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Pastor's Page— September 2006

Praying together with the world

The Lord’s Prayer is the most widely prayed prayer in the world, used by every Christian denomination. “It’s phenomenal to think about all the people who have said these words and the cohesiveness that it creates,” said Cindy McCalmont, minister of spiritual formation and pastoral care at Collegiate UMC/Wesley Foundation in Ames, Iowa.

But is it so familiar to us that it has lost its meaning? “It’s so familiar and easily made commonplace that we want people to feel the power of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. And I think that only comes from really studying and talking about it and telling stories,” according to McCalmont.

McCalmont, together with Bishop Gregory V. Palmer and Rev. Brian Milford, have collected stories to write a book they hope will make the Lord’s prayer dynamic and alive to Christians of all stripes. Their book, Becoming Jesus' Prayer: Transforming Your Life Through the Lord's Prayer, forms the basis for a 7-week sermon series and study which will start on Sept. 10 at St. Paul’s. Each week resources will be made available to help us to focus on allowing the Lord’s Prayer to transform us.

God’s people in Christ have a time-honored and life-tested vocabulary for praying, one that is so familiar, yet rarely do we contemplate the depth and the power of Jesus’ example of prayer.

In Luke 11:1-2 we find these words: “He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray ….’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say …..’”

This sermon series is offered not because the church or the world needs another series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer. If you choose to engage in attending worship and participating prayerfully, you will discover, not more information, but an invitation to transformation. As we make our way through these 7 weeks you will be encouraged to find your home in this prayer and to let the Lord’s Prayer live in you. You will hear a clear, unambiguous invitation to be changed, to become the prayer.

We will be invited to breathe this prayer in community with others, to hear the stories of other pilgrims on the journey, to tell our own stories and to name our experiences. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for the community.

All of us are to pray—
to pray with others,
to reflect on what we are experiencing and to listen to others,
to humbly admit only God can meaningfully address our deepest hungers.

As we immerse ourselves in this prayer of Jesus we will be comforted, convicted, and converted. We will pray it until we experience joy and sorrow.
    Pray it humbly.
       Pray it boldly.
          Pray it until we are transformed.

Let us pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us, “Our Father, ….”
. . . Amen!