Forgive Us Our Debts (What Debts?)

by Clarke Dixon

As we pray the Lord’s Prayer we pray “forgive us our debts.” Do we really need to pray that? With so many North Americans in debt, many would say yes, it would be great to experience loan forgiveness, to be released from the obligation to pay all that money back. Jesus is not talking about that kind of debt. So what does “forgive us our debts” even mean? Do we owe God something?

Where we find the Greek word “debt” in the Lord’s Prayer as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, we find the Greek word for “sin” in the Gospel of Luke. The term used by Luke has the the idea of missing the mark, like an archer missing the target. With Matthew and Luke each recording different words here, which word did Jesus actually use when he taught his disciples to pray?

According to Bible scholars, Jesus likely taught in Aramaic, so it is possible Jesus used neither of the Greek terms! There is an Aramaic term for debt which includes the idea of sin. Jesus possibly used that word, with both Matthew and Luke translating in ways that bring out the full meaning of the term. The full idea is that just as one who cannot pay back a debt needs to be released from the consequence of not paying back that debt, we need to be released from the consequence of sin, of missing the mark.

When we hear that word sin, however, we might think “I am not a sinner. I have never murdered anyone, or stolen from anyone, I am a good and decent person.” After all, I’m sorry to have to say it, but we Canadians are typically very nice decent people, eh?!

We may hear of people coming to faith in Jesus who made a real mess of their lives and the lives of everyone around them through drugs, theft, and sinful living. We might think they really needed Jesus, they really needed forgiveness because they really were sinners. Thankfully they found religion and now they are well behaved, more like us!

My own story is nothing like that, of addictions or loose living then a big change when Jesus stepped in. For me, Jesus seems to have always been around. But there was a big adjustment. Driving to university one day I needed to take a detour due to a car accident. On seeing the wreck at the end of the detour the thought struck me that the driver must surely have been killed. When I got home from school, my best friend’s mom came flying out of our house to greet me. Indeed the driver of the car had been killed. It was my best friend.

That was a very hard day for all of us. I am not sure why, but that evening I read 1st Corinthians 13 which includes these words:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 (NIV)

This passage is often described as a beautiful hymn about love. For me that night, however, it wasn’t about love, it was about me. I could have been a better best friend. I had missed the mark in what friendship looks like. There was a burden of guilt that I needed to be released from. Before that day I knew in my head that I was a sinner who needed God’s grace. But I was a decent, well behaved young man, so it was a theological thought without much heartfelt conviction. With the death of my friend, however, my faith dropped from my head to my heart. I knew I needed forgiveness. I had missed the mark. I had fallen short of the glory of God. If I needed forgiveness, everyone else did too, because out of all the kids in high school, I was one of the few friends my friend had. Kids can be cruel.

We all need grace, even those of us who are so self-controlled that we minimise our sins by keeping the rules well, even those of us who have had a brilliant start in life with great teaching along the way so that we become the epitome of decent folk: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NIV)

Through the death of my friend, I saw that my sin was not really in the usual list of rules we think of, it was love that missed the mark of God’s love.

For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:14 NRSV

God is love

1 John 4:8 NRSV

We miss the mark when we fail in love. In fact the greatest commandments are all about love. Therefore the greatest sin is to lack love. God is love. Being created in the image of God we are to be characterised by love. When we are not, we show how far we have fallen from the glory of God.

There is good news; Jesus taught us to pray “forgive us our debts,” then he went on to pay off our debts!

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:7-11 (NRSV)

When we pray “forgive us our debts,” the idea is of needing to be released from the consequence of our sin. There is a recognition that we are stuck. Stuck in patterns of living that alienate us from God. Stuck in patterns of living that alienate us from others. Stuck in patterns of living that make a mess in our own lives. Stuck in patterns of living that make a mess in the lives of others. Stuck in sin. Through sin we have all become unglued. Jesus came to get us unstuck.

When we pray “forgive us our debts,” we also learn to pray “thank you for answering that prayer through Jesus.”

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Clarke (with an ‘e’) Dixon is a pastor in Ontario, Canada. This reflection comes from an “online worship expression” which has replaced their regular church service due to COVID-19 precautions. You can also watch the message alone here.

