Musings about Faith

For the season of Lent we will be focusing on the Lord's Prayer. Forgive Us Our Sins, as We Forgive Those Who Sin Against Us Of all of Jesus’ parables probably one of the best known is the Parable of the Prodigal Son.   This story that Jesus tells is a powerful story of betrayal and forgiveness.   And the betrayal is so great that it makes the act of unconditional forgiveness extremely radical.   Which is the point. God’s willingness, even compulsion to forgive us is excessive and radical, completely beyond human comprehension.   God is not only willing to forgive in this story, but God as the father, is eagerly waiting throughout the story to forgive.   The difficulty of this story for us is that often we are like the youngest son who stubbornly refuses to acknowledge our failings and our need for forgiveness.   We tend either to be so self-righteous that we refuse to recognize and acknowledge our need for forgiveness or, on the other hand, we get so ...

For the season of Lent we will be focusing on the Lord's Prayer. Give us today our daily bread In many ways this petition is the heart and center of the Lord’s Prayer.   This petition acts as a kind of railway switch that moves us in a different direction from the “thou” petitions ( hallowed be THY name; THY kingdom come; THY will be done…) to the “we” or “us” petitions ( give US today our daily bread; forgive US our sins; save US from the time of trial; deliver US from evil).   But while noting this, it is still important for us to recognize that this is only a slight change in focus.   This prayer continues to be a Kingdom prayer that is concerned with both affirming the values of the Kingdom come and recognizing that these Kingdom values have direct consequences for us, how we live our lives and how we relate to others.   As we ask God to help us keep God’s name holy, recognize the Kingdom come into our midst and allow God’s will be done in our lives now and ...

For the season of Lent we will be focusing on the Lord's Prayer. Your Will Be Done, On Earth as in Heaven It should be clear by now that this prayer is no ordinary prayer.   The Lord’s Prayer is a Kingdom prayer – a prayer that affirms the presence of the Kingdom come NOW in Christ; a prayer that turns the expected on its head; a prayer that is downright radical.   When we pray this prayer this is what we are affirming: God, Our Father, Abba, is nearer to us that we are to ourselves; God, Abba, has named us and we belong to God who has given us the name of the Son, Christ Emmanuel – God with us – as a promise.   God has gone even further by going ahead and inaugurating the Kingdom of God in our midst now.   No need to wait for some kind of future event, God is so anxious to give us the Kingdom that he has brought it into being now in Christ and we live as citizens as a part of the, as yet incomplete, Kingdom which will be brought to its glori...