Message from Pastor Mori
Dear RFUMC Family
"You should also know that I do not want you to recite all these words in your prayer. That would make it nothing but idle chatter and prattle. ….. Rather do I want your heart to be stirred and guided concerning the thoughts which ought to be comprehended in the Lord's Prayer.
These thoughts may be expressed, if your heart is rightly warmed and inclined toward prayer, in many different ways and with more words of fewer.
"A simple way to pray"
Do you like "The Lord's Prayer"? Every week, we pray it together during our Sunday worship, but I never thought about how it might be my personal prayer. So today I want to share the wisdom of Martin Luther (1483-1564). Luther saw prayer as crucial to living and growing in the Christian faith and he sees the Lord's Prayer as particularly important, and he teaches a very specific use of the Lord's Prayer.
Luther used the Lord's Prayer as an outline to structure a time of prayer- a framework that shapes prayers offered in our own words, meditations, requests, praise and at the same time it is confession. His simple outline: the Lord's Prayer first two words establish an intimate conversation with God, the first three petitions guide us into the appropriate attitude and focus on God's concerns (God's name, God's kingdom and God's will), and then God invites us to bring our own concerns. (whether for food, forgiveness, guidance or other help)
I want to invite you to pray with each line of the Lord's Prayer.
"Our father in heaven" – We call out God. God is the creator and also ruler of the universe, but we have intimacy with God as well, so we pray "Our father." Also, we find that intimacy is balanced by its opposite. The God who is "in heaven" leads us to humble silence as we reflect on our relationship with God.
"Hallowed be your name" – We take time to ask that God be honored in us and everywhere. We may offer praise and thanks for things that reflect the holiness of God.
"Your kingdom come" – We spend time asking for God to reign more visibly and thoroughly. Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, and cared for the outcast, so we ask God to make these priorities for our mission too in terms of service and justice.
"Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven" – We humble ourselves, openly acknowledge that God's plans are more important than our own.
"Give us this day our daily bread" – After three petitions about God, now we turn to ourselves. We are always dependent on God for everything, but we are also challenged to simplicity – it is interesting interpretation for me. According to Martin Luther, we are not only praying for daily care, but also for only what we really need. We should pray for what is really good for us and for the world.
"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" – We pray for attention to the harms we have done as well to the harms others have done us. By asking God to forgive them, we too, take steps toward forgiving.
"And do not bring us to the time of Trial" / "Lead is not into temptations" – We ask God to guide us, leading us away from anything that draws us from the way of Christ. Thinking of trials we ask God to spare us mercifully.
"But rescue us from the evil one"/ "Deliver us from evil" – The seventh and last request is about God's protection. God's protection from all the things that worry us.
Luther said "This is the way I use the Lord's Prayer when I pray it. To this day I suckle at the Lord's prayer like a child, and as an old man eat and drink from it and never get my fill. It is the very best prayer, even better than the psalter, which is so very dear to me."
In the future when we pray "The Lord's Prayer" together let us we open our hearts and talk with God in the way Luther offers us.
AMEN.
MORI
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