REFLECTION
Will you pray with me.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight O God. Let your word be as a lamp for our feet.
Amen.
“Lord, teach us to pray' the disciple asks Jesus. “How do I talk to God?”. Asks the little boy in the book. How do WE talk to God? How do we pray? I would ask you to take a minute to look back and think if there was someone who taught you how to pray?
A family member? A Sunday School teacher? Was it instinct? Was it in a youth group? Or at camp? Is prayer something you've been doing for a very long time, has it been a steady, daily part of your life or perhaps it has ebbed and flowed over the years, depending on where you were and who you were with.
I know that for me there are times when God seems very close, and sometimes VERY FAR AWAY. There is no real right way to pray, there is no right or wrong time. (Although I think sometimes the time could be 'right now' as I think that the two most common prayers are 'Help!' and 'Thanks'.)
The questions, “How do I pray?' and “What do I say?” have been asked frequently for many centuries; whether being asked by little ones like those in our first story today or by the disciples recorded in Luke two thousand years ago.
In Luke 11:1-4 it goes like this, one of the disciples asks, “Lord, Teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” And Jesus responds, “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."
That's it. It's short. Very short. The Lord's prayer found in Matt 6:9-13 is longer and the words are those we include in the prayer today in both the Catholic and Protestant churches. With the exception of the Doxology.” For thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory, forever and ever, Amen”. One answer I found related to this is that the Doxology was added as a permanent addition during the first Elizabethan era in order to differentiate between Roman Catholics and the new Church of England. It was added by the new Church of England.
Something else I learned, is that The Lord's Prayer has its roots in Jewish liturgy, which included both short and longish prayers that were memorized by devout Jews. While the Lord's Prayer is the best-known prayer in Christianity it is interesting to find that it contains many phrases and concepts lifted directly from Jewish liturgy. Not surprising really when you realize that Jesus and his disciples were all Jewish men and women who most likely attended their synagogues on a regular basis, even while they were traipsing around the Holy Land; healing and preaching the Good News.
“Lord, teach us to pray”, implores an unnamed disciple; “teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” It seems that this might have been a 'done thing' in small religious groups so Jesus obliged. What follows is the short prayer quoted above. The thinking is that Jesus most likely said this prayer a few times, in part or full, throughout his time of preaching. When checking out the 'Jewish roots' of the Lord's prayer I found this quote from the Interpreter's Bible: “The Lord's Prayer is thoroughly Jewish and is Jesus inspired and is an original summary of his own people's piety at its best”. Another scholar from Vancouver Regent College said that Jesus probably offered the prayer to his disciples many times, different words sometimes, longer, shorter. But essentially summing up his ministry. That makes sense to me since Jesus did not have any scribes following him around writing down every jot and tiddle that he said. Therefor the prayer is a composite of what people learned and remembered. A prayer from Jesus to the people' and from the people who followed him to us, two thousand years later. We need to be grateful to the writers of Matt and Luke for recording portions of that prayer. The real irony is that in the Matt account, Jesus is very emphatic that one should pray in one's own room alone, in secret. But that's another whole sermon/lecture.
Well, I like saying the Lord's Prayer on a Sunday, surrounded by my friends and generally friendly people. I also like thinking that all around the world, at almost any given moment, on any given Sunday, people gathered in Jesus' name are saying this prayer. We are invisibly but spiritually united. Also, if you have ever worshipped in a church where they don't speak English, you still will recognize when the Lord's prayer is being said. There's a special rhythm to it. For me, even in Thailand. We didn't attend many church services or functions. But each Christmas for sure and a couple of other special lively functions, all in Thai. We could usually recognize when they were saying the Lord's prayer.
And lastly, a very important element of the Lord's Prayer is that Jesus presented God to us as Our Father, a very loving, intimate relationship almost unheard of at the time it was introduced to the Jewish people. It became tricky for Christian Feminists but a lot has happened over the years to change the connotation of God as Father. The worst of these in my mind was the perception that when some Men saw God as Father, then some fathers began to see themselves as God. Not all fathers, and certainly not my dad who taught me a lot about seeing all people as equal in God's sight. That statement was an over simplification for sure, but many incidents of family abuse stem from a misunderstanding of God as male, head of the household. Now many folks see God as embodying both male and female and use Mother/Father when saying the Lord's Prayer. Suits me. It still doesn't come naturally, but I like it.
“Lord, teach us to pray,” asked a disciple. The prayer Jesus taught is the most well-known prayer, in some form or another, throughout Christendom. It speaks to us in many ways, both as a community and as individuals.
I wish to close with a personal story that happened twelve years ago when I was still living in Nova Scotia. My mum had been in the local hospital with a suspected broken left femur but was taken back to her room in the Seniors Home where, over the next week or so she simply became weaker and eventually lost consciousness and was struggling with breathing; you know how it is. Mum was a very determined woman so this was in character, but she was struggling. Then I was suddenly reminded of something a brother-in-law of mine had said. He often visited people in palliative care, and he said that he found that either the Lord's Prayer or the 23rd Psalm often brought comfort. So, I said,” Mum I'm going to say the Lord's Prayer. Remember the times we sang it side by side in the choir? I loved singing the alto part with you. I began. “Our Father”; her breathing slowed. “Who art in Heaven. Hallowed be they name.” Her breathing stopped and she had passed over before I completed the Prayer on my own. She entered the Kingdom peacefully. What more do we want? It was a very special moment for me to share with my mum in her last minutes in the earthly life.