PASTOR ELLEN: In today’s gospel reading, Jesus teaches about prayer by giving us what we now call The Lord’s Prayer. We often think of the Lord’s Prayer as an efficient way to pray. We know it by heart, and it is used as the perfect close for meetings and gatherings. Yet, far too often, we recite this prayer by rote, not even thinking about what we are saying.
It is also important to acknowledge that, in this “can-do” culture in which we live, prayer too easily becomes an attempt to change God and aggrandize ourselves instead of what it is truly meant to be. You see, prayer really is an interior practice that brings change to the one who is praying, change to our very selves. This will always happen if we stand calmly in God’s safe presence, allowing God to invade our hearts and heal us. So, it is interesting to note there is something about this beloved prayer, The Lord’s Prayer, that emphasizes the need to let go and trust God. It is interesting that each petition in this prayer contains some sort of renunciation of self, letting go of self.
Today, we are going to take advantage of a teaching moment. We will use Martin Luther’s small catechism as a basis for our time together. Please turn in the back of your hymnal to page 1163. I invite you to follow along as we contemplate The Lord’s Prayer, learning from each of the petitions.
ZACHARY: Our Father in heaven. What is this? What does this mean?
PAUL: With these words God wants to attract us, so that we come to believe he is truly our Father and we are truly his children, in order that we may ask him boldly and with complete confidence, just as loving children ask their loving father.
KIM: Sometimes I get stuck on the wrong particulars of this invitation. Particulars like relational issues between fathers and children or particulars of location like earth and heaven. Focusing on these particulars causes me to miss a main point in this invitation. My human nature tends to individualize my relationship with Jesus and with God to serve my need. Here I’m reminded that God is not mine, God is not only my father, God is the creator of everything, of all people like and unlike me, God is collectively “ours”. I’m particularly invited to consider the universality of God first with the word “Our”.
ZACHARY: Hallowed be your name. What is this? What does this mean?
PAUL: It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, but we ask in this prayer that it may also become holy in and among us.
ZACHARY: How does this come about?
PAUL: Whenever the word of God is taught clearly and purely and we, as God’s children, also live holy lives according to it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven! However, whoever teaches and lives otherwise than the word of God teaches, dishonors the name of God among us. Preserve us from this, heavenly Father!
PASTOR ELLEN: We live in a culture in which we are bombarded with, and consumed by, questions about our self-image. All we need do is turn on the TV or read the newspaper to find a plethora of commercials and ads addressing our self-image. We are constantly worried about how others view us, what others think about us and even what others may say about us. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us that it is only God and God’s name that matter. Yes, our identity and our names are significant, but we can let go of our unhealthy ladder climbing and pursuit of gaining a name for ourselves. We can let go of the unhealthy image-seeking pursuit. We do not need to prove ourselves and our own significance. The truth is that we gain our own significance through being named and claimed by God, through being called by God and called in God’s name.
ZACHARY: Your kingdom come. What is this?
PAUL: In fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us.
ZACHARY: How does this come about?
PAUL: Whenever our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that through the Holy Spirit’s grace we believe God’s holy word and live godly lives here in time and hereafter in eternity.
KIM: Your kingdom come. God’s kingdom. What a crazy, awesome idea to imagine God’s kingdom coming to us, to imagine that I have the opportunity to participate in God’s kingdom! And God is such a generous, loving God, it is freely given without me even having to ask! (pause)
I wonder if I even recognize bits of God’s kingdom breaking into my life if, or really when, I witness it? God sends the Holy Spirit to us as our guide. Amidst our busy lives scheduling the construction of our own kingdoms where do we leave time and space for the Holy Spirit? Do we allow ourselves to be interrupted? How do we respond to those interruptions? How does the Holy Spirit speak to us and guide us or turn us around toward God’s coming kingdom?
ZACHARY: Your will be done on earth as in heaven. What is this?
PAUL: In fact, God’s good and gracious will comes about without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come about in and among us.
ZACHARY: How does this come about?
PAUL: Whenever God breaks and hinders every evil scheme and will – as are present in the will of the devil, the world, and our flesh – that would not allow us to hallow God’s name and would prevent the coming of his kingdom, and instead whenever God strengthens us and keeps us steadfast in his word and in faith until the end of our lives. This is God’s gracious and good will.
PASTOR ELLEN: With this petition, I acknowledge that I need to let go of my stubborn will. You see, I want it all, I want it now and I want it my way. My desires, my hopes, my fears – all these things shape my will. And, sometimes, people can be ruthless in seeking the desires of their own wills. Yet, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to renounce our own will and let go of our need to control. It is not about our will but about God’s will for us and for the world. And, when it is about God’s will, God’s kingdom will come and shape our hearts and lives into what God desires.
ZACHARY: Give us today our daily bread. What is this?
PAUL: In fact, God gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving.
ZACHARY: What then does “daily bread” mean?
