"Grant to your people, Lord, grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow, the only true God; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."
Psalm 34:15-22, Isaiah 55:6-11, and Matthew 6:7-15
A few weeks ago at our EYC Bible Study we got into a conversation about one of the lines from the Lord's Prayer, which is found in today's Gospel passage. I don't recall the whole conversation, but I think the question was, "Why do we ask God not to lead us into temptation? Doesn't it make sense that God wouldn't lead us into temptation to begin with?"
The translation we have here, though, is from the NRSV. In this translation we ask God to "save us from the time of trial", which is markedly different from our understanding of the two words today. Thought of as a "trial" in terms of our daily life we're asking God to keep us from those times in our life that might make us stray from God's will. Thought of at an eschatological level, we're asking God to be with us on that great last day. We're asking God to remember us so that we might be granted entrance into the heavenly kingdom. In both instances we're admitting our weaknesses and inabilities to God, asking God to be with us at times when we are most vulnerable.
Saying the Lord's Prayer every day or every week, it's easy to become rote in our recitation. Saying it slowly or meditatively, though, helps us to experience it in a new way, a way that can open us up to a new understanding of a familiar prayer and recognize that this prayer is another way to let God into our lives.
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Each one of the daily offices, morning prayer, noonday, evening prayer, and compline utilize a recitation of the Lord's prayer. Every service of the Episcopal Church utilizes the Lord's prayer. It appears only natural that we from time to time think of it as seeking to be saved from the daily trials and tribulations of the world because they are more pressing and immediate than death and afterwards. That is not to say that we do not hope and believe for help at the time of death and judgment, just that it is a little more comforting now. Additionally, it tends to let us have the idea of forgiveness as we go along in this life, so that it is possible that through prayerful recitation we can seek God's forgiveness without waiting for Sunday and church services.
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