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Prayer is a basic (and vital) aspect of the Christian life. The disciples asked Jesus for guidance in how to pray, and his response is known to us as the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11; Matt 6). It is a widely used prayer and it is included in all the services in the Book of Common Prayer. The prayer is not long (it can be recited at a reverent pace in less than a minute) but it is packed with meaning. Because there is so much included in the prayer, a worthwhile practice is to work through the prayer slowly with time spent considering the implications of the phrases.
The prayer begins, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name….” We acknowledge our relationship to God as our creator, parent, and sustainer. And we affirm the holiness of God by reverencing the Name. Then we ask that “… your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” We desire the fullness of God’s kingdom throughout creation and request that God’s will be done. This means that we must subjugate our will to God’s; God’s complete reign requires that we put aside our vision for the future and accept God’s. We pray that God will guide us by revealing God’s will and will support us in putting aside our selfish desires so that we can follow God’s will.
We are all completely dependent upon God, and the prayer offers a simple plea: “Give us today our daily bread.” We ask God to provide the things we need to maintain our lives. The text seems to focus on food but we need to understand ‘bread’ (aka “the staff of life”) in a very broad sense. We ask God for the things needed to sustain our lives and to help us grow. This includes physical things such as food and shelter, but also people, significant relationships, communities, and even government. And we ask these things not for ourselves alone, or only for those dear to us, but for all people – ‘us’ is everyone.
The next line in the prayer is a hard one as we ask God to “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” It is difficult to forgive someone who has deliberately hurt me but that is what I am called to do. God’s forgiveness of my sins is tied to my forgiveness of the sins of others: “forgive me in the same way and at the same time as I forgive others.” I think everyone who takes the prayer seriously will struggle with this line at one time or another. Forgiveness is hard. It is a deliberate act of grace and it does not come easily. Our human nature wants to hurt those who hurt us, but God’s nature is to forgive.
We ask for God’s spiritual protection, that God will “save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.” We admit our helplessness to stay faithful by ourselves. Without God’s assistance our daily lives would be full of error and sin so we ask God to deliver us from our weakness in times of struggle. We recognize that we are dependent upon God to protect us from situations which would try us beyond our capacities, and to protect us in times of struggle.
The prayer ends with a simple declaration that everything good is of God and belongs to God. “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.” All we have asked for in the prayer is part of God’s kingdom, and God receives glory and praise for the gifts God has given us. This includes our “daily bread”, our ability to forgive others, the forgiveness of our sins, the strength to survive daily challenges, and protection against spiritual error. We recognize and acknowledge that all which is good belongs to God and exists because of God.
The Lord’s Prayer, like all our prayers, ends with “Amen,” which is a word of affirmation. It is sometimes translated as “let it be so!” We can think of ‘amen’ as shorthand for “yes, yes, definitely yes!” Sometimes people think of ‘amen’ as functioning like ‘good bye’ or ‘the end’ but actually it is a beginning. We end the prayer by re-affirming what we have prayed, and then we move from prayer to action. We have asked for things for the upbuilding of God’s kingdom and our ‘amen’ affirmation signifies our desire to participate in the building. We “talked the talk” and now we must “walk the walk.”
Much, much more could be written (and has been written) about the Lord’s Prayer. I hope that these few comments will assist you in reflecting on this great text. Thinking of the words will greatly increase the meaningfulness of the prayer and will assist our spiritual growth.
An earlier post on this blog provided information about N.T. Wright Online which offers courses by New Testament scholar Bishop N.T. Wright. At that time a free course on Philemon was available. Bishop Wright now offers three additional free courses:
I found the course on the Lord’s Prayer to be especially helpful and insightful; it provided me things to ponder for several days.
Bishop has also expanded his cyber presence by offering a podcast. The fortnightly Ask N.T. Wright Anything podcast consists primarily of Bishop Wright answering questions sent by listeners.
