Before Advent I was preaching my way through the Lord's Prayer. Again. This time in the cultural context of the chaotic and at times toxic political climate of this past year. Whose kingdom counts most? Whose will to power should we support? What political leader is the least worst choice when politics itself is losing its capacity for constructive dialogue, civil discourse, a shared commitment to the common good. Is the Lord's Prayer too heavenly minded to be any use in countering the hard-edged cynicism and divisive rhetoric of life online?
And then there's that awkwardly ordinary request for bread. If Jesus was teaching his followers a pattern prayer, setting precedents and priorities, what on earth has bread to do with it? Quite a lot as it turns out, in a world where food is weaponised against those we oppose (sanctions); where food is wasted on an industrial scale; in which starvation and malnutrition remain a way of life for millions of people. What on earth does it mean to pray "Give us this day our daily bread" in the developed world where food security is now a crucial component of a nation's economic, foreign and defence policies? That small loaf makes the Lord's Prayer a searing critique of our politics, economics and ethics. Jesus teaches us to pray for enough food for all of us; and us doesn't just mean me and mine.
Advent interrupted the sequence, so now on the first Sunday of the New Year, we will confront an even more demanding choice. Can we pray this - "Forgive us our wrongs, as we forgive those who have wronged us." No getting away from it; Jesus requires the kind of openness before God that is nothing less than a health check on all our relationships.
Forget the walk in the park that is the New Year resolution charade. To pray these words is to enter a binding agreement with God that we will sort out our relationships. Reconciliation takes two sides to make peace; yes, but a Christian is a minister of reconciliation, and carries a portfolio on peacemaking. Forgiveness is something else, and no less demanding. The Lord's Prayer compels us to return regularly to the unfinished business of dealing with anger, memories, bitterness, grudges, grievances, misunderstandings, dislikes, and yes, hates.
To pray the Lord's prayer as if we mean to practice it, is a daily exercise in reorientation towards others. And to pray for forgiveness and link that to our own intentional forgiving is to begin to take seriously the mercy that has forgiven us. The start of a New Year then becomes an opportunity for relational healing, and a recovery of love as the quality control of our emotional life. The Lord's Prayer is an eye opener, restoring our sight so that we see those who have become strangers to us in a new light. It is to pray for a heart that is Christlike in its default mechanisms of love and peacemaking, working towards mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation.
As much as any sermon a preacher ever dares to preach, a sermon on the forgiveness petition requires to be preached and practised first to the heart of the preacher. For a Christian community which is the embodied life of Christ a life of forgivingness is as demanding as it gets.
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