“He said to them,
When you pray, say
‘Father, hallowed be
your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our
daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves
forgive everyone indebted
to us.
And do not bring us to
the time of trial.’”
-
Luke 11: 1-4 (NRSV)
In the first half of today’s Gospel, Jesus gives a blueprint for how His followers could pray. One of the disciples asked for his help with
prayer, and Christ’s response has become eternal.
You
may have noticed, as I did, that these words are direct and to the point. First, we are to praise God and God’s Name in
all of time, and then we are to ask for our needs to be met – all that’s truly
necessary – enough food for this day, forgiveness for ourselves along with
mercy enough for us to give to others, and then hope for a happy death and eternal
life with God.
The
heart of this prayer, to me, is two things: First Jesus teaches us a
new way to speak to the Creator – nothing flowery and elaborate here. We’re allowed to get straight to the point.
Second, because Jesus came to teach us who God is – “He who has seen me has
seen the Father” (John 14:9) – and how
much like a loving Father God is to us.
This view of God was new and intimate!
Some
of us have trouble saying this prayer, and addressing God as ‘our Father’
because we may have had the type of Father that Jesus refers to later in this
same reading: “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish,
will give a snake instead of a fish?” Nowadays we seem to hear and read
about these types of fathers in the news way too often. Perhaps this was the
kind of father that we had.
Jesus
tells us that by watching him, we have seen the Creator, the Father. He said that He and the Father are one, and
throughout His earthly life, Jesus treated everyone with loving compassion,
mercy, and healing kindness. Therefore, our
Father in heaven is the same. Even if
our earthly fathers missed the mark in holiness, our Heavenly Father is perfect
and gives us everything we need for life in this world and the next.
And
if you need to think of our Creator as without gender, then call God by
another beloved name, another pronoun! What’s
important is to remember that all good gifts of each day come from a loving God
who wants to be as familiar and as intimate as the best of loving Parents. And Who is the One listening to the desires of our prayerful
hearts. 💙
