The Lord's Prayer
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On the Lord’s Prayer May I suggest that over recent years two things have happened which have not helped us as the Body of Christ to be the prayerful people we are called to be? First, our emphasis has been on numbers and outreach. This is partly right: we are called as Christ’s Church to proclaim the Gospel – and to live it; to proclaim the Good News of God’s love and hope and work for a better world, a just community, and joyful human purpose in Christ. My concern is that too often this very necessary vocation has been corrupted (how often that happens to Christian living!) in two ways: first into a panic mode: we don’t have enough people/any young people in church, so the church is going to die; and second by a style of evangelism which might be termed “aggressive”, an evangelism which implicitly, and often explicitly suggests that “we” have all the answers and everyone else is wrong and that if you don’t conform to “our” way then God will hate you and punish you. Unsurprisingly this version cuts little ice in modern western culture. Instead there is mockery and derision and an assumption that all Christians are in the same mould. Yet there is a lovely psalm verse (Ps.37.1): “do not fret because of the ungodly”. Those who “fret” and those who are “aggressive” are, I suggest, some way from Christian faith and spirituality. The Church is God’s Church not ours. Yes we do have a task to proclaim the Gospel and to encourage others to join the life of Christ’s Church but whether individual churches thrive or fail is ultimately up to Christ the Lord of the Church. Our vocation is to be faithful in worship, prayer and service and ultimately to leave the rest to God and not to fret. Our Christian faith has gone wrong somewhere when it become a cause of our worrying and fretting rather than trusting God. The Gospel is a Gospel of love, acceptance, inclusion, healing and generosity. Yes Christ comes as Lord and Judge but in Christ “mercy, love and truth are met together”. Christ ’s judgment falls not only on those “outside” but even more on those of us “inside” who are by baptism members of his Church. The more we know Christ the more aware we become of our failure to be Christ-like; Christ’s judgement is of grace, of mercy, of love, of hope and of resurrection—not eternal damnation. This brings me to my second main point: I suspect we have failed to know or use the basics of prayer and devotion, that is we have failed to grow in Christ, to know the love and mystery of God. So these short refelections go “back to basics” exploring the prayer Christ gives us as our model for prayer, for life, for ministry and service, for growth into the Mystery of God: the Lord’s Prayer. Thy Kingdom come The French philosopher, Christian mystic and social activist, Simone Weil, says in one of her books that she struggled every day to pray the Lord’s Prayer with full attention from beginning to end. This is not because Jesus’ pattern prayer is difficult—at least not in the sense that it has long words or too many of them. Most of us have known the Lord’s Prayer since childhood. Rather the difficulty comes in the demands the Prayer makes on us. Put it another way: the Lord’s Prayer is not merely a set of words that Jesus gives us—it is Jesus’ own personal prayer; it is the Way that he set himself to give glory to the Father; its the way of Christ’s life, ministry, cross and resurrection. Think of the central words: thy Kingdom come, thy will be done. This is what Jesus lived and died for. This is how Jesus lived and died. He is born in Bethlehem to bring in the Kingdom—God’s reign of love, healing, truth, justice and community. He treads the Way of the Cross to defeat all the evil that seeks to destroy God’s Kingdom. In Gethsemane Jesus prays over and again: “Not my will but thine be done” ;we are told that his Gethsemane prayer was so hard, so demanding, so wrenched from him, that “his sweat as great drops of blood fell to the ground”. Ultimately that is the model of prayer Christ offers us—not a mere pattern of comfy words but a jaw droppingly demanding commitment to the mission of God’s Kingdom. If we dare, then, to seek to make the Lord’s Prayer ours we should know from the start that the rest of our lives will be a struggle: a struggle to pray this prayer and truly mean it—even more, a struggle to pray this prayer and truly live it. Prayer is not, in the end, words but a way of life and profound commitment to grow in holiness, in love, in service : Thy will be done. It follows that prayer is always about conversion. Some Christians are able to say with certainty “I was converted on such and such a day at such and such a time.” Its good that they can. Others, myself included, are much less certain of dates and times– there has never been a time when I was