Encountering the Lord’s Prayer

Summary

Many of us have known and recited the Lord’s Prayer for much of our lives. It’s one of the most well-known passages from the New Testament. And it has been prayed by Christians around the world for generations and generations.

Last semester I had the opportunity to encounter this text in a new way.  First, I wrote a paper on it, and I really geeked out, taking 18 pages of notes on just the 5 short verses of the prayer. How on earth could there be so much to think about?

And second, I memorized the Lord’s Prayer in Greek.

Everyone in the class had to do this, and over and over on the last day people shared of the significance of this particular experience. Because we took something so familiar, taken for granted even, and began to recite it over and over. And over.

And in that work, that repetition, it became meditative. I was praying the Lord’s prayer while I drove and while I fell asleep at night. I was thinking about it when I ate and while I was at the grocery store.

So today, I want to do something a little bit different. I want to share some of my research with you- don’t worry, not 18 pages worth! And we can look together more deeply into some of these words and phrases. We can think about their meaning and their application.

But I also invite us to move beyond thinking about the prayer and into a space of engaging the prayer on a deeper and more personal level. I hope we might encounter these familiar words in a new way in our worship today.