WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.259 Several years ago, I had just finished presiding at a wedding. 00:00:05.020 --> 00:00:08.359 When one of the guests came up to me, he was welling up with emotion. 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:12.099 He said, what was that piece you read out? 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:16.019 It was one of the most powerful things I've ever heard. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:20.420 Now, it took me a few moments to think about what he was talking about, 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:23.780 because though it had been a nice enough service, 00:00:24.379 --> 00:00:27.539 most weddings generally are quite moving. 00:00:28.539 --> 00:00:30.019 Although it had been a nice enough service, 00:00:30.140 --> 00:00:33.759 it didn't strike me that there had been anything out of the ordinary 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:36.100 about the contents of the service. 00:00:37.019 --> 00:00:41.820 As we talked, it became apparent that the wow moment that he was referring to 00:00:41.820 --> 00:00:43.579 was actually the Bible reading. 00:00:43.579 --> 00:00:48.820 It was 1 Corinthians chapter 13, where Paul talks about the power of love. 00:00:49.899 --> 00:00:54.560 Now, that conversation served as a bit of a wake-up call for me, 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:59.820 because I suddenly realised the danger of becoming over-familiarised. 00:01:00.780 --> 00:01:04.799 You know, I'd heard that passage from Corinthians more times than I'd had hot dinners, 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:07.740 and to put it bluntly, I'd just gotten used to it. 00:01:08.700 --> 00:01:13.140 But listening to the reaction of someone hearing it for the first time 00:01:13.140 --> 00:01:15.300 really challenged me, 00:01:15.299 --> 00:01:22.599 made me see that we should never, ever allow our familiarity with the truth of the gospel 00:01:22.599 --> 00:01:25.239 to dull our senses to its power. 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:29.879 Now, when it comes to praying the Lord's Prayer, we've got to be careful. 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:35.400 The problem is that we know it so well, because we've said it so many times. 00:01:35.939 --> 00:01:41.140 The danger is that we can too easily be saying it, but not actually praying it, 00:01:41.140 --> 00:01:46.700 because we end up, albeit unintentionally, reciting it as a matter of ritual 00:01:46.700 --> 00:01:49.340 without actually paying attention to what's going on. 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:54.420 Now, as we think about the closing words of the Lord's Prayer, 00:01:55.140 --> 00:01:57.680 we need to be especially mindful of this, 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:00.560 because human nature, being what it is, 00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:05.480 we're probably more likely to be engaged when we start praying it 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:07.859 than we are by the time we get to the end of it. 00:02:07.859 --> 00:02:13.539 We need to be awake and stay awake to the power of those words. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:19.219 Deliver us from evil, for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever. 00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:23.860 So what are we praying when we actually pray those words? 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:30.439 Now, I think the answer lies in today's Bible reading from Ephesians 6, 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:34.879 where Paul writes that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:38.419 but against the spiritual forces of evil. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:45.159 See, the Bible talks about struggle because life is about struggle. 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:47.680 Now, that's not being negative. It's just being real. 00:02:48.359 --> 00:02:52.719 The Bible recognises that reality and helps us to see it with spiritual eyes. 00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:55.840 Life's struggles have a spiritual dimension, 00:02:56.180 --> 00:02:58.859 just as life's blessings have a spiritual dimension. 00:02:59.579 --> 00:03:02.740 And in Ephesians 6, Paul unpacks what that means. 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:07.120 Paul explains that we need to be ready to stand up against the devil. 00:03:08.379 --> 00:03:14.080 Now, I know there will be some listening to this right now who will find all of that very primitive 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:17.280 and who will say, look, come on, it's 2020. 00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:22.740 Is it really feasible to talk about Satan and demonic powers in any literal sense? 00:03:23.379 --> 00:03:28.900 I mean, are you really telling me that you believe in a personal devil with horns and wielding a pitchfork? 