Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 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.” Matthew 6:5-13 NRSV
Thus far, our attention has been on an exegetical look at the text, and on the thoughts of modern theologians Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We have discovered that Jesus’ words in verses five through eight are indeed instructive and cautionary, but it is important to note that the instruction and caution are intended to help the disciples (and consequently us as disciples) have a deeper relationship with the Triune God. We now turn our attention to the final part of the Scripture, where Jesus moves from telling his disciples what not to do, to telling them what to do. The Lord’s Prayer shows us that Jesus’ prescription for prayer is expansive, based in his own divine ethic that draws us into communion with the triune God.
When we pray Our Father in heaven, our thoughts and words are turned away from our surroundings and to God. God becomes the central focus of our energy. These words are a proclamation that God is our father and we are his children. We pray- God, we belong to you and you hear us when we pray. The expansive power of this proclamation for the church today is that we open our prayer knowing whose we are and that we are worth God’s time.
Jesus tells his disciples to pray hallowed be your name. In this phrase we recall Bonhoeffer’s assertion that in prayer, faith comes first. By proclaiming the holiness of God’s name, we proclaim our faith in God. We pray- We look to you, holy God whose name is to be praised. We, the church pray fervently, trusting in God’s promise that when we humble ourselves in prayer, God hears, forgives, and heals (2 Chronicles 7:14). In praying we find life.
Jesus’ prescriptive prayer continues, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Here we again hear Bonhoeffer’s claim that prayer is supplication to what we already know is God’s will, and a proclamation that God does indeed know what we need. We pray- Holy God, we trust your goodness. As we the church release our own will to God’s will, we become conduits for God’s expansive love and mercy.
As shown above, in authentic prayer we receive reward that only God can give. And so we pray, Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. God’s love through Jesus the Christ sustains, forgives, protects, and redeems us, and we receive these rewards only God can give. We pray- We need you, oh God. When the church operates from a place of humility, acknowledging our need for God, God is able to work fully in and through us for the sake of his purpose. And so we arrive at this simple and expansive prayer.
God, we belong to you and you hear us. We look to you, whose name is to be praised. Holy God, we trust your goodness. We need you.
By following Jesus’ teaching here, we avoid the pitfalls outlined above, and live into the expansive love and possibility that is ours in Jesus. In this way, the church becomes the place of indwelling of the Triune God, and the very place in which Christ is encountered. As the church, we must strive for this so that God’s purposes might be fulfilled on earth as it in in heaven. This is the very purpose of Jesus’ teaching in this Scripture; that every idea of right and wrong, every moral teaching, every seemingly narrow prescription, is in fact instruction that leads to a life of expansive love. This is the ethic of Jesus.
