HELLO!

After our Sunday service yesterday, I had a conversation with someone who has returned to the church in retirement. He was keen to learn more about The Lord’s Prayer. I promised him I would preach on it, but in the meantime, I thought a blog might interest not only him, but many others. There are two slim, accessible, books on The Lord’s Prayer I recommend, one by N.T. Wright and the other by William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas. Wright and Hauerwas are scholars, Willimon is a preacher. All engage this prayer with curiosity, faithfulness and discipleship.

In Jesus’ day, Jews in Judea were ruled by Herod, a Roman puppet. And the Roman empire gave names to its emperors like king of kings, lord of all, saviour. As NT Wright says, Rome’s emperors were a joke, Herod a curse. Folks complained then about their leaders as we do now, perhaps all people do. But Jesus also brought a hope as ancient as Israel, and as new as tomorrow: God is coming. And God is going to heal everything. When we pray “thy kingdom come” we tap into that hope.

Early Christians were considered disloyal to Rome, and untrustworthy citizens, by our neighbours. We have a Lord different from other Lords. In the 4^th century the emperor of Rome became a Christian, lifted persecutions of Christians, and granted the first religious freedom ever heard of in the world. For a long time, since Caesar’s conversion, we Christians tried to rule the world through states and empires. And that produced some grandeur. I already mentioned the birth of religious freedom. Christendom saw the invention of the monastery, the hospital, and the university. But such arrogance also produced residential schools, the Crusades, and the burning of witches. How do we pray “Thy kingdom come” and remain humble and open to God’s will, not our own?

“Thy will be done.” We add these words to all our prayers. When we pray, we open up our desire to God. We ask for help and change in the world. But we do so knowing that what we really want, more than what we think we want, is God’s will. The world is a broken place. When we pray, we ask God to repair it. Hold back the horror and let life grow. And sometimes, it works! More often, we can’t tell. On earth as in heaven. I should tell you this line is responsible for some of the United Church of Canada’s proudest moments. In the early 20^th century, there was a move in mainline Protestant like ours to bring heaven to earth by our own efforts. This is sometimes called The Social Gospel: we wanted earth to align with heaven. Child labour laws, union protections, the end of racism—these are all examples of the social gospel in action. Some of the things we are proudest of in church history come also from this prayer. William Wilberforce demanding Britain end slavery. The Civil Rights movement in the US. Universal health care here in Canada.

I end with this version of The Lord’s Prayer we will be using at the Good Friday ecumenical service at St. Luke’s Anglican Church this April.

O most Compassionate Life-giver, may we honor and praise you; May we work with you to establish your new order of justice, peace and love; Give us what we need for growth, And help us, through forgiving others, to accept forgiveness. Strengthen us in the time of testing, that we may resist all evil, For all tenderness, strength and love are yours, now and forever. Amen. (Bill Wallace, Aootearoa/New Zealand)

Peace, Kevin