THE LORD'S PRAYER FOR PERSPECTIVE AMIDST CRISIS
"Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive." - C.S. Lewis
Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11: 1-4
When--------called an operator from the hi-jacked jet over Pennsylvania, he reported
situation and the plan to overcome the hi-jackers. He asked the operator to say the Lord’s Prayer with him and then moved unarmed with several other passengers to stop the jet from taking hundreds, if not thousands of lives in one more crash attack. Instead, the jet crashed in Pennsylvania taking the lives of all on board. A prayer to sustain oneself in crisis.The Lord's Prayer is an unusually simple prayer for daily life. It is at once a prayer for self-sufficiency and God-dependency. The disciples of Jesus may have used it as their community prayer.
Addressing God as "Abba" in Aramaic, Jesus invokes a familial, personal engagement of a child with a parent. This way of address is distinct from calling upon an abstract, transcendental God. "Hallowed be your name" is a daily praise of "Holy, Holy, Holy God." With the morning birds and the rest of the creation, a faith community is enjoined to offer this daily incense to God.
"Your kingdom come" is a plea for God’s community of Shalom on earth. God's rule is often rendered in terms of "Shalom," the reign of harmony, the presence of peace and establishment of justice. Biblical passages such as Isaiah 54:10, Ezekiel 37:26, and Isaiah 32: 16-18 talk about this rule of peace and justice. Therein shalom people are a people who covenant with God daily to obey God's rules, bring about harmony in their physical, political, moral, spiritual lives. "Thy kingdom Come" is a petition to enable one to see the world as a community in need of God's redemption and God's sovereignty.
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is by no means a prayer of resignation. It is a prayer of acknowledgment. It acknowledges that God’s will can be done on earth. An acknowledgment that the ultimate justice and peace, God's justice and God's peace, as God sees them may be unknowable to humans distraught by tragedy and horror. But God is calling us to the practice of faith and generosity. As a faith community member, one defers to God who says, "Vengeance is mine." One defers to Christ himself who is peace. "Give us this day our daily bread." This is asking the grace to provide each other's bread, if need be. It is an asking for 'our' bread and not 'my' bread. It is an asking for a global economy which will make sure each person's daily bread is assured without worry for tomorrow.
"Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." It is a twin community prayer. The first part is a prayer of repentance asking God to forgive us. We offer a soul-cleansing prayer and a restorative prayer, not only as individuals but as a community, a people of God.
The second part is the hard part. It asks us to forgive those who have inflicted wrong. We who ask forgiveness are to offer forgiveness.
It is an interlinked act of asking for forgiveness and giving it. Forgiven people forgive others. "Prayer humanizes our enemies, whether Christian or non-Christians and connects us with them in God's one world" ("In Defense of Creation: The Nuclear Crisis and a Just Peace." The United Methodist Council of Bishops. 1986. Page 85)
Grace abundant! Mysterious God who weaves the mystery of forgiveness into the Lord's prayer for one's daily recital and living!
"Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil."
The ultimate temptation may be to renounce God, an act of apostasy. So this plea may be to deliver us from the ultimate evil, the Evil One. In the daily battle against good and evil, within and without, one has to be aware of the gray areas which confound goodness. May we have the wisdom and grace to name evils which come in subtle forms, within and without. May one's anchor hold within, even when all "hell" is seemingly let loose. God, in Christ holds the center within, for the faith community.
Therefore God's is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
The Lord's Prayer then is a spiritual instrument, a tool, to practice one's humanity. It is a humanity in the shadow of God’s grace and protection, available to each one who is willing to knock, seek, and ask. Amen.
REFLECTION:
(1) When have you found the Lord’s Prayer most meaningful?
(2) What part do we play in making the model prayer a reality in our own minds
(3) Explore the realities of bread for all, forgiveness, temptation, God’s will on earth?
(4) How is the Lord’s Prayer a community prayer?
PRAYER:
Caring God, your name is holy. Your kin-dom come. Your will be done here, like it is where you are. Give us food for today and forgive us when we do evil as we forgive others when they do evil against us. Don’t let us be tempted to do evil. For you are the place we hope for, the power of love, and the glory of peace. So be it.