unaware of the Christian faith; I remember as a very small child (forgive the terrible piety!) creeping downstairs on Christmas morning not to open my presents but to poke my head into the large Christmas Crib that always stood in the hall, to feel myself part of the story and, yes, to say the Our Father. The point is that whether we had a dramatic “conversion moment” or have been born into the Faith, we all of us come to conversion anew every time we pray the Lord's Prayer (by tradition at least every morning and evening) and certainly every time we pray the Prayer with any sort of conviction. “Conversion” in the New Testament is a translation of the word “metanoia”., It means literally: “being new minded”, or even “changing our mind”. Every time we truly seek to pray the Lord’s Prayer we are “new minded” as we come a little closer to Christ, as we serve him a little better and as we seek to respond to God the Father. Our Father On the Lord’s Day we gather to make Eucharist, to be fed by Christ, to grow in Christ, to be sent by Christ to serve in the world. Together we pray our Lord’s Prayer. We often preface it with solemn words: “As our Saviour has commanded and taught us we are bold to pray ...”, because we know that however easy it may be to rattle off the words none of us are ever truly able to pray this prayer in its fullness and depth. Thankfully through the Eucharist God graces us to grow into Christ. Little by little, we gradually grow into the Prayer—at the same time recognising how unworthy we are to dare to pray the very words of Christ; yet also thankful that Christ our High Priest is always interceding for us (Hebrews 7). Our prayer is joined with His, offered through His, as Christ in love chooses to bring in the healing/salvation of the Kingdom through our intercession here on earth.(What an awesome responsibility for intercessory prayer that places on us all!) The Lord’s Prayer spells out in a few deceptively simple phrases what Christ’s ministry, work and Gospel are all about. Christ comes to establish the Kingdom of God. The Old Testament tells the story of God preparing his people to be the holy people of God as a sign of the coming Kingdom. However flawed (and it is often a tale of failure) the people of Israel offer to the world a sign of hope, a promise that in the end evil, sin, cruelty, greed, injustice, prejudice do not win the day; a sign that, despite all apparent evidence to the contrary, human existence is not a mere accident of physics and chemistry colliding with genetics : human life, individually and corporately, has objective purpose, point and value. Down the long centuries of the Old Testament story God’s people bear witness to this hope despite setbacks, flaws, natural disasters, wars and straightforward human wickedness. From this mess and muddle there comes an astonishing literature and teaching which, if we allow it, still speaks profoundly today. And from all that comes Jesus, born in Bethlehem, growing up in Nazareth and committing himself on behalf of us all to live the true life of God as human here on earth. Hence the very first words of the Prayer: “Our Father”. In Christ we can come to God as “Father”; that is, we are set free from the inherited mess and failure of our own past and the past of many generations and are enabled, little by little, to grow up into the freedom of the love of Christ who calls God, Abba, Father. (Perhaps its worth reflecting that learning to pray is pretty much like a toddler learning to walk—except learning to pray is life-long.) As Jesus prays “Our Father” all the age long promises are made real , here and now. There is still more to come. In God “the best is always yet to be”, but here and now in Jesus God is acting. Here and now, in us, as we pray, and worship and serve others God is at work. Bringing in the Kingdom Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. “Kingdom” here means “God’s reign”. Jesus, being Hebrew, thought in the ways of the Hebrew Scriptures. They often use what is called “parallelism” that is, saying the same thing twice in slightly different ways. This was done for two reasons: first to make a particular point: this is something really important. Second, to help us not be too “literal minded” Although Hebrew is quite a “concrete” language (as opposed to abstract) nevertheless the authors of Hebrew Scripture and theology think poetically. So here Jesus is helping us think through what we are really praying for when we say:“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Jesus grew up knowing the great Hebrew Scriptures. In them is held out a vision of the coming Reign of God when God’s will is done, when the whole creation is renewed, when human beings live in the Way of the Lord, the Torah. Putting things simply, the Kingdom of God is presented in Hebrew Scripture (our Old Testament) in