the lord's prayer

Two versions of the Lord’s Prayer are recorded in the Gospels. Jesus taught his listeners a longer form as part of the Sermon on the Mount, and this is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel (6:9-13), when he told them to “Pray then in this way...” The version in Luke’s Gospel (11:1-4) is a shorter form, and is a response by Jesus to a request: “… one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples’”. Some scholars suggest that both these versions are authentic, with Jesus teaching the Matthean version early in his ministry in Galilee, and the Lucan version some time later.

Each individual part of a prayer is known as a “petition”. Matthew’s version contains seven of these, while there are five in Luke’s Gospel. In Matthew, the first three address God, while the remaining four are related to human needs and concerns. It is only Matthew that includes the lines “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”, and “rescue us from the evil one” (or “Deliver us from evil”). The fact that the Lord’s Prayer does not feature in Mark’s Gospel suggests that its origins lie in “Q” – the hypothetical document which is believed to be the source of material that is found in Matthew and Luke but not Mark.

However it came to be part of our liturgy today, we can be thankful that we have a teaching

about prayer from Jesus himself. The beauty of the Lord’s Prayer is that it is both simple and

sophisticated, humble and assured, and, above all, universal. It enables all Christians of all ages,

creeds and colours to pray with confidence. As the Archbishops of York and Canterbury put it in a joint statement:

“At the heart of our prayers will be words that Jesus himself taught us. It is simple enough to be memorised by small children and yet profound enough to sustain a whole lifetime of prayer.”

God, through Jeremiah, promises the exiled people a straight path home. No tripping up. Water brooks to drink from along the way. Why? Because they have been ransomed. God has bought them back. Their Lord has redeemed them.

It is not easy being God’s people and in some ways the story the Old Testament tells is a tragic one. Although it begins with rescue from slavery and a journey to freedom, it is a story of failure and misunderstanding on the part of the people, and of God’s sorrow and anger.

That is our story too. Christianity’s story begins with salvation from slavery, yet God’s people since the coming of Christ have shown just as much failure and misunderstanding. And we sense God’s sorrow and anger with us, as a people and as individuals. And yet there is the promise, the promise made real by Christmas, and appropriately remembered and celebrated at the beginning of another year. As God’s ancient people discovered, there is always redemption. God’s gift of salvation through Jesus may be undeserved, but it is certain. God does not give up on us. There are water brooks for our thirst and straight paths home to God.

Christ is coming, but first someone is sent to prepare his way. Perhaps someone will act as John the Baptist for us. How often do we find a conversation with a friend or a chance encounter with a stranger prepares us for a revelation from God? When we least expect it, God has plans to speak to us, to renew our hope, to bring comfort or to illuminate our path. But knowing we may not be paying attentionor maybe not ready to hear, God gently nudges us and gets our attention so we are ready. John the Baptist understood his role and his mission. Those whom God sends to prepare us may never know.

And if others prepare us for God's word, so we may also prepare others unknowingly. Always alert, we should be sensitive to God's inspiration to speak and act, because we do not know the effect it may be having on others. Or perhaps we are called to stand up for what is right, giving God's message where we recognise an injustice or wrong. We nay hear the voice that says "Cry out!" Do we have the courage to ask "what shall I cry?" Do we have the courage to say the words that we believe God wants us to?

Our world awaits the Christ child at Christmas, but amid the joy there is much to change.

Now, what is today? Father’s Day! I hope we all made a big fuss of Dad; breakfast in bed, nice card, possibly a present. You know Dad does not need all this fuss, he just loves us for just being us – but isn’t it nice to make a fuss? People say Father’s Day is just another Americanism, and yes, it is a fairly new celebration - official figures put it at 1972 - but there are records of unofficial Father’s Day going back to 1910. So Dad needn’t think he’s not as important because celebrations of Mothering Sunday, which go back several hundred years, had much to do with families getting together in the Mother Church, so Dad was included then.

