The Here and Now

The Lord’s Prayer. I know it. You know it. We say it every week in worship together. Luther’s Small Catechism does a nice job of describing what he feels it means and that we should teach and know about it. So what more is there to really say about this teaching prayer that probably hasn’t already been said or thought about? Today I thought I would share with you some of my thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer and explain why I think about it this way and hopefully tie it to the other half of the gospel we have for today.

Before we dig into the prayer though we need to remember that it is one of the disciples that initiates this conversation because he wants to know how to pray. He knows that John the Baptist had at some point taught them how to pray. What isn’t said here explicitly though is that at least this disciple wants to know how it is that Jesus prays or at least how he approaches prayer. I say that because the question comes directly after Jesus had just finished praying himself. It is Luke’s gospel where we see Jesus spending time in prayer more than any other gospel. Perhaps it is this acknowledgment of the importance that Jesus places on prayer that drives this disciple to really want to know more about how Jesus prays and therefore how he and probably the rest of them should pray. That is why I called it a teaching prayer earlier. Jesus then explains to them what it is we should pray, and, more importantly, what kinds of things we should pray for.

The first thing we should do is acknowledge God and hallow or holy is your name. One of my other favorite English translations is the Common English Bible and it translates that first line as, “Father uphold the holiness of your name”. So instead of us declaring God’s name to be holy we are asking God to uphold the holiness of God’s own name. There are passages in the Old Testament in the Psalms in Leviticus and Isaiah as well as Ezekiel that actually point to both possible translations. That we are to declare God’s name to be holy among the people of Israel and to the nations of the world, as well as seeing God declare that God will holy God’s name because it has been made profane through it’s use by other nations. Which should remind us of the 10 Commandments when we are told not to take the name of the Lord our God in vain. So we I see it as a both and here. We are both as humans and children of God declaring God’s name to be holy in the world, and asking God to uphold that holiness of God’s name for all the times it has been used in an unholy way. And we are asking that to happen now. Make that holiness happen now.

Which does flow nicely into the very next petition which is now that God’s name has been declared holy by us and God upholds that holiness we then are asking for God to bring God’s kingdom. This petition seems on the surface to be talking about the future kingdom and reign of God. I think people often think about it that way and the way it is worded it almost seems to indicate that. This is probably due to the fact that we look at the book of Revelation and think about the time when Christ will come again. One thing to remember though, is that the understanding and celebration of God’s reign is through the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. The life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus is all part of the kingdom coming. So I don’t see this as a petition to God to come at some point in the future, but to acknowledge and continue to look for and work toward a completeness to God’s kingdom in the here and now. Which is why we’re here. We are kingdom builders, not kingdom waiters. The kingdom is to come but the kingdom is also here and now.

So what do do we while we live into and continue to build this kingdom that Christ gave us? We ask God for the essentials of our daily living. We ask for daily food for us. Also note that this daily food and really the whole prayer is a corporate prayer. It is not asking for MY daily bread, but to give each day OUR daily bread. This isn’t a me prayer this is a prayer for the whole of people. I want to have my daily needs met, and I pray that all others have their daily needs met. Daily…meaning the here and now. And as Luther would remind us that it is God who ultimately provides that blessing of our daily needs no matter where we happen to get it from, ultimately it comes from God. All our daily needs, everything we need for the here and now, provided by God.

What else should we do while we live into and build this kingdom? We should ask God to forgive us of the many daily sins that we commit, AND just as and possibly even more importantly we should forgive everyone who is indebted to us, or has sinned against us. We daily receive the forgiveness of sins and we should daily forgive those things people have done or neglected to do for or to us. We even see that later in Luke’s gospel that Jesus expounds upon this idea of forgiveness. In Luke 17:4 we see Jesus tell the disciples that if someone sins against you seven times in a single day but repents then you must forgive them. In Matthew 18:21-22 we see the famous conversation between Peter and Jesus about how often to forgive and Jesus responds not seven times but seventy-seven times. All of that forgiving and asking forgiveness happens here and now it is not something we should hold onto or wait for. It is also something that we should immediately give. We shouldn’t hold onto the grudges. Forgiveness in the here and now.

The final petition is often thought of in two ways. One that we ask God to keep us from the final trial of our life or that we are asking God not to test/tempt us. We see in the Bible that God does not tempt us to do things that go against God. This word trial might better be understood as trying or pressure. So instead of a testing God we can instead see this petition as asking God to help us in times of severe pressure in our lives. To help us in the times when we might be overwhelmed with the trials of life and be therefore be tempted to sin to get out of or past whatever it is going on. We are asking God to step into the here and now to help us with all those things in life that are causing us to slip from the path we are walking with God. God intervene in my life here and now.

So everything about the Lord’s Prayer is about our lives here and the way in which we see God involved, and need God involved in it. And how all of that will continue to usher in God’s kingdom. Which is exactly what the next part of the gospel is really all about. It is essentially reinforcing the Lord’s Prayer. If your friend has a need you provide it. You do not want them to suffer and so you provide them for their daily bread. The other reason the man asks for bread is becuase bread was one of the main and most essential parts of a meal at that time. So he is both literally asking for daily bread as well as saying he needs that essential part of the meal to be a good host to this traveler who has come to his house. And if people are like this when you ask when you persevere in what is vitally important in life, then how much greater do you think God will be and give if we continue to ask for God those things that are most important? What are the most important things? Say the Lord’s Prayer and you will have your answer.

It is a cycle of faith and prayer as Jesus has shown us is at the center of it. Prayer that connects us with God. Prayer that lets God know what is most important that then reminds us what is most important. We are to remember how holy God is, to know God’s kingdom is here on earth right now, to receive and pray other receive their daily needs, to forgive and seek forgiveness, and to know that God will help us when we feel the pressures of life bearing down on us. For we are never alone and prayer will help us remember that we always and will forever have a God who is with us here and now. Amen.