The Lord’s Prayer

Matthew 6:5-15

Today’s focus for us is the prayer that Jesus taught us, the Lord’s Prayer. I remember gradually learning this prayer in church on Sunday mornings as a child. At some point, I got to where I could remember all the phrases correctly and felt satisfied. I memorized it, but I don’t think I internalized it much. When I did a wedding ceremony a couple of Saturdays ago, the bride wanted the Lord’s Prayer, but because of her Lutheran background, she asked if I would lead the congregation in the prayer using “trespasses” instead of “debts”, which is the word we Presbyterians use. I was happy to do so, but I had to think about it because I had repeated the prayer thousands of times in the same order and with the exact words. I think I led it correctly? I admit I can utter this prayer on autopilot, unless someone wants me to use a different word for sins!

Repeated phrases, prayers, and activities can become routine and rote for us and may lose meaning. My focus for this morning is to help us take ourselves out of autopilot when we pray this important prayer.

The beginning of today’s passage has to do with first-century Jewish custom. Faithful Jews prayed three times daily, in early morning, mid-afternoon around 3:00, and at sunset, according to Daniel 6:10. The mid-afternoon prayer coincided with the temple sacrifice. You can imagine that as the time approached, people stopped what they were doing and began to pray. The problem, according to Jesus, was that some who enjoyed being the center of attention seized the opportunity, making their prayers louder, more dramatic. For some, prayer became performance, and some people’s prayers were directed not towards God but a human audience. Jesus said that from humans alone they will get their reward. Jesus said it was better to resist the temptation to pray to impress others by going into a closet, closing the door, and directing one’s prayers to God alone.

Then Jesus spoke of some Gentiles' tendency to heap up empty phrases and babble because they thought having “wordy” prayers was more effective. I recall one of my first summers serving on staff at a Christian camp. Our team meetings would end every night in prayer. Some in my team were short and sweet in their prayers. Others went on forever and heaped up repeated phrases. Following their long prayers, I often felt intimidated to say anything to close in prayer, thinking that my prayer wouldn’t be as nice or nearly as long as theirs. However, regarding prayer to God, Ecclesiastes 5:2 says, “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few! One of my favorite theologians, Anne Lamott, reminds us that prayers do not need to be long to be effective. Her three short prayers include “Help!” “Thanks!’ Wow!” Few words indeed.

The Lord’s Prayer is a bit longer and is divided into two main sections: one that focuses on God and the other on us.

First is the initial greeting or address, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” This is God's relationship with us, as a loving parent. You may have father issues or possibly even mother issues. So, naming God as a parent brings baggage with it and places God in some preconceived box in many ways. I still remember having a picture of “God” on my wall as a child- an old dude in a white gown with a long white beard. I had that image of God for many years, and now I know God is much more.  However you think of God, know this. This heavenly parent loves us with an unconditional, never-ending love and sees us as beloved offspring.

Then comes “Hallowed be thy name,” meaning, “Let your name be holy.”  This first petition echoes the third commandment- “Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.”. This commandment means we are not to take God lightly. The petition says, “May You be known by all people, and may You be seen as important in the world.”  It is also a way of reminding ourselves to have the proper place for God in our lives- hallowed, one of holiness and relevance.

Next comes the petition, “Thy kingdom come.”  According to this prayer, our task is to pray for God to bring about the whole reign of the kindom, a radical request.  However, that does not mean we should rest on our laurels and wait for God to do this. Some believers often say, “Well, God is in control, so there’s nothing I need to do.” James reminds us that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Glimpses of the kindom of God appear when we share the Good News of the gospel, when we are kind toward others, when we act in justice, when we forgive, when we show God’s love in what we say and do. We cannot make the kindom come. Only God can. Yet we can show glimpses of God's kindom with a faith full of works. One day, this kindom will be fully established, upon the timeline of the Holy One. Until then, we have work to do.

Then comes a part of the prayer we should truly consider before uttering. Do we mean it when we say, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?”  Do we really desire God’s will for our lives and the world? Do we want God to direct our will, so that our desires, hopes, and dreams become secondary to God’s? Do we really want people experiencing poverty to be uplifted and given justice? Do we want a world where there is enough for everyone? Do we really want to love our neighbors as we love ourselves? Do we really want a world where swords are beaten into plowshares, and nations will no longer rise up against nations? To pray this part of the prayer and mean it is a weighty thing indeed.

The focus of the prayer changes, from God at work in the world, to God at work in our personal lives. These petitions are practical requests for the here and now- daily life as we know it. First comes the phrase, “Give us this day our daily bread.” For many poor in the first century, there was a reality here echoed in this request. Daily laborers were paid at the end of each day, which would be just enough to purchase bread for their families the following day. Theologian Ulrich Luz says, “In part we must identify with the poor when we make this request.”  When we ask for our bread, we must be grateful for what we have been given and remember those whose daily existence is a struggle for bread.  This reminds us that we depend upon God for our food, and how grateful we should be for what we have. As we reflect in gratitude for what God has given, we cannot forget that so many others in the world do not have their daily bread. Theologian William Barclay said, “No Christian can be content to have too much while others have too little.” One tangible way I try to follow this teaching from Jesus’ prayer is by leaving leftover communion bread in our Little Free Pantry.

The next focus for today is on the phrase, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”  Have you ever wondered about the word debtors? Why do we use that instead of sins or trespasses, as the Lutherans do?  In early rabbinic tradition, a debt would be owed to God every time a person sinned. As this debt accumulated, the separation between God and human beings widened. Every righteous deed helped pay off those debts, but one was never without debt to God. Those roots regarding sin and indebtedness to God are part of our faith today.

