March 1
Based on the Lord’s Prayer
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Why this part of the retreat exist—we promised the basics.
Explore the pattern that Christ gave us in the Lord’s Prayer
Why did he give it to us
Because there had been pattern set amongst his people that was in
authentic, that seemed more directed to others than us
Ever had that experience? When you felt someone in a public prayer
was really directing that prayer to YOU rather than God?
Jesus wanted to show us the outline of what an authentic, heartfelt
prayer looked like…some elements that should be in our prayer.
One of things to notice is that Jesus directs us to our closets, so to
speak, to doing this work of authentic prayer by ourselves.
Isn’t meant to dissuade public prayer—there was public prayer in the
synagogues that Jesus worshipped in.
His goal: to have our private prayer match our public prayer, that our
interior and the exterior of our lives match each other
Meg mentioned that in the end prayer is incarnational—that the best
prayer is a lived prayer. To pray in private without that prayer being
matched in our places outside of the closet is hypocrisy.
So, what are the basic guidelines of spoken or verbal prayer that Jesus
taught in the Lord’s Prayer? What rhythm can we see in the prayer that
he taught us to pray
I would say that there are 6 basics elements/guideposts of prayer that
Christ reminds of…elements in our prayer that we ought to pay attention
to…because, well, Christ paid attention to them.
Adoration (YOU’RE THE BEST, GOD!)—
Alignment/Surrender (DO IT YOUR WAY, LORD—GIVING UP MY PLANS
FOR YOUR PLANS)
Petition/Intercession (ASKING FOR WHAT WE NEED)
Confession/Forgiveness (HEY, I’M SORRY)
Mercy (SEE ME FOR WHO I AM, LORD)
Silence (GOD’S TIME TO SPEAK)
v. 9 Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name
1) Adoration (YOU’RE THE BEST, GOD!)—find another word for this.
Why should we adore God? What an ego maniac! Yet, aren’t we just
naming reality—aren’t we just seeing God for who God really is?
Our Father—the name of God
Note the OUR, rather than MY.
Note that this prayer that Jesus is teaching is a private prayer, but he
uses OUR, rather than MY
Christian tradition—we always pray with others, we are never alone in
our prayers, though Christ sends to pray alone.
This is not just MY God, but its OUR God. Note that this prayer that
Jesus is teaching is a private prayer, but he uses OUR, rather than MY
Jesus give us an intimate image, though a decidedly non-stereotypical
masculine image.
God as daddy, abba.
Jesus begins to re-imagine our image of God. Note that he begins his
prayer with a radical re-making of the image of God in the ancient world.
What does that mean for us?
Give us permission to find those intimate images that speak most to us.
Jesus does give us the gift of this intimate image of God to make a point
about a masculine God—rather, he makes a point about our intimacy
with God.
Point: Use language that is intimate for you, whatever it is.
v. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
2) Alignment/Surrender (DO IT YOUR WAY, LORD—GIVING UP MY
PLANS FOR YOUR PLANS)—thy will be done.
Don’t we usually go to God to have OUR will be done?
What does it mean to pray for God’s will be done?
Jesus says that we should pray for the reign of God to happen. It means
praying for God’s reign of love to come about—and for us to be an
instrument to help bring that dominion about in the world.
Kingdom language—the language of Jesus’ day, though its language
that is almost foreign to us.
Means: simply that we go to God asking to be a part of making God’s will
be done in this world.
Very different from the common, stereotypical reason we go to God in
prayer—to get God to do our will, to give us a job, money, security,
property, spouses, happiness.
Its about asking God to collapse the space between heaven and earth
and making them one.
Now, the difference between what we want and we what the reign of God
will require from us: what we want is to be happy, what God promises
instead is peace.
The rhythm of universe—crucifixion and resurrection, at least in this
world. Jesus didn’t want to experience crucifixion, but it happened…and
peace, a very complicated peace, was given him
To pray for God’s will is to ask God to use us, to surrender all that we
are, all of our lives to helping God bring about the reign of peace and
love in this world—God’s world!
To pray to do God’s will, will not bring you happiness…it will bring you
peace, which is more powerful, more wonderful than happiness. No one
is ever always happy, but peace is something we admire in those who
are going through crucifixion.
To do God’s will, to align ourselves with bringing about justice and
goodness to the world may mean a choice against what we understand
to be happiness (security, wealth, etc.)
