Theologically Speaking: The Lord's Prayer

Malcolm Guite as a Guide

by James Hukari

Certainly the most familiar prayer in Christendom is the Lord’s Prayer. Uttered by

millions of Believer’s weekly, if not daily. It might seem expected that the prayer Christ

himself uttered, would not only be the universal pattern of prayer (as Jesus himself

indicated with the words, “Pray then in this way ”), but also become the very prayer

Christians imitate to this day.

We find the prayer, sans its well known ending, “”For thine is the kingdom, the

power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen,” in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. The setting of

Jesus’s words couldn’t be more distinct.

In Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord’s Prayer is found in a lengthy discourse located in

Matthew 5-7. This is the first of five of Matthew’s major discourses, the so-called

Sermon on the Mount. This setting is perhaps Matthew’s attempt to present Jesus as

the New Moses delivering an ‘updated’ exposition of the Law (cf. Exodus 19-20;

Deuteronomy 4: 44-26). So the prayer for Matthew is a general teaching addressed to

not only the disciples of Jesus, but to people in general. In Luke’s Gospel, the prayer

seems to be in a much more intimate setting and is a direct response to the disciples

simple request for a lesson on prayer (Luke 11:1)

For those of us who do use the Lord’s Prayer routinely in the liturgy, as well as

part of our private spiritual practices, how do we keep from mis-using it? How do weavoid what Jesus warned about in Matthew 6: 5-8. How does the prayer remain “fresh,” as it were?

It might help to break the prayer down into smaller pieces. Rather than pray the

entire prayer at each setting, take a line and pray it/meditate on it for the day. For

example, on Sunday pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” On Monday,

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (That might be a

worthwhile prayer for the beginning of the work-week.), etcetera.

Another tool might be to use poetry with the Lord’s Prayer.

Poetry can add a rich language to our consideration of each petition and it slows

us down. Poetry can force us to notice what is perhaps too easily glossed over.

An admirable guide to such an enterprise is Malcolm Guite.

Malcolm Guite is an English poet, academic and Anglican priest. He has degrees

from Cambridge and a Ph.D. from Durham University and is considered an expert on

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkein. He also performs regularly as a singer and guitarist. He

is also my favorite pipe connoisseur and has a number of YouTube videos featuring

pipes.

Guite has chosen the sonnet as his preferred poetry form. Sonnets are

traditionally a fixed verse poetic form consisting of fourteen lines. Due to the regular,

rhythmic nature of a sonnet, it has the feel of liturgy and thus is well suited to consider

such theological themes as prayer.

Malcolm Guite wrote “Seven Sonnets on the Lord’s Prayer,” found in his book

Parable and Paradox . (Canterbury Press, 2016.) As a preface to his poems, he cites

1the Lord’s Prayer as found in Matthew 6: 9-13. (p.65). The words in italics are directly

from Guite’s poems.

In literal Greek, the opening of the Lord’s prayer would be, “Father, of us.” Our

Father.

“Our” becomes perhaps the most critical, single word of the prayer. While Jesus

has just instructed his disciples that when they pray, they are to “go into your room and

shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” (Mt. 6:6). Yet when the disciples

come to him and ask for instruction in prayer (Luke 11:1), he opens with ‘Our Father.’

Perhaps suggesting that prayer as a spiritual practice, is not only a private matter, but

communal. With Christ we step into our filial relationship with God and all our petitions

flow from that.

Malcolm Guite begins his poem, “Our Father,” as an interested, yet hesitant,

observer in Jesus as he is praying. The Bystander sees the figure praying and

considers the words heard, ‘ his words must be for you alone, knowing myself unworthy

of his love. ’ Yet, as he gains confidence to approach and ask how to pray. He found,

"

You give your words away, As though I stood with you in your position, As though your

Father was my Father too. ’ Yet, in his advance, the interested Bystander discerns in the

Pray-er and the prayer, ‘ his welcome home .’

The word ‘hallowed’ is not much used in American English today. We use it here

in the Lord’s Prayer and then, perhaps, occasionally describing a special piece of

geography, i.e. “Standing on hallowed ground.”

For the Bystander in Guite’s sonnets, hallowed is haunting. ‘ There’s something in

the sound of the word hallow; A haunting sense of everything we’ve lost. ’ It appears the

2words he’s hearing are utterly opposite his daily experience. We live trite and trivial

lives, seeking ‘ The kingdom and the power and the glory, The very things we all want for

ourselves! We want to be the hero of the story and leave the others on their dusty

shelves.’ (from the seventh sonnet, Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the

Glory,’ Parable and Paradox , p.71). ‘ But hallowed summons up our fear and wonder .’

