To pray to “
Our Father” is to
presume there is an “us.”
This simple observation leads us to the heart of several
Christian truths – our salvation, the Trinity, Christian
unity and the nature of prayer – all of which are
implicit in the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer.
Children of God
By his sinless life, atoning death and resurrection to the
right hand of God, Jesus has made it possible for sinful human
beings to be reconciled to God and to call him “Our
Father.”
Paul describes this reconciliation as adoption. Before the
creation of the world, Paul writes, God chose us “to be
holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us
to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in
accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of
his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he
loves” (Eph. 1:4-6).
This theme is also sounded at the opening of John’s
gospel, “Yet to all who received him, to those who
believed in his name, [Jesus] gave
the right to become
children of God – children born not of natural
descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but
born of God” (John 1:12-13).
Those who have been chosen by God and have believed in Jesus’
name for their salvation now possess the otherwise
unimaginable privilege of addressing the creator of the
universe as “Our Father.”
A model
relationship
To be sure, the nature of Jesus’ sonship differs from
ours. We have been adopted into the family while Jesus, God’s
only-begotten Son (John 3:16), is by nature fully God. The
inner life of the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy
Spirit – is one of eternal relationship. It is that
intimate family relationship that, by grace through faith,
Jesus’ followers are now invited to share with (Rom.
8:15-17) and model to the world (John 17:13-23).
The phrase “Our Father” is not a human invention
intended to articulate our experience of the divine. Rather,
it is the way we have been taught by Jesus himself to describe
a familial relationship that is part of God’s own life, a
life in which all Christians now share (Col 3:3).
The communion of
saints
Because God is “Our Father,” all Christians are
family. To pray the Lord’s Prayer is thus to realize that
I am not God’s only child, a realization that has at
least two important implications.
First, to pray the Lord’s Prayer is to transcend racial,
national, social and economic distinctions, not to mention
denominational differences. As Spiros Zodhiates notes, “We
stand as one family to say ‘Our Father.’ He who
stands by himself, not entering into the communion of the
saints, not realizing that he is a member of the body of
Christ, is not standing in the position the Master would have
him occupy.”
To pray the Lord’s Prayer is to realize that I have
obligations to the household of God. It should be impossible
to pray this prayer and not respect the rest of God’s
family, or to pray it while bearing a grudge toward another
family member (Matt. 5:21-24). After all, I do not pray for “my”
daily bread or forgiveness of “my” debts but for “our”
provision and forgiveness.
Second, whenever I pray “
Our Father”
I am reminded that in prayer I am never alone. Since I am a
member of God’s family, my prayer, inarticulate and
feeble though it may be, joins in the great stream of prayer
that continually ascends from earth to heaven. When I pray “Our
Father,” I am not merely one individual talking privately
with my God but part of a vast community of faith that is
continually praising and petitioning the God who creates,
sustains and redeems us. My prayer is united with the prayers
of the whole Church and with the prayers of the ascended Jesus
(Heb. 7:24-26).
Knowing that my prayers are not the only ones heard by God
helps me see that my seemingly unanswered prayers may be the
answered prayers of others. Perhaps the rain that did not fall
on my crops spared those far downstream a devastating flood.
As I pray “Our Father,” I recognize that God’s
involvement with the other members of his family goes far
beyond my own immediate wants and needs. I do not pray to my
own private God but to the God who is the God of “us.”
Indeed, the breadth of God’s concern for his whole human
creation, not merely the Church, is conveyed by the opening
words of this prayer. As John Calvin notes, all Christian
prayer should conform to the Lord’s Prayer so that the
Christian may “embrace all who are his brothers in
Christ, not only those whom he at present sees and recognizes
as such but all men who dwell on earth. For what God has
determined concerning them is beyond our knowing except that
it is no less godly than humane to wish and hope the best for
them” (
Institutes 3.20.38).
Patterns of prayer
Calvin’s commendation of the Lord’s Prayer as a
pattern for Christian prayer raises oft-debated questions
about “free” vs. “formulaic” prayers.
The Protestant tradition has tended to emphasize free prayer,
that is, prayers that are spontaneously composed as they are
being offered to God. The Anglo-Catholic tradition makes much
greater use of formulaic prayers, prayers from Scripture and
the Christian tradition that have often been compiled into
prayer books. Both practices have benefits and drawbacks.
At its best, free prayer grows out of an intimate
relationship with God and a keen awareness of the current
situation. But it is equally true a prayer from the Christian
tradition may speak with singular eloquence to a specific
event and be prayed from the heart.
As for the drawbacks, A.J. Cardinal Simonis, archbishop of
Utrecht, notes that “The recitation of formulaic prayers
also entails certain risks. Prayer may deteriorate into
mumbling, automatic repetition, and I sometimes catch myself
repeating the words of the prayer without consicously
reflecting on them.” (For a review of Simonis' book,
click here.)
Of course, honest Protestants will acknowledge that the same
can be true of the supposedly “free” prayers that
they, or their ministers, assemble from a stockpile of
evangelical cliches.
Simonis also makes the helpful observation that “The
most important thing, from a Protestant perspective, is ‘my’
personal relationship with God. Catholics tend to see the
Church far more from a ‘we’ perspective.” He
further notes that formulaic prayers “form a kind of
protection [from] slipping into excessive subjectivity. …
So many people have prayed before me, people in whom God’s
Spirit has prayed. It is good for the soul to follow in their
footsteps.”
It is, of course, Jesus’ footsteps that we follow when
we pray “Our Father.”
Our Father
The 17th-century Puritan Thomas Watson succinctly observes, “Father
denotes reverence: Our Father denotes faith.”
When we pray “Our Father” we testify to our
participation with Jesus in the very life of God. We
acknowledge that while we are all children of God, no
Christian is God’s only child.
By faith we confess that we belong to a body of believers
that extends into the past and the future as well as being
more extensive than we can see at present.
On Easter Sunday morning Jesus told an astonished Mary
Magdalene, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet
returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell
them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my
God and your God’” (John 20:17).
It is by the power of the risen Jesus, through the indwelling
Holy Spirit, that we join with Christians throughout space and
time to pray “Our Father ….”
For
Discussion
1.
Why did Jesus teach his disciples to pray "Our
Father?"
2. How does Jesus'
sonship differ from ours?
3. What does
praying to our Father teach us about God's
answers to our prayers?
4. What are the
potential advantages and disadvantages of "free"
and "formulaic" prayers? |
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Additional Resources
Karl Barth, Prayer
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985); John Calvin, Institutes
of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1960); A.J. Cardinal Simonis, Our
Father: Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999); Thomas Watson, The Lord’s
Prayer (Carlisle, Pa.: The Banner of Truth Trust,
1993).
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