for thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory – forever
amen.
thine, not mine.
perhaps it seems like a minor distinction on the surface – one that could go without saying.
and yet.
in a world and a culture when everything is marketed and branded by an individualism run rampant, this is a distinction that may need to be made.
lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil -
it is difficult to imagine praying this prayer on my way to a strip club.
or while meeting with friends, plotting revenge against someone who has wronged them.
or while heading to the bars with the intention of drinking to excess.
this line of christ’s exemplary prayer, like others, seems to have more to do with our own choices and behavior than it does with supernatural intervention at the hands of the Divine. this prayer is not bent toward manipulating God to do our will, but rather a posture of prayer which encourages us aligning our will with God’s.
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
context and usage determine meaning.
for the textual context of where this phrase falls in christ’s exemplary prayer, click here, here, here and here.
because context matters.
on the heels of highlighting the communal responsibilities we each have in our mission of reconciliation, jesus suggests to his followers that we seek forgiveness for our shortcomings – areas where we’ve wandered and become WayWard as we follow him.
forgive us our trespasses.
but we ask that this happens as we simultaneously forgive those who have trespassed against us. unsurprisingly, directly tied to the request for our own forgiveness is the simultaneous grace and forgiveness that we offer to those who have transgressed.
there can’t be one without the other.
our father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
the first line of the lord’s prayer is more than just a formality. it is more than merely providing God’s cosmic mailing address to which we send our prayers.
our. father.
celebrating the communion of community, we are taught to pray together. God is no more mine than he is yours. he is no more confined to the jewish religion christ practiced than he is the christian faith i practice. whether we recognize it or not, God is our father. as the psalmist declares we are each divinely hand-crafted masterpieces woven together by the God whose image in which we are created.
and he is God of all.
during our next blog series, we’ll be taking a look at what many have called ‘the lord’s prayer.’
as we go line-by-line through this example prayer of jesus, it is my intent to reveal that jesus molded a prayer that is not bent toward manipulating God to do our will, but rather a posture of prayer which encourages US aligning OUR will with God’s.
contrary to many of the prayers we espouse today, christ seemed more concerned with our own posture than with changing God’s posture.
many bloggers and friends of mine have, in recent months, discussed prayer. rachel held evans posted some thoughts on structured prayer just yesterday. tony jones has been one of the primary resources for my recent thinking through why we pray – the result of this post he wrote in march of 2011. these and other helpful resources have been instrumental in resurrecting thoughtful conversation surrounding prayer.
this conversation is needed, because many of our prayers are hollow. theologically uninformed. misdirected.
we need to become more educated in prayer. Continue Reading…
over the past year, my understanding and theology of prayer have shifted – not dramatically, but enough to cause me to spend a good amount of time reflecting on the change.
the shift took place as a result of ‘the lord’s prayer.’
one day, jesus was praying in a particular place. after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘teach us how to pray.‘ it makes sense, really – there was an obvious connection that jesus had to YHVH, and the disciples recognized this. the way in which the son and the father communicated was not like the common verbose prayers of the religious elite, nor was it like anything they had been taught in the synagogue or the home.
jesus prayed differently.
yesterday, i wrestled with my emotions.
a lot.
eventually, i’d calmed down enough to casually tweet about my reflections on the response of certain evangelical leaders back when the newtown tragedy occurred in an effort to divulge my demeanor.
at the time i wrote,
‘my blood pressure rises, and i have to quite consciously resist the urge to tweet and comment and lay out a slew of expletives distancing myself from this insanity and demanding its marginalization… i want to call out the dangerous and damning theology i find more hurtful than it is helpful.
but how can i do so in a peaceful and productive way?’
i had similar sentiments yesterday when i saw numerous, equally ludicrous responses to the horrific destruction caused by a series of tornadoes in oklahoma. the one that initially sent me in to orbit was this gem from john piper, reminding folks that the story of a supernatural twister has been woven before in ancient hebrew literature – devastation devised at the hands of the divine, for a purpose far greater than ourselves.
see if these words resonate ::
‘[There] is a way of living that is able to short-circuit the present social, spiritual, or political order, something that we witness at a political level in the life of Mother Teresa, who no more protested against the caste system in Calcutta than she affirmed it. She simply lived in a different reality. She lived as though it did not exist, helping all who came to her regardless of their social class. This act of living the not-yet state of equality as if it already existed in the now is the truly political act, an act that directly confronts unjust systems by ignoring them and living into a different reality.’
–peter rollins
what do you think?