The first hearers of the Lord’s Prayer would understand the concept of a special

place set aside for worship and priestly activity. However, here, unlike Moses, the

ground is not designated hallow (Exodus 3:1-6), the Name is. Without going afield,

perhaps Jesus is obliquely introducing his followers to the Kingdom-truth that they will

not worship the Father “on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21-23), but will

worship God, in his name.

I think it's important for Jesus that before we rush into petitions, we stop to revere

God’s name. God’s name is God’s word, God’s presence. And we’re invited to approach

God as Father.

The first petition is asking that the Father’s kingdom come. ‘ Can we imagine what

we’re asking for?’ The Bystander asks in “Thy Kingdom Come,” the third sonnet by

Guite.

‘When all we know and all we think we’re worth

As vanity might vanish, disappear,

Fading before the splendours you reveal’

We must remember that Guite's poems are through the eyes of those - us - ‘ who

have been first, will be last,’ and not through God’s eyes. God’s judgement on our lives

is far different than our own. The Bystander realizes that to beseech the coming of

God’s Kingdom and the execution of his will, is to recognize the pointlessness to our

3own lives. What we have sought after, produced and accumulated is dust in the light of

the divine kingdom and will of the Father. We now ‘ queue for mercy like the refugees

whom only moments earlier we passed.’

As the Bystander queues, he prays, ‘ Give us this day our daily bread. As though

it came straight from the hand of God, As though we held an empty plate each day.’

The prayer is beginning to shake our very foundation. We are not who we think we are.

LIke the Bystander perhaps we’ve built our lives through solid education, degrees, titles

and positions. We’ve too often acted like the Pharisee who went up to pray. Standing by

himself, he prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people . . . “ (Luke

18:9-14). The Lord’s Prayer teaches us we are exactly ‘like other people;’ also needing

to pray for our daily food.

The heart of the Lord’s Prayer is the petition for forgiveness. Here none of us can

stand cloaked. All is uncovered and laid bare:

The wounds we give and take in all our weakness,

The injuries that smoulder, burning slow,

The sins that others visited upon us,

Are ours to hold or utterly let go.’

The human story begins in paradise, but quickly descends into sin, causing

alienation. We are alienated from God, from others, and ultimately, from ourselves. The

antidote for sin and alienation is forgiveness and the community of the forgiven.

We also note that Guite begins his sonnets - following the progression of the

Lord’s Prayer - as a ‘ distant supplicant. ’ Now the distant Bystander has been brought to

the heart of it. Not only is the physical movement apparent, but also the intimacy now

experienced.

In the poem “Forgive Us As We Forgive,” the Bystander recalls the story of the

king who wanted to settle his accounts with his slaves (Matthew 18: 23-35). When we

petition God for forgiveness, fellowship with God, others and ourselves can be restored.

The Bystander asks. ‘ Oh, lift my given load that I, forgiven, Might give away forgiveness,

free as heaven.

’

In 2017 Pope Francis argued that the popular translation found in the Lord’s

Prayer, “lead us not into temptation,” should be altered to say, “do not let us fall into

temptation.” His position was less linguistic, as it was theological. The Pope reasoned

that it was, “not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation.

A father doesn’t do that,” he said (The Guardian, 6 June 2019).

Malcolm Guite helps us here rediscover the spirit of the language of the Lord’s

Prayer in his poem, “Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil.” (Guite,

p.70). He begins his poem: ‘ Oh, do not bring us to the time of trial, Deliver us, deliver

us from evil.’

The Lord’s Prayer ends with a confession, stated by Guite in his poem, “Thine is

the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory” (Guite, p.71): ‘ How brutally we hold on to

the power, Our glory always means another’s thralldom, But still we strut and fret our

little hour.’

Are we ready to hallow, not our name, but God’s? Can we acknowledge his rule

and relinquish any claims we may have? Is it possible to stop serving our own private

interest by conforming to his will? Can we trust him? (following Lohfink, The Our Father ,

p.106).