Now, you all know how to talk to your Dads; ask his advice, weedle things out of him, but you can talk to our Father in Heaven in exactly the same way. We all know how much God loves us, because he sent his Son to die for us. But lots of people find it hard to pray, some think we should spend hours on our knees, not ask for things for ourselves; that prayers should be like the intercessions in Church – well I don’t think so. There is really only one prayer we need to pray and that is the one Christ taught us – ‘The Lord’s Prayer’.

I’m not trying to catch anyone out, but how many of you know the Lord’s Prayer – when we older people were young, which we were once, we had assemblies in school every week and the Lord’s Prayer was always said. Lots of us went to church primary schools and went into the church once a week for assembly. We just learnt it off by heart. But let us look at it a little closer.

• “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name”. Calling God, Father is a great act of faith, boldness, risk. Saying ‘Our Father’ or ‘Hi, Dad’ is coming into the Lord’s presence; it’s becoming part of the family of Christ, his sibling. So we are saying we will try to live like him, be part of his life. We are also saying God is special – like our own Dads.

• “Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven”. You know it has been said to me that people only go to church and become Christians so that when they die, they will go to Heaven. Rubbish! Heaven is God’s space, earth is ours. Have you ever laid on your backs and looked at the clouds? I have, lots of times with my sons and grandsons, but when I was little, I used to do it and think I could see God in a big fluffy cloud. That’s where I thought he lived. Well, no, we all need to live in God’s Kingdom here on earth. We are saying to God “help us to live our lives for you in the way you want us to, help us to care about your creation here on earth; to look after it, to respect it and each other”, for God’s Kingdom will never come fully to earth until the earth is fully healed. But we can let God know that we are trying.

• “Give us this day our daily bread”. When we look at Jesus we see that he was scorned and frowned upon for partying, for sitting and eating, with the wrong people, in the eyes of the Scribes and Pharisees. But what he was really doing was saying God wanted to feed all people. When we say these words in the Lord’s Prayer, it looks as if we are being selfish, asking for ourselves, but if we think and love like Jesus, we are asking for the whole world to be fed.

• “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Our generation have trivialised sin (trespass); morality doesn’t count very much anymore. If you ever watch some of these scam programmes on television, it is amazing what people sue for; not realising that it is you and I who suffer when all our insurances go up. We sin in lots of ways, not realising we are doing it, little things like being nasty about our friends, not talking to them. Forgiving sin against you is not easy, but when we realise that we are doing wrong, then surely it will be easier to forgive others. As God forgives us. Jesus died to take away the sins of the world, so we are not only praying for ourselves when we ask God to forgive us, we are praying for the sins of the world, longing for peace and judgement, we are asking God to help us sort out the mess the world is in.

• “Deliver us from evil’. What is evil? We can put our head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist, we can see it around every corner and live our lives in fear, or we can say we know it is there but it doesn’t affect us, self-righteously say we would never do anything evil. Now we need to look at what Jesus is saying to his disciples; he is telling them not to be led into evil and we are asking God to help us in the same way. Jesus intends his followers not only to recognise the reality of evil, but the reality of his victory over it. Jesus invites us to walk with him into the darkness and discover that it too belongs to God. We are seeing evil all around us at the moment; terrorism in the name of faith, racism and this terrible Covid-19, but we need to put our faith in God and not give in to fear.

• Now for the very ending,  “For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, for ever”. In the Catholic church this ending of the Lord’s Prayer is not always said, because it does not appear in the manuscripts of either Matthew or Luke and it is only in the last few centuries that it has been restored to the liturgy of the Western Church. But it is inconceivable that Jesus would have intended the prayer to end “Deliver us from evil”. This was not the way Jews ended their prayers in the time of Jesus, they always ended with praise. But in any case the whole message of the prayer is God’s Kingdom, God’s power and God’s glory; this is what the prayer is all about.

As I said in the beginning, in this prayer we are praying for the world, for peace, for the people, for deliverance. When you have said the Lord’s Prayer you have said everything, so there is nothing wrong in now asking the Father for something for yourself. I don’t spend hours in prayer and I am terrible for arrow throwing, quite often asking for something for myself, friends or family, or just saying ‘thank you’ for something in a special moment. I hate the dentists, can’t stand anything in my mouth, so all of the time I am in there, I am saying “God, just be with me, don’t let me be stupid and show myself up; let it be over quick” - that is praying. But, I know God doesn’t mind that, he is just like our own dad, we hold their hands for security and protection, we ask for things, we love and respect them. That is all they want and that is what God wants too.

