Paul calls on the Colossians to continue to live their lives in Jesus Christ, rooted and built up in him. How do we do that? How do we live our lives in Jesus, rooted in him and built up in him?
To live a life rooted in Christ means to enter into a relationship with God that is rooted in Christ’s relationship with God and to enter into relationships with our brothers and sisters which are similarly rooted in Christ’s relationship with our brothers and sisters. And one aspect of this is to live lives which are rooted in prayer.
What is going on when we pray?
Sometimes I meet Christians who tell me a story about a time when they prayed for something to happen and then the thing they prayed for happened and they ask me to join them in concluding that this shows that God answers prayer and isn’t it wonderful.
And I always react to these people in the same way.
I always say, ‘Yes, it is wonderful.’ But I also wonder about what will happen to these people when they pray for something to happen and it doesn’t happen. And I wonder what they think is happening when other people don’t get what they want or what they need. Do they assume these bad things have happened because those people didn’t pray? Or because they did pray and God just doesn’t like them? And I try in the ensuing conversation to bring these people into the picture. I suggest we might pray for people whose prayers are not answered.
During my curacy I spent some time with a woman who was uncertain about her faith. It turned out that she had been brought up in a family with a very fundamentalist Christian faith. Her parents believed that God answered prayer. Then her mother got cancer. Her father prayed that God would heal her. But she wasn’t healed and she died. And the father of this woman lost his faith. So this woman that I was talking to wanted to know, what is going on when we pray.
Jesus answers this in our Gospel passage this morning. He answers this question by telling a story about a man who goes to his neighbour at midnight to ask for food to give to his children.
Let’s imagine ourselves as the neighbour first. The doorbell goes at midnight. What is the conversation in your house if that happens? ‘Who can that be?’ ‘How long has it been ringing?’ ‘Are you sure it’s the doorbell?’ ‘Is it Piccolino’s?’ ‘Is it the new alarm system for the vestry roof?’ ‘Maybe if we ignore it they will go away.’ ‘There it goes again, who can that be, honestly.’ ‘Are you going to answer it or do I have to?’
So eventually, to stop the persistent ringing, you go and answer the door.
And there is your neighbour. ‘Can I have food for my children?’ Who here would not give food at that point? I think we would all give food. I think we would all be slow to answer the door initially but we would all give the food in the end. This is the story Jesus tells us to explain what it’s like to pray to God.
And he finishes his story by saying, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened’.
All prayer is answered. But possibly not straight away. But, yes, prayer will be answered, if we search, we will find, if we ask, we will receive, if we knock on the door, the door will be opened.
Christians whose lives are rooted in Christ know this for certain. These are the people who have an air of peace about them, they seem to be always hopeful and often joyful, even if things go wrong. If you are living a life rooted in Christ, this is what other people will see in you. They will see in you a quiet optimism. It is as if you can watch a scary film, but because you’ve seen the ending, you are not quite as scared by it as some people seem to be.
And Jesus even tells us how to pray. He tells us what to ask for.
So God, through his Son tells us what we should say to him. In other words, he invites us to enter into a conversation where all the words are God’s words. As we step into the world of the Lord’s prayer, we begin to live a life rooted in Christ.
We say our Father, because he is Father of all; he is the father of everybody whom we meet and have dealings with.
We pray for the coming of his Kingdom because it will come and the way things are now is not how things will always be.
We ask for our daily bread, acknowledging that we depend on God for our basic needs and for our spiritual food.
We ask to be forgiven, thereby acknowledging that we need to be forgiven.
We commit to forgiving others, thereby reminding ourselves that we need to do this.
And we ask God our Father not to bring us to the time of trial, reminding ourselves again of his mercy and his power.
So saying this prayer every week, every day, every morning and evening, however often we say this prayer; saying this prayer shapes our lives. It shapes our thinking. It roots our lives in Christ. It brings us into a relationship with God like the relationship that Jesus has with the Father. It brings us into a relationship with each other, which is like the relationship that Jesus has with all of us.
And we teach this prayer to our children and it shapes their lives also. And we can say this prayer at school assemblies and the children and teachers hear it and say it with us. We say this prayer at our wedding services, at our baptism services and at our funeral services and people join in with the prayer and it shapes their lives.
As we lead those people in that prayer, they see a glimpse of who we are, and the lives we are leading, lives that are rooted in Jesus Christ and built up in him. And so of course they see a glimpse of Jesus himself and the Kingdom he proclaims. Amen.