The Lord’s Prayer

This week, in Children Worship & Wonder, the children will hear the story of The Lord’s Prayer. I was 19 years old the first time I heard this prayer spoken aloud by a worshiping body. I stood up when everyone else stood, but I was confused. I didn’t know the words and I didn’t know how all these people knew them. (It wasn’t printed in the worship bulletin.) There were many things about that worship experience that confused me, but also made me start asking questions which lead me to where I am today.

Our pastor was a student at Lexington Theological Seminary. As I asked questions about the worship service and about practices and beliefs of the denomination, I began to fall in love with God and with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The Lord’s Prayer started it all for me. It was the first thing I committed myself to learning. As I committed to learning it, I also familiarized myself with what we were saying, what these words meant, why we said these words, and why we stood and recited them together. I think my unfamiliarity with the faith put me at more of an advantage. Over the years of serving the church, I’ve learned that many people, those who grew up in the church and always said this prayer, didn’t really give the prayer much thought. They only dedicated themselves to remembering it so they could recite it with others.

As we share this story with the children this week, we take it bit-by-bit and talk about what we’re saying when we recite this prayer. Here are some things you might not know or think about with The Lord’s Prayer:

• The first part, those first two sentences, we call on God and we honor God. As Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God in parables, we are asking that God’s Kingdom be a part of our world here and now.
• The second part, three sentences, we are asking for specific blessings. (1) We ask for our daily bread to eat and for Holy Bread so we can encounter God every day. (2) We ask for forgiveness and help forgiving others. And (3) we ask that God will lead us safely through the places of danger and temptation and will chase away evil; much like a shepherd leads and protects his sheep.
• The third part is about honoring God. We tell God that we know God alone has rule and power and glory that will never end. We know this because God came to us in Jesus, He lived among us, and then, when the time came, God conquered death and evil by living forever and giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• And last, we finish by saying “Amen.” This means “YES!” or “So be it!” as in, let it be so! Our intent when we pray this prayer is for it to come true as we live by these words.

I wonder what part of the prayer you like best. I wonder what part of that prayer is hardest for you. I wonder why Jesus gave us this prayer. I wonder how you live out this prayer each day.

Blessings,
Tracy