Matthew 6:9-15. The Lord's prayer

"Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;

but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."



Ther have been so many reflection and comment son this that it seems to weigh down the prospect of adding anything to it. Only the fact that I am doing this as a way of thinking out loud in God's presence and perhaps letting an onlooker or two find something helpful really encourages me to add to it. I've even written stuff myself before, at greater length.



So, the things that stay with me and I find I continue to muse on about this prayer are ...

Its shape

Its communality

The stress on forgiving.



I think that the contemporary church tends to miss all of these things about it and I would like to challenge us to take them more seriously because it is the Lord's prayer and passed on to guide our praying.

Shape. Note that its shape/flow is different to most prayer 'schemas': most of them begin with confession, no doubt because the influence of guides on 'how to become' a Christian start there and it gets to be thought to be the way we should do it. In the Lod's prayer confession is after praise, 'petition' and needs and leads into prayers for protection and right guidance. I am developing a series of daily offices that follow this pattern becasue I think that we should take it seriously -including the psycho-spiritual dynamics it implies.

Communality. 'Our', 'us', 'we', rather than 'my', 'me,' and 'I' -and this despite following on from an example of countering 'people-impressing' which commends lone praying! Even whe we pray alone we pray in Christ and so in solidarity with those who are in Christ with us. However, I would also suggest that praying together physically is important. For a start, many people are extroverts and find the company of others and the interaction to be helpful in their spiritual growth. For another thing, many of us need the insights, encouragement and gifts that others, in God's providence, bring to us. And we also need to recognise how much we form one another. We are corporately the image of God [Look at the wording in Genesis 1.27] our identity of God's people is affirmed and confirmed as we meet with others.

forgiving. So important its this that Matthew records Christ's expanding on the theme of forgiving. Yet how often does this get represented in our churches and fellowships. Where are the liturgies of forgiving? Where are the times of reflection to remember and 'let go of' those who we bear grudges towards? Where do we take the issue of unforgiveness at least as seriously as we take all sorts of relatively small doctrinal arguments?



Short one today: that's it for now.





Crosswalk.com - Matthew 6:9-15: