January 2009

ARTICLE TOOLS

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THIS, THEN, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."
Matthew 6:9

THIS PRAYER is a pattern for all Christian praying; Jesus is teaching that prayer will be acceptable when, and only when, the attitudes, thoughts, and desires expressed fit the pattern. That is to say: every prayer of ours should be a praying of the Lord's Prayer in some shape or form.
J. I. Packer, Growing in Christ

AND MAKE US WORTHY, O Lord, that we joyously and without presumption may make bold to invoke Thee, the heavenly God, as Father, and to say: "Our Father …"
Eastern Orthodox Introduction to the Recitation of the Lord's Prayer

[GOD] ALONE is worthy, but he can make us worthy too. That, too, is what "our Father" means: The grace of God conscripts us both as receivers and givers of forgiveness.
Telford Work, Ain't Too Proud to Beg

ALL BELIEVERS are sons of the Father and brothers of one another, regardless of their race, nationality, education, money, or any other difference. And it is high time that the followers of Jesus Christ either faced up to this truth or quit repeating this prayer.
Clarence Jordan, Sermon on the Mount (revised edition)

THAT WE PRAY to God in heaven is a reminder that we become part of a large struggle by praying this prayer. The thing between us and Jesus is not merely personal; it's cosmic. The God whom we have been taught by Jesus to address as "our Father" is the one who rules the whole cosmos, who speaks in earthquake, wind, and fire. Any less of a god wouldn't do us much good.
William H. Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, Lord Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life

HEAVEN, biblically, means the realm where God rules fully and God's will is done. Jesus is affirming that God really is the Ruler, and that God really is our Father, present, bringing deliverance into our lives.
Glen H. Stassen, Living the Sermon on the Mount

HOW does [God's name] become holy among us? The plainest answer is: When both our teaching and our life are godly and Christian. Since in this prayer we call God our Father, it is our duty in every way to behave as good children so that he may receive from us not shame but honor and praise.
Martin Luther, Large Catechism

PRAYING without ceasing, "hallowed be your name," I ask for God's grace that we may continue together to learn to see and respond with wonder, gratitude, and love to God's holy beauty not only in our own lives, but in the life of every human being who bears it.
Roberta C. Bondi, A Place to Pray

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