Our Father . . .

Concluding a week of performing and teaching in the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia, I had the privilege of sharing the following message at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church in Martinsville, VA on July 28, 2019.

Thank you for the opportunity to be with you again and to contribute a little bit to your ongoing conversation about faith. When Jeff invited me to speak on this particular Sunday, I took a look at the lectionary readings and immediately knew I wanted to focus on the Lord’s Prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer is a compelling topic for many reasons.

It is the model prayer Jesus gave his disciples.

It is a profound expression of Christian theology.

It can serve as a rule of life establishing our identity and our priorities.

And it comprises a formula that has been embraced by all sorts of Christians from Eastern Orthodox to Southside Virginian Presbyterian and incorporated into their worship and other spiritual-formation practices.

The idea of doing justice to all those things in a few minutes this morning is overwhelming. So I have decided instead to focus on how the Lord’s Prayer has supported me in my own journey, and in so doing, I think I might be demonstrating how all those things can be relevant to one’s daily steps of faith. It is my hope that this meditation refreshes your sense of God’s presence wherever you are on the path today.  

The prayer begins OUR

This very first word tells us we are not alone. When we pray this prayer we are reminded by Jesus himself that we are part of a family called by God, and responding to God, together.

Our FATHER

Compare for a moment that prayer of Abraham bargaining with an austere deity he thinks is bent on destroying the residents of Sodom. The tone of Jesus’ prayer is so different. Jesus, who was, according Philippians 2, “in the form of God” tells us our relationship with God is that of a child to their father.

Our father WHO ART IN HEAVEN

With the addition of this next phrase, Jesus goes further and lets us know we should not expect to see this father in any conventional way. He specifies that this father is in heaven. This God who is related to us in the closest possible way dwells in a realm that is, for now, simply beyond our reach. In other words, the God of Christianity is both imminent (meaning very, very close) and transcendent.  This is an answer and an assurance to any and all who sometimes wonder as I do, “Where is God and why do I not feel his presence?”

Our father who art in heaven, HALLOWED BE THY NAME

There are oceanic depths to these four words. They invite us to contemplate the sublime mysteries of that transcendence, to contemplate that the wonderfulness of this God infinitely exceeds all the efforts that can ever be made to express it.

The Kaddish prayer used for worship and remembrance in Judaism resonates with this hallowing.  A portion of it reads as follows:

May His great name be blessed 
forever and to all eternity.                                                         
Blessed and praised, 
glorified and exalted, 
extolled and honored,
adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One. 
Blessed be He,
beyond all the blessings and hymns, 
praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world.

Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

Jesus knew that in Caesar’s empire, assertions of kingship were interpreted as intolerable opposition on the earthly plane. The crucifixion of Jesus is a testimony to that reality. But here, at the heart of Jesus’ prayer, he is calling for an end to harmful ways of living in this world, not just in the next. To pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth is to be caught up into Christ’s kingly desire for loving-kindness, for the flourishing of shalom, for grace and peace as Paul puts it. To pray this way is to bless the world in ways that move beyond ideologies and politics to address the pain of each and every person with the empathy Jesus embodied.

Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

Daily bread has some limits; Jesus teaches us to pray for enough but not too much. And notice again those plural personal pronouns. This is not a prayer for my daily bread. It is a prayer for our daily bread, a prayer that all of us would have enough. What better way to bless the world than to make sure everyone has enough both physically and spiritually? The next part of the prayer flows directly from that idea.

FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS

Perhaps we have no greater need, or more daily need, than that of forgiveness. Sometimes we seem unable to believe God is willing to forgive us. Other times we struggle to forgive ourselves. Both situations can be intertwined and call for deep reflection on who Jesus says God is and who he says we are. Jesus does not command or even encourage us to forgive here. He declares forgiveness as an unquestioned aspect of our identity. It has been suggested that we are the most like Jesus when we forgive and forgiveness is one of the most powerful things when it comes to transforming lives and relationships.

Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Here we are likely to focus on our own individual shortcomings, the specific things we have been taught are sins and always seem to be causing us to stumble. But again, this is not the prayer of individuals. This is the prayer of us all together seeking deliverance from the works of the evil one. Hearing the words of the morning prayer of the Iona Community in Scotland can help shift our perspective in that direction. Their prayer goes like this:

BEFORE GOD, 

WITH THE PEOPLE OF GOD, 

WE CONFESS TO OUR BROKENNESS:
TO THE WAYS WE WOUND OUR LIVES, 

THE LIVES OF OTHERS 

AND THE LIFE OF THE WORLD

Again:

BEFORE GOD, 

WITH THE PEOPLE OF GOD, 

WE CONFESS TO OUR BROKENNESS:
TO THE WAYS WE WOUND OUR LIVES, 

THE LIVES OF OTHERS 

AND THE LIFE OF THE WORLD

And a voice responds with this blessing:

May God forgive you, Christ renew you, and the spirit enable you to grow in love.

AMEN