The Divine Universe

Jesus’ disciples were fascinated by Jesus’ long periods of prayer, all night sometimes. And he seemed wrapt in joy. I can imagine they were more than curious, and felt that prayer, so much a part of Jewish tradition, must be more than they reckoned. They asked Jesus to teach them to pray like him, and he tells them to begin by calling God “Father”. That wasn’t a new idea; there are plenty of references to God as Father of Israel in the OT, but it was controversial. The Pharisees were indignant when Jesus referred to God as his father. The Sadducees, at his trial made a capital charge out of it. It was the main excuse for having him crucified. Calling God “Father” may be routine to us, but to Jesus’ disciples it would have been surprising, daring, shocking even.

Jesus begins by saying that praying in public is hypocritical. He doesn’t, of course, mean that prayer in a group is wrong but he is hard on people, often public figures, who like to be seen in church just to enhance their image. He recommends praying in a secluded place. “Close the door,” he says. It is not, strictly speaking, private prayer because prayer is an effective part of our relationship with everyone and everything. You will, however, be undistracted by company, except for God; but that’s rather the idea.

Jesus also tells the disciples not to “keep babbling like pagans”. Pagans treated prayers like magic spells. The more you said the better. Our church prayers, especially ex-tempore ones, tend to get repetitive and clichéd. Even the Lord’s Prayer can become a formality. For Jesus, it was the framework of his whole conversation with God, including, of course, listening while God had his say. It covered everything.

Let’s consider the familiar words*. “Hallowed be your name.” For Semitic peoples, all names were significant. They even believed that knowing people’s names gave you some power over them. For Jews, the name of God is sacred: never even to be spoken. And the meaning of the “name” offered to Moses from the burning bush has never been deciphered anyway. Jews use the word “Adoni”, a symbolic title that means Lord. The true and living God was Lord over all the earth, but especially over Israel. Our modern word, “Yahweh”, replacing the older “Jehovah”, has no clear meaning. The fact is that we don’t have any meaningful name for God, certainly nothing that gives us power over him. We address our prayers through Jesus, however, and, in John’s Gospel, Jesus seems to suggest that using his name has decisive influence with God. However, the phrase “in my name” means more than adding “through Jesus Christ Our Lord” to our petitions; in means more like “with Christ’s intention”. “Hallowed be your name” means that there is no name for God that can be uttered by the ignorant lips of humans. We believe God knows when we are talking to him without any formalities. The address “Father” simply expresses our relationship with God as it was understood by the prophets and Jesus.

“Your kingdom come . . . ” We all wish for a world of perfect peace and loving harmony, yet, if we think about it deeply, it becomes increasingly difficult to say in detail what it would be like. The Jews filled five books trying to define its rules. But Jesus and Paul said that the truth is from the Holy Spirit, not from lawbooks.

“Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” This does not, of course, refer to two places, one where God has his way and one where he doesn’t. “Earth” and “heaven” are states of being, not places. Heaven is the ultimate perfection of God’s creative work. Maybe there is no final end when God stops creating and embodying himself – the incarnation will never end. Even the end of our universe as predicted by scientists – thermodynamic equilibrium, absolute zero, the disappearance of all ‘things’, even subatomic particles, is not the end. The quantum vacuum remains, and it can produce another “big bang” universe, and must eventually do so by statistical theory, being unrestricted by time or subject to decay. “Earth” is the point in space-time where we are now. It is somewhere in the middle of God’s creative process. We are not finished; God’s ultimate will is not fulfilled here and now, or even known to us.

“Give us today our daily bread,” enough for each day. But even this is not fulfilled. In spite of our wishful prayers, many thousands, mostly very young children, die of starvation every day, while ten percent of people have ninety percent of all the wealth in the world. There is enough for everyone if it can be fairly distributed. We have a lot to do if our prayers are to be fulfilled. Prayer is work as well as words.

“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” It is not a simple trade-off: if I forgive her or him for something, God will forgive me the same amount. Forgiveness is a state of mind, rather than a specific act. It dwells at the deepest level of our relationship with others and with God. If we know we are a forgiven person, we will discover we are also able to be a forgiving person. If we cannot seek and accept forgiveness, or even forgive ourselves, we will not know how to forgive others. This is a subject of intimate conversation with God.

“Save us from the time of trial.” There are many renderings of this petition, and scholars admit they are baffled. We are right to ask not to suffer; Jesus did, sweating blood. But, in spite of our prayers, bad things still happen. Through prayer, however, we may discover some hidden benefit emerging from our suffering. It may meet hitherto unrecognised needs. Suffering can actually result in strengthening rather than weakening of faith, and often in a deeper appreciation and enjoyment of life. Intimate dialogue with God brings understanding, and understanding brings peace. We can learn to embrace the God who suffers in us. The creative genius knows agony as well as ecstasy.

It is hard to think of anything in life that the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t cover. So it is not something to be recited as a duty; nor is it a kind of mantra, valuable as mantras are in their own way. It is the basis of thoughtful intimacy with God.

* International Commission for English Texts version.