Lord, Teach Us To Pray

DMLJ: We are face to face here with one of the most vital subjects in connections with our Christian life. … [Prayer] is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition. … Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.

MHA: The Lord’s Prayer contains key concepts of Christian theology: the heavenly Father, the name of God, the kingdom of God, the will of God, heaven and earth, daily bread, the remission of debts (sins), temptation, the evil one.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.2 - The Sermon on the Mount, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Matthew 6: 9(b) Our Father which art in heaven

We now come to what is known as the Lord’s Prayer.  It comes right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus is giving His disciples more detailed instructions on how to pray.

The title of this post is taken from the version of this prayer found in Luke.  It is somewhat condensed as compared to this prayer found in Matthew.  In Matthew, Jesus teaches it without a prompt by the disciples. 

Luke’s version is not found in any liturgical document.  It is Matthew’s version that has entered the liturgical practice of the Church, from the earliest time.  But why two versions?  It isn’t very hard to believe that Jesus may have dictated this more than once – even more often than what is recorded in the Gospels.  We know, after all, how dense the disciples could be, at least until Pentecost.

DMLJ: …it is when we…are alone with God, that we really know where we stand in a spiritual sense.

How to pray?  Lloyd-Jones describes this as our greatest need.  We do not know how to pray properly, we run out of things to say after a few sentences.  We need instruction.  And here, the Lord offers this.  Not in detail, but in pattern, in outline.  Jesus could pray for hours, yet here he offered a prayer that could be said in a minute or less.

DMLJ: …the amazing and extraordinary thing about it is that it really covers everything in principle.

Everything necessary for a complete prayer is offered here, in outline.  It governs, in total, man’s relationship to God.  Consider it as offering headings or the subjects for a complete prayer, to be filled in as fitting by the one praying.

This is not to say that this prayer is somehow insufficient as a prayer.  It is wonderfully recited or sung in many liturgies, often more than once.  And this, by the entire congregation; the prayer is, after all, addressed to “Our” Father.

MHA: The pronoun “our,” added to the word “Father” in Matthew’s version, emphasizes the communal, collective character of this prayer. …the Lord’s Prayer is pronounced on behalf of the entire community…

Before even beginning to pray, Lloyd-Jones offers that we should start with recollection.  Take a moment to think before speaking; start your prayer by saying nothing.  Know where you are and to Whom you are speaking.

DMLJ: …if you want to make contact with God, and if you want to feel His everlasting arms about you, put your hand upon your mouth for a moment.

Just this realization of to Whom we are speaking offers a realization of our relationship to God, “Our Father.”  My Father.

DMLJ: Prayer means speaking to God, forgetting ourselves, and realizing His presence.

At this point, we are prepared.  Prayer begins with an invocation, with worship, with adoration.  And this is how Jesus begins.  He doesn’t start with petitions; He starts by praising and worshipping God.  He begins with “Our Father.”

MHA: In the Hebrew Old Testament, God is called “Father” fifteen times in total. … In the New Testament, on the contrary, calling God “Father” becomes fundamental… In the Gospels, God is called “Father” 174 times…

Per Lloyd-Jones, this raises one of the controversies around this prayer.  Is “Our Father” a universal father, or a Father only of Christian believers?  Given the placement of this prayer, he concludes that it is only for those of whom the Beatitudes are true.  After all, Jesus would label some as being of their father the devil.

DMLJ: So when our Lord says, ‘Our Father,’ He is obviously thinking of Christian people, and that is why I say that this is a Christian prayer.

Metropolitan Hilarion also addresses this point.  Citing Robert Stein, he offers:

“…upon closer examination it becomes clear that Jesus did not teach a doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God.”

Yet, Metropolitan Hilarion notes, all are created by God.  However, he concludes that God’s fatherhood is realized in the fullest degree to those in the community of Jesus’s disciples.

Further, this isn’t just any father.  It is a prayer addressed to our Father in heaven.  This is a very different Father than the one we experience on earth.  This is a perfect Father, a Father of majesty and grace, the Creator of everything.  A Father who is perfectly holy, perfectly just, perfectly righteous.  This is the Father we are approaching in prayer: the almighty and eternal holy God.

DMLJ: Before you begin to make any petition, before you begin to ask even for your daily bread, before you ask for anything, just realize that you, such as you are, are in the presence of such a Being, your Father which in in Heaven, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

MHA: Raising his eyes to heaven in prayer, a person directs his thoughts to God. …Immeasurably distant from man in his nature, God is at the same time immeasurably close to him; he sees and hears him when the latter, raising his eyes to heaven, turns to him in prayer.

Awesome.  Which comes back to the point made by Lloyd-Jones.  Start by recollecting: consider to whom we are speaking with when we pray.  It really is the highest activity of our human soul.