Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer

St Giles Holy Communion Thursday 17 June 2010

Gospel Matthew 6.5-14

Prayer

⁵ "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ "This, then, is how you should pray:
       " 'Our Father in heaven,
       hallowed be your name,

¹⁰ your kingdom come,
       your will be done,
       on earth as it is in heaven.

¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.

¹² And forgive us our debts,
       as we also have forgiven our debtors.

¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
       but deliver us from the evil one. '

¹⁴ For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Sermon

‘I’m not much good at prayer.’ Something done by clergy, evangelicals, or specially religious people. Disciples probably felt same in presence of their master. ‘Teach us like John taught his disciples.’

‘This then is how you should pray.’ Does it mean we should endlessly repeat these words? Children learn by rote. How often do we pause and reflect on their meaning?

Or is it a template for prayer? Model of brevity. Babbling like pagans and warnings against ostentatious prayer don’t really apply to today’s western world – perhaps we could do with more public prayer, and less hiding away behind locked doors? But it does warn us not to heap up empty phrases, which includes thoughtlessly repeating Lord’s Prayer.

It deals with everyday needs, but also looks forward to the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s right we should ask God for our daily bread and thank him for it – but does this not also mean we long for the bread of life, the heavenly manna?

The prayer itself makes the twofold meaning clear: hallowed be your name – your kingdom come – your will be done – all apply of course to our present situation, but ‘as it is in heaven’ – and so, as it will be when the reign of God comes in all its fullness at the end time.

Forgive us our debts is translated in different ways. In his parables, Jesus gives examples of debts being cancelled or reduced, but most of these refer to the Kingdom. So we are not talking only about being kind to those who owe us money (good though that might be) but the coming judgement too. Hence the other translations: ‘trespasses’ or ‘sins.’ The last two verses of the reading deal with forgiveness – the Father will not forgive sins to those who are not willing to forgive others who have wronged them.

Notice the doxology we use is missing. The prayer ends with the strange request that God should not tempt us. Why would he? And who is this personified ‘evil one?’ How did an evil one come to be created by a loving and good God, if God created all things, and without him nothing came into being? At Methodist Chapel, we used the words do not bring us to the time of trial – again surely referring to the end of time and the final judgement. We pray to be spared temptation beyond our ability to endure it.

Most importantly, though, when we use this prayer, as Jesus taught us, we should slow down, reflect on the words, think of what we are saying. Even better, use it as a template for our own prayers rather than, as we sometime so, babbling the words, piling up empty phrases that have lost their meaning for us, and not according it its true value as the only prayer our Lord taught us to pray. Amen