The Lord’s Prayer
Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.
Justin: Good morning, everybody. Hope you're doing well today. I wanted to start the message off this morning with a story about one of the holiest moments that I've had the opportunity to experience in my ministry. So far, the church that I was serving at, we volunteered as chaplains at our local hospital system. And I got a call one day that a lady had OD'd and they needed a chaplain to come down to the ER. And so I go down there and I sit with her and her boyfriend and the nurse told me that she was hallucinating and cognitively wasn't present, totally. And so as I was talking to her, she said some things that made sense and some things that didn't. And so I was really struggling to find the words in that moment. I didn't know what to say and so I just, I held her hand and I said, "Can we pray together?" And she looked over at me with these glassy eyes. She didn't know her name and she just held my hand and said, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name."
And to this day, I just felt the presence of God like so thick in that room that day with her. And it's a moment that I will never forget. I don't know where this lady picked up the Lord's prayer in her journey, maybe she grew up religious, but those words came to her in a time of need.
And so it is not for piety's sake that we recite the Lord's prayer every single week. We say it because it's a reflection of Jesus's vision for the world. And as his followers, we wanna make sure that we are taking that prayer in and we're letting it soak into our hearts so that we can not only say it, but we can also live it with our lives. And so this week, I'm gonna be reading Matthew 6:9-15, and I'm gonna read from the King James because that's what we all are most familiar with when it comes to the Lord's prayer. It says this:
After this manner, therefore, pray ye: “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.” For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
This prayer is potentially one of the most famous of Jesus's teachings. And when it comes to us reciting prayers, and when things get extremely familiar, sometimes we say things without really thinking about what we're saying, and it can easily lose its meaning over time.
And so there's a video that I stumbled across that I wanna show you of this little girl who takes the Lord's prayer very seriously, and she thinks that she's really understood the meaning of the Lord's prayer. And so if we have that video, we can show. [Video plays] She thought God's name was Howard. And so when you walk away from church today, if nothing else, I want you to know that God's name is not, in fact, Howard.
But more importantly, I want us to walk away being reminded of the fact that this is Jesus's vision for the world, and we need to be able to pray it and boldly proclaim it, and we need to be able to also boldly live it with our lives. And so we're gonna break the prayer down into sections and see if there's some meaning in there for us and how it might be relevant for our lives today.
And so the first part of the prayer is “our Father who art in heaven.” And there is so much packed into these first few words. I mean, the very first word is our. And we are so individualistic in American society that we kind of gloss right over the word our, but it's critical because God doesn't belong exclusively to me or to you. God is ours.
But more importantly, we belong to God. And the way in which we belong to God is through this parent-child relationship. God looks at us and sees us as children, as family. And for some of you, that is really great news because you grew up in a really loving home where your family and your parents were present and they nurtured you and protected you and loved you. And so when you conceive of God as Father, there's a lot of safety and a lot of reassurance in that. But for others of you in the room who may be struggled with your family a little bit, thinking of God as a father or as a parent in general might bring a lot of pain because you didn't feel safe with your families.
But one of the many things that I love about church is that no matter how good or bad our biological family relationships are, we have a chosen family here as the body of Christ. And there's something so special about all of us coming together with our varied perspectives and our different life experiences to be able to create this family together, to be able to live together and do life in community groups and gather around each other in tragedy and pull our resources together to do more together than we could ever do alone. And this kind of family is possible because there is a good God at the center of it all who cares about us and nurtures us and provides for us. And even disciplines sometimes, just like any good parent would. All of that is packed into our Father. And for Jesus, the very act of praying is participating in relationship because for Jesus, God is not someone who is just far off and distant. God is very much present in our everyday lives.
In the same breath though, we have to acknowledge that God is in heaven. We're earthly, but God is heavenly. So there is a distinction there. God is our creator and God is our sustainer. And so the one that we call on in prayer has power and authority that we do not have. And so while it's important for us to recognize that God is close to us and we can approach this God who loves us in prayer, we also need to acknowledge that God exists outside of the earthly reality and God has power and authority that we don't. And if those two things are true, that God is our Father, our parent, however you conceive of that, and God is also in heaven, then that means that God is someone that we can depend on to act.
