Narrative Lectionary Summer Series – Lord’s Prayer, Week One
Luke 11:2-4
Free Additional Resources for Study & Sermon Preparation
Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Rev. Dr. Clint Schnekloth
Most prayers live close to the heart; this prayer is the heart itself. There is no other prayer in Christian tradition so widely known and memorized, recited “by heart.” This makes preaching on the text somewhat complex, primarily because it is reflection on something so familiar and known it has almost become second nature.
In some traditions there is resistance to “rote” prayers, because such prayers risk becoming automatic, less authentic. Familiarity breeds contempt, some may argue. However, there is another way to think about memorized prayers, that they are so known “by heart” that they play a completely different role in the life of prayer than other kinds of prayers, prayers we pray while knowing what we say.
Is it okay to pray prayers so familiar we do not exactly think about their noetic content while praying them? Can we pray prayers that are as automatic and sub-conscious as breathing?
I hope so. I hope breath can serve more than one person. I hope breath can both keep us alive, happen while we sleep, repeat without awareness, AND I hope breath can support words to God in more innovative and fresh prayers.
Martin Luther recommended to his barber, in A Simple Way to Pray, the Lord’s Prayer, together with other parts of the catechism, as resources for daily meditative prayer. He suggested something simple: take the prayer, or the creed, or other memorized parts of the catechism, and use them line by line as a source for inspiration and expanded prayers.
This is essentially the model we will use for these four weeks focused on the Lord’s Prayer. We will take our time, line by line, slowing down enough to attend to each word, each subclause, each sentence, each line.
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
This first week we stay with the first line. Hallowed by your name. Holy is your name. God’s name is holy.
Notice how much is contained just in this first line. First, it gives us a specific name to use for God—Father, or as Jesus says, Abba. Perhaps something like “Daddy-God,” or if gender-specific language gets in the way for you in your prayers, just as readily “Mother,” “Momma,” or “My Parent.”
Then, there is something special about God’s “Name.” This has been apparent throughout Scripture, whether we are reading Genesis and discovering the early names of God, or Exodus and hearing God introduce Godself to Moses as “I Am Who I Am,” or the special treatment the name of God gets in Israel, written in a special way and not spoken, so that sometimes God is simply referred to by “The Name”—Hashem.
Finally, this name is hallowed, holy. Perhaps this is the least clear part of the prayer. What does it mean to hallow something, to recognize it as holy? For one, the holy things are mentioned first. We pause for them and revere them before moving on. So in this sense we practice hallowing simply by starting the Lord’s Prayer in this way. But we also recognize holiness inasmuch as it becomes a source for trust and reliance.
God is holy because we can ask God for all the things that follow.
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The following links and resources are not produced or maintained by Clergy Stuff. However, at the time of this posting, the links were active and considered to be good source material for proclamation for the text for this week. Please scroll down or click on the quick jump menu you find below. For more free worship resources & planning materials, please visit our links for RCL Worship Resources.
Historical Exegetical Resources
The Lord and His Prayer, N.T. Wright
The Lord’s Prayer (Interpretation Series), C. Clifton Black
Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen On the Lord’s Prayer, St. Vladimir’s Press Popular Patristics Series
Contemporary Resources
Exegetical Links
Our Father: Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, Pope Francis
The Lord’s Prayer, via The Church of England
The Divine Name(s) and the Holy Trinity, Kendall Soulen
Great Quotes
“At the heart of our prayers will be words that Jesus himself taught us. It is simple enough to be memorised by small children and yet profound enough to sustain a whole lifetime of prayer.”
A Good Read
The Lord’s Prayer
by C. Clifton Black
C. Clifton Black provides a thorough analysis of the most famous prayer in the Christian church, the Lord’s Prayer. He begins with an impressionist painting of how the ancients prayed during Jesus’ time in order to set the context for understanding the prayer he taught his disciples. Throughout the book, Black systematically interprets the rich meanings of each part of the Lord’s prayer. Additionally, he includes an overview of Christian thought on the Lord’s Prayer from early church mothers and fathers like Tertullian and Teresa of Avila to modern theologians like Karl Barth. Uniquely, this book is an academic study of the Lord’s Prayer with a focus on the rhetorical culture from which it developed as well as the theological, literary, and historical meanings of the prayer itself.
Video Resources
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Free Dramatic Reading For This Text (NRSV)
Readers: Narrator, Jesus
Narrator: He said to them,
Jesus: “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”