Lord's Prayer

Of all the prayers in Christendom the Lord's Prayer is the most basic testament of the Christian faith. It is the most pervasive prayer in Christian life, included in liturgy and sacraments, and public as well as private prayer. Despite the prayer's being a hallmark of Christian faith, outside the realm of Christendom its ideology can be exposed as the desire for escape from the flux and chaos of the universe. This analysis will use The Lord's Prayer to answer the following four questions: What prompted the Lord's Prayer?; What is the purpose of the Lord's Prayer?; What are the lessons in the Lord's Prayer?; How effective is the Lord's Prayer where its intended purpose is concerned?

Jesus, fresh off his re-evaluation of the old testament "eye for an eye" with his famous "turn the other cheek" teaching, is explaining to the disciples that they must love their enemies and pray for their persecutors. Jesus explains to the disciples loving someone already loves them is no different than a tax collector. He also queries how loving your "brothers" could represent anything praiseworthy. As he says to his disciples, "do not pagans do as much. In a word, you must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:46-48). The Lord's prayer was prompted from a request of Jesus by the disciples. In Luke 11:1 we read: "Teach us how to pray" (The Prayer, 1999, 1). There

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uding the correct demeanor with which he is to be addressed during prayer. More than anything else the lessons in the prayer are ones that define man's exact role in relationship to an unknowable Supreme God. If we look at the opening line of the Prayer�our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name�we see that our relationship to God is being defined. We are like children to God. However, ascribing the word "Father" to God is not to imply that he is masculine. To say so would suggest God is knowable. We may have to consider the name God as holy, but we have no ability to fully know His Holiness. Nonetheless, we do have a parent�child relationship with God: "Jesus teaches that we have a filial relationship with God; God sees us as if we were a daughter or a son. And we, on our part, can approach God in the familiar confident way a child approaches a loving parent. What is more, we approach God through God's only Son, Jesus Christ, who unites us to himself" (The Prayer, 1999, 1). The lesson here is not solely revealed simply by the fact that we may approach God as if a loving parent. To understand the full significance of this line we need to realize that while the relationship between a parent and child may be lov

Category: Philosophy - L