Slo-Mo Reflections: The Lord’s Prayer

Confession: My mind’s natural setting is overdrive.  I have to work to slow down the torrent of thoughts gushing through my prefrontal cortex.  In teaching, I do that by forcing myself to make the same point three different ways.  In business meetings, I do it by listening to the English but taking notes in Spanish using only Greek characters (not kidding).  And in Bible study, I do it by remembering: Exeraunao.

Exeraunao is a Greek word found in 1 Peter 1:10.  It means “to search out,” “to investigate carefully,” to pursue a matter until it has been examined deeply.  That’s often what my brain needs.  By slowing down and experiencing Scripture less as an act of speedreading, more as an act of exeraunao, I hear the voice of God better in my daily meditations on his word.

I’ll show you what I mean.  Let’s take a deep-dive, slo-mo walk through the best-known of all Scripture passages, the Lord’s Prayer as found in Matthew 6:9-13.  Along the way, my mind will flit and flutter among ideas – but safely within the guardrails established by the Savior’s words.

And throughout, I’m going to keep in mind that the Lord's Prayer isn’t just a collection of words meant for once-a-day recital.  Christ had just told the disciples to avoid empty phrases and vain repetitions (Matthew 6:7).  This was a guide to their life of prayer – how they should pray, and the specific elements of praying without ceasing.  That’s the approach my longtime friend Rev. Brett Bailey (who inspired this post) emphasizes for his own prayer life.

It should guide my prayer life, too.

 

PATER HEMON

~ “Father of us”

I’ve heard multiple sermons focused on the fatherhood metaphor for God.  Many of those sermons emphasized how uniquely Christian it is to view the Creator as our own father (although references to God as the father of believers can be found scattered throughout Hebrew Scriptures as well, as early as Deuteronomy 32:6 and as late as Malachi 2:10).

Since I’ve heard less emphasis on the word “our,” that’s where my mind goes today.  That’s the hemon word in the Greek up above – “of us” when translated with the literal word order preserved.

"Our."  We live in a Western culture and era of individualism.  In our individualist society, the “I” comes first and the “us” and “you” are secondary.  I speak of accepting Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.  I sing that Jesus loves me, and that this I know because the Bible tells me so.

Jesus is those things.  But Scripture was written in cultures and eras of collectivism.  In such cultures, the group, the household, the nation, and the plural “you” carry far more weight.  In a culture like that, I’d be far less likely to see every “you” in the Bible as meaning “me.”

Example: When I read Jeremiah 29, my Western brain immediately assumes it offers a promise to me, Yolanda Ramírez:

I know the plans I have for you,

Says the Lord,

Plans for peace and not for evil,

To give you a future and a hope. (v. 11)

It doesn’t matter (I presume) that the passage is actually about the entire nation of Israel... and, more poignant still, that it is addressed to a people already in exile in Babylon, many of whom would not live to see that promise fulfilled.  No, I am more than preprogrammed to rip that verse from its original context and craft a personalized theology that declares, “God has a plan of peace and a future of hope for me, and that’s what this verse is all about!”

Jesus urged me to go into a room, close the door, and pray this prayer alone (Matthew 6:6).  In the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer, however, he reminds me: It’s not my Father.  It’s our Father.  I have a family.  I pray as part of a larger group, a body, a community of siblings to Christ who are freely adopted into God’s clan of grace.  Despite my focus on myself, I can never forget you, the plural you.  Y’all, if you’re in the southern U.S.  Y’uns in Appalachia.  You lot in Britain.

But... brain flitter.  I digress.

 

HO EN TOIS OURANOIS

~ “The [One] in the Heavens”

When I learned the Lord’s Prayer in English, I was surprised that it made heaven singular.  “The heavens,” as a plural, was how the Spanish version I first learned phrased it, los cielos.  It turns out “heavens” is plural in French, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, and the original Greek of the Lord’s Prayer as well.  German and English change it to singular.

The Greek ouranois doesn’t separately distinguish (1) the “heaven” we think of as God's realm, (2) the celestial “heavens” of the stars and planets, and (3) the sky itself.  It heartens me to think of God as present throughout all of those heavens.  Not one drop of moisture in Earth’s cloudy skies, not one pebble in the rings around Neptune, not a single plasma burst on the star Arcturus, and not one massless gluon particle at the farthest reaches of galaxy MoM-z14 is beyond the reach of God.  In fact, he put them where they are.  They are the heavens of the God, and he is present through all his heavens.

