The Lord’s Prayer
Rev Steve Murray
Luke 11: 1-13
Let us pray for Guidance & Wisdom in discerning your divine Will O GOD on when & how to pray. Amen.
Imagine if you can a young man in his early 20’s participating in a Christian service held in a lecture theatre @ Auckland University. Young people (200+) from many churches gathered singing songs of praise & reciting the Lord’s Prayer. There was so much joy & enthusiasm that the young man was overwhelmed & the roof almost lifted off its supports. Now imagine if you can that same man no longer handsome now in his early 50’s sitting in a work van @ 4am being driven by his Work Supervisor @ 140kph + in the middle of a back road outside Ashburton. The Supervisor had taken her methadone, had 1 hand on the wheel with the other hand holding a cell phone whilst talking to the boss. Disaster beckoned as the man repeatedly softly said the Lord’s Prayer to himself. The man was relieved when he arrived home safely.
The LORD’S PRAYER is a universal prayer of Christians all over the Earth & I believe it should be at the forefront of our prayer lives. It must be included at least once in our own Anglican Services. May I commend to you the Prayer Chain led by Ngaire (Details in our Parish Newsletter).
Today’s Gospel read by Janice is Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. It is shorter than the more popular version of the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew’s Gospel. I have however put on the Overhead the King James version of the Lord’s Prayer.
It is thought that Luke’s version starts with a single word “Father” whereas Matthew starts with “Our Father in Heaven”. Some of the ancient versions of the Luke writings incorporate the words from Matthew. However certain scholars think that those ancient scribes tried to harmonise Luke’s version by adding “Our” and “in Heaven”. Both versions without doubt use the word “Father” to refer to GOD & I want to focus on that. It paints for me a picture of a close relationship of a Father who delights to supply his children’s needs. I also like to imagine GOD as not only majestic & holy but also personal & loving. It’s great to think of GOD as our Father. He is not the Anglican Father, the Baptist Father, the Catholic Father, the Jewish Father, the Methodist Father, the New Life Father or the Presbyterian Father. He is OUR Father & as Christians we should be united in addressing GOD as Father.
Both Luke & Matthew have the words “Hallowed be your name.” Hallowed means to honour & we should definitely honour GOD’s name by being careful to use it respectfully. I personally stick up for GOD when his name is used in vain. GOD asks us to put him first & we should do that.
Both Gospels have the words “Your Kingdom come”. This I believe is a reference to the 2nd coming of JESUS CHRIST when there will be a new Earth & a new Heaven. Once again we humans will be fully with our GOD our Creator living in peace such as Adam & Eve initially did before their fall from grace. We are praying for the coming of GOD’s Kingdom.
“Your Will be done in earth as it is in Heaven” is only in Matthew’s Gospel. In praying this we are not resigning ourselves to fate but simply praying that GOD’s perfect purpose will be accomplished in this world as well as in the next. For more than half my life I tried to get everyone I met to do things my way & that failed miserably. Only now as I endeavour to find out what GOD’s Will is can I personally receive peace of mind & move closer to GOD.
“Give us today our daily bread” is in both Gospels. In praying this we accept that GOD is our Sustainer & Provider. GOD knows we need bread to live. GOD will supply us with enough food to meet our daily needs. That’s enough! We don’t need more than our daily bread as our present needs will always be met ( if we pray).
In Matthew’s Gospel it states “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. In Luke’s Gospel it states “And forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us”. These are not identical words but are similar. Let’s think about this more deeply. It looks on the surface that there are just 2 parties i.e. ourselves & others. I think however that there are 3 parties involved in this act of forgiveness. Firstly there is JESUS who forgives us our sins, secondly there is “Us” who receive that forgiveness & thus become more like CHRIST so that we can forgive those 3rd parties who have sinned against us.
Finally in Luke it ends up with the words “And lead us not into temptation”. In some Lukan manuscripts the words are “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one”. This is what Matthew writes. When I say this I think of the time when Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the Wilderness. Jesus was strong & was able to rebuff all of the darts from the evil one. We need today that same strength to repel the evil one & stay focused on GOD. Where can that help come from? What about GOD the Holy Spirit, the Strengthener, our Guide & our Guardian??
Our LORD’s PRAYER demands that we recite it with faith & love. Although we say it often we need to give this special prayer the importance it deserves. Remember where it came from? Jesus’s disciples came to Jesus asking him how should we pray. It is a simple but powerful Prayer that should not become a habit for us despite its continual use. In my opening prayer I prayed for guidance & wisdom in discerning GOD’s Will on when & how to pray. I want to answer that personally. I will use the LORD’s PRAYER when I am happy, when I am sad or troubled, when I am in Church & when I say privately my personal daily prayers. Jesus said “ Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, mind, strength & soul with the 2nd Commandment being love your neighbour. Please note the GOD comes first. Amen.