four different ways. One picture is offered us by the story of Israel : God rescues his people, brings them into the Promised Land where they settle down to live in God’s Way. At first they are governed by “Judges "men, and women(!), who are chosen by popular acclaim to help God’s people work out what is the right and godly thing to do in difficult situations and problems or even, when necessary, to lead them against those perceived as God’s enemies. In time judges are replaced by kings. The greatest two kings (as presented in the theology of the “histories” of Israel) are David and his son Solomon. Together they are responsible for building the Temple and establishing its worship. In the end kings prove all too human, Israel is overwhelmed by the Babylonian Empire and taken off into exile. Even so, there is one pattern of God’s reign: a kingdom that seeks to live politically and economically in God’s Way. That leads us to the Law (Torah) itself. The first five books of the Old Testament seek to set out in tremendous detail how God’s people are to live so as to be fully human and holy. Torah gives detailed rules about food, dress, sexual relationships, use of money and so on—all to be used for God and for neighbour. Above all, God is to be worshipped daily, faithfully. Thirdly, there is what is called the Wisdom Tradition. Putting this very simply, Wisdom is about learning, education, common sense and building family and community we are to love God with our minds and wills as well as our emotions. Last but not least are the prophets who offer a vision of a world restored, a desert made fruitful, a community at peace, a truly holy people. Jesus comes to make all this reality. For what stops people ever truly living in God’s Way? Evil. Jesus commits himself to defeat evil through love and so establish God’s true Kingdom. He teaches us to pray so that we may share his mission. Our daily bread Sadly I suspect too many of us, too often tend to equate “prayer with “asking for something.” There's nothing wrong with that—except that its a quite inadequate understanding of prayer! Yet Jesus teaches us to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread”. So what are we to make of that? We need to remember that Jesus' “model prayer” starts with the prayer: “hallowed be thy name”. Another way of putting that is: “we praise you.” That’s where Christian prayer really starts, with adoration and praise. Remember words prayed during the Great Thanksgiving : “It is very meet right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks.” Thanks and praise in all times, and all places—whatever the circumstances—not easy. It takes a lot of spiritual hard work to begin to get there. I remember a contemplative nun telling me that she and her sisters were required to spend two hours in prayer every day (in addition to the Daily Office). This two hours was divided into one and a half hours of adoration and half an hour of intercession. That is the balance of the Lord’s Prayer: we praise God, we pray for God’s work of mission in bringing in the Kingdom, we pray for forgiveness and for faithfulness and trust in god against the forces of evil. In all that there is only one petition that asks “for” something. Again we see this balance in Jesus' own life. In the Temptation in the wilderness he resolves not to “put the Lord God to the test” i.e. to ask for things; and in the Garden of Gethsemane , yes, Jesus prays that he should not have to suffer but he prays also, ”Thy will be done.” The reason for this balance is so that when we do pray for something—or indeed, for somebody—we may be truly confident that our prayer is not just selfishness or a matter of fear. Prayer must always be about love and trust—for that is what life in Christ is about: trust in the Crucified who is Risen. So, for example, when we pray “give us our daily bread” we who live in comfortable Britain (and whatever the economy we are still well off and well fed) should not, I think, have in mind, “Please make sure I have the very best from M&S– oh and a nice box of Thornton chocs!”. Nothing wrong with either at the right time but Jesus wants us to be thankful for simplicity, grateful for our food, (how many of us do bother to say “grace” any more?) and to care about the hungry and the homeless. As the Letter of James puts it:”What's’ the use of saying to a poor man, “have a good meal” and then doing nothing to feed him?” So we pray for those who grow and prepare food, we pray for those who desperately need the basics and we pray for the coming Kingdom when all with have enough to eat. All of this is enacted every time we celebrate Eucharist –a sign of God’s love and justice for all. The Greek word for “daily” can mean: tomorrow’s bread today”. Jesus asks us to pray for the coming Kingdom when the environment will be valued and all with have enough to eat.