 

HAGIASTHETO TO ONOMA SOU

~ “Set apart be the name of you.”

Reflections on the onoma, the Name, could fill an entire library.  For today, I’ll focus on hagiastheto, what we often translate as “hallowed be.”  As you probably know, “hallowed” means “holy.”

Cool enough, but here’s my thought: “holy” doesn’t mean “holy.”  Not in our modern sense of “morally pure” or “religiously inclined.”  In Greek, this word is saying that God’s name needs to be proclaimed as unique, one of a kind, set apart, seen as not just “different,” but as “one of one and the only one.”  Think of Isaiah 40:25, where God himself asks:

“To whom, then, shall you compare me,

That I should be like him?”

The implied answer is: nobody.  We can’t make God’s name any holier, any more one-of-a-kind.  But we can and must spread the word about just how holy it is.  We need to openly venerate his name as the Incomparable Name.  That’s what we’re asking in this prayer – that the Name be held up as All That, and that more and more of humanity see it as the Only Name it is.

 

ELTHETO HE BASILEIA SOU

~ “Let come the kingdom of you”

Ah, the human basileus, “king.”  We’re hero worshippers, we Homo sapiens.  Whether it’s top athletes, movie stars, corporate executives, or favorite megachurch preachers, we’re ready to esteem anyone outstanding in their field.

But nothing tops a human king, a basileus.  When Israel got tired of its hero-judges, the people clamored for human royalty to lord it over them.  When fans of Lord of the Rings read the books or view the films, they root for the return of the absolutist monarch.  When a political party gets their guy into executive office, they insist he have more power than anyone before him.  That’s kingship.  And we’re dying to be subjects.

The truth is, we do need a king.  There’s a purpose for that natural longing.  We’re tempted to direct it toward human heroes, but deep down we know whose kingdom ought to have first claim on our hearts.  We’re created to be subjects of the universe’s one Benevolent Monarch.  Those lesser kings and heroes?  One day, with us, they’ll bend the knee and joyfully proclaim the true Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).

 

GENETHETO TO THELEMA SOU

~ “Be accomplished the intention of you”

“Thy will be done,” I pray as I work my way through this model of prayer.  His thelema, his will, desire, plan, intention.  But I have to pause here to notice something… something about this prayer; something about his will.

I'm praying, and I haven’t asked for anything yet.

To say that better: I haven’t asked for anything… for me.

Instead, I’ve asked that God get three things he deserves.  I asked that his name be venerated, that his kingdom arrive, and that his will be fulfilled.  I will be asking for things for myself, and very soon.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  But this model of prayer Jesus demonstrates is starting to convict me.  So, seeing this, I ask myself: Do I start my daily prayer time with a list of requests and grievances, or do I follow Jesus’ lead to “pray, then, like this” (Matthew 6:9)?

Does my prayer life always, always, put God’s intentions first and foremost?

• Does it glorify his unmatched Name, upfront?
• Does it long aloud for his kingship?
• Does it recognize the superiority of his eternal will over my passing wants?

Not enough in my prayer life.  Not yet.  So, I am learning.  “Pray, then, like this.”

 

HOS EN OURANO KAI EPI GES

~ “As in heaven, also upon the land”

Culture time!

Heaven gets its second mention in Christ’s prayer model, but this time it needs no final -s in English.  Jesus has switched the term from plural to singular in Greek.

A close look at that word, ourano, might trigger in your brain its Latin rendering: Uranus.  In Jesus’ time, this didn’t refer to the distant planet where the gaseous skies rain diamonds (not kidding, fun planet fact).  Jesus’ culture had, for three hundred years, been "Hellenized", an adjective that means “made really, really Greek-ish.”  It was a multilingual world that was well aware of Greek culture.  Ouranos, in Greek mythology, was a primordial being, “the heavens” themselves.  He and his goddess-wife Gaia, “Earth” (in the Lord’s Prayer, we see a form of her name in ges, “Earth” or “land”), had monstrous children that brought chaos and violence to the universe.  This mythology was part of the worldview of the Greek cities Christianity was reaching.

