Pastor's Corner: The Lord's Prayer

It is the prayer we know so well that we can recite it without even thinking about it. If we are churchgoers, it is the prayer we say, at the very least, every Sunday, if not every day. It is probably one of the first prayers we ever learned as children; and it will be, even for those of us who walk into the long twilight of dementia, something we remember, long after we have forgotten the names of our own children.

As theologian John Dominic Crossan says, "The Lord's Prayer is both a revolutionary manifesto and a hymn of hope. It is revolutionary because it presumes and proclaims the radical vision of justice that is the core of Israel's biblical tradition. It is a hymn, because it presumes and produces poetic techniques that are the core of Israel's biblical poetry".

Our Father who art in heaven,

Our Father and our Mother. Our King and our Lord. Our Judge and our Peace. Our Rock and our Redeemer. Our Creator and our Healer. Our Shepherd and our Fortress. We name God so that we can begin to approach God, so that our human experience can provide the language for us to begin to understand who God is, and the relationship that binds us together. We do not see God as God is, thus all the metaphors. And yet we do encounter God. God's realm is far away in the heavens and yet is right here. God is completely other than us, yet in us and with us.

Hallowed be your name,

God's name is holy, God's people are holy. God created us in His image. We pray that God's name might be kept holy, not because we expect God to do something to ruin it, but because we are afraid we might. So we pray that all we do would reflect well on God, that all we do would be to God's honor.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven;

We know that God's kingdom is a kingdom of love, justice and peace, a kingdom of righteousness and abundance for all. This is a kingdom that is already within us and among us, because Jesus himself is the sign it has come. To pray "your Kingdom come" is to pray that our eyes and our ears, and our hands and our hearts, are ready to take part in Jesus' work, what someone has called "the great Divine clean-up of the world". To pray that God's kingdom will come is to ask that God's power to create will prevail over forces that destroy, and that God's power to redeem will bring release from bondage.

Give us this day our daily bread,

On many different occasions, Jesus found himself in a crowd of hungry people, and on those occasions, despite pressure from his inner circle to send the people away to fend for themselves, Jesus instead invited people to sit for a meal that would be shared. He looked to the food that was available - usually some ridiculously small amount of bread and fish for a ridiculously large number of people - and he took the food, he blessed the food, he gave the food. And in doing that, Jesus said, in God's economy, there is enough. If we take what God has given us and if we give thanks for it, and if we break it into sharable amounts, and if we give it away, there will be enough.

Forgive us our debt, as we forgive debtors,

We honestly ask God to search and know our hearts, and to bring us to the knowledge, albeit hard and painful as that may be, as to what it is we need to repent as individuals and as a nation. When we have failed to love God and neighbor, we ask God to renew us and enable us to make up whatever we have failed to do, to give us hearts that can share God's grace by forgiving others, to be humble like a dove and wise as a serpent, to be sustained in our courage, that we will not be manipulated by those who have wronged, exploited and oppressed God's people. As we forgive, we are promised forgiveness. God wants us all - all - to be free.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Lead us not to resignation in our work for justice and peace. Let not cynicism rule us,

but lead us to a deeper steadfastness to overcome evil in our midst.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory are yours forever. This we believe. Let the power of love and the glory of justice and peace be with us all forever and ever. Amen.

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The Rev. Maggie Lewis

Chinook Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church, Havre