tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8523387783776949956.post8654136047942369967..comments2023-07-11T04:56:18.300-07:00Comments on God and Gum Nuts: The Lord's Prayer - God's will on EarthAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03059054907843482358noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8523387783776949956.post-18108877806930639872011-07-09T17:14:54.415-07:002011-07-09T17:14:54.415-07:00Hi Bryon,
What a beautiful description of the Lor...Hi Bryon,<br /><br />What a beautiful description of the Lord's Prayer. And it shows how important it is not to take lines in isolation, but to read them in context. <br /><br />It's interesting because a lot of the descriptions I've seen or heard of the Lord's Prayer do take it on a line by line basis. So 'Our Father is where we pray for this, Who Art in Heaven is where we pray for this'. It almost feels like a whole set of different prayers that just happen to be lumped together.<br /><br />It really takes on a new focus when you recognise it is the one prayer. It also seems far less self-centred. The line-by-line descriptions often try to make each line personal. This is what this line means for me (or you as an individual sitting in the congregation or reading this book). But as a whole, as the 'eschatological yearning' that you describe, the focus is not on me but on God. <br /><br />As I was writing this post, I did keep thinking of 'as it is in Heaven'. But because it was mainly a response to the conversation I had with my friend, I decided just to focus on 'God's will on Earth'. But I think now I should have started with the Lord's Prayer in its entirety, because it's hard to really see what 'on Earth' means when you are looking at it as an isolated line, rather than one piece of a whole.<br /><br />LizAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03059054907843482358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8523387783776949956.post-11406281430995645772011-07-09T10:38:14.099-07:002011-07-09T10:38:14.099-07:00I find it helpful to understand this petition in l...I find it helpful to understand this petition in light of the previous one "your kingdom come" and with reference to the comparison made "as it is in heaven", and therefore to see it as an eschatological yearning for the marriage of heaven and earth (as pictured in Rev 22). It is a cry from the heart for the brokenness of this present age to be brought to a close and the inbreaking new age to be brought to consummation. This doesn't mean it only has a future effect, however, since the future has already arrived (or a taste of it has arrived) in the resurrection of Christ and the pouring out of the Spirit.<br /><br />So in brief, I think we are praying that the kingdom of God, the reality of God's reign would be present, acknowledged and honoured (which reminds us of "hallowed be your name") rather than hidden and contested (as it presently is). The full referent of this hope is future, but the implications of it reach back to today, in which our daily bread, practices of forgiveness, resistance of temptation and praise of God all provide glimpses of the coming glorious reality.byron smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17938334606675769903noreply@blogger.com