Our
Lord's pattern is the Hebrew pattern
of prayer and worship kept together.
The petitions of the Lord's Prayer are balanced and
strengthened by reminding ourselves
of the power and glory of our
heavenly Father. Having just looked
at the great dangers and evils that
surround us, we have every reason to
be weighed down. And so how good it
is to turn our eyes to heaven and
boldly affirm the glorious truth
that our heavenly Father is the
sovereign Lord; to him belong all
power and glory. He is well able to
rescue us, deliver us, and keep us
safe even though we walk, maybe
often, through 'the valley of the
shadow of death'.
One
of the characteristics of stately
homes is their balance, their
symmetry. If one wing is never
built, or was lost by the ravages of
fire or dry rot, the whole building
is left out of balance; half
missing. Similarly with prayer, if
we fail to remind ourselves of the
greatness of God in praise and
adoration we shall be spiritually
cast down by life's great
challenges, difficulties and
battles. We may also become prey to
a dryness of spirit which reduces
prayer, and indeed the whole of our
Christian living, to an unlovely,
formal duty, something which has to
be done and yet which has within it
no contagious, God-centred joy and
gladness.
On
the other hand, if the aspect of
heartfelt petition for this fallen
world is lost we may enjoy 'praise
and worship' which is quite
literally out of this world. But it will
be in a compartment on its own -
stirring, heart-warming, deeply
moving at the time and yet having
little or no relevance to the
reality of living in this world for
God.
In
public worship and in private
prayer, therefore, plead with the
Lord from a full heart about all the
practical issues of living and revel
in the fact that he is able to keep
us from falling, able to present us
faultless, able to do even more than we
can think or imagine.
. . the kingdom, the power and
ultimately all glory belong to the
Lord God, our heavenly Father.
The little Hebrew word 'amen'
so often thought of
and used as if it were just a 'religious
full-stop' is in reality far
greater. It means 'certainly so' or
'let it be so' and gives us the
opportunity to 'sign our name';
to add our own voice to the great
affirmations and petitions of this
most wonderful of prayers.
'The kingdom, the power and the glory.'
The Authorized Version, the King James' Version
concludes the Lord's Prayer with
this magnificent ending. It is
fitting and part of our godly
heritage. However, many of the
modern versions conclude the Lord's
Prayer without this ending.
Within the services of the Church of
England we use both forms.
I used to feel we
were 'given short measure' if the
prayer ended with, 'Deliver us from
evil.' It felt unfinished; as if, as
a visitor, we had been suddenly
ushered from a great house having
been shown just a few of the
magnificent rooms! However, it is in
fact a fair reflection of what we
find in the New Testament.
If
you study the various ancient
manuscripts from which our New
Testament has come, you find that
not all of them have the fuller
ending. Many stop short,
ending with, 'Lead us not into
temptation,' or, 'Keep us from
evil,' or even earlier. There is
clearly some uncertainty about the
conclusion of the prayer. The
traditional ending could have been
something which the apostles, or
early Christians, added as they came
to pray it. As they prayed they came
back to thinking about our heavenly
Father and the great themes of this
prayer and ended, surely rightly, on
this note of praise, giving glory to
Almighty God.
The
concluding peal of praise is
absolutely consistent with the whole
teaching of the scriptures. It is a
telling forth of who God is; the one
true God who is king of the
universe. Although around us men and
women ignore him, although there are
many who live in active rebellion
against him, we affirm that God, the
living God, is Lord. Let all the
earth know that the living God
reigns.
You
might ask, 'Is such a statement of
the sovereignty of God a charitable,
a "Christian", attitude?' We live in
a very tolerant age and surely the
spirit of Christianity is to be
tolerant. Clearly, there is a place
for tolerance, but when tolerance,
gentleness with those around us,
leads us to suppress the truth, then
surely the principle of tolerance
has led us to overthrow something
far greater, far more important. It
has led us to overthrow truth itself.