The Prayer that Looks Outward

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” – Matthew 4:17

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:33

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. – Matthew 9:35

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. – Matthew 11:12

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” – John 18:36

Yesterday we began a two-part look at the two nouns which occur twice in The Lord’s Prayer: heaven and kingdom. (There’s a third word that’s a verb…we’ll get to that one!)

Kingdom occurs twice in the version of the prayer recited by Protestants because of the inclusion of text found in later manuscripts of Matthew 6.

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

and

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
and the power and the glory forever.
For yours is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

At BibleStudyTools.com we see that there are various kingdoms mentioned in scripture, but it’s the kingdom of God we’re most interested in. Quoting Easton’s Bible Dictionary:

Kingdom of God

( Matthew 6:33 ; Mark 1:14 Mark 1:15 ; Luke 4:43 ) = “kingdom of Christ” ( Matthew 13:41 ; 20:21 ) = “kingdom of Christ and of God” ( Ephesians 5:5 ) = “kingdom of David” ( Mark 11:10 ) = “the kingdom” ( Matthew 8:12 ; 13:19 ) = “kingdom of heaven” ( Matthew 3:2 ; 4:17 ; 13:41 ), all denote the same thing under different aspects, viz.: (1) Christ’s mediatorial authority, or his rule on the earth; (2) the blessings and advantages of all kinds that flow from this rule; (3) the subjects of this kingdom taken collectively, or the Church.

The last one is important to remember; we — the Church — are part of that kingdom. We represent that kingdom.

Also at BibleStudyTools, as we did yesterday, we want to look at Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Bible Theology. This is just the first part of the entry

The heart of Jesus’ teachings centers around the theme of the kingdom of God. This expression is found in sixty-one separate sayings in the Synoptic Gospels. Counting parallels to these passages, the expression occurs over eighty-five times. It also occurs twice in John (3:3, 5). It is found in such key places as the preaching of John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” ( Matt 3:2 ); Jesus’ earliest announcement, “The time has come… The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” ( Mark 1:15 ; cf. Matt 4:17 ; Luke 4:42-43 );the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, “your kingdom come” ( Matt 6:10 ); in the Beatitudes, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” ( Matthew 5:3 Matthew 5:10 ); atthe Last Supper, “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God” ( Mark 14:25 ); and in many of Jesus’ parables ( Matthew 13:24 Matthew 13:44 Matthew 13:45 Matthew 13:47 ; Mark 4:26 Mark 4:30 ; Luke19:11 ).

It was once popular in certain circles to argue that the expressions “kingdom ofGod” and “kingdom of heaven” referred to two different realities. It is now clear, however, that they are synonyms. This is evident for several reasons. For one, the two expressions are used in the same sayings of Jesus, but where Matthew uses”kingdom of heaven, ” Mark or Luke or both use “kingdom of God.”Second, Matthew himself uses these two expressions interchangeably in 19:23-24, “it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven … for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Finally, we know that “heaven” was frequently used as a circumlocution for “God” by devout Jews. Due to respect for the third commandment (“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God” [ Exod 20:7 ]), pious Jews used various circumlocutions for the sacred name of God (YHWH) in order to avoid the danger of breaking this commandment. One such circumlocution was the term”heaven.” This is seen in the expression “kingdom of heaven” but also in such passages as Luke 15:18, 21 (“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you”) and Mark 11:30.

Various Interpretations Despite the centrality of this expression in Jesus’ teachings, there has been a great deal of debate over the years as to exactly what Jesus meant by it. One reason for this is that neither Jesus nor the Evangelists ever defined exactly what they meant by this expression. They simply assumed that their hearers/readers would understand.

Then follows a description — click the link to read at source — of each of these interpretations including:

1. The Political Kingdom
2. The “Liberal” or Spiritual Kingdom
3. The “Consistent” or Future Kingdom
4. The “Realized” or Present Kingdom

[If you need to stop here today; that’s fine; what follows is bonus content…]

…So…why are there two versions of the prayer?

This explanation was linked to OurLadyOfSorrows.us, a Catholic website, but the particular page is no longer there:

Very early on in the Catholic Liturgy, the Lord’s Prayer was concluded with a doxology (a prayer of praise), “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever”. This was not part of the original Greek Scriptural text and consequently is not included in many modern Bible translations.

