I have recently been musing on the Lord's Prayer. No doubt, like many of you, I say the Lord's Prayer probably two or three times a day. It's quite some time since I did any serious reading around the Lord's Prayer and how it influences and shapes our lives. I did, however, find some very helpful words from Archbishop Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury)...

 

If you take the Lord's Prayer bit by bit, there's probably not a great deal that you wouldn't find somewhere in the Old Testament or in Jewish prayers.

But what's absolutely unique about it is that it begins simply with the address "Our Father", nothing else. Nothing more elaborate, nothing more grand, but just that address as to the father of the family.

So the really distinctive thing is that all the bits of the Lord's Prayer are put in that context. This is the prayer of God's family. This is the prayer which you address to God in the most intimate of terms, not telling him how wonderful he is, not grovelling in any way before him, but just coming with complete confidence.

And that must have sounded quite strange and quite, quite shocking to some people in Jesus' own day.

In fact the one thing that everybody seems to have remembered about Jesus' own prayers is that he called God "Father", "Abba", the familiar, the intimate word in his own language.

He doesn't call God "Lord" or "Master" or "Creator" first; he calls God "Father" first.

And in the Gospel of John after the Resurrection when he meets Mary Magdalene, Jesus says: "I'm ascending to my father and your father".

Family relationships

When Jesus talks about "fathers" and "children" he gives us quite, a resourceful picture of

relationships.

Think of the story of the prodigal son... The son who stays home actually never really grows up. The son who goes on adventures away, makes mistakes, learns, says "sorry", comes back, somehow does grow up. He's a grown up child of the father.

And Jesus' teaching and the teaching of Saint Paul tell us that to depend on God completely as Father is not to be stuck in a childish helplessness. It’s to be able to take risks, knowing that the Father will always be there to forgive and give you new beginnings.

And that's how we grow up. That's how we become real adults. And I don't think either Jesus or Saint Paul or anybody else in the New Testament wants us to be childish in our relationship.

And Jesus' own life is the measure of that. He's completely dependent on God, and yet he's as free as anybody could be imagined to be. Free to take risks, to face suffering and death because the Father is there, so "Father" is also what he says on the cross. "Father into your hands I commend my spirit."

And when the words "Our Father" are said we ought perhaps to think of that little Resurrection incident where Jesus says to a close friend and follower, the relationship I have with God can be your relationship with God as well. You and I form a We together before God.

And so as soon as you've said the first words Our Father you've said: I've been given a share in Jesus' relationship with God. I don't have to work out my relationship with God from scratch. I don't have to climb a long long ladder up to heaven, I've been invited into this family relationship and that's the gift that every prayer begins with.

So the very words we start with tell us a huge amount about who we are as Christians, about our Christian doctrine and belief.

Rev Rick