00:03:28.900 --> 00:03:36.379 Well, we might see some of that in cartoons, but it's not quite how the Bible depicts reality. 00:03:37.219 --> 00:03:41.319 But just because we don't find any horns and pitchforks in the Bible, 00:03:41.700 --> 00:03:49.200 don't think for one moment that demonic powers can just be written off as something that has no part in Christian belief today. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:58.139 You see, what the Bible presents us with is a worldview which refuses to see things merely in material terms. 00:03:59.019 --> 00:04:01.979 We're not just flesh and blood, but we're spiritual beings. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.799 And life is more than just what we see and touch. 00:04:06.339 --> 00:04:11.280 In fact, the deepest realities are precisely those things that we can't see and touch. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:14.520 Everything has a spiritual dimension. 00:04:15.259 --> 00:04:19.160 And just as God is behind all that is good and true and life-giving, 00:04:19.699 --> 00:04:25.579 so there are spiritual powers of darkness behind that which is evil and destructive. 00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:31.360 I can't see what's to be gained by denying that reality. 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:38.660 To say there's simply no such thing as the demonic is to downplay the spiritual weight of evil and suffering. 00:04:38.660 --> 00:04:48.040 The call to authentic Christian discipleship is the challenge to see things differently and more profoundly 00:04:48.040 --> 00:04:51.240 than the limitations of a materialist mindset. 00:04:52.340 --> 00:04:56.340 To follow Jesus means that we refuse to take things at face value 00:04:56.340 --> 00:05:02.200 and that we dare to ask what spiritual realities lie behind whatever we are presented with. 00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:05.800 When Paul writes in Ephesians 5, 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:08.100 Wake up, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, 00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:13.939 You know, it's a clarion call to live a fuller life with a bigger vision of things, 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:17.020 one that's energised by a sense of God's Holy Spirit, 00:05:17.220 --> 00:05:23.180 which therefore has the spiritual confidence to confront the power of evil wherever it lurks. 00:05:24.260 --> 00:05:27.200 So when we pray those words, deliver us from evil, 00:05:27.379 --> 00:05:31.800 we need to be aware of what is going on and what we're doing. 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:38.860 We're not simply verbalising religious poetry or trotting out some piece of liturgical mantra. 00:05:39.980 --> 00:05:41.579 We're engaging the powers. 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:44.900 We're doing something that is vitally spiritual. 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:50.460 That great Swiss theologian of the 20th century, Professor Karl Barth, 00:05:50.699 --> 00:05:55.740 regarded by many as one of the most brilliant thinkers in the history of the church, wrote this. 00:05:55.740 --> 00:06:01.840 In Christian prayer, we find ourselves at the very seat of government, 00:06:02.579 --> 00:06:07.519 at the very heart of the mystery and purpose of all occurrence. 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:12.120 You see, in praying, deliver us from evil. 00:06:12.259 --> 00:06:14.420 We're not merely refuting that which is bad, 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:19.780 but we're engaging in battle by being empowered by that which is good. 00:06:19.779 --> 00:06:25.639 I think that's why in the Protestant tradition, the Lord's Prayer ends the way it does, 00:06:25.819 --> 00:06:26.379 when it says, 00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:32.599 Deliver us from evil, for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen. 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:38.039 Now, not all translations of Matthew chapter 6 include that last bit. 00:06:38.799 --> 00:06:40.559 And there's a bit of uncertainty around this, 00:06:40.619 --> 00:06:44.599 because while some of the ancient manuscripts include those words, 00:06:44.679 --> 00:06:46.459 not all of the earliest ones do. 00:06:47.059 --> 00:06:48.879 Now, we won't go into all of that now, 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:54.600 but one very strong reason in favour of including those words at the end of the Lord's Prayer 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:58.939 is that they round it off by coming back to where it started. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:03.040 You see, it begins with our Father in heaven. 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:05.360 So when we end with, 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:08.360 For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever, 00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:12.759 we begin and we end with God as the central focus. 