Lent Day 6 | 40 to Life
Hodder
Forty to Life: March 8, 2022
Welcome to Forty to Life, a series of Lenten reflections created by the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Midlothian, VA.
I’m Nancy Hodder, Co-Warden of Redeemer’s vestry, and co-chair of stewardship. Today is the seventh day of the holy season of Lent, a period of 40 days representing the time of Jesus’s testing in the wilderness prior to his death and resurrection at Easter. During Lent we typically prepare though three practices: self-denial, prayer, and charity.
Today we focus on prayer through the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s start with this basic question, “What is prayer?” The prayerbook’s answer is, “Responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.” How reassuring it is to know that we can pray anywhere, anytime, either aloud by speaking, or silently by acting.” This gives us countless options for talking with God.*
In today’s gospel from Matthew 6 Jesus shows us how to pray. He begins with these familiar words:
“Our father in heaven, hallowed be your Name”
Notice how Jesus names God as “our Father” and recognizes the holiness of God’s name before praying that we may be part of God’s earthly and heavenly kingdoms. Next follows a series of petitions that remind us to pray for God’s agenda, not ours:
Your kingdom come
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.”
In the following passage which begins with the words, Give us today, Jesus encourages us to entrust our physical needs to God before asking for forgiveness for our sins, while understanding that God’s forgiveness depends on us to first forgive others. The prayer continues by asking for God’s protection against temptation and evil.
“Give us today our daily bread,
And forgive our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
And deliver us from evil.”
This final section reaffirms the prayer’s beginning by praising God and His glory.
For the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
are yours for ever. Amen.
In these few short verses, Jesus covers all the bases. He gives us two models: one for prayer, another for discipleship. Here’s a suggestion for a Lenten discipline: Whenever you say this familiar prayer, I ask you to join me in praying each word of this prayer rather than simply repeating it from memory. Trust me, God will know the difference.