What is the original Greek word for sin, and does it suggest we are indebted to God in some way when we sin?  The word translated as “Debts”, Ophelama, Ophelama, means “To be under obligation” or “to owe.” We are indebted to God for the grace freely offered and given when we confess. That isn’t how the world works, however. Can you imagine going to one of your credit card companies and asking for your debts to be forgiven regularly? Yet Jesus instructs us to approach God this way, assuring us that debt removal is possible. We can be forgiven for all the hurt we may cause in this world.

But there’s a catch, which isn’t in small print in Matthew’s version of the prayer (See Luke 11:2-4 for comparison). We are forgiven as we forgive our debtors.

Early on in my faith, I was taught to confess my sins, and God would forgive me, always. Yet this passage suggests otherwise. Archbishop William Temple said, “Only one petition in the Lord’s prayer has any condition attached to it; it is the petition for forgiveness.” Two verses later in Matthew,  Jesus says, “If you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you.”  It seems that divine forgiveness is not automatic, nor is it unconditional. Forgiveness from God assumes that we are willing to forgive others as well. If we cannot forgive, then divine forgiveness is in question.

I think this condition placed upon forgiveness concerns our “Ministry of reconciliation,” as Paul calls us to in 2 Corinthians 5:16-20. God wants us to have healthy relationships with others, to share hurts and be reconciled to each other through acts of forgiveness. Reconciliation enables us to be whole as individuals and as a greater, connected community.

Sometimes (not always) it is easier to forgive others for their sins than to forgive ourselves. Regarding the song I sang this morning, “In Every Grain of Sand” is about the personal struggle of confessing sins to God. According to someone who asked Bob Dylan about the creation of the words, it is one of the few songs that came to him in one take, and that was it.  No editing, no tortured weeks of trying to make it work – it just showed up on paper as he thought about sin, grace, and God, and wrote it all down.

Bob begins with a confession to God for his sins with tears and a dying voice of hope, drowned out by morals of despair. He looks back on his sins, seeing how his own sins were hurtful not just to himself, but also to the entire community around him. Hence the line, “Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.”  He sees the need to break the chain of sin that connects and affects the community around him and struggles to let it all go.

“Lead us not into temptation” is a confusing phrase at best. Does God lead us into temptation? James 1:13 indeed refutes that notion. “Let no one say when they are tempted, I am tempted by God, for God tempts no one.”  God is constantly leading us in life, not just toward good, but also away from evil. By praying for God to “lead us not into temptation,” we’re asking God to meet us right where we are, no matter what type of temptation we face, and give us the wisdom and strength to be led by God to places that give life and light. When we pray that phrase, we welcome God’s power into the situations that tempt us. God can lead us from the wrong direction, but we must invite God to do so, because we have free will. Dylan wrote, “I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame, and every time I pass that way, I always hear my name.” This section of the prayer is a plea to keep our distance from being tempted, even when our name is called repeatedly, and to be led from those temptations and delivered from evil.

The prayer ends with a statement about God. God’s vision for the world is that it becomes on earth as it is in heaven. It is God’s vision for the world of a kindom of love and peace.

God is also the power. I see that power as I learn more and more about our incredibly vast universe through things like the James Webb telescope. For the longest time, astronomers believed there were few, if any, other planets or solar systems in our universe. Now, the Webb telescope has found other planets by the thousands and other solar systems similar to ours. The knowledge of the universe reveals more and more the infinite vastness of it all, and in some small way, the Creator behind it all. As the psalmist says, “When I consider the works of thy fingers, the moon and stars which You have made, who are we mere mortals that You are mindful of us?” (Psalm 8:3-4a)

Glory is also the glory. The word, Doxa, doxa, means “glory, or worthy of great honor and praise”. We are called to think of God in this esteemed way, forever.

We will say the Lord’s Prayer during our service in just a bit. This time, rather than pressing that autopilot button, we will pause after each phrase and consider its meaning before moving on. I hope this helps us all understand the depth and importance of this prayer.

Our Father (Is God like a loving parent for you? Do you believe you are an offspring of our Creator? Consider your relationship with God.)

Who art in heaven, (God is eternal in the heavens, but also with us)

Hallowed be thy name. (Revere the name of God. How do you show reverence for God?)

Thy kingdom come. (What are you doing to show glimpses of that kingdom?)
Thy will be done (What is God's will for your life? Do you want God's will or your own?)
On earth as it is in heaven. (Where do we need to show God's will for the earth-love, justice, mercy?

Give us this day our daily bread (Remember where provisions come from)
And forgive us our debts, (Free us from the sins we commit)
As we forgive our debtors, (guide us to reconciliation with others)
And lead us not into temptation, (Keep us from tempting situations, help us to recognize them)
But deliver us from evil. (Help us be safe from evil around us)
For thine is the kingdom (The coming kindom, the vision for the world is God’s)

and the power (God is the power behind our lives and the universe)

and the glory forever. (God is glorified, thanked, and esteemed as the Creator/Sustainer of all things.)

Finally, I have a spiritual challenge for you. 19th-century English Anglican priest John Frederick Denison Maurice wrote, “The Lord’s Prayer may be committed to memory, but it is slowly learned by heart.”  To help our hearts, I would like to ask you to pray this prayer every day this week. Pray it slowly and thoughtfully as you pray each phrase. May God be with us this week as we commit our hearts to learning this prayer deep within. Alleluia. Amen.