The Lord’s Prayers

My brother said he liked the sermon. He tried doing what the preacher said to do and he felt it had been a big help. What the preacher suggested was we should pray the “The Lord’s Prayer” often with sincerity and careful attention to what we were saying. This observation coming from my brother was a pleasant surprise. We never had been around each other for very long; we grew up in different households. The thing was I had long ago discovered the efficacy of “The Lord’s Prayer” and my brother’s discovery was somehow a new bond between us. We had become prayers (pray-ers) of the same prayer.

Of course this was not the first time this prayer would serve to better relationships. It could be conceived even in the context presented by Luke, bonding is what the prayer is about. One of Jesus’ disciples approaches the Teacher with a request to teach them to pray like John the Baptist had taught his disciples. It is as if the disciple is saying we would like something to set us apart as followers of Jesus, a distinct identifying trait.

We share the disciple’s desire to find something to distinguish us from the world around us. We are in many ways untethered from the Teacher and yearn for a lifeline of communication to connect us to Him and each other. The circumstances that caused my brother and I to grow-up in different households is an all too common a variation on a theme. People want to be identified with a family or a community. They want and perhaps need to find something to distinguish them from the lonely existence of broken homes and the cowering fear produced in the emotional neglect some of us have experienced. The truth of the MC Hammer lyric rings so true: “you‘ve got to pray just to make it today.”

The answer to the disciple’s request does provide something that sets apart but not in the sense of providing a slogan or a creed or a logo. The prayer gives us distinguishing characteristics by calling those who would use this prayer to live within the relationship it proclaims and to operate by the standards it endorses.

“Our Father” immediately establishes kinship not only between the prayer (pray-ers) and the Father but between the prayer (pray-ers) and all others using this prayer. This includes the incomprehensible sibling relationship with Jesus. Think of it, we may share a common Father with the Son of God, and in so doing share a common inheritance. It is fitting this lofty privilege be met with gratitude and worship of the one who grants it with the words “hallowed be your name.”

Adoption is the solution offered by God. Adoption deals with the problem of abandonment. If we have been cut loose from family, friends, and community; if we no longer really have a home or a neighborhood; God offers a new kinship and proximity with himself as parent. Jesus is our sibling and everyone we come into contact is a potential recipient of our neighborliness.

The bond of kinship is supplemented by the bond of citizenship and submission to the rule of the Father with “your kingdom come” and “your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). God will exercise His dominion over everything in the coming of the Kingdom. His dominion is already begun in the hearts of those who truly learn to live the words of this prayer. These phrases introduce the bond of hope characterized by the Christian world view. The hope of the future is manifest in the reality of the present as we assent to the rule of the Father in the here and now. The Kingdom at hand may be grasped even as we wait and yearn for the return of the King.

At the same time the talk of letting the will of God be done implies something counter to our own desires may happen. This sentiment will be echoed in the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus agonizes over the ultimate submission whereby the Kingdom is ushered in. Though some would point to the “once for all” nature of the Crucifixion, we need to remember Jesus’ instruction to the disciples included ‘take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Perhaps Christians are bound by a willingness to accept the suffering inherent in submission to the Father’s will. Certainly the focus on having things done our own way must contribute to the lack of connectivity to God and others. It is difficult to care for others without putting aside some desire of our own.

The intimacy with and allegiance to God established by the prayer thus far flows naturally into our reliance on him as expressed by “give us each our daily bread” (Luke 11:3). Christians depend on God for their sustenance. There is no life save that given by “Our Father”. It should not be forgotten the Scripture makes clear the bread of life is Jesus. In the words of the Annie Hawks hymn “I need Thee every hour, most Holy One; O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.” The idea of Jesus as sustaining soul nutrition informs what is called the ministry of the “Word and Table” in some traditions. Whatever one’s belief about the nature of the Scriptures or sacraments it seems clear we are to consume Jesus if we are to be consumed by Him.

This daily bread phrase also brings to mind the contact of this prayer is to be a continuing one. So much of the Christian life is dependent on ongoing action. Paul says we are to pray without ceasing. If we ask for daily bread then it follows we should ask for it every day. This regular exercise of supplication is another bond between Christians.

Then we come to the crux of Christian identity with the next phrases. “And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:12-13, NLT). The prayers (pray-ers) of this prayer recognize our sinful condition and the need of forgiveness and deliverance. We acknowledge the agency for satisfying these needs lies with the One to whom we address this prayer. Certainly these phrases meet the requirements of repentance and calling on the Lord which frequently occur in descriptions of the salvation process. Moreover, the appeal for deliverance from the evil one seems to invoke a plea for what many call sanctification.

Salvation and sanctification both may be seen as a function of forgiveness by God but the prayer makes a clear connection between the forgiveness we receive and the forgiveness we grant. The bonds of Christianity are forged by God through us to each other. It amounts to insincerity and ingratitude to receive God’s forgiveness without granting it to others. Often we withdraw in our pain and contribute to our own isolation by closing ourselves off from contact with those around us. All around us are people who are huddled in fear. They are so close but so often we do not reach out touch them for fear of more pain. The prayer suggests reaching out to them is the means by which God reaches us.

So the disciple asks the Lord for a prayer and perhaps an identity. The Lord delivers the prayer and in the process points to the deliverance of the prayers (pray-ers).

Participation in the realities named in this prayer brings about a bond of community that includes Jesus’ disciples and sincere prayers (pray-ers) throughout almost two millennia of Christian doctrine and liturgy.

Jesus goes on to advise that propriety is not to interfere with the pursuit of this identity. The persistence or impudence of the midnight borrower might be rendered as rudeness or shamelessness. One is reminded of other instances where Jesus made allowances for those who approached Him, especially in the case of the children. Some may have viewed the disciple’s request as presumptuous. In Luke just before this request, we see Jesus commending Mary for actions Martha may have appraised as rude and shameless. Yet Jesus continues to portray efforts to seek His presence as the better part by His gracious response to the disciple’s request. It is as if the disciple has asked and has been given, sought and found, knocked and had the door opened. He has, to paraphrase Dickens, been “given the lightest license of a child” to approach the giver of the identity He seeks. The child will receive good gifts. Despite our evil identity before the requested prayer, the gift the Father bestows is the Holy Spirit which is the seal of our new identity.

It has been alleged “The Lord’s Prayer” is an inaccurate title for what Jesus taught the disciples on that day long ago. The idea being the prayer was not for Him but for His followers. Even if the title of the prayer was changed to “The Disciple’s Prayer,” the question of whose disciples were saying it would need to be answered. So perhaps a change in title is not in order since those who have made use of “The Lord’s Prayer” have been identified with a community that bears the name of “Christian” in honor of the very Lord who gave the prayer. The Christian community is open to anyone who sincerely prays that prayer. Whether it is the bonding of reconciliation or the bonding of shared devotion to Jesus it is possible, like my brother, me, and so many others, to become “The Lord’s Prayers (Pray-ers)”.

There is a kind of open elevator interestingly called a “paternoster.” This comes from the Latin for “our father” because of an association with the mechanism of the paternoster which consists of compartments linked to a drive chain with beads of a rosary used by some people when saying “The Lord’s Prayer.” This connection also accounts for a fishing line with multiple hooks along its length being called a “paternoster.” It seems to me the Lord’s Prayer can provide Christians with a lift and serve as an aid in angling for souls. Jesus invites you to make use of the prayer. He invites you to join the community, receive His touch, and touch others in turn. Jesus invites you to be prayers (pray-ers) of His prayer.