5The Lord’s Prayer is not only a prayer Jesus used to teach prayer, it’s also an

introduction to Christian theology and the Christian life. Malcolm Guite’s sonnets have

invited us to stop, pay attention and put ourselves in the place of the Bystander and, not

only to pray, but live into a Christ-shaped life. I think Guite’s sonnets have served their

purpose well. May we take time to pray The Lord’s Prayer afresh.Certainly the most familiar prayer in Christendom is the Lord’s Prayer. Uttered by

millions of Believer’s weekly, if not daily. It might seem expected that the prayer Christ

himself uttered, would not only be the universal pattern of prayer (as Jesus himself

indicated with the words, “Pray then in this way ”), but also become the very prayer

Christians imitate to this day.

We find the prayer, sans its well known ending, “”For thine is the kingdom, the

power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen,” in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. The setting of

Jesus’s words couldn’t be more distinct.

In Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord’s Prayer is found in a lengthy discourse located in

Matthew 5-7. This is the first of five of Matthew’s major discourses, the so-called

Sermon on the Mount. This setting is perhaps Matthew’s attempt to present Jesus as

the New Moses delivering an ‘updated’ exposition of the Law (cf. Exodus 19-20;

Deuteronomy 4: 44-26). So the prayer for Matthew is a general teaching addressed to

not only the disciples of Jesus, but to people in general. In Luke’s Gospel, the prayer

seems to be in a much more intimate setting and is a direct response to the disciples

simple request for a lesson on prayer (Luke 11:1)

For those of us who do use the Lord’s Prayer routinely in the liturgy, as well as

part of our private spiritual practices, how do we keep from mis-using it? How do weavoid what Jesus warned about in Matthew 6: 5-8. How does the prayer remain “fresh,” as it were?

It might help to break the prayer down into smaller pieces. Rather than pray the

entire prayer at each setting, take a line and pray it/meditate on it for the day. For

example, on Sunday pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” On Monday,

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (That might be a

worthwhile prayer for the beginning of the work-week.), etcetera.

Another tool might be to use poetry with the Lord’s Prayer.

Poetry can add a rich language to our consideration of each petition and it slows

us down. Poetry can force us to notice what is perhaps too easily glossed over.

An admirable guide to such an enterprise is Malcolm Guite.

Malcolm Guite is an English poet, academic and Anglican priest. He has degrees

from Cambridge and a Ph.D. from Durham University and is considered an expert on

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkein. He also performs regularly as a singer and guitarist. He

is also my favorite pipe connoisseur and has a number of YouTube videos featuring

pipes.

Guite has chosen the sonnet as his preferred poetry form. Sonnets are

traditionally a fixed verse poetic form consisting of fourteen lines. Due to the regular,

rhythmic nature of a sonnet, it has the feel of liturgy and thus is well suited to consider

such theological themes as prayer.

Malcolm Guite wrote “Seven Sonnets on the Lord’s Prayer,” found in his book

Parable and Paradox . (Canterbury Press, 2016.) As a preface to his poems, he cites

1the Lord’s Prayer as found in Matthew 6: 9-13. (p.65). The words in italics are directly

from Guite’s poems.

In literal Greek, the opening of the Lord’s prayer would be, “Father, of us.” Our

Father.

“Our” becomes perhaps the most critical, single word of the prayer. While Jesus

has just instructed his disciples that when they pray, they are to “go into your room and

shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” (Mt. 6:6). Yet when the disciples

come to him and ask for instruction in prayer (Luke 11:1), he opens with ‘Our Father.’

Perhaps suggesting that prayer as a spiritual practice, is not only a private matter, but

communal. With Christ we step into our filial relationship with God and all our petitions

flow from that.

Malcolm Guite begins his poem, “Our Father,” as an interested, yet hesitant,

observer in Jesus as he is praying. The Bystander sees the figure praying and

considers the words heard, ‘ his words must be for you alone, knowing myself unworthy

of his love. ’ Yet, as he gains confidence to approach and ask how to pray. He found,

"

You give your words away, As though I stood with you in your position, As though your

Father was my Father too. ’ Yet, in his advance, the interested Bystander discerns in the

Pray-er and the prayer, ‘ his welcome home .’

The word ‘hallowed’ is not much used in American English today. We use it here

in the Lord’s Prayer and then, perhaps, occasionally describing a special piece of

geography, i.e. “Standing on hallowed ground.”

For the Bystander in Guite’s sonnets, hallowed is haunting. ‘ There’s something in

the sound of the word hallow; A haunting sense of everything we’ve lost. ’ It appears the

2words he’s hearing are utterly opposite his daily experience. We live trite and trivial

lives, seeking ‘ The kingdom and the power and the glory, The very things we all want for

ourselves! We want to be the hero of the story and leave the others on their dusty

shelves.’ (from the seventh sonnet, Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the

Glory,’ Parable and Paradox , p.71). ‘ But hallowed summons up our fear and wonder .’

