Sermon Tone Analysis

The more I have studied Jesus in his historical setting, the more it has become clear to me that this prayer sums up fully and accurately, albeit in a very condensed fashion, the way in which he read and responded to the signs of the times, the way in which he understood his own vocation and mission and invited his followers to share it.

This prayer, then, serves as a lens through which to see Jesus himself, and to discover something of what he was about.

‘Give us this day our daily bread’; this clause in the Lord’s Prayer, then, reminds us that our natural longings, for bread and all that it symbolizes, are not to be shunned as though they were of themselves evil.

Of course a genuine glutton must repent of desiring, and grabbing, more bread than is wise or good.

But God knows our desires in order that we may turn them into prayer; in order that they may be sorted out, straightened out, untangled and reaffirmed.

If we truly pray this prayer, with due weight to each clause, we are taking the first steps from the chaos of our normal interior life towards an order and clarity which will let the joy come through to the surface.