Did you know that only one out of two children are likely to know “The Lord’s Prayer”? That’s what a 2012 survey published by the British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph discovered. They surveyed a group of 1,000 children ages 6-12 and a group of 1,000 adults who were in that age group 40 years ago. It found that 92 percent of the adults said they knew the Lord’s Prayer as a child, while only 55 percent of today’s children knew it. My unscientific observation would support those findings. In recent years when I have invited congregations at weddings and funerals to join in the Lord’s Prayer, the participation is not as vibrant as one would expect.
That reality is not surprising given the smaller percentages of Christians who regularly attend worship services. If the survey sample included only people who claim to be Christian – regardless of church attendance – then there is a serious situation for individual believers as well as the church to deal with.
The Lord’s Prayer could be likened to the ABCs of prayer. It provides a tangible and unique framework by which we can formulate our prayers. Most of us have advanced a great deal beyond that basic vocabulary. That is where we started, lo those many years ago. Yet, not every church attendee finds praying so easy, and some people with little or no religious training find the whole idea of praying downright intimidating.
Many of us have the words of certain hymns etched in our minds or verses of scripture which we learned when memorizing came easy. We take great comfort in those lyrics or when, in the words of the psalmist, we walk through dark valleys (Psalm 23:4) or when we are elated at unexpected blessings: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless God’s holy name” (Psalm 103:1). Whether we need the Source of light or have experienced it, words come in handy.
Today’s gospel reading includes Luke’s version of the Lord's Prayer, along with a parable and commentary from Jesus about persistence in prayer. You noticed that Luke’s version of the prayer is shorter than the more familiar one from Matthew 6. It has five petitions compared to Matthew’s seven. The five are all key petitions. At first hearing the contemporary translation seems to do violence to the words we memorized decades ago. Yet the new words can cause us to think deeply about the prayer’s meaning. The first two petitions – “uphold the holiness of your name” (“hallowed be thy name”) and “bring in your kingdom” (“thy kingdom come” – are points of connection with the God to whom the prayer is addressed. The other three – for daily bread, for forgiveness of sins, and for being spared from temptation – ask for help with daily life. Of course, neither Matthew nor Luke include the doxology tradition has tacked on to the end. So whether we pray following Matthew’s wording or Luke's, we're covering important ground.
You will remember that Matthew has Jesus pronouncing the prayer as part of his Sermon on the Mount. In Luke’s gospel, he gives it in direct response to a request from one of his disciples, who says, “Lord, teach us to pray....” We have to wonder why that disciple made that request. The disciples were all children of the synagogue. They had grown up going to worship and hearing public prayers. So didn’t they already know how to pray? The reference to John’s teaching his disciples may suggest that John had formula prayer which he used. Did the disciples want a mantra?
Perhaps the disciples felt that the synagogue prayers were inadequate in light of what they were discovering about God in Jesus’ presence. Maybe the prayers they'd heard were too formal for an easy, personal conversation with God. That Jesus responded by giving this prayer as a model suggests that he understood that praying is something with which people need help.
Praying is often as difficult for long term Christians as it is for newcomers or for people claim the church a couple times during a year. There are various kinds of prayers. There are prayers for public worship, prayers in the public arena, private prayers with individuals, and personal prayers all by one’s self, the ones Jesus referred to when he said, “Go into your room and shut the door...” (Matthew 6:6). Those prayers are so often beset by wandering minds, ambient noise, pressing schedules, tiredness, boredom with praying about the same topics over and over.
Another problem with praying is the haunting of philosophical questions, such as, “If God knows what is in my heart, then why do I have to tell him?” and “Why should I have to pray about the same things day after day; isn’t once enough?” Those are rabbit trails Jesus had no desire to run along.” His answer was simple, “When you pray, say ....” Jesus may be saying that it is more helpful to speak – even to recite – a set prayer than not to pray because we have unanswered (and probably unanswerable) questions about conversing with God. Jesus’ straightforward direction about praying reminds us that he was never as “spiritual” as some of his later followers. There was no “You have to do thus and such before God will listen to you.” He simply said, “When you pray, say....”
The apostle Paul frequently talks about different Christians having different spiritual gifts – talents and abilities that can be put to work for the church. Paul loves lists. His spiritual gift inventory includes such things as prophecy, serving, teaching, preaching, giving aid, doing acts of mercy, discerning. The gifts are handed out in different measure to different people. Prayer is surely a gift as well. Some people have the gift to be “prayer warriors” and some people don’t. Whether we’re “good” at prayer or not, our daily lives can benefit from making the effort, and the Lord’s Prayer is a place to start.
I know that you already know the Lord’s Prayer. And whether you use Matthew’s or Luke’s version, whether you use “sins,” “debts,” or trespasses” doesn’t matter. How can you use Christ’s prayer to advance your prayer life?
Think of the Lord’s Prayer as a “choke” to get a cold engine started. Some of you may be old enough to remember having to set the choke on an automobile engine in order to start it. Then when the engine got warm you took the choke off. The choke in the on position fed a rich fuel mixture to the cylinders. A warm engine runs quite well on a lean fuel mixture. So start your cold prayer spirit by reciting the Lord’s Prayer to “warm your spirit” so that you can more easily enter into other praying and meditation.
Another useful approach is to pray the prayer in pieces. Say a phrase and let the phrase fade off into silence, thinking about the meaning of that petition. Ask yourself questions such as,
- “With this line, what am I asking God to do?”
- “What am I (or should I be) offering of myself in making this petition?”
- “Which petitions are the hardest for me to really mean when I pray them – and why?”
- “What do I need to rethink, redo or repent of in light of what I am requesting?”
- “What else should I pray for as a result?”
Allow for silence between petitions and meditate on it. Prayer is our opportunity to speak to God. Meditation is God’s opportunity to speak to us.
You can also pray Jesus’ words when your heart is aching so bad that you can’t form your own petitions. It may become a channel through which God’s Spirit can flow to you.
Pray the prayer when your mind rebels against praying your own prayers. Praying something is better than praying nothing.
Centuries ago, God told Israel, “Israel, listen! Our God is the Lord! Only the Lord! Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength. These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7). As Christians, we can do the same with the Lord’s Prayer.
Let’s not overstate the case. Praying the Lord’s Prayer isn’t likely to turn the world around spiritually or be the start of a worldwide religious revival.
But let’s not understate the case either. The Lord’s Prayer is a spiritual starting point, a way to reach out toward God when we're too numb, too much in pain, too blind, too angry, even too tired to do much else. Children and adults of all ages will benefit from it, and God hears us when we pray it.
Praying something is better than praying nothing.
And the Lord’s Prayer is really something.
General Resource: “Relearning the Lord’s Prayer,” Homiletics, July 28,2013.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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