  The Sea of Galilee, was like a huge lake with small fishing towns all around it and Jesus did a lot of his preaching around this area; this is also where his disciples had fished. It was surrounded by high hills and this is what caused the wind to blow very strong around it. 

Jesus had been preaching all one day and when evening approached I should imagine he was exhausted. So, he said to his disciples “let us go over the other side”. He was probably wanting to get away from the crowds for a little while. Well, that night when they set off for the other shore, Jesus just curled up where he was in the boat and immediately fell asleep. Now remember, the disciples knew this lake; they fished it and they understood that it could get rough. But that night, it must have been a really terrific squall that got up and it was so bad that it terrified the disciples. 

Can you imagine how they felt; there was Jesus, sound asleep and they thought they were going to drown. Didn’t he care about them? Then, when they awoke him, he just calmed the waters of the lake , stopped the wind and told them off for not trusting him. Where was their faith? All they could think of was, ‘crikey, who is this man who can tell the wind and the sea to be still and they do?’ I can just imagine how they felt; they thought they knew him, but never thought he could do that. But all Jesus was saying was – ‘why didn’t you trust me, why were you scared? I am here with you’.

This story is saying to us; here is this amazing man, the Son of God, who can do anything, even tame the wind and the sea and yet all he wants from us is for us to know that he is here to look after us and wants us to give him our trust and love – he will never let us down.

Just as God is the Father of Jesus, he is also our Heavenly Father. Jesus tells us to call God, ‘Abba, Father’, just as he did. Surely this then means we are adopted into God’s family; we are all brothers and sisters with Jesus and each other in the eyes of God.

 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up  from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the  Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice  from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well  pleased.’

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be  tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and  afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you  are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’

Matthew 3:16-4:3

Where did that thought come from?! We’ve all had the  experience of thinking something strange and wondering where the idea  came from. If it’s a good thought, we might say “I would never have  thought something like that! It must be God.” If it’s a bad thought, we  may feel that it reflects badly on us – or that it must have been the  devil that put it there.

Our inner voices are a vital part of our conscious experience. They  are also the fabric of our prayers. If we are wise, we learn to discern  which ones are to be listened to. Jesus was obedient to the Spirit, who  led him into the wilderness, but then he heard the voice of the tempter.  This voice questioned what the voice from heaven had said at his  baptism. Indirectly, it helped him because, in his dialogue with this  voice, he clarified what his vocation as Son of God was to be. It would  not be about self-serving miracles, about human glory, or avoidance of  suffering. It would be a life of service and self-giving.

We know now that many people hear voices (out loud) who are not  mentally ill. It is not the hearing of voices that we need to be afraid  of. We all hear voices. We need courage to listen, and wisdom to discern  what they mean.

   Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain  village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a  sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he  was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to  him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do  all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered  her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many  things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better  part, which will not be taken away from her.’ 

Luke 10:38-42

What is the passion in your life? Do you spend a lot of  time wishing you could do something else, particularly at this moment of  global crisis?

Martha welcomes Jesus, and she serves Jesus in practical ways. She  wants to do the right things. How can this be wrong? Somehow, amidst the  mental activity and busy routine, she risks losing the one thing that  is needful. She is understandably cross with her sister. Perhaps she is  jealous? Does she really want to be at Jesus’s feet too – or is the  activity a way of avoiding that?

Our passions to do what is right are vital to society and human  wellbeing, and we cannot do without them, but they easily become an end  in themselves. They lead us away from other priorities. They master us  and consume us. Mental and spiritual wellbeing require that we keep them  in context.

After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose  and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting  on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was  deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made  this vow: ‘O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your  servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to  your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a  Nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor  intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.’

As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her  mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice  was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her,  ‘How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your  wine.’ But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I  have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out  my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless  woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all  this time.’ Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace; the God of Israel grant  the petition you have made to him.’

