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 currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  In yesterday's reading, the lectionary gave us Matthew 6:1-6 and verses 16-18, Christ's teachings on almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.  "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."  Note that the emphasis here is on vain repetitions.  In this Christ continues His teaching against hypocrisy, and the need for true communion with God (as opposed to the wearing of a mask, which hypocrisy implies).  Therefore vain repetitions cannot establish this communion; as my study Bible puts it, God does not need our babble.  In order to partake of this communion with God, both silence and words are necessary.  So, therefore, we are to pray always (Luke 18:1) and without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  This is not a condemnation of many words, but rather Jesus is teaching that words must express the desire for communion with God.  In today's reading, Jesus gives us specific words to repeat.  My study Bible reminds us that it is not repetition itself that is condemned but rather vain repetitions, as Christ desires sincerity in prayer.  Many psalms, prayers, and hymns of the Church have been repeated for countless generations in the worship of God "in spirit and truth" (John 4:23). 

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  My study Bible says that the Father-Son relationship within the Trinity reveals our potential relationship with God.  Christ, the Son of God, grants us the privilege of calling God Our Father by the grace of adoption (Galatians 4:4-7).  As a "son of God" a Christian person is called to love, trust, and serve God the same way that Christ does the Father.   We don't call God our Father because God created us; God is Father to those in a saving and personal relationship.  This  communion comes only by grace of adoption (see John 1:13; Romans 8:14-16).

"Give us this day our daily bread."  My study Bible explains that daily is a misleading translation of the Greek word epiousios/ἐπιούσιος, which means literally "above the essence," or "supersubstantial."  The expression daily bread is an indication of not simply bread for this day, for earthly nourishment.  This is the bread for the eternal day of the Kingdom of God, something that nourishes our immortal soul.  My study Bible tells us that this living, supersubstantial bread is Christ Himself.  Therefore, in the Lord's Prayer, we're not just asking for material bread for physical health, but rather for 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 ("our debts"), my study Bible points out, and so it directs us to pray always for the forgiveness of others.  These debts are spiritual debts (see Matthew 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."   My study Bible comments that God tempts no one to sin (James 1:13).  But temptations are from the evil one, the devil.  They 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 we pray that great temptations, tests beyond what we can bear (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."  Here, a depth of insistence on mutual forgiveness between people, as a precondition of God's forgiveness.  My study Bible comments that those who do not forgive are not forgiven -- period.  This teaching is repeated in the parable of the unforgiving servant found at Matthew 18:21-35, which concludes with the same teaching.  My study Bible adds that to not forgive others is to willfully run from the forgiveness of God for ourselves.  

 

We note the emphasis Jesus places on forgiveness.  But if we look closely at Christ's behavior, we will see what that means.  Jesus did not apparently go around seeking retaliation upon anyone who opposed Him.  If we look at this passage, we'll see that some of His disciples felt it might be important to cast fire upon those who would not receive Christ on His way to Jerusalem.   But Jesus' reply to John and James Zebedee was, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them."  If we think about that more deeply, then we start to understand the direction of Christ's teachings.  He does not say that these villagers were right to refuse them, but He upholds what He had taught before that, when the disciples were sent upon their first mission:  that they were to shake the dust off their feet in places that refused them, as a rebuke (see Matthew 10:14).  Luke's story about the journey toward Jerusalem does not tell us if Jesus paused to do this, and we should consider what was particularly important about that trip toward the Cross and the events of Holy Week.  Jesus was still proclaiming the Gospel to the people of God, in His own mission to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, despite the fact that He was shortly to be killed.  But throughout Christ's ministry, and in particular in the final week of His life, Christ showed us that a refusal to enact retribution does not mean that we compromise on truth.  He spared no words in condemning hypocrisy and cruelty.  In His actions, He repeatedly defied those with hearts hardened, even as they claimed they were defending the religious Law (given, in fact, by Christ, the Logos, the Lord of the Old Testament).  In this Gospel, we will read Matthew's full recording of Christ's condemnation of the religious leaders and their practices (Matthew 23).  Jesus did not shirk from telling the truth.  There are times when we think in our personal lives that not speaking out is a form of forgiveness.  But again, in this Gospel, Jesus gives a formula for mutual correction in the Church (Matthew 18:15-20).  In that teaching it is clear communication that is the method for resolving precisely the type of spiritual "debts" He's instructed us to pray about in today's reading.  But taken altogether, forgiveness does not mean simple forgetting.  St. Paul will also speak of those who sin within the church, and who refuse repentance.  For something Paul found particularly scandalous, He taught the congregation to "deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."  What this means is to set the person apart from the Church, for life outside of the communion -- the experience of a life without Christ's protective presence against the evil in which he's participating -- may work to bring him back to salvation.   So we are to understand forgiveness in the context of the Gospels and of Christ's life and teachings, including as understood by St. Paul.   So far in the Sermon on the Mount, we've been taught about meekness and the poor in spirit, we've been taught about the dangers of anger and angry words, about swearing oaths, about covetousness and lust.  As followers of Christ, we have been warned against all of these things, and taught to turn the other cheek.  But this does not stop us from knowing and living the truth, and understanding the capacity for evil around us, and harmful acts.  Neither does it mean that we don't identify such things.  What is quite important is that we don't mistake forgiveness for an encouragement to participate, even through association, with bad acts and corrupting behaviors.  It's important -- even together with forgiveness -- that we disassociate ourselves from the kinds of behaviors that do harm.  For this is what St. Paul teaches us, that even to respect our very incarnational reality, even the holiness of our bodies and created matter (creations of God), means to seek a purposeful living, mindful of what we agree to and participate in.  We're not simply spirits or souls which are dissociated from our bodies.  Rather, we're in the world to "sacramentalize" it; that is, to hand it all over to God, to give ourselves to this purpose, for God's love to set in good order as opposed to the chaos that destroys life.  When Jesus teaches us about forgiveness, He is teaching, effectively, just that:  that even our conflicts and hurts are given up to God, so that God may guide us in response, rather than a sense of vengeance or other harmful passions.   For this is what God's peace is all about.  This is what it means to be "sons of God."