


St.  Luke Chapter 11  : Cottesbrooke  24 July 2016

I suppose that our reading from St. Luke today contains some of the best known, if not the best known words, in the whole of English Christian  literature. -   The Paternoster, better known as The Lord's prayer.  This is the  only formula for prayer attributed to Jesus himself has been subjected to a great deal of analysis over the centuries. 
There are the two versions: this one in Luke's Gospel and another in Matthew, broadly similar but differing in some respects.  Those differences, being the subject of much learned discussion which, I confess,  I don't find particularly interesting. 
The Paternoster's  few brief sentences, consisting of some sixty-six words,  are simple and can be understood by a everyone.  But when one starts to think and to analyse those words carefully, there gradually comes the realization of the immensity of the message. There comes, too,  the understanding that the Lord's Prayer not only states all that a human being should ask from his Creator, but indirectly throws light on several fundamental questions about the meaning of our life, as well as our relationship to God,  and the universe in which we live.  
Put simply, in this prayer we are petitioning God about a number of different things: that His name be hallowed, that His kingdom will come that His will should be done.  Then there are petitions about our needs: the daily bread; then that the trespasses / sins/ debts that we commit or incur should be forgiven and that we shall do the same to others. ; then the petition that we should not be tempted by sin and in the end should be rescued by God from the evils that surround us.  
We say it so regularly, however, that there is a danger that it becomes too familiar and its meaning that much less powerful. 
The Lord's Prayer a building block or something to be learned by rote? 
Hallowed be thy name
A petition that we may look upon God's name  - His word and His presence  -  as holy and that it may inspire awe and reverence:
Not to be trivialised  " Oh for God's sake, tidy your room"    OMG  in text messages. 
Don't use it to put other down  or make me feel safe i.e. God help me / us 
Thy Kingdom Come
Early Christian belief that the world would come to an end shortly. 
Oil in lamps parable of the wise and foolish virgins. 
Other interpretations, which I prefer, say that the Kingdom of God is to be made here on earth and we can work for a better world.    Jesus tells the disciples  " Feed my sheep". 
And we can seek our own inner kingdom    " For the Kingdom of God is within you" - a quote  from St. Luke's Gospel.  
We are therefore asking for personal salvation in contrast to personal egotistical desires.
Thy will be Done 
Some people have interpreted this a meaning that our aim here on earth should be to get the afterlife sorted,  by a bit of personal Christian effort, then tread water until the Second Coming when God torches the earth .
But Jesus never told anyone neither his disciples nor us, to pray "  Get me out of here so I can go up there".  His prayer was  " Make  Up There (Heaven) " come            
" Down Here (Earth) "  : that is make most things Down Here run the way they do Up There.
"Thy will be done"  is, then, in my view a petition that we will accept  God's invitation to us to join him in that job here on earth.
Give us This Day Our Daily Bread 
Down to earth analogy.  Needs of the body as well as the soul.  Jesus attended to the needs of the body when he was here : feeding the 5000, having various meals with, for example,  Zaceus and of course with the disciples. 
Forgive us Our Trespasses / (debts in Matthew)
At the heart of Christian teaching.   "As we forgive those that trespass against us".  

"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses". 
Forgiving can be very hard.  But it is an important Christian virtue.
The widow of a church organist bludgeoned to death on his way to Midnight Mass said that she had no feelings of `hate and unforgiveness' for his killers.
In an extraordinary act of compassion, Maureen Greaves refused to condemn Jonathan Bowling and Ashley Foster for their brutal and motiveless attack on her husband Alan, whom she described as her `soul mate'.
Instead, committed Christian Mrs Greaves, 63, insisted she would be praying for the thugs and hoped that `God's great mercy will inspire them to true repentance'. 
Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Some interpret as this as a plea to God not to lead us into temptation  Does he do that?  Surely not? 
Rather, I prefer to see this as a petition not to let us be led by ourselves into temptation 
Do not put us to the test: viz the fate of Job who was tempted by the Devil to curse God but never did. 
But deliver us from evil.  
The existence of evil and the Devil in the world.  The Devil is now out of fashion in the Church of England.  Whether you believe that or not, evil as such is certainly all around us.   