However, there are other non-Scriptural writings which have been preserved from the early days of the Church. It was here, where the doxology was first found in the important document called the “Didache,” (written between 70-140 AD). “Didache” (Did-ah-kay) simply means ‘teaching’. The “Our Father” in the Didache had the doxology tagged onto the end without the words “the kingdom”. The tradition of the doxology was carried into the Liturgy, and became so closely associated with the Lord’s Prayer that it is now often mistaken to be part of the prayer itself. The words “the kingdom” were added later and are preserved in the document “The Apostolic Constitutions” (written 250-380 AD). The “Our Father” is contained twice in the Bible (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4) with no doxology for although very ancient, it is not found in the original manuscripts. This is simply a prayer from the believers in the early centuries of the Church whose spirits were moved by the Holy Spirit to close this beautiful prayer in grandiose fashion. These early writings never present it as an essential part of the “Our Father”, but rather an “embolism,” (added prayer), intended to increase fervor and direct the intention of the faithful.

The early Church did use the doxology in the Liturgy just as we do today. The doxology has been included in and taken out of the Mass throughout history. This prayer had been omitted from the Liturgy of recent centuries until Vatican II when it was reauthorized for use at Mass only. It is recited and acknowledged as an ancient prayer of praise. This is why it is not said immediately following the words “deliver us from evil”. So why do Protestants use these words?

It is believed that a copyist when copying Matthew’s Gospel put a note in the margin, noting that in the Mass, we follow the “Our Father” with the doxology. A later copyist mistakenly transcribed the margin note into the text itself and it was preserved in all subsequent copies of the manuscript…  [sourced at]

For a Protestant explanation we looked at a much longer article by Dr. Tim LeCroy. The first part was very much like what is above, the second part is below, and a third part dealt with the text from the viewpoint of church history. Click this link to read it all.

You ask, “Why do we pray [it] when it is not in the Bible?” Well, the fact that this is not in the Bible is not certain. This is a matter of debate among biblical scholars. Granted most biblical scholars will say that it is not original to the text of Matthew. But this is a guess on their part. A very educated guess based on solid scholarship, yet a guess nonetheless.

You see, the text of the New Testament you hold in your hand is based on two different families of manuscripts. One family is called the Alexandrian and the other the Byzantine. On 99% of New Testament these two families agree. Yet they differ on some points. The ending of the Lord’s Prayer is one of them.

First let me tell you about these two families of texts.  By far, most of the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that we (and by “we” I mean the scholarly community) have are of the Byzantine family. The oldest of the Byzantine texts dates back to the 4th century. That’s about as far back as we go with complete texts of the Bible. The Byzantine family is also the basis for the text used in the King James Bible.

Then we have the Alexandrian family. There are far fewer texts of the Alexandrian family and they weren’t discovered until the 19th century or so (when I say discovered, I mean that Western scholars didn’t know about them). Biblical scholars like the texts of the Alexandrian family because they are cleaner (meaning there are fewer variations between them) and they omit some of these section of the bible (like the ending of the Lord’s Prayer and the long ending of Mark). For biblical scholars, shorter = simpler = less contaminated = closer to the original. Almost always when the Byzantine differs from the Alexandrian, biblical scholars will go with the Alexandrian. This is a generalization, but it is normally the case.

So the New Testament you hold in your hand is mostly of the Alexandrian family, while the King James is of the Byzantine. Thus there are the differences.

Tim ended with this verse, which is where we need to stop today!

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. (1 Chronicles 29:11-13 ESV)

all scriptures NIV except as noted

 

 

The Prayer that Looks Upward

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. – Psalm 57:5 (also 11)

For who in the skies above can compare with the Lord? Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings? – Psalm 89:6

Like so many, I often wake up in the night unable to get back to sleep. I have found that simply focusing on scriptures passages I have memorized is very helpful, but often I take 20 minutes before I remember to focus on those scriptures.

The Psalmist said he had hidden God’s Word in his heart “so I might not sin against thee;” but in a recent article Jacob Young remembered something John Piper had said about memorizing scripture for the inevitable onslaught of old age:

He commented that one aspect of the value of Scripture memory for him was to fill his head with as much Scripture so that when everything else goes (via dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc.) there will hopefully remain the truths from God’s mind. When the likelihood of losing all memory is coming at you, what do you want to remain? When the paint and drywall of the mind behind to be taken away, what are the studs and foundation?

