Lord's Prayer: Hallowed Verbs?

As a kid I had a hard time understanding the connection between "hallowed by thy name" and Halloween. They both were "hallowed" right? Since I understood Halloween with its goblins and ghosts, I struggled with how that fit into the Lord's Prayer. I figured it would make sense one day.

What came to make sense was the heart of this prayer. I was teaching in Venezuela and asked the men to spend time alone with the prayer, elongating each line with their own thoughts. As we debriefed, I did not give much time to this line and a young Christian called me out. "Isn't it the primary thought of the prayer?", he asked.  I had just enough intelligence to pay attention to people with fresh perspectives. And he was so right.

A look at the rest of the prayer confirms it. After praying for "your kingdom and your will" - as opposed to my efforts and my will - comes a list of verbs that are all about submission. "Give us", "lead us", "deliver us", and "forgive us" are all verbs where the action is done either to me or for me. This is not a prayer stating "here is what I think I should do; please bless it" but rather "I am powerless; I surrender". It is submission to a powerful yet caring father God.

The prayer is not very North American - independent, pull yourself up by your bootstraps - and thus it frequently alludes us, becoming a ritual void of meaning. Yet if we pay attention, if we pray from the heart as well as the head, it reminds us of who is really in control and that he cares for us. That makes him worthy of praise. It makes him hallowed.

Lord's Prayer: Father in Heaven

For years I breezed through the first line of this prayer as if they were the first words to a friend on the phone. "Hi, how are you?" "Hey, whats up, John?" It was just the line Jesus used to jump start the prayer, right? After all you have to start somewhere. I overlooked the depth of the words that Jesus chose, words that seem to hark back to creation.

In Genesis 1, God is presented to us as powerful, distant, and awe-inspiring. He stands at a distance and orchestrates creation "ex-nihilo". Whatever our understanding of Genesis 1, we have some form of incomprehensibility and otherness mixed with it. In Genesis 2, God is presented with his hands in the dirt and breathing into our nostrils. He is close, intimate and connected. We see a personal side we did not see in Genesis 1.

So Genesis begins with "in heaven" - the powerful and otherly God followed by "father" - the personal God. We are reminded of both his essence and his power when we pray to "our father who is in heaven."

Jesus had a way of saying so much even when he said so little.

Thoughts from the Lord's Prayer

I am amazed at how new things jump off the pages of scripture through the years. How can you find new meaning, new applications from a text that is thousands of years old and that you have read over and over? Yet, it stays new. The author of Hebrews was right, "The Word of God is living and active."

Lately I've spent hours with the Lord's Prayer - not studying it, just praying it. This has been my norm for the past few years. In the morning, I take my cup of coffee and stroll the neighborhood to talk with God. When I get distracted by the ducks flying over or a pretty tree - it really doesn't take much - I take my thoughts captive by falling back on the Lord's Prayer.  The next few blogs will be what I've discovered from this ancient prayer.

When I begin to say the prayer, I usually get stuck on the first word - "our". I want to start with "my". Yet there is a reason for the communal nature of this prayer. It makes me aware of my neighbors. It makes me think about my family. It reminds me of my students. And it flies in the face of everything North American.

Despite what the advertisements say, life is not about me; its about him and its about us. I'm terrible about that. "Me" somehow crawls up on the throne when I'm asleep. Everyday I wake up to this prayer and find that the first word calls me to repentance. I've tried to skip it or ignore it. Then a passing car honks at me, a jogger shouts "good morning" or a neighbor getting the paper waves. And I know deep in my heart that life is about "our" rather than "my". I also know that tomorrow morning, I will start the day repenting.

God Told Me To

Jesus’ ministry was framed by a desire to do God’s will. It started with a prayer of "your kingdom come, your will be done" and ended with "not my will but yours". All true followers of Jesus cultivate that same desire. The rub comes in figuring out exactly what his will is. 
A growing number of students are coming to me with "God told me to X". What drives this is probably a combination of things. If we could step back and view all factors, I think we would find some to be legitimate and some to be wishful / hopeful thinking attributed to God. Its when God seems to change his mind between Thursday and Friday that I get concerned. Or when God seems to be saying what the student wanted to here. (Ever notice how God always seems to directly command people to take the higher salary job, date the prettier girl or move to the more beautiful location?) I've always thought that if God is thinking the way I think, he is probably not very godly and we are all in big trouble.

So how do YOU determine God's will?
Food for thought; more later.

 

Material or Spiritual Worldview?

Recently (May 24-26) I was blessed to present at the Capital Forum on Global Missions in DC. It was a great experience to be with many missionaries from the Dominican Republic, Swaziland, Scotland and other places.

I was moved to speak about how we as North American Christians view our world. If you look at our recent history, I think it speaks volumes about how we view the world. We are moved when a disaster destroys material goods but not when a spiritual disaster strikes. I fear we are more North American than Christian.

Jr Sheets of Peterhead, Scotland transcribed some of what I said and elaborated on it in his own blog posts. Here are links you might check out:

Part 1:  http://sheetstoscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/physical-vs-spiritual-worldview-and-its.html

Part 2: http://sheetstoscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/physical-vs-spiritual-worldview-and-its_11.html

What does it mean to be broken?

So what does it meant to a “fallen” or “broken” person? Does it simply mean that I sometimes drive too fast on the highway, let my temper get the better of me (no one hits a 4 iron perfectly!) or respond too strongly to a comment? Is that what it means to sin?

Recent study has caused me to think that it goes much deeper. Adam’s sin was to rely on self rather than God, thinking that he knew better than divinity. His motivation and focus ceased to be his relationship with his Creator and became self. So how deep does that run?

Is it possible that even in my good moments of advice giving, sharing, caring, etc., I still am broken? Is it possible that my good efforts are driven neither by the Spirit of God nor a concern that wells up from a redeemed image of God in me but rather from a desire to be seen as good? Are good actions that come from the wrong motivation still considered good? Can they ever reach their potential in the life of another? Do they honor a good Creator if they originate from a self-centered heart? Do they bless others or simply propagate another level of brokenness?

I Know You

"I know you." Its what we say to someone that we have not seen in a long time but whose face is familiar. Its what we love to hear from the lips of those we respect. Yet its significance goes deeper than that.

I've spend a lot of time in the sermon on the mount over the past few months. Matthew 7:21-23 is intriguing and even a little scary to me. People come before God at the end of time and recount their deeds performed in Jesus' name. These are not charlatans but people who used his name. They did the right things at the right times . . . and got results. Not many people can say they cast out demons, performed miracles and prophesied. Yet, they fell short. Not only short, but they missed out on eternity.

When all is said and done, what counts will be hearing the creator say, "I know you". It won't be my list of accomplishments or nice resume. It won't matter at all if I know him. I can claim a relationship with God just like those who missed out. The only thing that will matter is whether the one who holds the keys to eternity looks at me and says, "I know you."

That reframes everything. I can read the sermon on the mount and still view it as a list of things to do. But remembering that the last judgment is whether God knows me or not suddenly shifts the focus from performing deeds to putting myself in a relationship. Its not about being accomplished, its only about being acknowledged -- acknowledged tomorrow by the One that I must acknowledge today.