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| Share Agape for the week of August 25, 2003 |
| Jesus' Personal Instruction on Prayer "When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men�But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words� Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'" Mathew 6: 6-13 Right off the bat, I should tell you that I've read a lot of literature about what we usually call "The Lord's Prayer." The prayer may seem simple enough, but you wouldn't know it to read about people's opinions on just what the prayer means. However, I think if we set aside our ideas about theology, read the prayer in context, and are willing to accept it as the teaching that Jesus intended it to be, there's little to be confused by. The first thing Jesus tells us is to not be a praying hypocrite. Although we might not like to admit it, many of the prayers we participate in or hear throughout our lives are not for God. Many pastors pray sermons in their church prayers. Conservative rallies sometimes use prayer to spread political thought. Even prayer in small groups, like Bible study or among Christian friends can lean in this direction. In such cases, we're praying to have other humans to hear us; we're not really praying for God. And that's not how Jesus wants us to pray Does this mean that public prayer is a no-no? Some people think v.6 says exactly that. (This is why Quakers don't say prayers aloud in church.) And, in fact, when Jesus prayed, he often prayed in private. But he also prayed in public, with his disciples. In fact, "The Lord's Prayer" was said in public. I think that what Jesus was trying to say here is that privacy is necessary in order to develop a relationship with God through prayer. "When you pray, go into your inner room," Jesus said. Interestingly, the words translated into "inner room" literally mean something more like "supply room." Privacy can be difficult to find if you're poor and all crowded together in one or two rooms; but even a first century poor Palestinian had a supply room where food was kept-and it was often the only room in the house that could be locked. When Jesus himself didn't have a supply room to retreat to, he wandered "a stone's throw" away from his disciples to create his privacy. Why is this privacy important? Because it's much easier to concentrate, contemplate, and connect with God when you aren't distracted. Praying with others is certainly fine, but we need to reconnect daily, one-on-one with God--just as husbands and wives must reconnect daily if they expect their relationship to remain strong. Next, Jesus tells us not to fill our prayers with meaningless repetition and empty words. This is a sad case of irony, since "The Lord's Prayer" has become exactly that for many people. Any prayer becomes meaningless with repetition, if we don't stop and think about the depth and emotion behind it. Then Jesus offers an example of how we should pray. First, Jesus gives a clear and definite picture of what our relationship with God should be. He uses the words "our Father." He doesn't say "oh Lord," or "dear God," but uses the very intimate term "father." By using this word, Jesus takes away any feelings we might harbor of a remote God on high, and replaces them with feelings of the father/child relationship--which we can all relate to in one way or another, even if we never knew our earthly father. One of the more shocking, sad, and disturbing things I've read regarding this prayer is the editing of it to read: "Our father/mother�" Shocking, because it means people are messing around with the word of God. Sad, because attempts like this to be politically correct are actually more sexist than the original. Disturbing, because it harkens back to pagan religions. MORE ~~~> |
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