The Lord's Prayer

In Adult Forum right now we're discussing the Lord's Prayer.  Many of you have heard me joke that the first prayer I remember learning was Now I Lay Me, but the Our Father was not long on its heels (and is ever so much a better prayer, too).  Perhaps for you, too, this prayer was among the very first things you ever memorized and recited, and has been with you so long you can't even remember not knowing it.

Familiarity is a blessing.  Spiritual disciplines are often things that we do out of habit because they are good for us, because the repetition instills in us something important.  We are able to turn to them again and again, and the famiiliarity brings comfort.  What other prayer has the ability to calm an anxious patient awaiting surgery?  What prayer brings such comfort to those grieving a lost loved one?  What else could you pray in a stadium filled with people and know that everyone will join in? 

But familiarity can also be a challenge.  In the Eucharistic liturgy, we pray the Lord's Prayer right after we finish the Eucharistic Prayer.  Everyone says the Great Amen, and then, as if admitting that all those words may still not be enough to adequately communicate our hopes, needs, and gratitude to God, we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us. 

But do you ever notice how it is introduced?  "And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say..."  We are bold?  Really?

For many, the prayer has become so fixed in our minds, so routine, that we don't pay attention to the power, gravity and significance of what we're saying to God.  But look closely at this series of brief statements, and you'll realize that you're saying some radical, counter-cultural, challenging things.

You want God's will, not yours, to be enacted.

You ask for God to give you only as much as you need for today.

God's forgiveness of you is somehow dependent on your willingness to forgive others.

Evil exists, and you need help being delivered from it.

It's a huge, amazing, bold prayer, summing up the nature of the Christian life in simple, poetic verse.  Frankly, I'm relieved that we say it every Sunday, that we have it committed to memory, that it is at the heart of our prayer lives.  God willing, our recitation may transform our very lives, so that we would live into its bold vision.