Whoops! A Prayer in 'Our' Pocket

Spirituality Column #115
January 20, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Whoops! A Prayer in ‘Our’ Pocket
By Bob Walters

Second in a series on The Lord's Prayer

I always felt that the Lord’s Prayer was enough.

It’s not, of course. But when I wasn’t going to church, hadn’t been saved, and couldn’t make sense of the Trinity as one God or the Bible as two inerrant stanzas of the same inerrant book, I had the Lord’s Prayer.

I’d learned it as a kid in church without thinking about the prayer itself. On the rare, usually awful intervening occasion (those non-church years) when I felt a tug to call out to God, the only club I had in my bag was the Lord’s Prayer. I’d pray it alone, never noticing the language.

It wasn’t until after I’d been baptized as a mature adult and began studying when one shocking day I noticed:

“Our Father …”

“Give us …”

“… our daily bread”

“… forgive us”

“… our trespasses/debts”

“… we forgive …

“… against us/our debtors”

“… lead us”

“… deliver us”

It was the first time I realized: it’s not a prayer about me. It’s a prayer about “our” and “we” and “us.” It’s a prayer about community. It points to our earthly community as believers and, perhaps more subtly, to the divine community of the Trinity.

Christianity isn’t about being “alone.” It’s not about being away from others or away from God. “Our,” “we,” “those” and “us” are all first person plural pronouns. No singular. No “me.” No “I.”

Jesus links us together in faith. Through His incarnation, death and resurrection (his humanity and the Cross), He links us with the holy and eternal “Our Father” God – not just in the immediate here and the imperfect today, but forever in the same perfect place He dwells, sharing His perfect presence.

We need Jesus, and we need each other. The Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, the Pater Noster … the prayer is about all of us.

Even when we pray it alone.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests on this inauguration day we pray for our nation, pray for President Barack Obama and his family, and read Romans 13. Next week: the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.