PAUL: Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
KIM: This is quite the expansive list beyond ordinary bread! For years I mentally skipped over this petition because I’ve enjoyed plenty of bread. I have bread to spare, I dispose of it in my compost bowl daily. But the prayer is not for me, it is for us. Here I find a challenging invitation to change, as Pastor Ellen reminded us in her introduction, prayer brings change to the one who is praying. Awareness of my abundance has caused me to wonder about those lacking daily bread, health, home or other necessities. Has God not provided enough bread for everyone throughout the world? Does God elect some to receive bread and not others? Or do some hang onto more than their share of bread, living into a message of scarcity, fear or greed? Do the powerful collect more and more bread for themselves leaving not enough bread for others? Do I?
I just prayed to participate in OUR God’s kingdom and will, for it to come here, to this place, through the witness of my life. I enjoy the privilege of abundance of daily bread. So how does this prayer affect the way I live, the way I manage my bread? What does this prayer mean for us?
ZACHARY: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. What is this?
PAUL: We ask in this prayer that our heavenly Father would not regard our sins nor deny these petitions on their account, for we are worthy of nothing for which we ask, nor have we earned it. Instead we ask that God would give us all things by grace, for we daily sin much and indeed deserve only punishment. So, on the other hand, we, too, truly want to forgive heartily and to do good gladly to those who sin against us.
PASTOR ELLEN: Forgive us our sins or, as some traditions articulate this phrase, forgive us our debts! This petition strikes at our self-sufficiency, our self-righteousness, and the many things we do that hurt our neighbor. In our self-sufficient culture, there is a sense in which we pride ourselves of not being in debt to anyone, whether it is financial or otherwise. We often take pride in refusing help because we don’t want to be seen as weak. Yet, whether the word is sins or debts, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us that we are in debt. I am indebted to the Lord God. We are deeply indebted to God from whom we have received everything, because everything we have is all gift. Quite frankly, we all are broken, and we all are in need of God’s forgiving love. As Luther said, “We are all poor beggars at the foot of the cross.” You see, we all gather as beggars in need of grace.
In our brokenness as people, we also live in a culture where we frequently want to get even if we have been wronged by others. In fact, it seems as though some people love to show that they have been offended by others. Yet, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us that it is not about who has wronged me or who has wronged us. This prayer calls me to view my neighbor with compassion, even if my neighbor has wronged me. My neighbor is broken just as I am, and my neighbor is a child of God, just as I am. This prayer teaches us to forgive as God has already forgiven me and my neighbor. It calls us to let go of our love of being offended.
ZACHARY: Save us from the time of trial. What is this?
PAUL: It is true that God tempts no one, but we ask in this prayer that God would preserve and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great and shameful sins, and that, although we may be attacked by them, we may finally prevail and gain the victory.
KIM: For much of my life I have rested in a place of security, believing that I’m strong, believing that I’m in control and through my skill and responsible action everything will turn out okay. I’ve relaxed into a state of denial that I am tested because, look! I’ve got it together with my fabulous plan! This past week I faced a time of trial. Not by God, but by the world, by the worst-case scenarios of my own mind, and I sank into a place of despair. I became angry and in my mind I lashed out toward the people who I imagined contributed to this trial -- fault always lies with “them” and not “me”. This anger and despair changed me, it affected my thinking, it infected the air around me and spread anxiety and negativity. I struggled to keep my mind on the promises of Christ, I didn’t believe that God has committed to preserve and keep me and all people. I became fueled by the bad news media instead of being fueled by the love of God.
Honestly, I experienced that it’s much easier to give into the sin of anger and despair. The truth is that I need this prayer, I need God. The truth is that God came to me in the reassuring voices of trusted friends, the company of loved ones, and yet I still struggled to trust. I still sought to move forward under my own power, I still wrestled with my anger. I still resisted letting go.
The Lord’s Prayer teaches us that we have no power in ourselves to withstand anything. God alone has the power to come to our aid. This is why at the beginning of each day at morning prayer for the past two millennia the Church has opened her prayers with these words, “O God, make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us.” We do not have the power to withstand the time of trial or overcome sin (the Greek word means trials generically, which includes temptations to sin). The Lord is our Warrior. We cry out to Him for deliverance. Without His aid we are hopeless. We must renounce our own strength.
ZACHARY: And deliver us from evil. What is this?
PAUL: We ask in this prayer, as in a summary, that our Father in heaven may deliver us from all kinds of evil—affecting body or soul, property or reputation—and at last, when our final hour comes, may grant us a blessed end and take us by grace from this valley of tears to himself in heaven.
PASTOR ELLEN: Like the previous petition, this petition teaches us that we are broken and powerless to deliver ourselves. It also teaches us that we need deliverance from our very own self and our bondage to self. There is real evil in the world, evil that we are powerless to combat without God’s aid, God’s presence to us, and God’s presence within our lives. We must renounce our own power to deliver. God will and does deliver us.
ZACHARY: For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen. What is this?
PAUL: That I should be certain that such petitions are acceptable to and heard by our Father in heaven, for he himself commanded us to pray like this and has promised to hear us. “Amen, amen” means “Yes, yes, it is going to come about just like this.”
KIM: This last part of the prayer, the doxology, is contained in some manuscripts but not others, yet the idea is biblical. Here again we reaffirm that our personal “kingdom” is not what matters. Again, we are powerless. God is the power – not us. The glory is God’s – not ours. I need to let go and learn that I will always gain my strength, power, glory, sustenance, and significance from God and God alone. World without end. Yes, yes, it is going to come about just like this!
PASTOR