The podcast is a joint partnership of Premier Christian Radio, SPCK Publishing, and N.T. Wright Online. After subscribing to the podcast, one ought to visit the Premier web site and sign up for the email list. The Premier site has additional content with short videos of Bishop Wright addressing various topics. Additionally Premier offers give-aways of N.T. Wright books and signing up for the email list enters one in drawings for the give-aways.
I think that everyone, or at least nearly everyone, who engages in serious Bible study is aware of N.T. Wright.
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Nicholas Thomas Wright (known to friends and colleagues as Tom) is the former Bishop of Durham (England) and is currently Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary’s College in the University of St. Andrews (Scotland). He has lectured and written extensively on the New Testament, and has produced an English translation of the New Testament for use in studying the scriptures.
I have read, enjoyed, and used several of Bishop Wright’s works, including Surprised by Hope and volumes in the New Testament For Everyone series. I would recommend these, and his other works, to anyone interested in learning more about the scriptures and Christian theology. In addition to receiving accolades for his writings, Bishop Wright has a reputation as an engaging speaker and inspiring teacher. Few of us will have the opportunity to hear him in person or to enroll in his courses. Until now.
Bishop Wright, in collaboration with David Seemuth, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Wisconsin Center for Christian Study, has established N.T. Wright Online to offer online courses. The courses are delivered through Udemy, and one can enroll through N.T. Wright Online or through Udemy. The courses feature video lectures by Bishop Wright with supplemental written material to enhance learning and online quizzes for review. As usual with online courses, there is an area for discussion with other students.
The courses are not inexpensive but are reasonably priced given the stature and depth of knowledge of the instructor. Current courses include: Paul: A Biography; The Acts of the Apostles; Romans; Philipians; Galatians; The Storied World of the Bible; and Simply Jesus. If you want to “try before you buy”, you can enroll in a free short course on Philemon. This will allow you to explore the format, engage in discussion, and help you decide whether to enroll in another course.
My experience is that the courses deliver what they promise: they are engaging and informative. Bishop Wright not only increases your knowledge but also trains you how to engage with Scripture. He strikes a good medium between the purely academic and meditative approaches to Scripture. You learn facts about history, culture, and language, but more importantly you learn how to apply Scriptural principles to your life.
For several years the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has engaged in projects to make digital photos of items available on the Internet. One project which garnered much attention is the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, launched in December 2012 in collaboration with Google. This site allows one to view and search high-resolution images of the complete Dead Sea Scrolls archive. Recently the IAA announced the Rockefeller Museum Online project which makes available online digital images of all artifacts in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. This is the first time time that the whole collection of a museum will be available in digital images online. The museum, originally named the Palestine Archaeological Museum, was established with funds donated by John D. Rockefeller in 1938. The name was changed after the 1967 war. The effort to place the collection online is funded by a grant from David Rockefeller, the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Dino (neé Leopoldo) Mazzoli, a retired artist, has created a handwritten and illustrated edition of the Bible. Mr. Mazzoli worked ten years to produce the 23 volume (1,473 page) masterpiece which includes about 5,000 color illustrations. The edition includes the full text of the Christian Community Bible. Sample pages from the work can be seen on Mr. Mazzoli’s web site and in news stories in Visual News and the Catholic Herald. The entire work is available for the iPad and iPhone in the iTunes App Store; all proceeds from the sell of the app go to the Claretians, who translated and produce the Christian Community Bible.
Biblical inspiration — the belief that the Bible is God-inspired — has caused difficulties for thinking people for many years. The belief itself, that God inspired the words of scripture, is not troublesome; the problems arise when we try to explain the mechanism and meaning of inspiration. Are all the words of the Bible inspired, or only some parts? Did God ‘dictate’ the words to the writers (i.e. ‘verbal inspiration’) or did God simply lead the writers to speak on certain topics or reveal selected truths? These are big questions, and they lead to many more questions. I’ve thought about these issues, and I think all Christians should. Each of us needs to come to an understanding of inspiration which can guide us in applying scripture to our lives. Andrew Wilson, author of If God, Then What?
Theologuy 