In my earliest years, I knew only one
way to pray. At night, my Dad would tuck
me into bed and hold my hand as we said together…
Now I lay me down to
sleep
I pray Thee, Lord, my
soul to keep
If I should die
before I wake
I pray Thee, Lord, my
soul to take
I loved that time with
my Dad each night. To be honest, though,
I’m not sure I experienced the prayer aspect as spiritual so much as a magic
spell to ensure I’d make it alive through sleep until breakfast in the
morning…or at least evade the horrors of hell if I didn’t!
With time, the phrases
themselves began to conflagrate into one, 30-syllable power word hastily recited in one breath, spoken
effortlessly, a Godly “abracadabra” to surround me with peace and protection as
I slept.
I understood that
praying was “talking to God.” This,
however, was the only way I knew how to do it.
Jesus’ disciples seemed
at a loss themselves when it came to the “how to” of prayer. One day, after watching Jesus pray, his
followers asked him for a “how to” lesson in prayer. “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught
his disciples,” they asked (Lk 11:1).
Jesus’ response
provides the basis for what we now call “The Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our
Father,” though the scriptural version is more concise than what is customarily
used in worship (for the longer version, see Mt. 6:9-13).
For now, let’s just
consider the very first part of Jesus’ instruction, which says a great deal
about presence and the present.
“When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom
come. (Lk 11: 2).
Hallowed is a word we
don’t use regularly. Different
dictionaries define this word as “set apart as holy.” This “how to” starts with establishing our
sense of place and presence. We are not
in a casual conversation or distracted chatter.
This is intimate, powerful, distinct from the other conversations we
have in the world.
We are present in a
holy dialogue with One set apart as holy.
Time to be completely, utterly in the moment and nowhere else. Time to practice presence.
And then, “Your kingdom
come.” Taken as is, this could be seen
as a wish or a hope for something in the future, something that is not of the
“now,” something that will be accomplished at a later date.
I only speak for
myself, but am guessing others may have lived this way, too. Living as though the “coming of the kingdom”
prayed for collectively by millions in worship each week is some type of
distant spiritual payoff for doing the right thing and being in the right group
now. “If we live by the rules, if we go
through the right motions, if we worship in the right way, then someway…someday…we
will experience this kingdom of God.”
But Jesus himself says
otherwise.
To the
Pharisees, Jesus is later quoted in the Gospel of Luke saying, "The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs. Nor will people say, 'Look, here it is,' or 'There it is.' For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst." (Lk: 17—21).
This is
expressed differently depending on the translation. The kingdom of God is…
…in your
midst
…among you
…within you!
It’s now, in
the present. It’s here.
And it’s in me--in each of us! Jesus says so.
So why would
I need to pray, “Your kingdom come” if the kingdom is already within me and in
the midst of all I experience? Why can’t
I see what is right before, around me, within me?
Maybe it is
that the Kingdom of God is always present in my midst…but I am not always present
for the Kingdom of God. The busy-ness,
the striving, the ego, the clamor, the insatiable need for approval, and the
list goes on: altogether they create a noisy fog that blocks what is in front
of me, around me, inside of me all the time.
Many engage
in a tradition of sacrifice, of “giving something up for Lent.” Today, let us give up each thing that is
keeping us from seeing the Kingdom of God in the present, each thing that keeps
us from being present to Him.