I'm not claiming that Matthew 6:10 is secretly "about" Ouranos and Gaia.  I'm saying that, in the Greek-speaking world into which Christianity spread, heaven and earth were not culturally neutral words.  Against mythologies in which Heaven and Earth could be treated as divine powers, the Lord's Prayer places both realms under the will of the Father.

In short: mythological Heaven and Earth passed away.  But the Savior, God’s Word, can’t be made to pass away.  His will overcomes ancient Greek worldviews, overcomes all.  Our human mythologies are interesting tales, but in the light of the Lord’s will, they dissolve as vain imaginings.

His will gets done.  His will stays done.

 

TON ARTON HEMON TON EPIOUSION DOS HEMIN SEMERON

~ “The bread of us, the needed, give us today”

Finally, we begin to mention the things we may need.  Of course, Jesus told us that our heavenly Father knows what we need even before we ask (Matthew 6:8).  In a sense, our request is simply punctuation to his omniscience.

I recently discussed this portion of the prayer at length (in this post), so visit there if you’re curious.

 

KAI APHES HEMIN TA OPHEILEMATA HEMON

~ And forgive us the owings of us

True, “owings” isn’t a proper English word.  My bad.  But sometimes we’re so accustomed to a common translation – “trespasses,” “debts” – that we need to freshen it up.  We need to make the commonplace “uncommon” once again, in the spirit of the Russian literary term ostranenie, a defamiliarization for the sake of seeing something anew.

Sorry.  Flitting brain.  I warned you.

Yes, the term opheilemata is usually translated “debts” or “trespasses.”  It’s a legal term in Greek meaning a financial or contractual obligation.  “Debts” gets close in English, and it wouldn’t be unthinkable to translate the term as “outstanding balances.”  But it’s stronger than that.  In the ancient world, defaulting on one’s opheilemata could result in imprisonment or enslavement.  Asking our Father to relieve us of our debts isn’t just a request like, “Could you pick up the check this time, Dad?”  It’s a plea for redemption from the chains we very much deserve.

We should say such words as “forgive us our debts” slowly.  Very slowly.  Knowing the eternal significance.

 

HOS KAI HEMEIS APHEKAMEN TOIS OPHEILETAIS HEMON

~ “As also we pardon the owers of us”

At first glance, this part of the Lord’s Prayer looks transactional: “Hey, God, I’ve forgiven others, so how’s about a little quid pro quo?”

That isn’t how grace works, of course.  The free gift of God’s salvation (Romans 6:23) doesn’t come as an upfront purchase on my part, and it isn’t maintained through upkeep fees.  Free is free, and we couldn’t afford it even if we tried (which we, of course, attempted throughout the age of the Law).

So, what’s this “cancel our debts as we cancel others’ debts” line all about?  At one level, it’s definitional.  It defines who we are now; being forgiven of the eternal debts we owe, we turn right around and become the kind of redeemed and sanctified human beings who naturally forgive others.

Let’s be honest, though.  We’re forgiven, but we’re not perfect yet.  We need reminders to stay true to who we are as new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Scripture regularly reminds us to forgive as we’re forgiven – Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13, Mark 11:25, Matthew 18:35, and so many others.  I start to get the message: I am a forgiver, and I must walk that path daily.

My “enemies” belong in my prayer life.  Is there someone I dislike and can’t forgive?  Someone I find irritating and from whom I withhold love?  I need to make them part of my Lord’s Prayer practices.  After all, it’s really hard to continue disliking someone I’m praying for every single day.  The forgiveness flowed to me, so forgiveness flows from me.

 

AND SO ON

Alas, I’ve reached the maximum word count I allow myself for these blogs.  I still haven't discussed why I need to ask God not to lead me into temptation or why I think I still need to be delivered from evil!  But my self-imposed rules are what keep me from descending into chaotic rambling, so I have to draw a line for this month.

Perhaps someone will come along and do a full sermon series on this prayer so that I know how this ends!  That’s been done before, no doubt.  But each generation needs a fresh voice for an eternal message.

I want to hear that voice.

Marana Tha,

Cosmic Parx / YoYo Rez