1 Samuel 1:9-17

Have you ever found yourself not knowing what to say when  someone cheerily said “How are you?” Perhaps you felt awful, but didn’t  like to say so? A friend of mine had this experience once when leaving  church. She decided to be honest, and said that she felt terrible. The  unheeding reply was “Oh – that’s good!”

There are unwritten expectations about how people should behave, just  as there were when Hannah prayed in the Jerusalem temple. Mental ill  health makes it difficult or impossible to fulfil them, and our  unwillingness to be honest about such things contributes to the stigma.  By conferring stigma on those who suffer from mental ill health, or even  on those who simply give honest emotional replies to everyday  questions, church and society make things worse.

Unlike God, human beings cannot see what is in someone's heart –  unless they share them. However, if we ask, we need to be ready for  honest answers, and honest answers make vulnerable people more  vulnerable. If we join in with God, in searching out one another’s  vulnerabilities, we need to get more like him in loving and accepting  what we find.

• Look at Psalm 139:1 “O Lord, you have searched me and known me”.  God loves you and really knows you. Read the Psalm, slowly more than  once every day for a week.
• Choose one of the things God says about you and stick it next to your bed on a post-it note.
• Whenever you feel misunderstood repeat the truth on a post-it note.

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until day-break.

Genesis 32:24

It has been said that if you cannot  stand your own company when alone, you should not impose it on other  people! Perhaps this is unfair? Some of us (especially the extroverts)  only really get to know ourselves in company with others. However,  isolation does have a way of confronting us with some of the things that  we try to avoid. We say that our “demons” haunt us in a sleepless  night, but sometimes it is God who haunts us in our solitude.

Jacob, fleeing from one set of problems, in the  family of his in-laws, is returning to another set of problems back in  his own family in Canaan. He is not really alone, he has a large family  of his own, with many maids and servants. Despite this, as home gets  closer so does the reality of the family conflict that he has avoided  for so long, and so does the weight of the burden that he alone carries.  In the solitude of a sleepless night he finds himself wrestling with a  man who will not disclose his name. Given his fears, we might conclude  this man represented Jacob’s demons, but Jacob comes to a very different  conclusion. “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is  preserved” (verse 30). Judging by Jacob’s experience, seeing God may  sometimes be a real struggle, but it is nonetheless a blessing. In the  light of the following day, Jacob is reconciled with his brother.

We may not want solitude, but sometimes life forces  it upon us. It is easy to focus on the loss of companionship and loss  of opportunities that isolation brings. Sometimes, however, what we  really fear are the reminders of the things that companionship and  activity usually help us to avoid. Scary though these things may be, God  may well be in our midst, waiting to bless us.

Turn to me and be gracious to me,  for I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart, and  bring me out of my distress. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and  forgive all my sins.

Psalm 25:16-18

Loneliness is an experience that we can  all relate to, but almost 1 in 5 people in the UK often or always feel  lonely. The figures are higher for the elderly and for young people. If  you are lonely, it would seem, you are not alone but that is unlikely to  provide much comfort. We are social creatures. We need to feel  connected to others.

It is possible to feel lonely in a crowd, or in a  marriage. It is equally possible to be alone and not to feel lonely.  Feeling lonely and being alone are different things. Loneliness is more  about the company that we would like to have and do not have, the  discrepancy between the way things are and the way we would like them to  be. 

Enduring loneliness can be both a cause and a  consequence of mental ill health. The Psalmist is lonely and afflicted,  distressed, and troubled. In Psalm 25, loneliness is associated with  troubles of the heart or, as we might say, depression and anxiety. Pain  and trauma can create, and perpetuate, our feelings of loneliness. We  can feel abandoned even when others are trying to show that they care.  We may feel that others do not understand what we are going through. 

The Psalmist turns to God for help, and asks that  God will turn to him. Prayer is not a magic solution for loneliness.  Nonetheless, like the Psalmist, we can be honest before God; there is no  need to pretend. We turn to God for God’s sake, not simply to ask him  to fix things. God is always there, even if it does feel as though he  has turned away. When feeling lonely, turning to God, and asking God to  turn to you, is not a bad place to start.