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

Yesterday we read that Jesus entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Therefore tell her to help me."  And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

 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."   My study bible comments that the request, "Teach us to pray," expresses a universal longing to be in communion with God.

He said to them, "When you pray, say:  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name."  The first words of the prayer establish the Father/son relationship for us that is a reflection of the Father/Son relationship within the Trinity.  That is, just as Christ is Son, so we each, male and female, have the capacity for sonship (and therefore to be heirs) of this Kingdom.  My study bible says that Christ, the Son of God, grants us the privilege of calling God Our Father by the grace of adoption (Galatians 4:4-7).  It notes that as a "son of God," the Christian is called to love, trust, and serve God as Christ does the Father.  This is a saving and personal relationship, a communion that only comes by the grace of adoption (see John 1:13; Romans 8:14-16).  Hallowed means "holy," while Your name indicates the presence of God which extends throughout God's kingdom and all that may belong to it, similar to anything which bore the seal of the Emperor.

"Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  This second line of the prayer establishes what we pray for:  that the presence and reality of God's kingdom be manifest on earth as it is in heaven, which fully includes God's will.

"Give us day by day our daily bread."  Daily is a misleading translation.  In Greek, the word here is epiousios, a special word found only in the Gospels and in the Lord's Prayer alone.  It means literally "above the essence" or "supersubstantial."  That is, a kind of bread that contains more than simply bread.  My study bible says that the expression daily bread indicates not merely bread for this day, for earthly nourishment.  Rather it is the bread for the eternal day of the Kingdom of God, for the nourishment of our immortal soul.  The living, supersubstantial bread is Christ Himself.  So, in this prayer, Christ directs us to ask not only for material bread for physical health, but for the spiritual bread for eternal life (John 6:27-58).   We ask to be nourished with the bread that nourishes us as members this heavenly Kingdom manifest on earth.

"And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us."  Sins and debts are interchangeable as concepts; these are spiritual debts (see Matthew 18:21-35).  My study bible makes note that the request to be forgiven is plural, which directs us to pray always for the forgiveness of others.

"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."   God does not tempt anyone to sin (James 1:13).  Temptations are from the evil one, the devil.  My study bible explains that temptations are aimed at the soul's giving in to the sinful passions of the flesh (Romans 7:5).  No one lives without encountering temptations, but here we pray that great temptations; that is, tests beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), should not come to us.  We pray also for deliverance from the evil one.  In Christ's role as Redeemer, He is also Liberator and Deliverer.  We pray for our true spiritual freedom.

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."   Here is a parable given by Jesus to illustrate God's faithfulness to those who are in need and who pray with persistence.  A patristic interpretation of midnight is the time of our death and also one of great temptation.  The friend is Christ; He is our only source of grace, and therefore provides everything we need. 

"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!"  My study bible points out that the Greek verbs translated ask, seek, and knock indicate a continuing action.  They would be better translated as "keep asking," "keep seeking," and "keep knocking."  It notes that God responds to us when we persistently ask for things that are good.  Bread, fish, and an egg are images of life.  They symbolize the gift of the Holy Spirit (see John 14:13-14; James 4:3). 

Jesus guides us to persistent, consistent prayer.  St. Paul teaches that we should pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  In the Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father, we are given Christ's prayer for us, explicitly in response to the request from His followers.  It is, in some sense, therefore, the perfect prayer, and one central to worship services.  Its framework gives us an understanding of Christ's mission, and our own place as faithful.  We pray to our Father in heaven, and it is a prayer for the full manifestation of His heavenly kingdom in this, our world.  We do our part as well in this plan, by forgiveness, an exchange, understood as the forgiveness of debt.  We ask for the supersubstantial bread that feeds us not only for our own health, but for life in this Kingdom.  We pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  It gives us an orientation of where we are and who we are, and the activities and energies in which we are directly participating as sons and heirs by adoption.  Moreover, Jesus gives us the direction of continual and persistent prayer.  Participation and communion in this Kingdom through prayer means that we keep asking, seeking, and knocking -- and that our participation is through the grace of the Spirit, the plenitude of which He guarantees we will receive.  The goal here for His followers becomes clear:  this is a spiritual reality in which true followers desire to participate.  The name of God the Father is hallowed, and we who wish to participate in this Kingdom seek the grace and holiness of the Spirit in our own lives.  How do we get there?  Let us consider His commands for persistent prayer, asking and seeking and knocking -- as well as our petition in the prayer, that we wish to be forgiven as we give up to God the debts of those who've sinned against us.  This is membership in the Kingdom, what it means to participate, and to grow in communion.  Let us pray this prayer always, remember what we ask for, and the reality in which we seek to live, and to bear within us.