Forgive us as we forgive “Forgive us as we forgive”. But forgive what? Well: sin. But I’ve really not been that bad so how have I sinned? Sin in New Testament thought is not primarily about doing nasty things. It is that, of course, but not just that. The word most often used means “falling short” and comes form the world of archery. The image is of an arrow falling short of or missing the target. Now Jesus comes to bring in God’s Reign of love, renewal and community : the kingdom of God. Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer as a model not only of words to say to God but of life to live for God and for others. Jesus calls the disciples, Jesus calls us, to work with him in making real the Kingdom, in establishing his Victory, won on the Cross, over evil and death. Part of that victory is the forgiveness of sin. Sin primarily means: falling short of God’s love, failing to love God and neighbour to the full. St. Matthew in his Gospel uses a word which translates as “debt”. We all owe God and neighbour a debt of love. (In our current economic crisis its worth reflecting that debt is what is causing so many difficulties for so many people, especially the poorest.) Jesus comes into Galilee living out a forgiveness of sin. So often when he heals someone he says, “Your sins are forgiven”. This may be partly because in the first century people believed (some still do—wrongly) that God sends illness as a punishment and therefore illness is proof of a bad life. More, than that, Jesus declares forgiveness of sin because what is really important is not just physical healing but spiritual, emotional and moral healing. If we feel that we are not loved we cannot really love. If we are aware of how often we have failed to love others we cannot believe that they can love us. So too of God: if we have failed to love God—if we owe God a debt of love– then how can God love us? Its this kind of convoluted reasoning that leads people to think that somehow we have to “buy” God’s love. The New Testament makes it quite clear that God’s love is not for sale—because God gives love freely– and we see that free love pouring from Christ on the Cross. So why does Jesus ask us to pray “Forgive—as we forgive”? It sounds a bit like a bargain: you forgive me only if I forgive others. No. “As we forgive” is prayer not bargain. Because we who try to follow Jesus know how much God loves us—and forgives us our debt of love—so we seek to live in Jesus’ way and to let others off their debt of love to us just as God forgives us. To put that another way: the Church (all of us who are baptised) is a community that recognises the reality of sin in all people (i.e. a failure to love and be loved) but a community that at the same time lives and works for healing reconciliation, we try never to bear grudges, we try always to recognise that Christ died for the person we find difficult, the person who has hurt us. That is hugely demanding—a lifetime’s work-a and most certainly a matter for daily committed prayer.
Not into temptation “Lead us not into temptation” . But why should God tempt us? The Greek word used in St. Matthew’s Gospel is the same word that gives us “pyrex”, those oven proof dishes for cooking.“Pyrex” resists the “heat” of the oven– we pray that we may be able, through God’s grace, to resist the heat of temptation or ,as another translation puts it: that we should “not be put to the test”. Now Jesus knew in the Garden of Gethsemane that “the hour” had come: here was the time of testing. It would have been so easy for Him to run away—his disciples did just that. Sometimes the “heat” is so great that we simply cannot stand it—and then, like Simon Peter and the others we may deny our Lord. So here we are praying that we may be faithful, that the temptations we face should never be so great that we give in; that always we may cling on, even if only by our finger tips, to God's love and forgiveness shown us in Christ. The Old Testament Book of Job tells of a good, upright prayerful man who is “tested” by God. It seems to Job’s friends that God has sent terrible punishments : Job has lost everything, his wealth, his home, his children. Even his wife tells him: “Curse God and die”. Job’s friends insist that Job must have done something terrible to be punished so harshly by God. Somehow, despite everything Job refuses to give in either to the temptation of admitting his sin (he just knows he has done nothing to “deserve” all this) or to the temptation of blaming God. That does not mean that Job does not believe that God has “sent” his sufferings. We know from the introduction to the Book of Job that God has allowed Satan to “test” Job—but that is a Hebrew way of saying that while these calamities are in some sense Gods’ responsibility (inasmuch as God has created a world where there can be suffering, pain and bereavement) even so God does not want such evils to come upon us. That's as far as “Job” takes us. Jesus takes us further into the heart of God’s love. Not only does God not want us to suffer, God himself in Christ shares our sufferings and, even more than that, wins through the suffering into new creation and new life. God in Christ accepts the responsibility for the pain of the world. This is the story of Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Calvary and Easter. Christ enters into our loss, our fear, our separation from God; Christ knows what it is to be tested to the uttermost (far more than we ever experience because Christ not only resists to the uttermost but thereby experiences the full force of evil). Christ shares our bereavement, our death, our burial. He even enters hell itself. Because Christ offers himself so fully to God it means that despite everything, in the end, Jesus is never separated from God—not even death can do that. So Christ is raised to new life, new creation. He comes through the heat of the time of testing and defeats evil. Christ shares that victory with us. So we can pray “deliver us from evil” with complete confidence in God. Philip |