So it was several nights ago while processing the words of The Lord’s Prayer (what Catholics call The Our Father) that I realized there are two nouns in the prayer which occur twice.

The first is “heaven” occurring in Matthew 6:9

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…”

and also in the next verse:

“…your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven

It was interesting to note that absolutely without exception, in verse 9 all the English translations kept the same word (Phillips used ‘heavenly Father’) and in verse 10 only The Message dropped the term, replacing the phrase with ‘as above, so below’ which keeps the simile but phrased in reversed order.

You could say that in Christianity, the concept of heaven is a given. Like the cross and resurrection, there is no substitution of terms required.

While your first reaction might be to look up the term in Greek (Matthew is New Testament after all) it’s interesting to see how heretofore Jesus’ followers would have understood the Hebrew term Shamayim. The word is taken from a root not found in scripture which means lofty. BibleStudyTools.com provides this definition:

heaven, heavens, sky

1. visible heavens, sky
   1. as abode of the stars
   2. as the visible universe, the sky, atmosphere, etc
2. Heaven (as the abode of God)

and informs us the Hebrew equivalent term is used in the Old Testament 392 times with other meanings including horizons and sky.

This prayer, which includes an acknowledgement of God’s holiness, the establishing of his kingdom, the carrying out of his will, the petition for daily provision, the request to be kept from temptation, etc. is also a prayer which causes us to look upward.

BibleStudyTools also contains Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Bible Theology. There we read:

“Heaven” is the created reality beyond earth. “The heavens and the earth” ( Gen 1:1 ) circumscribe the entire creation, or what we call the universe. God does not need heaven in which to exist. He is self-existent and infinite. Place is an accommodation of God to his finite creatures. God transcends not only earth, but heaven as well.

“Heaven” designates two interrelated and broad concepts, the physical reality beyond the earth and the spiritual reality in which God dwells…

Three nuances of meaning are given first, and then we are brought to:

…Fourth, the vastness and inaccessibility of heaven are visual reminders of God’s transcendence, God’s otherworldliness, however, is a spiritual, not a spacial, fact. When Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple, he acknowledged, “the heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you” ( 1 Kings 8:27 ).

The Dwelling Place of God. Heaven most commonly refers to the dwelling-place of God. Heaven is where the glory of God is expressed in pristine clarity. The term “glory, ” therefore, has popularly been used as a synonym for heaven ( Rom 8:18 ). Actually, God’s glory is above the heavens ( Psalm 113:4 ; 148:13 ) because it is the sum total of his attributes that are expressed wherever he is present ( Exod 13:21-22 ; Psalm 108:5 ; 2 Col 3:7-18 ). In heaven there is a continual acknowledgment of God’s glory ( Psalm 29:9 ). Various figurative expressions identify God’s heavenly abode such as “the highest heaven” ( 1 Kings 8:27 ), “the heavens” ( Amos 9:6 ), and “his lofty palace in the heavens” ( Amos 9:6 ). Paul speaks of being taken up into “the third heaven” ( 2 Cor 12:2 ). Although he does not identify the first two, possible references to the atmospheric and celestial heavens are suggestive.

The Heavenly Perspective. God invites human beings to adopt his heavenly perspective. All blessings, whether natural or supernatural, are from God ( James 1:17 ; see John 3:27 ), who is Creator and Sustainer of the universe ( Rom 11:36 ). Israel rightly regarded rain as a heavenly gift from God ( Deut 28:12 ). Likewise, drought was a sign of God’s displeasure ( Deut 28:23-24 ).

So we are not only being asked to look upward, but we are looking beyond.

• Beyond what we can see from our perspective
• Beyond what we know; God is wholly other
• Beyond what we can fully comprehend; the place of God’s glory

The other noun which occurs twice, depending on which version of the prayer you learned, is kingdom and we’ll look at that one tomorrow.

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Previously at C201: We looked at two songs, How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place and Better Is One Day.

all sections today were NIV

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Today we pay a return visit to the website Missio Alliance, and what I believe to be our first look at professor and author Dr. Nijay Gupta who has started a series on The Lord’s Prayer. Click the link below to read this article at source, or click his name above to find part one — this is part two — and bookmark the page as new posts are added.

