Our Father in heaven

Right at the beginning of the prayer, we need to know who it is that we’re praying to. When we come to the God of the universe in prayer, Jesus tells us, we can call him Father. There’s a complete summary of the Christian faith wrapped up in that single word, Father. When we bow before God, and call him Father, we acknowledge that at the heart of the universe there is not only ultimate power, but ultimate love too.

It’s a wonderful privilege, to be able to call God, Father. The people of God in the Old Testament didn’t address him individually as Father. In fact, the word Father for God was rarely used, and on those occasions it was used, it always referred to the relationship of God to the nation of Israel. As far as we are aware, people such as Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, or Daniel — those great saints from the Old Testament — never addressed God as their Father when they prayed to him in the solitude of their tents. Yet in the New Testament, that is how we’re told to speak to God — at least 275 times! When we come to the sovereign majesty of the universe, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, and his subsequent resurrection, the word that should fall readily from our lips is Father. Awesome!

When we address God as “Our Father in heaven”, as in the Lord’s Prayer, we recognize the intimacy that we have with God as our Father, and also the awe we should have as we come to him in prayer. By teaching us to pray in this way, Jesus is saying that this One to whom we come to as Father is the sovereign God of heaven, the God of all power, the God of all authority.

The early Jewish Christians probably understood having a proper awe of God easier than intimacy with him. We seem to have swung to the other extreme nowadays, and God is often referred to in anything but awe-inspiring terms. I can’t quite imagine the men and women of the Bible speaking of “the big man upstairs”, or other similar phrases. To say that God is our Father doesn’t imply that he is a great, big, huggable teddy bear.

The Bible manages to keep the tension between intimacy and awe. In the letter to the Hebrews we read, “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). The fact that we come to a throne should fill us with awe. But it’s approachable because it’s a throne of grace. Thanks to Jesus Christ, the sovereign, almighty God of the universe has allowed us to approach him in prayer, and address him as Father!

This is the second post in a series that will offer a reflection based on each of the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

As our Saviour taught us, so we pray. Words that will be familiar to many, as the words that introduce the Lord’s Prayer in Common Worship through Ordinary Time. Words that I say most mornings when I’m praying Morning Prayer. So what do we mean when we say, “As our Saviour taught us”?

We can find a version of the Lord’s Prayer in two of the gospels in our Bible — Matthew (6:9-14) and Luke (11:2-4). In Matthews gospel it forms a part of the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount; where much of Jesus’ teaching concerning godly living, praying and fasting can be found. And in Luke’s gospel it’s a response to the disciples’ request to teach them to pray. I’m sure Jesus would have taught the disciples about matters of faith on several occasions and in many different situations. So I have no real difficulty in making allowances for the differences between the two different accounts we have.

Many people around the world will use slightly differing wording for the Lord’s Prayer; but they all say basically the same thing. However, these are the words I’m most familiar with, the same wording as we’ve used at Godmanchester for the majority of our services for many years now:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.

When I say “familiar”, I mean it in the loosest possible sense of the word. One of the downsides to my health issues and the medication I have to take as a result of them, is what it has done to my memory. It always used to be very good, and very reliable; but is a long way from that now. I can be in the middle of praying the Lord’s Prayer, as well as many other very familiar prayers, and just completely lose track of what I’m saying. It’s okay when I’m just following along with others, I can pick up the thread again without too much problem. But when I’m leading a service, leading others in the prayer, I’ve stopped relying on my hopeless memory, and unashamedly have the words written out in front of me — took me a while to be unashamed about it though.

It’s a wonderful prayer, with wonderful words, which say very much for us. But we do have to remember sometimes that the Lord’s Prayer was given to be a pattern and basis of prayer for real people in the real world. It’s the pattern our Lord gave his disciples; and through his disciples, gave to us too. So when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we need to take the time to really think about what we’re saying in each of the clauses. Not easy in a public service when it tends to be recited straight through, but is possible in our private devotions. That way we can really pray the prayer in the way that Jesus wanted us to.

This is the first post in a series that will offer a reflection based on each of the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer. As I write each post, I will return to this one and make links of the words of the prayer above.