Learning the Prayer

My, how times have changed.

When I was in elementary school, and Dwight Eisenhower lived in the White House, I memorized the Lord’s Prayer in a public school.  We began each day by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, Psalm 100 and the Lord’s Prayer.  And here is the irony….  My family attended a fundamentalist church where we were taught not to pray that Prayer because (1) it was a written prayer, not a spontaneous one, and therefore could not come truly from the heart and (2) it was a prayer for another time, not for “the church age.”

Even as a fourth grader, I could recognize the irony.  I was expected to pray a specific Prayer each day in public school and was not allowed to pray that same Prayer in church.

Ain’t life grand!

I long ago realized the folly of both excuses for not using the Prayer, but I cannot escape the impression that we have become too familiar with it.  We say the Prayer.  How often do we actually hear it?  How often do we understand and appreciate it?

So I blog.

My first observation:  The disciples of Jesus already knew how to pray.  

During the life of Jesus the province of Galilee was not a religious wasteland.  Just consider the ease with which the disciples set everything aside and followed Jesus.  When these men asked Jesus “… teach us to pray…,” they were not Sunday school boys asking to be taught a simple prayer.  They were responsible adult Jews.  They had heard prayers, probably recited prayers, all their lives.  They were already religiously active and spiritually sensitive.  They were looking for something more.

I am persuaded there are two aspects to uncovering the secret of their quest – one political and the other linguistic.  And I look forward to exploring both in future posts.

Richard

Teach us to pray...

This blog is dedicated to a systematic study -- in bite-size chunks -- of the model prayer Jesus taught his friends.  I will limit the size of the posts to make each a quick read.  The posts will be archived.  The contents will be updated regularly, so check back often.
Visit my companion blog: "The God Caller."