The Lord’s Prayer, A Missional Reading: Hallowed By Thy Name

I remember as a teenager having really no idea what “hallowed” means in the Lord’s Prayer. Is it related to Halloween? Or the phrase “hallowed halls”? My guess was that it had to do with being respectful to God – he is God, I am not. Actually, I came to learn that that is not too far off. To “hallow” the name of God is to sanctify or consecrate it, to make it holy (or, better yet, attribute it all holiness).

Profanity

A biblical text that helps to explain why Jesus wanted his disciples to desire the consecration of God’s Name is Ezekiel 36, a passage prophesying the restoration and “new life” of Israel. The Lord details the waywardness, idolatry, and covenantal rebellion of Israel such that the Lord’s people were scattered in exile (Ezek 36:17-20). Instead of immediately repenting, they became a mockery of God amongst the nations. Out of concern for “my holy name,” the Lord was compelled to act:

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God; it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned [i.e., degraded] among the nations to which you came. I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned…and the nations will know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes.” (Ezek 36:22-23).

The Lord goes on to promise Israel that he will gather and unite them, restore them to their land, cleanse them and give them a new heart and spirit to obey, and turn them from their idols back to the one true and living God (36:25-27).

God’s Name, People and Restoration

Two things are striking here: First, God’s name is tied to his people – their behavior and reputation redounds upon him, for good or bad. Secondly, God’s plan to restore God’s own name entails a restoration of all things – and this requires the transformation of God’s people both in terms of ethics (doing what’s right) and in terms of unity (bringing God’s people together in common life).

This is a healthy reminder that the Lord’s Prayer cannot be prayed by those who say, “I like Jesus, but don’t believe in the church.” Insofar as the church is the people of God, God’s name must be “sanctified” within the world through the church as a “conductor” of his reputation. You really can’t pray the Lord’s Prayer – at least not in the way Jesus expected – without doing so for the sake of the church as the worshipping and apostolic people of God.

What Name?

There is one more piece I want to bring into this petition. When we say, “sanctify your name,” what “name” is it? It is not simply the name “God” or even “YHWH” the prayer assumes here. The prayer begins, “Our Father” and the Gospels attest that, first and foremost, this is the Father of Jesus. And, by the time we get to the end of the Gospels, this Jesus, Son of God, is crucified and dies a miserable, shameful death on a cross (Roman statesman Cicero called the cross the “tree of shame”).

For the crucified, their family “name” was ruined, worse than ruined. The Roman state declared such ones fools, criminals, and abject creatures. When we pray “sanctify your name,” we pray to the Father who is implicated in this profaning of Jesus’ name. The reputation of the Son “sticks” to the Father. When we pray for the holiness of the Father’s name, we signal a protest against the Roman punishment, against the public judgment on Jesus.

We reject the verdict on Jesus, and the implication against his Father. Your Name is holy, Father of Jesus, Our Father. The cross of Christ is not folly or shame. It is beautiful. We embrace it. If the ignominy of Jesus “sticks” to you, Father, let it stick to us. Let us together fight for a world where the “Jesus way” – even if it be to a cross – represents the holiness of God.

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I really wanted to include “Our Father” by Brian Doerksen here, but iTunes has it wiped from YouTube. This is a song from the same album.

The Lord’s Prayer with Full Verse Cross-References

Monday morning at Thinking Out Loud, we offered a list of twelve (plus 3 bonus items) Bible passages (as opposed to verses) that every seasoned Christian should know. You can read that list by clicking here. Topping the list was The Lord’s Prayer. A few months ago at the blog Journey to the Center of the Soul, the author presented an expanded version of the prayer, which consists of incorporating a number of cross references; and I wanted to share that with readers here.  To read this at source, click the title below. Because we always put the scriptures in green here (to remind us of the similarity to a branch that is green when it has life) the entire post today is in green!

The Lord’s Prayer – Expanded Edition

We all know it by heart. We can recite the words without even thinking about what we are saying. I don’t think that was Jesus’ intent when He gave us that template for prayer we now call The Lord’s Prayer. So I would like to offer you an expanded version that I hope will help you think about what He was teaching us.

