or, better yet, till you’re doing what we’re asking God to help us do in this prayer. Let’s pray it once more.