It
is as if there were a fire at a
great house and a servant went to
bring out a young son,
but the lad said, 'No, no,
leave me alone. I want to sleep, I
don't want to come out.' The servant
would have to say, 'I am sorry but
you must come out. There is no
choice, because there is something
great at stake - your own life - and
that is much more important than
sleep.' If we allow tolerance to
overthrow truth we shall be in great
trouble. This is the particular
danger in which we find ourselves in
our own liberal, tolerant day. We
are called by God to be his heralds,
to proclaim the gospel, and yet we
find ourselves squeezed by the world
into being so tolerant and gracious,
that we cease even to affirm that to
God, and to God alone, belong the
kingdom and the power and the glory.
'Brothers,' says the apostle Paul,
'pray for me that I may speak boldly
as I ought to speak.' A prayer
worthy of echoing both for ourselves
and for our Christian leaders in a
world that increasingly tolerates
almost anything . . . except the
call to bow the knee to the one true
God; the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Every great house has one or two
particularly fine views; views that
display the estate, the gardens and
the house to their very best
advantage. As we conclude the Lord's
Prayer we are given such a view.
'The kingdom, the power and the
glory . . .' words which tell out
the sovereign glory of the Living God; our
heavenly Father. There is no other
with whom to compare him. His alone
is the kingdom, the power, and the
glory. The words themselves take us
back to the heart and focus of the
prayer, to the three great state
rooms: the honour of his name, the
coming of his kingdom and the doing
of his will.
This
traditional ending is, as it were, a
stepping back to take in the whole
view of the great house in its
setting. In a phrase it sets before
us the whole vista of God's glory
and purposes for this world. Like the
flag, the standard, flying
above a stately home, it may or may
not be as old as the house, but it
is there to affirm that the Lord is
King and that the Lord is in
residence. To him be ascribed all
honour, power and glory.
The
Whole Prayer in Practical Use
The
great sweep of human history
or the details of one person or
situation
The
practical use of the prayer. In
the life of a stately home, the
business of the whole house can be
directed to the general well-being
of the whole estate or it can, on
occasion, be focused on a single
event or person. From time to time
there will be activity in every room
in preparation for a great
occasion, an important meeting, a
family wedding or celebration. On
another occasion the whole household
will be going about its ordinary
business but with a particularly hushed
and concerned note for one member of the
household who lies very ill.
As
it is with a great house, so it is
with the Lord's Prayer. For example:
We
can apply each petition generally as
we pray for the world and its
leaders, and for all God's people
as, together, we strive to live for
him in this spiritually hostile
world.
On
another occasion we might first
bring a whole series of concerns in
our prayers and then as it were 'gather' them
as we pray the Lord's Prayer.
Or, following a prayer of confession,
the Lord's Prayer could be a response
of faith and a plea for grace and
courage to start afresh to live in a
way that pleases our heavenly
Father.
Or, we can cry to God for a
particular person or situation using
and applying each of the petitions
in turn. The whole prayer can be
focused and brought to bear, for
example, on a particular meeting, or
a particular person in physical
or spiritual need or a particular
member of our own family.
As
an example of this, perhaps, less
usual use of the prayer, praying for
a son or daughter of the house
approaching marriage, we might
follow each petition of the Lord's
Prayer and pray:
'Father we place into your hands
this couple as they approach
marriage.
May your name be honoured on
their wedding day in all that is
said and done in the service and
at the meal following.
May your name be honoured, too,
in their relationship with one
another as they prepare for
marriage and as they build a
home together.
May your kingdom come, may they,
together, submit to your holy
rule and live in a way that
pleases you.
May your will be done in every
detail of the great day and in
each decision of the months and
years that lie ahead. May there
be a touch of heaven about this
marriage.
Give them day by day godly
wisdom, peace and prosperity that they may
live without anxiety before you.