And that is also present in the next line of the prayer, which is hallowed be thy name. Now, when most of us think hallowed be thy name, we think I need to act in a holy way that honors God as holy, but that's really not what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is directing this to God. So he's not saying that we should act better. He's telling God that God needs to act in a way that justifies and honors his own name, right? If you are Yahweh, then you are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, then you need to act in a way that reflects that in the world. And you might think, well, that's a really bold thing for Jesus to pray to hold God accountable, but Jesus is not the first one to do that. Jesus is standing in a long line of Old Testament prophets who do just that.
Take Moses, for example, in Exodus 32, the Israelites are worshiping the golden calf. Do we remember that story? Okay, the Israelites are worshiping the golden calf and God is getting really ticked off. And so God tells Moses, I'm gonna take these people out into the desert and I'm just gonna let them die out there because I am so mad at them. And Moses says, you can't do that. You're Yahweh, like you just freed these people from the Egyptians. What are the Egyptians gonna say about you as a God if you free these people and then let them die out in the desert? You have a reputation to uphold. You are the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You've made promises that you have to keep. And so God says, okay, yeah, you're right. I probably shouldn't do that.
That story is really wild and problematic in a lot of ways, but my point is that Jesus is not the first one to tell God that God should act in a way that honors God's own name. And that's what we're asking God to do as well when we pray the Lord's Prayer. God may be in heaven, but we're all down here on earth and there are chaotic things happening on this earth. And so God can't just sit up in heaven and watch all the chaos from afar without God doing major damage to God's own reputation. But God isn't gonna do that and God won't do that because Jesus calls him “Our Father” and that means something. It means something important.
And how that plays out and what that means is what Jesus says in the next line: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." A good parent wants to be close to their kids, right? Like I think my mom would probably pay me a salary if I built a house in her backyard and just lived there forever. But in Revelation 21, we see that that is actually the plan all along. Here's what John's vision is in Revelation 21:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them and they will be his peoples. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away.” And the one who is seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new."
I don't know if you're on TikTok, but two weeks ago, I ended up on a RaptureTok and everybody was getting ready for the Rapture and people were, like hundreds of people were literally in the woods, like looking up ready for Jesus to take them up. And I kid you not, this man posted a video and he said, "It's 2 p.m., Jesus hasn't come to get us yet, but we're hoping to get out of here by six o'clock." He was serious, he was so serious. And I haven't seen an update, so maybe he was, I don't know. [congregation laughing] But escaping the world and leaving all of this behind has never been the plan. The plan has always been to restore this world, to mend broken relationships here, to fix unjust systems here, to live here in harmony with God and with each other and with this earth. What Jesus is praying here and what we pray for is for God to make all things new.
And we get to play an important and integral role in making all things new, which is how the prayer takes a shift because it says, "Give us this day our daily bread." Now bread is one of the most basic food items that you could possibly have. And so Jesus is asking God to provide the essential things. We're calling on God as a good parent who is involved in our lives to meet our daily needs and the basics that we need to survive as people. And that's an exercise in both trust and obedience, right? Because while we're trusting God to provide, the provision isn't just for me. It's our daily bread, not my daily bread. And so that forces us to assess all of the excess that we have so that we can start to provide for others. And that's the case because we know that God has provided us, provided for us. And so because we have grateful hearts, we can then go and provide for others gladly. And as we are gladly providing, Jesus is also pushing us to gladly forgive, which may be a little harder than gladly providing.
“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Now this flies in the face of good Protestant theology on grace, right? We normally think, "Well, God has forgiven me, so I need to forgive others." But that's not really what Jesus is saying in this prayer. Jesus asked God for forgiveness just like we forgive. And that's backed up at the end of the prayer. Jesus says, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
So that is backwards to how we think about forgiveness, but it raises the stakes. And I think that raising the stakes is what Jesus has in mind here because our ability to forgive is foundational to the kingdom of God. Jews understood at this time two basic categories of sin. You had debts and burdens. And I'm oversimplifying that a little bit, but for the point of this sermon, debts and burdens. And if you have caused someone to be burdened, or someone has caused a burden on you, then forgiveness looks like lifting that burden from that person, right? And if you have incurred a debt, or someone is indebted to you, then forgiveness looks like canceling that debt so that they, or you no longer owe anymore.
