Today’s scripture: Luke 11:1-4 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message)
As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me in this passage? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two.
My thoughts (Keith Phillips):
The Lord’s Prayer is sooo familiar. Maybe. However, if you’ve already read the passage in Luke, you’ve realized that it’s not quite what we pray in church. That’s in Matthew’s Gospel. Or almost.
I worry that the Lord’s Prayer is so familiar that it’s not familiar at all. The words just roll off our tongues, and they somehow seem comforting, but sometimes we don’t even think about what we’re saying.
In Luke’s account, the disciples have asked Jesus to teach them how to pray; and Jesus says, “When you pray, say…” Jesus is suggesting a specific prayer for his disciples, not just the form of a prayer. The “when you pray” is in the plural, which makes it very appropriate for disciples, then and now, to pray those words together publicly, as a community of faith.
And what are we praying together? First, “Our Father / Mother / Parent / Creator.” The person to whom we’re speaking is the God of all of us, not just the best, or the smartest, or the cutest, or the one who follows the rules most carefully. God loves each and every one of us perfectly, unconditionally. God is the God of all, inclusively.
Second, together we are calling God “hallowed” or holy, separate from us, above us, high and lifted up. And we beseech God’s Kingdom to come. We’re saying that we together are in a submissive relationship with God.
I don’t believe “Thy Kingdom come” means we want to go to heaven soon, or that we want heaven to come to us soon. I think Matthew got it right when he added after that, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It’s probably a typical Semitic parallelism. In Hebrew poetry the lines don’t rhyme. The poetry is reflected in two lines that mean the same thing; they are parallel (or sometimes, they mean the opposite thing). “Thy Kingdom come” means the same thing as “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
What does it take for God’s will to be done on earth as it’s done in heaven? A relationship in which we understand that God and we aren’t equals; and we Christians together really do want to submit to God, for God to lead us and direct us and empower us to be all we, together, can be and do, bringing the Kingdom to all humanity.
Thought for the day: Contemplate what could happen when our church together really submits to God, praying, “Our Creator, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come…” Then, really pray it, understanding that you’re not praying alone, but with all Jesus’ disciples.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.