Grant them a forgiving
spirit towards one another that, as
they adjust and settle to
married life, they may be forgiving
as they have been forgiven
Grant them grace to withstand
the particular temptations that
will come to them,
and from would-be suitors who
would break the marriage.
Finally, Father, we ask you to
protect them from every kind of
evil; evil from within and evil
from without, and from every
onslaught of the evil one.
May your holy name be held high
in this marriage, Sovereign
Lord, King of Kings.'
Or, maybe
approaching a Christian meeting
we might pray:
'Father, may your name be held
high, honoured in our music and
teaching and in all that takes
place.
By your Holy Spirit, take the
speaker's words and set our
hearts ablaze for you, may lives
be changed, may your kingdom
come . . .
Father, we commend to you all
the practical arrangements; our
individual tasks and our working
together. May your will be done in
every detail. May there be a touch of
heaven,
about this meeting.'
. . . and so on, until we pray.
. .
'And Father keep us safe, tonight,
from any who would
disrupt or spoil the meeting,
and from the spiritual coldness,
deadness, attacks and
interference of the evil one.'
Would to God that our national and
local elections, great parliamentary
debates, council, governor and board
meetings, church meetings
and individual opportunities to
speak for the Lord were covered and
supported by prayers like these . .
. prayers after our Lord's pattern;
prayers that we can be confident he
will hear. We make up our own
prayers after the 'God bless . . .'
pattern, or read set prayers, but,
to our great loss, we neglect this
great pattern prayer of the Lord.
Postscript
Rescued from the gentle, well-meant
but unthinking murmur of an 'act of
worship' and prayed with
understanding, passion, imagination
and a willingness to heed and act
upon our own prayer, the Lord's
Prayer becomes - not the formal
opening of a vicarage tea party or
parliamentary session - but the
power behind the great, guiding
principles by which the Lord would
have us conduct every part of our
lives.
Here, in these few memorable words
are the seeds of liberty and
justice, trust and true fellowship
of families, and of families of
peoples, all founded on a common
submission to the Lord God, our
heavenly Father. It is not a pious
mumble but a manifesto to change the
world . . . beginning with those who
pray it.
'If
my people, who are called by my
name, will humble themselves and
pray, and seek my face and turn from
their ungodly ways; then I will hear
from heaven, and will forgive their
sin and heal their land.'
Under God's new covenant, his
ancient promise to Solomon has
world-wide application.
References
'Able to keep us from falling' -
Jude 24&25
The Lord God reigns - Revelation
19:6
'That I may speak boldly'- Ephesians
6:20
'Full of grace and truth' - John
1:14
'If my people'- 2 Chronicles 7:14
Questions 1
1 Have you known churches or been
through times yourself when either,
a) Christian living was reduced to a
dull duty, or b) the easy words on
our lips bore no relation to the
tough and real world in which we
live?
2 How can we keep the right balance
between stirring Christian worship
and practical Christian living?
3 Is the word 'amen' just a
religious full-stop or an
opportunity for something much more?
4 The apostle John speaks of our
Lord as 'full of grace and truth'.
How can we keep this balance in a
world that requires us to be so
tolerant as to allow falsehood side
by side with truth or even to
suppress the truth?
5 In what ways do these concluding
words help us to focus on the
sovereignty and purposes of God our
heavenly Father?
Questions 2
1 Sometimes we will bring a whole
series of concerns in our prayers
and then 'gather' them as we pray
the Lord's Prayer. Are you happy to
use it in this way?
2 Sometimes the Lord's Prayer will
be a fitting response of faith and
determination after a prayer of
confession. Are you comfortable with
that?
3 Sometimes it will be focused on a
single issue. For example, suggest
how each petition in turn, i.e. the
whole of the Lord's Prayer, could be
relevantly applied to one, or a
selection of the following
situations:
When praying for parliament and
our political leaders.
When praying for our national or
our local church.
When praying for a known
missionary.
When praying for a known person
in need or sickness.
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