The first thing Jesus does is ask God to make God’s will be done—why
was it first?
Because this desire to align ourselves, to surrender ourselves to the will
of God is the final purpose of every prayer, spoken or unspoken,
shouted, or whispered. “I surrender to you, to your work and wonder in
this world—may I participate in the work of it all!”
Instead of asking God to do it our way, we ask to God to help us do it
God’s way.
v. 11 Give us this day our daily bread.
3) Petition/Intercession (ASKING FOR WHAT WE NEED)—find
another name for this.
Why do we ask God for help when God knows what kind of help we really
need? Its not like God doesn’t know I need bread, health, etc?
Who is changing who, whose mind gets changed when we ask God for
help—who is helped in our personal asking for divine help?
Sharon will be talking about this in more detail, but asking God to help us
and others is an important part of prayer.
Its interesting that Jesus chooses the basest, more fundamental symbol
of human need, the need for bread, for life.
Give us the basics, dear God.
Its not that we need to keep reminding God to give us the basics—its
that we need to keep reminding ourselves of where, ultimately, these
basics come from.
Also, note the daily part—Jesus didn’t ask God for tomorrow’s bread, but
for today’s bread, my needs at this moment.
And note that this plural—Jesus didn’t ask us God for MY bread, but for
your bread as well—our bread.
So, this isn’t selfish—and it reminds us that when we pray for others, we
ask to be a part of the fulfillment of that prayer. Help me to give others
their daily bread.
Back to Meg’s reminder that prayer is something you live, rather than
simply something you do.
v. 12 And forgive us our debts as we have also have forgiven our
debtors.
4) Confession/Forgiveness (HEY, I’M SORRY)
Back to the idea of prayer being something we live—note the powerful
connection between forgiveness and others.
What forgiveness you give away will be the forgiveness you receive.
Is asking God for forgiveness really about getting the release that
forgiveness brings from God?
Or is the simple act of asking for forgiveness all about us being changed
by asking for that forgives.
Its not like we God is going to forgive us because we asked—it’s more, I
suspect, the truth that asking for forgiveness reminds us of what we have
already received—and our right relationship with those who have
harmed us—forgiveness.
Asking for forgiveness changes us—reminds us that we are both fallible
and yet worthy of forgiveness, of grace and love.
To say I am sorry changes reminds us that if we are given forgiveness---
which is always there—it is something we must give away to others.
Because we have been set free, we must others free—letting go of the
strands of guilt that we hold, just as God has set us free from sin and
guilt.
It reminds us that we aren’t innocent, none of us are—and when we see
our own guilt, we can offer that which God has given us
Jesus believes this so much that God asks us to pray for forgiveness
daily, so that we can do it—so that we can see our guilt, and we ask for
the next thing:
v. 13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil
one.
5) Mercy (SEE ME FOR WHO I AM, LORD) —Have mercy
Look, Jesus seems to be saying, you’re going to go through what I went
through the desert, during my forty days. There are some things that
only evil itself can teach you, ironically enough, that only that shadows
can teach you about light.
Let me be realistic about me, about what I can and cannot handle.
Let experience be a gentle teacher.
Like Lent: it’s a reminder that there are some things only experience can
teach us, that shadows exist, but they remind us of the presence of light.
Jesus time in the wilderness/desert. Its odd that it ends this way…it feels
real, though negative.
The traditional way we’ve heard the Lord’s Prayer is actually not in our
most ancient manuscripts—THINE IS THE KINGDOM, POWER, &
GLORY.
Obviously, some of the first readers didn’t think Jesus ended the Lord’s
Prayer with enough humph!
But it ends quietly—and realistically. In the end, give me mercy, give all
of your creation much mercy.
6) Silence (GOD’S TIME TO SPEAK)
The language of God is silence.
It is not that God has stopped talking—its because we don’t know the
language…
The only way to get to know the language is to practice it, to practice
silence.
We’ll be exploring the listening part of prayer at the next retreat, but I don’
t doubt that Christ saw the great value of listening.
He went out into the desert to be alone, implying the need for quiet, for a
place where only two voices would be present—his and God’s.
And its very rare that God speaks to us in a different tongue, though it
does happen, of course.
So we need to pay attention the language we know for sure that God
speaks in... and to be acquainted with its particulars, it nuances, etc.
Amen—So let it be
