Lent. From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, Christians mark a six-week season meant to focus on God’s presence in our world and our lives. It’s a time when churches typically offer special services and devotional practices. Among other things, Lent is a time for prayer.
Prayer is a confusing thing to many people. What does it mean to pray? As children, many of us were taught to say prayers, to memorize words, and repeat them. As adults, it’s common for people to think of prayer as something like a magic wish: if you want something, pray for it and maybe you’ll get it. Others think of prayer as the proscribed church services or other devotionals. Rarely are we taught to pray. When we are taught about prayer, often it becomes something of an analysis of prayer and statement of categories, like intercessory prayer is like this and contemplative prayer is like that. But how do you pray?
The question isn’t new. We read in chapter 11 of the Gospel attributed to Luke that one day, the disciples of Jesus asked him how to pray. It seems that they didn’t know how to do it any better than most of us. What’s interesting to me is that we’ve taken Jesus’s response and made it into a prayer that we memorize and recite. In doing so, we’ve lost the understanding of what Jesus tried to communicate about how to pray.
Both the Gospels attributed to Matthew and Luke convey to us that Jesus told the disciples, “When you pray, say: Our Father….”
Let me pause for an editorial comment right here. I don’t believe that God has a gender, male or female. Because of that, I typically avoid using gendered words when referring to the Divine. But in this case, the traditional words help to capture what I hope to communicate.
The words, “Our Father,” are so familiar to us that they’ve practically lost their meaning. It’s important to realize that Jesus did not say, “My Father.” In the Gospels, Jesus frequently speaks of God as “His Father,” but not this case. We miss that Jesus is saying that when we begin our prayer, we begin by realizing that we are children of one God. Further, Jesus is inviting us to realize that because we are children of one God, Jesus is our brother. And even more, we are deeply connected as brothers and sisters with all of those who pray. In other words, as a follower of Jesus, when I pray, I am joining the community of all who pray. Christian prayer is about the “we,” the children together, who address the Divine as “Our Father.” In a time when we find ourselves disconnected from others and from a sense of community, I think this is critical to remember. To pray as Jesus taught is to pray as a person connected in an essential way to others, as part of a community, as related to others as sisters and brothers.
While we traditionally use the word, “Father,” that’s not the word used by Jesus. One of the very few words we know Jesus said is that he called God, “Abba.” Speaking in Aramaic, abba is the familiar term for one’s father used by a child. For us, it would be daddy or papa. It’s a term of intimacy, familiarity, and trust.
To pray in the way that Jesus taught is to pray to God as someone intimate to us whom we trust. Often, we pray to a God of power and might, a God who judges us, a God whose only concern is our sinfulness, and on and on. None of that is what Jesus taught. Christian prayer is rooted in that intimate, trusting relationship a little child has with a parent. There’s no formality. There’s no need to tell loving parents how great they are. Surely, a loving parent isn’t interested in hearing a child go on and on about the things the child has done wrong. No, loving parents simply want to be with their children, accept them as they are, and welcome them with kindness and compassion.
Over two thousand years, we’ve succeeded in making prayer very complicated. We’ve moved very far from the way Jesus taught his followers to pray. Perhaps this Lent is a time to renew our prayer by following the instructions of Jesus. Jesus instructed his followers: when you pray, remember you’re connected with me and with everyone else who prays. It’s “our” prayer. Even more, you’re being with “our Daddy.” So, relax — just as a child would relax and find comfort by simply being with a loving parent. That’s how we begin to pray as followers of Jesus.
Image credit Jeremy-Yap on Wunderstock (license)