The prayer that never changed
The Lord's Prayer across two thousand years
He is asked by his disciples: teach us to pray.
He gives them a prayer. It is short — fifty words in English — and it contains everything.
Our Father. Not my Father. Our. The prayer begins with community — with the recognition that you are praying as one of many, not as an individual making a private transaction with God. You are praying with everyone who has ever prayed this prayer, which is everyone in this devotional, which is everyone you have read about for three hundred and fifty days.
Who art in heaven. The one being addressed is not contained by the world. He is larger than it, prior to it, beyond it, and also — this prayer depends on this — personally addressable.
Hallowed be thy name. The first request is not for anything. It is for the right ordering of everything — for the name of God to be treated as holy, which means for the world to be what it is supposed to be.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. The prayer for the closing of the gap — between what is and what should be, between the broken present and the whole future, between earth and heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. Enough for today. Not the stockpile, not the security, not the guarantee of tomorrow. Today's bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. The most dangerous line in the prayer. We are asking to be forgiven in the same proportion as we forgive.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
— Jesus, Matthew 6:9
“Pray like this. 'Our Father, who is in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.'”
Every person in this devotional prayed this prayer.
Polycarp in the arena. Augustine in the garden. Francis on the hillside. Luther in the tower. Tyndale in his cell. Wesley on horseback. Bonhoeffer in Tegel. Teresa in Calcutta in the dark years when she felt nothing.
The same words. Addressed to the same Father. For two thousand years.
When you pray it, you are not alone. You are in a crowd so large that Revelation cannot count it, all saying the same words to the same God, all asking for the same kingdom to come.
Pray it today. Slowly. As if you mean every word. Because you are in the best possible company.