Lord's Prayer

Lenten Vespers, Week Three

Reading: The Lord’s Prayer

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer rather speaks for itself, I think. When asked by His Apostles how one ought properly to pray, Jesus gives to them, and thus to us, seven succinct petitions, which somehow manage to be both brief yet also comprehensive.

He starts off strong. “Our Father, who art in Heaven.” That right there’s an interesting bit. Notice how God is simultaneously transcendent—beyond us, exalted in the Heaven above the heavens—yet in the same breath intimate, caring, loving: our Father, closer to us than our own jugular.

“Hallowed be Thy Name.” Hallowed, of course, means set apart, holy. And surely God’s Name is holy regardless of how we pray. But here we are praying that God’s Name be hallowed in and through us.

“Thy Kingdom come.” And come it shall. Indeed, it has been inaugurated in the Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of our Lord. But we want this Kingdom to dwell within us, within our very souls, and so we pray that the Holy Spirit grant us the grace to believe in God’s holy Word and to live godly lives both here and in the world to come.

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Again, God’s will shall triumph in the end, with or without us. God is sovereign and powerful to save; He will set Creation right at the last. But here we pray that God’s will be done in us, that we be part of God’s healing, rather than resisting the inevitability of glory.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Now, God gives abundantly to all peoples the necessities of daily life: not just food and drink, but also clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. Truly, God gives these to the just and the unjust alike.

And if it is true, as it surely is, that we see many go without these necessities, it is no failing of God’s. He has given to us all superabundantly. Rather, the failing is in us, who have been called to be God’s stewards and sub-creators, caring for our neighbor. Give us today, Lord, our daily bread, but moreover, guide and empower us to give to our neighbor his daily bread as well. And be merciful to us when we fail.

“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” God does forgive us, brothers and sisters. He forgives us daily, over and again, sealing up the chasm torn by sin, ever calling us home and running to meet His prodigal sons and daughters along the way. All this is done from pure grace, pure love, pure mercy. And all that we are asked in return is to share this superabundance with our neighbor—to forgive as we ourselves are constantly forgiven.

I don’t think I need to tell you that this is far from easy. Some wounds are too painful to forgive; some we wouldn’t want to forgive even if we could. We must stand for truth and for human dignity, after all, if there is to be any proper healing, any proper justice, any proper redemption in this world. In such cases we pray that God empower us to forgive heartily and to do good gladly to those who sin against us: to forgive the unforgivable. For human beings it is impossible. But for God all things are possible.

“Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.” God, mind you, is our Creator and Savior and Redeemer, not our tempter. Here we pray that God would rescue us from the devil, the world, and the flesh—that is, all the things beyond us, around us, and within us that would lead us away from the life and love of God. We are tried not as a defendant before the judge, but as metal within the refiner’s fire. Nobody ever promised that life would be easy in this vale of tears. But we are promised that in the end life shall triumph over death, mercy over condemnation, and Christ over all. God does not will brokenness and sin, but in His Wisdom conquers them by extracting good from them.

“For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen!”—which is an extended way of saying, yes, yes, I trust in God to fulfill all these promises and infinitely more.

Truly this is the Lord’s Prayer, not just because He teaches it to us, but because He is the one praying it on our behalf. This is the prayer of the eternal Son to His eternal Father, the loving prayer of God, through God, to God, for us. When we pray this prayer we must know that Jesus is praying it with us, in words bold and strong; lifting them up in the Holy Spirit who likewise intercedes for us; trusting completely in the love and mercy of the Almighty Father to pour out upon His children all that we could ever want or need.

To hear this prayer is to hear the very dialogue of love eternally sung within the holy Trinity. To pray this prayer is to be lifted up into the very Being of God Himself.

It is not the only prayer we have. It is not the only prayer we pray. But surely it is the only prayer we need.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.