Our Father in heaven

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples." So He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins,

For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

- Luke 11:1-13

In yesterday's reading we heard the story of Martha and Mary. Martha was busy serving guests, and asked Jesus to tell her sister Mary to help. But Mary was listening to Jesus teach. Jesus told Martha that although she was worried and troubled with many things, Mary had done the one thing needed, and that good part would not be taken from her. See You are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed.

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples." A note in my study bible reads, "Lord, teach us to pray expresses a universal spiritual need, and leads Jesus to teach the Lord's Prayer to the disciples." Many of Jesus' disciples were John the Baptist's disciples first. We don't really know what prayers John taught, but clearly these disciples wish for guidance.

So He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." A note reads: "Matthew's record of the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13) has a slightly stronger liturgical flavor, and is the one prayed in the Orthodox liturgy" - that is, in the liturgy of the Eastern Church, based on the original Greek of the New Testament. It continues, "Our Father signifies (1) the unique privilege of being children of God by the grace of adoption, and (2) the unity of Christians who commonly call God 'Our' Father. God's name is hallowed when we praise and glorify Him by righteous words and deeds. God's kingdom and will are closely related: we pray they may be actualized on earth as they are in heaven, where God's reign is gloriously manifest." We recall that the disciples (both the original twelve and after that, the seventy) have returned from successful missions, in which they were instructed to teach that "the kingdom of God has come near to you." This will, then, that we pray to follow and build in the world, is the power to manifest God's kingdom on earth.

"Give us day by day our daily bread." This powerful and even somewhat perplexing phrase is its own unique verse. My study bible notes: "Daily (Gr. epiousios) can also mean the 'essential' bread which many Church Fathers understood as (1) the truth of God's Word for daily sustenance, or (2) the sacramental bread of the Eucharist, Christ Himself." As Christ Himself is also the Word, these two things are of the same substance and meaning. Epiousios is an important word that seems to have been coined specifically for the Gospels. It means more than "essential" but is close to "supersubstantial." That is, our bread that is more than bread, with an added substance beyond - that which is necessary, I would say, for the whole of our being. In other words, this particular word, coined uniquely for this prayer, has many layers of meaning to it - which incorporate that which is needed for our daily lives in this world and in the life of the world to come (that kingdom of heaven that we pray we manifest also here on earth). It is bread with an added substance or essence, a depth or dimension of being that is more than simply our "daily bread" in daily, earthly terms. We also need spiritual food for the "life abundantly" we desire. So it is indeed a picture of the Eucharist and the truth of the Word that sustains the whole of our being.

"And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." A note says, "Willingness to forgive everyone is a prerequisite to being forgiven by God. To be indebted means to have committed a sin against another. Although God tests us, He does not lead us into temptation. Deliverance from the evil one (rather than from evil in the abstract) is the classic patristic understanding of this petition." The willingness to forgive is also linked to God's will, as is so much of the rest of this prayer. Forgiveness, to my mind, is giving things up to God and asking for God's will: it is not "equalizing" by our own judgment nor is it pretending no offense has come but rather seeking God's will in response to an offense, and not "worldly justice" from our own perspective. To be freed from temptation and the evil one, then, follows the same logic - so that we can be free to more clearly receive and follow the will of our Father in heaven.

And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs." A note here reads: "Jesus praises persistence even if it seems inopportune and bothersome. Persistence in prayer helps us to focus our attention on God." St. Paul writes that we are to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17).

"So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." A note reads: "We ask in prayer, seek through study, and knock through righteous living." In my opinion, Jesus is referring here to the depths of Christian mystery and the heights of understanding.

If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" My study bible says that "Evil is used here in the general sense of all human beings being weak and sinful. If Jesus promises to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, how is it that we ask? The Church, since the early days, has provided this prayer: 'O Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who are in all places and fill all things, the Treasure of good things, and Giver of life, come and abide in us, cleanse us from every stain and save our souls, O Good One."

I quite love the prayer to the Holy Spirit quoted in the note in my study bible. It sets the tone and emphasis on the "good gifts" that we must keep in mind, the grace of God and those spiritual blessings we receive when we receive the Spirit and His effects in our lives. So often when we pray we think only of the worldly things we believe we need or want - and this is also important and not left out of the Gospel message. But far greater - and we take this in context of the past two readings (the story of the Good Samaritan and that of Martha and Mary) - is the emphasis on the spiritual life and those gifts that we would seek. The Good Samaritan takes time from his working schedule of travel to take care of a man he comes across who's been robbed and beaten. Martha is busy with the duties of hospitality and worries and frets about what needs to be done, but Mary stays at Jesus' feet listening to Him, and this is called her "good part, which shall not be taken away from her." The message is about taking time out from the earthly worldly obligations and what we think we need, for that "better part." This prayer, with its special word, epiousios, teaches us about the real gifts of life and of the Father, that kingdom that we pray comes near to us and manifests - and the will of the Father we pray to manifest and to know so that we work for it in the world. To bring that kingdom into the world then, is to take time, to make time for it to "break in" upon us. We do that in many ways, through the practice of love and mercy and compassion, taking time out to help and heal the need we can, by listening through prayer or studying scripture, practicing worship - in whatever way we are fed and share in our "daily bread" that takes care of the whole of us. Let us remember we need "supersubstantial" food for our "superessential" life we seek - the life in abundance that Jesus has promised. Our worldly lives will not be truly blessed, abundant and joyous without it. In all ways, we seek and make room, we take time, so that the kingdom of heaven may truly break in upon us, in every way that it can. We pray for that Holy Spirit, our Comforter, to seal us with the anointing energy, the crowning joy, of the life of Jesus and the fullness of His mission.