Our Father in heaven, let your name be kept holy, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples¹. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven². May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ³. [And] that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him⁴.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people⁵.  [Saying], for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life⁶.  But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you⁷.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven⁸.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come⁹.  Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ ¹⁰.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing… And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them¹¹. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus¹².

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses¹³.  And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses¹⁴.  So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift¹⁵. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive¹⁶.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it¹⁷.  Because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted¹⁸. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you¹⁹. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil²⁰.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen

There’s nothing else to say! Blessings.

References:   ¹John 15:8,  ²Matthew 5:16,  ³Romans 15:5-6,  ⁴John 5:23, ⁵Matthew 4:23, ⁶John 6:40, ⁷Matthew 12:28, ⁸Matthew 16:19,  ⁹Matthew 24:14, ¹⁰Matthew 25:34, ¹¹Luke 12:22-23,30, ¹²Philippians 4:19, ¹³Matthew 6:14-15, ¹⁴Mark 11:25, ¹⁵Matthew 6:23-24, ¹⁶Colossians 3:12-13, ¹⁷1Corinthians 10:13, ¹⁸Hebrews 2:18, ¹⁹James 4:7, ²⁰Ephesians 6:11

The Lord’s Prayer, Expanded

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”  Luke 11:1

This is another reading by Laura Steen from our worship gathering on Sunday.

Our Father in Heaven
We can call God our “Father” because he is
revealed to us by his Son, Christ Jesus,
who became man.
Lovingly, he adopts us as Children of God.

” in heaven” is Gods way of being;
majestic, transcending everything
we can conceive of his holiness.
His dwelling place is our homeland
to which we aspire.
This holy God lovingly calls us to him!

Hallowed Be Your Name
“to hallow” means we recognize God as holy,
and we treat Him in a holy way.
If we truly hallow the Father,
then we respect him in our hearts,
and he allows us to enter into
His plan for us and our salvation!
He lovingly saves us!

Your Kingdom Come
The Kingdom of God is brought near in the
Word Incarnate – the son he lovingly sent,
and it has come in Christ’s Last Supper,
death and resurrection.  “Your kingdom come”
prays  for the growth of the kingdom of God
in the “today” of our lives,
bearing the fruit of new life.
He lovingly gives us new life!

Your Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven
God’s expression of his will is the commandment that
“you love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 13:34).
This commandment expresses his entire will.
We ask for God’s loving plan to be fully
realized on earth as it already is in heaven.
He lovingly calls us into obedience!

Give us today our daily Bread
“Give us” expresses, in communion
with our brothers and sisters, our bond
of trust in our heavenly Father and the
covenant between the Father and all men.
The Father who gives us life, lovingly gives us “our bread,”
the nourishment this life requires, both material and spiritual.
He lovingly feeds us!

forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors
We return to Him as His prodigals and begin our confession
as sinners in need of mercy. Our hope is firm, for in his Son,
whom he lovingly sent, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He lovingly forgives us!

And lead us not into temptation
We ask God not to allow us to take the
path that leads to sin.
He gives us the Holy Spirit that helps us
discern between the trials,
necessary for the growth of the inner man,
and temptation, which leads to sin and death.
He lovingly sends us His Spirit!

But deliver us from the evil one
We pray in communion with the Church
for the deliverance of the whole human family.
Victory over the dark prince of this world was
won once and for all at the Hour when Jesus freely
gave himself up to death to give us his life.
He lovingly gives us life on earth!

The Kingdom is Yours, the Power is Yours,
and the Glory, forever. Amen.
This is the final doxology of the Lords prayer.
By the final “Amen,” which means “So be it,” we confirm what is
contained in the prayer that our Lord has taught us.
Let us lovingly offer him our prayers and praise!

We invite you to sing this prayer with us now.

Living the Lord’s Prayer

^{The Voice – Matthew 6:5} Likewise, when you pray, do not be as hypocrites who love to pray loudly at synagogue or on street corners—their concern is to be seen by men. They have already earned their reward. ⁶ When you pray, go into a private room, close the door, and pray unseen to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not go on and on, excessively and strangely like the outsiders; they think their verbosity will let them be heard by their deities. ⁸ Do not be like them. Your prayers need not be labored or lengthy or grandiose—for your Father knows what you need before you ever ask Him.

⁹ Your prayers, rather, should be simple, like this:

    Our Father in heaven,
        let Your name remain holy.
¹⁰     Bring about Your kingdom.
    Manifest Your will here on earth,
        as it is manifest in heaven.
¹¹     Give us each day that day’s bread—no more, no less—
¹²     And forgive us our debts
        as we forgive those who owe us something.
¹³     Lead us not into temptation,
        but deliver us from evil.
    [But let Your kingdom be,
        and let it be powerful
        and glorious forever. Amen.]

Diane Lindstrom posted this earlier this week on her blog Nice One Nana. Click the link to read at source.

Live the Prayer

I stumbled on this explanation of The Lord’s Prayer and because I’ve been thinking about “passion for Christ” these past few days, I appreciated the breakdown of the words in Matthew 6.9-13.

I like the idea of living the prayer.

Living the Prayer means…
Our Father in Heaven…	A Passion to live the LOVE of God.
Hallowed be Your Name…	A Passion to live the GLORY of God.
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done…	A Passion to live the WILL of God.
Give us this day, our daily bread…	A Passion to live the CARE of God.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive…	A Passion to live the RECONCILIATION of God.
Lead us not into temptation…	A Passion to live the TRANSFORMATION of God.
Deliver us from the evil one…	A Passion to live the DELIVERANCE of God.

 

When Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Teach us to pray”, Jesus provided them with a wonderful pattern to follow when they pray.

Here’s some simple observations I made this morning.

“Our Father” confirms a spiritual reality — God has made me His child.  Thank You, Lord. 

As long as I live under heaven, I cannot escape the nearness of God. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. (Psalm 145.18) Thank You, Lord. 

God revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM”— that’s His sacred name and He is sufficient and unchanging. Thank You, Lord. 

I am reminded to pray for His will to be done on earth, not mine. He has a divine claim on my life. “He must become greater. I must become less. (John 3.30) Thank You, Lord.

I can’t make it on my own. God gives me breath, strength, hope and purpose. Thank You, Lord.  

I need God’s forgiveness. It’s difficult to confess my sin and to admit my desperate dependence on His grace for forgiveness…but oh, how cleansing. His mercies are new every morning for me. Great is His faithfulness.  (Lamentations 3. 23) Thank You, Lord.

But it goes further – other’s sins against me are miniscule compared to my sin against God. I need to keep short accounts in all my relationships. He forgives completely — “as far as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103.12) He is my model for forgiveness. Thank You, Lord.

Temptation is everywhere – no question, there is an ongoing spiritual battle for my mind. There is such power in prayer. I can talk with God. Imagine…He’s as close as the mention of His name and He is my refuge and my strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (Psalm 46.1)  Thank You, Lord.

“Live the prayer.”   I like that idea.

Something, Anything

Today I had a brief conversation with a woman who was looking for a book containing The Lord’s Prayer to give to a couple of grandsons who are not (yet) part of God’s Kingdom.   The boys are both around ten years old.  Twins perhaps.   We looked at some picture books, but they seemed rather juvenile for age ten.  I made some suggestions that I thought were better, but of course, she already had her mind made up.

I thought it was interesting that, by extension, she thought that the boys not knowing The Lord’s Prayer was the situation to be remedied.   On the one hand, I can see how an older person, raised with elementary school readers which contained scripture portions, and a school day that began both with the national anthem and the prayer, would find it a bit of a travesty that a new generation of kids don’t know the words to Jesus model of communication with God the Father.

On the other hand, these kids need Jesus, not knowledge or awareness of a particular form.   It was almost a Protestant version of, “They don’t know the Hail Mary;” or “They don’t pray the rosary.”   The “Our Father” prayer is a beautiful prayer, taking into account so much of what conversing with God is all about.

But it seemed like a rather desperate — and even random — act.  “Give me something, anything…”

We were part of a group of seven people, so this particular exchange was rather atypical, but I wish I had told her this:   ‘Don’t give them a book, give them Jesus.   Tell them who He is and who He is to you.    Tell them there is something [someone] in their lives they are missing and point them in the direction of the Jesus of the Gospels, not just the prayer He taught.

Maybe buying a book is easier.