00:07:13.500 --> 00:07:14.920 Now, that's really important. 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:20.500 It's important because as real as the spiritual powers of darkness may be, 00:07:20.640 --> 00:07:23.040 God is infinitely greater. 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:26.900 And it is in His power that we engage. 00:07:26.899 --> 00:07:30.759 When we make God the central focus of our lives, 00:07:30.819 --> 00:07:34.839 when we fall on our knees before Him and allow Him to be Lord over us, 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:37.139 everything falls into perspective. 00:07:37.859 --> 00:07:39.299 We're delivered from evil. 00:07:39.539 --> 00:07:40.419 We're set free. 00:07:40.539 --> 00:07:41.199 We're empowered. 00:07:41.459 --> 00:07:42.799 Everything falls into perspective. 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:48.340 Now, I want to finish this series on prayer with precisely that challenge. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.259 In his book called The Vision and the Vow, 00:07:52.460 --> 00:07:56.379 Pete Grigg tells of how a distinguished art critic 00:07:56.379 --> 00:08:00.519 was studying a painting by the Italian Renaissance master, 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:02.019 Filipino Lippi. 00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:03.740 I don't know if I've pronounced that correctly. 00:08:03.740 --> 00:08:07.720 But he stood in London's National Gallery, 00:08:07.900 --> 00:08:13.500 gazing at the 15th century depiction of Mary holding the infant Jesus on her lap 00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:15.939 with Saints Dominic and Jerome kneeling nearby. 00:08:16.699 --> 00:08:19.600 But the painting troubled the critic. 00:08:20.699 --> 00:08:26.500 There could be no doubting Lippi's skill in his use of colour and composition, 00:08:26.980 --> 00:08:30.240 but the proportions of the picture all seemed slightly wrong. 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:33.200 The hills in the background seemed exaggerated, 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:36.100 as if they might topple out of the frame at any minute 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:38.120 and fall onto the gallery's polished floor. 00:08:39.139 --> 00:08:42.240 The two kneeling saints looked awkward and uncomfortable. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:46.080 Now, the art critic, and his name was Robert Cumming, 00:08:46.680 --> 00:08:50.539 was not the first to criticise Lippi's work for its poor perspective. 00:08:51.620 --> 00:08:54.279 But he may be the last to do so, 00:08:55.019 --> 00:08:57.860 because at that moment he had a revelation. 00:08:57.860 --> 00:09:02.820 It suddenly occurred to him that the problem might actually be his. 00:09:03.800 --> 00:09:07.659 The painting he was analysing with clinical objectivity 00:09:07.659 --> 00:09:09.919 was not just another piece of religious art 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:13.159 hanging in a gallery alongside other comparative works. 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:17.019 It had never been intended to come anywhere near a gallery. 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:22.580 Lippi's painting had been commissioned to hang in a place of prayer. 00:09:22.580 --> 00:09:27.940 So self-consciously, this art critic dropped to his knees 00:09:27.940 --> 00:09:30.480 in the public gallery before that painting. 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:34.960 He suddenly saw what generations of critics had missed. 00:09:36.020 --> 00:09:37.820 From this new vantage point, 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:41.879 Robert Cumming found himself gazing up at a perfectly proportioned piece. 00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:45.620 The foreground had moved naturally to the background, 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:48.779 while the saints seemed settled, 00:09:49.779 --> 00:09:53.519 their awkwardness, like the painting itself, having turned to grace. 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:58.939 Mary now looked intently and kindly directly at him 00:09:58.939 --> 00:10:03.659 as he knelt at her feet between the saints, Dominic and Jerome. 00:10:03.659 --> 00:10:08.679 It was not the perspective of the painting that had been wrong all these years. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:12.159 It was the perspective of the people looking at it. 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:16.279 Robert Cumming, on bended knee, 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:20.259 found a beauty that Robert Cumming, the art critic, could not. 00:10:21.659 --> 00:10:26.319 The painting only came alive to those on their knees in prayer. 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:33.280 The right perspective is the position and the posture of prayer. 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:38.960 And that, well, that's where we need to be.