I would like to share
with you a couple of thoughts about the Lord's Prayer. I confess I really
struggled with writing this. It was hugely humbling. During my study I was somewhat comforted by the
fact that far greater minds than mine have also found it to be a daunting task,
but I offer this as a small meditation on The Great Prayer. The words we know so well come from Matthew.
But let's stick with Luke's: the differences may help us hear it freshly. Listen again to those sacred words:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our
daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as
we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time
of trial, and deliver us from evil.
Let’s begin with the title. It is the Lord’s prayer.
We, who are accustomed to thinking of prayer as a good strategy for
getting what we want may be surprised to know that the purpose of this prayer
is to teach us to bend our wants to what God wants. In fact, The Lord’s prayer is a lifelong
act of bending our lives toward God in the way that God has offered. Jesus taught us to say …thy will
be done…thy kingdom come.
We have more than enough teaching about the various modes of
achieving our will, and we have built our kingdoms all over the
world. Take a look around … the
wreckage is all around us.
In the first phrases of the prayer,
we recognize who God is to us: "Father," we say, claiming our
intimacy with God; but, then, "Hallowed (or holy) be your name," This
is not any earthly parent, but the one God, whom we come to
worship. This God is not a projection of
our culture’s values but one who is hallowed or holy — a
biblical word that means set apart from the ordinary. There’s a mystery
about the being of God, whose thoughts are not our thoughts, whose ways are not
our ways (Isaiah 55:8). God is our Father, but not the ineffective and
bumbling father of a TV situation comedy. God is not the preoccupied or abusive
father so many people have had to deal with today. God is a father of
authority, dignity, mystery — and compassion.
"Your kingdom
come". In the
original Greek, the verb in this statement is imperative. That mood makes our
appeal urgent and unqualified. "Let your kingdom come!" We beg for
God's reign to enter our hearts and our lives now and for all time. As I
mentioned earlier, Jesus teaches us to submit to our Father’s will:
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.” Think of this in its broad dimensions. It’s not
just for God’s will for our personal lives that we are praying. We
pray that God’s will may have its effect over
all the earth … our community … our nation … our world. Such
prayer is much needed today, and its purpose isn’t to force our agenda on
God but to align ourselves with what God wants to do in this world.
The last three phrases are supplications. With them we surrender our wills and entreat God to give
us what we must have as human beings … that which only God can give. "Give us each day our daily bread".
Bread is the minimal nourishment, without which we will die. By asking for it,
we admit that we are totally dependent upon God for our life every day. Jesus taught us to pray,
acknowledging our dependence on God for our every need. “Give us this day
our daily bread.” It’s
hard to pray theses words, because we would like God to supply our needs not
just for today but for tomorrow and the day after. But there is no Social
Security in the Lord’s Prayer, no entitlement. Instead, it expresses a daily dependence on God that forces
us to maintain the family relationship.
"Forgive us our sins". We all sin … all the time,
because sin is anything that we think … or say … or do ... that separates
us from God. Jesus says we can ask God to take us back, forgive us in our
endless lapses--as only God can or would. But Jesus put a condition on our own
forgiveness, saying “Forgive us our sin, as we forgive those who sin
against us.” Our English
translation softens the meaning of the Greek. It actually says as we "have
forgiven". Jesus told us to ask forgiveness after we had forgiven
others.
That is how we love our neighbors.
We forgive them, and we love them, as we want God to forgive and love us. Jesus
reminds us to come to God acknowledging our sinfulness. “Forgive us our
sin, as we forgive those who sin against us.” Instead of praying like the
Pharisee, “God, I thank you I’m not like those sinners over
there,” we pray with the tax collector, “Lord, have mercy on me, a
sinner.” We should never make ourselves out to be worthless. We’re
anything but that in our Father’s eyes. But, as Paul wrote, “All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and we need to
acknowledge our brokenness. It’s
not only God we have sinned against, but other people, and they’ve sinned
against us. That’s just part of being human. As Alexander Pope said,
“To err is human, to forgive divine.” Forgiveness is God’s
gift. Jesus explains elsewhere that unless we forgive others we won’t be
forgiven our own sins. We can’t clench our fist, clutch our hurts and
refuse to release all those things that have been done to us by others, or
we’ll never grasp God’s forgiveness. It takes an open hand to receive a gift.
Finally, we plead with God to protect
us from whatever temptation or test may befall us. Some people complain that "lead us not
into temptation" is "ungainly language." I think the most
powerful argument against using it is that God is not the one who
leads us into temptation. God doesn't tempt us. In Luke’s
version we have him reporting that Jesus said, "Do not bring us to the
time of trial." Elaborating on that would be a sermon in itself.
In fact, Will Willamon
and Stanley Hauerwas, two great preachers, suggest
spending six weeks of sermons on the Lord's Prayer. Now I know why, and I hope,
sometime, to do so. In the meanwhile, let me suggest that we take time to
meditate on the Lord's Prayer individually. This week I plan to change my daily
prayer routine to dwell on these phrases, one per day. I am persuaded that it
is the only prayer we need to keep ourselves in right relationship with God and
each other.
My prayer for us all is that we come
to understand in a new and deeply personal way the words of this powerful,
comprehensive prayer that we know and say "by heart". It is never too late to let Jesus teach us
how to pray. Let us do so now:
Gracious and loving God, help us, help us, help us. Help us to pray simply and directly, and to know that you read our hearts as well as understand our words. Help us to pray persistently … knowing that as our loving Father you want to respond with what is best for us. Help us to pray expectantly, trusting that you will pour out gifts far beyond our dreams. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa