A Daily Lent

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Daily Reading: Matthew 6:7 – 15 Focus Passage: And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matt. 6:7 – 8) How have we turned prayer sideways? Depending on the translation you read, Jesus says do not babble, don’t use vain repetition, or don’t heap up empty phrases when you pray. The picture is almost comical, as if someone learning to pray observed someone else praying, then merely repeated that person’s language, rhythm, posture, and voice inflection. As a pastor, I learned years ago how to use vocabulary, tone, and volume to make my public prayers sound like they were connecting with God. That they were generally hollow mattered less to me than that people thought I was offering a meaningful prayer. I hope God laughs about those days more than weeps. While prayer is more caught than ...

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Matthew 6:7 – 13 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” The “babbling” in the first line is translated in other versions as “heaping up empty phrases.” I have to admit that my mind has mostly gone to that phrase. It sounds like a rock pile or a heap of dirt. Except that in this pseudo-prayer, we are heaping up “empty-phrases” and meaningless jargon instead. It’s not that the words we say in prayer are untrue or impotent . . . Jesus’ point is that when we manipulate pra...

Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. The language of this part of the Our Father (The Lord's Prayer, the Model Prayer, or in Latin, the Pater Noster ) varies, depending on the translation you use. Some favor "trespasses," others "sins," and some "debts." In congregational prayer, I usually use "trespasses." When I say the prayer privately, I use "sins." When I want to meditate on the prayer and linger with the images, I use "debts." As an image, "debt" carries a depth of meaning for me that the others lack. I have daily experiences of being indebted to others, and of others being indebted to me. Every time I step into a store, for instance, and pay at the checkout, I'm reminded of my debt . . . I have to pay something of value in order to take out something of value. It's the way our economy works. We assign value to something and then extract pay...

Matthew 6:7 - 15 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. It is strange irony that when we read and pray this text on prayer, in which Jesus says, “Don’t babble on like the pagans,” we babble the prayer like pagans. We “recite” the Lord’s Prayer mindlessly, without considering the weight of our words, without pondering the substantial ...