And so if we're gonna live into the vision of the kingdom of God, where there is no more death or crying or pain, then we must be people who are in the habit of lifting burdens and canceling debts. And I believe that it is absolutely because we do understand that God has been gracious to us first, but Jesus wants us to understand how tied together God's forgiveness and our ability to forgive is. The reality is that my sin can and will impact you, and your sin can and will impact me. And when we pray forgive our debts, we're asking God to forgive both of us. And if God has listened and heard that and has forgiven, then who are we to withhold forgiveness from each other?
The final piece of the prayer is, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And this is the fun part of the prayer where everyone likes to argue because people say, well, why would I pray that? Because would God lead me into temptation in the first place? And we could spend hours being superstitious about why you promised God that you were gonna go on a diet. And now every time you turn around, someone's trying to offer you cookies. I mean, we could talk about that for a really long time. And I don't know if God is testing you or if the devil is in the details, I don't know. But what I do know on a serious note is that life is full of struggles and trials. And there are real temptations out there that can take us down and harm us if we cave to those things. And just like we need God's provision and God's forgiveness, we also need God's protection. We go through things that we can't and shouldn't have to handle on our own and by ourselves. God is a good parent and good parents want to protect us and rescue us when we need it.
And what I love about this part of the prayer in particular is that when we're in the habit of praying this, it makes us more vigilant to the things that are trying to take us down and harm us. And again, this is pointed outward towards our neighbor, deliver us from evil. We are not alone in this fight to make the kingdom of God reality on this earth. This prayer is so important for people who are trying to follow Jesus to understand it, to know it, to pray it, because it does get to the heart of Jesus's vision for the world.
Unfortunately, in our context today, I think that Jesus's vision for the world is being hijacked in many ways by White Christian nationalism. And it popped up on my Instagram feed this week. And so I wanna show you a video from our secretary of war, Pete Hegseth. He prayed the Lord's Prayer with some troops. That's fine. But then what happened was there was a voiceover of him praying this prayer, and the Department of War took that and made an ad for the Department of War. And so I want you to see that.
[Video plays; voiceover Pete Hegseth reciting the Lord’s Prayer]
Okay. I love the United States of America, but it is not a substitute for the kingdom of God. God's glory is not wrapped up in stars and stripes, and God's power is not evident in how many missiles we have at our disposal. In many ways, this prayer is a pledge of allegiance, but it's a pledge to the kingdom of God, not to the United States. And as Christians, we can't allow those on the right or the left who are seduced by power to control the narrative.
There's a pastor in Dallas named Amos Disasa, and he says this, "If one brings this prayer to life, once one leaves the privacy of the prayer room and returns to the chaos of real life, strange things will happen. The kingdom may actually come when we claim Jesus' model prayer as a mandate for daily living.”
So I hope that we will begin to claim this prayer as our model for daily living. Let's take back the narrative so that we can proclaim that we trust God enough to provide our daily bread for us so that we can go and provide daily bread for others, that God has forgiven us so that we can go and forgive our enemies and to protect us from evil so that we can walk in community together and help each other through life's most difficult trials and temptations. I long for the day when all things are gonna be made new and there's no more crying or mourning or death or pain, but we're not there yet, and we're not gonna get there by caving into power and dominion and wealth. We get there with open eyes and open hearts and open hands who say, "Thy will be done."
This morning, we are gonna take communion like we normally do, but because we're talking about prayer today, I wanted to give you an additional opportunity to respond. So today, after you take communion, Debbie will be in the back corner, and if you need prayer, she'll be there to receive you today. Maybe you heard something in worship or in the message that spoke to you. Maybe you're struggling to forgive or maybe you're worried about the way that our country is headed, or maybe you're struggling to see God as good because of what you're going through. I don't know, but if you need prayer, we just wanna make sure that you have space to be prayed for, and so after communion, Debbie will be in the back to receive you if you would like it, amen.