Lent 9

BFF2 (b/c there are 2) is working on a sermon for Sunday on the first part of the Lord's Prayer, kicking off a sermon series on the way in which Jesus taught us to pray. It has been custom for quite some time that when Jess has an upcoming sermon that she calls me to be the first sounding board for her sermon. So, today, she called and we talked quite a bit about the sermon topic "Our Father."

As we were talking and she weaved together for me the outline of her sermon, the Lord's Prayer became more and more alive for me. I've always loved it, as I love much of the church's most often used liturgy, because there is something very comforting to me to know that people all over the world are saying the same words along with me. But something shook me a little differently today because I understood the words in a new way.

I must make a confession. Prayer is my greatest struggle. It may seem strange that someone committed to full time ministry would admit that she struggles with prayer. But, yes, I struggle. In fact, I didn't even pray for a long time a couple of years ago because I was angry at God and I didn't believe in prayer. This, by the way, was when I was in seminary. F.D.E. Schleiermacher (mouthful, right?) was a theologian who talked a great deal about prayer being our demonstration of our recognition of our absolute dependence upon God. And reading his writings got me out of my no praying phase. Even though I got past that, I continue to struggle with the meaning of prayer, how it works, what it says about God that I make petitions, etc.

But the words of the Lord's Prayer, just like the words of the Apostles' Creed, hold some sort of special power over me. That Jesus taught us to pray the Lord's Prayer gives it some pretty awesome significance. When you first utter the words, it's almost like they don't fit because you don't even really know what they mean, but Jesus taught us. And you may not even believe in the deliverance from evil or the daily provisions or the coming kingdom, but Jesus said this is how we should pray. And as you grow, you grow into those words. It's like when Jesus first taught us to pray and when we're first introduced to those very old words and we first utter them, the promises behind them are held in trust until we're able to grow into them.

Whether it's the Lord's Prayer or my own mumbled petitions and celebrations, I utter those words not understanding them, not always even believing them, but am glad to know that God holds them safely in God's heart until I can believe in the God whose wisdom far surpasses my feeble understanding.