Our Father in heaven

 "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Therefore do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

- Matthew 6:7-15

We are presently in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus began to preach about the disciples of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.  He taught in particular against hypocrisy.  He said, "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.  Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.  And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. . . . Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance.  For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

  "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Therefore do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him."  We began this passage in yesterday's reading, while today's focuses specifically on prayer, and in particular on the prayer that Jesus gives us.  Prayer, as my study bible says, is an intimate and personal communion with God that leads to the vision of God's glory (1 Corinthians 2:9).  Hypocrisy, which Jesus preaches against in this section of the Sermon on the Mount (see yesterday's reading, above), blocks out this communion and vision.  Vain repetitions will not establish this communion for us, because God doesn't need our many words to be impressed -- both silence and words are necessary for real prayer and communion with God.  Let us note the emphasis here is on vain.  Sincere repetition -- expressing a true desire for communion with God -- is a tradition of the Church.  Psalms, prayers, and hymns have been repeated for countless generations in the worship of God "in spirit and truth" (John 4:23).  In today's reading, Jesus gives us the one such prayer the most central to all worship.  We note also that Jesus tells us God already knows what we need before we ask.

"In this manner, therefore, pray:  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name."  My study bible notes that the Father-Son relationship that is within the Trinity reveals also our potential relationship with God.  Christ, who is the Son of God, grants us the privilege of calling God Our Father by the grace of adoption (Galatians 4:4-7).  Since each of us is a "son of God" in this understanding, we're called upon to love, trust, and serve God as Christ does the Father.  My study bible also says that we must note that God is not our Father just because God created us.  God is only Father to those who are in a saving and personal relationship with God.  Such a communion comes by the grace of adoption (see John 1:13; Romans 8:14-16). 

"Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  It is the consistent teaching of Christ that our sonship (note this applies regardless of gender, as sonship implies inheritance) is based on doing the will of God, our "Father in heaven" (see 12:48-50). 

"Give us this day our daily bread."  Daily is a misleading translation of a very special and particular Greek word.  This word is found only here.  It is epiousios, which literally means "above the essence" or "supersubstantial."  The expression daily bread, my study bible tells us, indicates not simply bread for today (this day) for earthly nourishment, but rather it is the bread for the eternal day of the Kingdom of God; that is, for the nourishment of our immortal soul.  This is a living, supersubstantial bread, and it is Christ Himself.  Therefore in the Lord's Prayer we are not asking simply for material bread for physical health.  Rather this is the spiritual bread of eternal life (John 6:27-58).

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."  This request to be forgiven is plural -- meaning that we are directed to pray always for the forgiveness of others.  Indeed, the whole prayer is one of a community, as we pray to our Father.  Debts here refers to spiritual debts (see 18:21-35).

"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen."   God tempts no one to sin (James 1:13), my study bible says.  Temptations are from the evil one, the devil.  Temptations aim at the soul's giving in to the sinful passions of the flesh (Romans 7:5) over God's call to us.  That is, desires that mislead us away from our true needs, regardless of what those may be.  No one lives without encountering temptations; we pray here that great temptations, tests beyond what we can bear or that prey on great vulnerability (1 Corinthians 10:13), should not come to us.

"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."  Jesus insists here on mutual forgiveness as a precondition of God's forgiveness, my study bible says.  Those who do not seek to practice forgiveness are not forgiven.  Jesus repeats this teaching in the parable of the unforgiving servant (18:21-35), which concludes with the same teaching.  We are to grow in the love of God; we experience such love and forgiveness and in turn are to put it into practice.  Indeed, in Jesus' words, our forgiveness is conditioned upon our practice of the same.

So what is forgiveness, really?  Jesus' emphasis on forgiveness is so strong here that He tells us we must practice it in order to receive it.  Forgiveness is really the giving up of one set of values for another.  We give up a worldly sense of justice for God's justice.  In other words, if someone wrongs me, my sense of how to remedy that isn't just based in what I see and hear in a worldly sense.  These lead to fantasies of revenge and getting one's own back.  But there is more to life than what meets the eye.  If God is to play a central role in our own lives, if God plays a role in our communion with others, then forgiveness means turning over that debt, that hurt, for God's mediation with us.  Great tragedies happen when we take into our own hands an understanding of justice that doesn't really understand very much at all.  To entangle in one bad deed returned for another is so often to simply grow what is tragic and destructive, and to reap for ourselves more pain and harm than were done in the first place.  It is to tempt ourselves into sin.  Forgiveness does not mean that we simply let things go or that we justify bad behavior.  Neither does it mean allowing ourselves to remain in harm's way if our lives are endangered or abused.  Rather it simply means trusting to God for our way to respond.  It is seeking God's will in all things, first, and finding the way God prepares for us to meet life and all of its struggles and hardships.  It is therefore a full part of discipleship.  Discipleship will always call us to forward movement and to healing.  Forgiveness is an essential part of this understanding, because it teaches us that our lives are rooted in the love of God, that is the substance of the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.   We look to that something else, something more, the supersubstantial reality added to what we know from this world -- and the world does not determine the fullness of our response to life.  Forgiveness teaches us that we are not merely victims, we  have choices.  It exchanges a limited point of view for an expanded and enhanced perspective that includes the possibilities of God for our lives.  That is, the so much more that is possible for us than just repeating the mistakes we learn from our experience of a harsh and unforgiving world.  We are to grow in love, and that is a specific love we learn from God -- not the selfishness we see around ourselves.  We are called to grow into something; this is only possible by giving all things up to the One who leads us to the fullness of life.