The first hearers of the Lord’s Prayer would understand the concept of a special

place set aside for worship and priestly activity. However, here, unlike Moses, the

ground is not designated hallow (Exodus 3:1-6), the Name is. Without going afield,

perhaps Jesus is obliquely introducing his followers to the Kingdom-truth that they will

not worship the Father “on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21-23), but will

worship God, in his name.

I think it's important for Jesus that before we rush into petitions, we stop to revere

God’s name. God’s name is God’s word, God’s presence. And we’re invited to approach

God as Father.

The first petition is asking that the Father’s kingdom come. ‘ Can we imagine what

we’re asking for?’ The Bystander asks in “Thy Kingdom Come,” the third sonnet by

Guite.

‘When all we know and all we think we’re worth

As vanity might vanish, disappear,

Fading before the splendours you reveal’

We must remember that Guite's poems are through the eyes of those - us - ‘ who

have been first, will be last,’ and not through God’s eyes. God’s judgement on our lives

is far different than our own. The Bystander realizes that to beseech the coming of

God’s Kingdom and the execution of his will, is to recognize the pointlessness to our

own lives. What we have sought after, produced and accumulated is dust in the light of

the divine kingdom and will of the Father. We now ‘ queue for mercy like the refugees

whom only moments earlier we passed.’

As the Bystander queues, he prays, ‘ Give us this day our daily bread. As though

it came straight from the hand of God, As though we held an empty plate each day.’

The prayer is beginning to shake our very foundation. We are not who we think we are.

LIke the Bystander perhaps we’ve built our lives through solid education, degrees, titles

and positions. We’ve too often acted like the Pharisee who went up to pray. Standing by

himself, he prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people . . . “ (Luke

18:9-14). The Lord’s Prayer teaches us we are exactly ‘like other people;’ also needing

to pray for our daily food.

The heart of the Lord’s Prayer is the petition for forgiveness. Here none of us can

stand cloaked. All is uncovered and laid bare:

The wounds we give and take in all our weakness,

The injuries that smoulder, burning slow,

The sins that others visited upon us,

Are ours to hold or utterly let go.’

The human story begins in paradise, but quickly descends into sin, causing

alienation. We are alienated from God, from others, and ultimately, from ourselves. The

antidote for sin and alienation is forgiveness and the community of the forgiven.

We also note that Guite begins his sonnets - following the progression of the

Lord’s Prayer - as a ‘ distant supplicant. ’ Now the distant Bystander has been brought to

the heart of it. Not only is the physical movement apparent, but also the intimacy now

experienced.

In the poem “Forgive Us As We Forgive,” the Bystander recalls the story of the

king who wanted to settle his accounts with his slaves (Matthew 18: 23-35). When we

petition God for forgiveness, fellowship with God, others and ourselves can be restored.

The Bystander asks. ‘ Oh, lift my given load that I, forgiven, Might give away forgiveness,

free as heaven.‘

In 2017 Pope Francis argued that the popular translation found in the Lord’s

Prayer, “lead us not into temptation,” should be altered to say, “do not let us fall into

temptation.” His position was less linguistic, as it was theological. The Pope reasoned

that it was, “not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation.

A father doesn’t do that,” he said (The Guardian, 6 June 2019).

Malcolm Guite helps us here rediscover the spirit of the language of the Lord’s

Prayer in his poem, “Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil.” (Guite,

p.70). He begins his poem: ‘ Oh, do not bring us to the time of trial, Deliver us, deliver

us from evil.’

The Lord’s Prayer ends with a confession, stated by Guite in his poem, “Thine is

the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory” (Guite, p.71): ‘ How brutally we hold on to

the power, Our glory always means another’s thralldom, But still we strut and fret our

little hour.’

Are we ready to hallow, not our name, but God’s? Can we acknowledge his rule

and relinquish any claims we may have? Is it possible to stop serving our own private

interest by conforming to his will? Can we trust him? (following Lohfink, The Our Father ,

p.106).

The Lord’s Prayer is not only a prayer Jesus used to teach prayer, it’s also an

introduction to Christian theology and the Christian life. Malcolm Guite’s sonnets have

invited us to stop, pay attention and put ourselves in the place of the Bystander and, not

only to pray, but live into a Christ-shaped life. I think Guite’s sonnets have served their

purpose well. May we take time to pray The Lord’s Prayer afresh.