Lord's Prayer as a Rule of Life: Temptations

 As we close out this study of the Lord’s Prayer, we come full circle to remember that even in our temptations and amid the evils of the world, God really does hold the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory! Our final part of this journey brings us to the place where we attempt to use the way we live to “point to the reality of the kingdom (the peaceable reign) of God, and we seek to embody the beloved community, where each person strives for and celebrates the dignity and flourishing of every beloved child of God as much as we do for ourselves.” (A Church That Looks and Acts Like Jesus – The Episcopal Church) Living the entirety of the Lord's Prayer helps us embody this community where we celebrate the dignity and rights of all.

In the Lord's Prayer we ask to be saved from temptation and delivered from evil. You can download the slides from this week. 

Prayers of the Cosmos notes that ‘lead us not into temptation’ could and should be more fully translated as ‘don’t let us enter’ or ‘be seduced by the appearance of’ [what seems good]. “The prayer reminds us not to forget our origins in creation and the divine Breath, nor to “burn out” over all that needs to be done.” (pg. 35) In other words, “don’t let us be deluded by the surface of life, but neither let us become so inward and self-absorbed that we cannot act simply and humanly at the right time.”

Prayers of the Cosmos notes that ‘lead us not into temptation’ could and should be more fully translated as ‘don’t let us enter’ or ‘be seduced by the appearance of’ [what seems good]. “The prayer reminds us not to forget our origins in creation and the divine Breath, nor to “burn out” over all that needs to be done.” (pg. 35) In other words, “don’t let us be deluded by the surface of life, but neither let us become so inward and self-absorbed that we cannot act simply and humanly at the right time.”

Living the entirety of the Lord’s prayer helps us embody this community where we celebrate the dignity of all.

In the Lord’s Prayer we ask to be saved from temptation and delivered from evil. Slides for this week are here.

Prayers of the Cosmos notes that ‘lead us not into temptation’ could and should be more fully translated as ‘don’t let us enter’ or ‘be seduced by the appearance of’ [what seems good]. “The prayer reminds us not to forget our origins in creation and the divine Breath, nor to “burn out” over all that needs to be done.” (pg. 35) In other words, “don’t let us be deluded by the surface of life, but neither let us become so inward and self-absorbed that we cannot act simply and humanly at the right time.”

Jesus, as we know was, tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15) In thinking about Jesus’ time of temptation I am struck by how his three temptations mirror some of the ways we are tempted (Matthew 4:1-11). They are about taking the seemingly easy way or the way the proves we are special. They are about assuming the Kingdom, Power, and Glory the ‘easy way’.

In Matthew’s Gospel we hear that Satan suggested Jesus Turn stones to bread as a way to show the Kingdom of God by feeding himself and everyone. How often am I tempted to convince myself that something earthly is really feeding me? Jesus’ reply is to point to the One who really controls the Kingdom. He says, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

How often am I tempted to do something grand, or to prove I’m special or ‘powerful’ by something I do?

How often am I tempted to do something grand, or to prove I’m special or ‘powerful’ by something I do?

Then Satan suggested a way for Jesus to show his Power: Throw yourself off the temple. Jesus responds sternly, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. How often am I tempted to do something grand to prove my 'power'?

Finally Satan shows Jesus All the Kingdoms of the world, with the offer to give them to Jesus. How often am I tempted to think that one more possession or one more activity will give me the peace, affirmation, love, and joy (the GLORY) that really are ONLY found in God. Jesus points to the only way to really find the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.

We are all tempted by desires and needs. How do we get past those temptations? We must do that by tending the fire of faith. Deborah Smith Douglas says that as humans, our response to a weak fire of faith is to “shrug and let the tiresome thing go out…a “temptation as a kind of irritable weariness.” (pg. 89-90) She notes, “Isaiah reminds us that God deals tenderly with those who are struggling [and] a dimly burning wick he will not quench (Isaiah 42:3) In the Second Letter to Timothy, Paul admonishes Timothy to rekindle the gift of God that is within you…God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:6) God tends to our flickering faith when we allow God to be in control.

The second part of the phrase pleads deliver us from evil. We look at the news and see the evils of war, school shootings, injustice, oppression, climate change, starvation, etc., etc. We think we are surrounded by evil and there is no way out. We can fall into the trap of thinking evil has won. However, NT Wright says the Lord’s Prayer “keeps the proper balance. Jesus intends his followers to recognize not only the reality of evil but the reality of his victory over it.” (pg. 71) As the Easter hymn says “Christ has won the victory!”

But we easily forget that truth when we see the turmoil around us. We can fall into despair. We are tempted to give up and we forget to trust God who numbers the hairs of our head. Wright claims, “By giving us this prayer…Jesus invites us to walk ahead into the darkness and discover that it, too, belongs to God…God will triumph over fear, will deliver us from evil, and will bring his Kingdom at last.” (pg. 76) The truth is, God is with us in the darkness!

Max Lucado reminds us that the evil that Satan tries to do, backfires throughout the Bible. He mentions Sarah’s childlessness (and the temptation to take matters into their own hands). There is Daniel in captivity, yet counseling the king. There is Peter’s denial which simply became an example of grace, and Paul’s letters from prison that still inspire us. “Over and over the Bible makes it clear who really runs the earth. Satan may strut and prance, but it’s God who calls the shots.” (pg. 146)

When we pray lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil, we are reminded that God is God, God is love, God is in ALL even (esp.?) suffering. We can respond to evil, as PB Curry says, with the Way of Love. Evil is defeated when we as in loving solidarity with the face of God in each other. In her March 2022 Newsletter Joyce Rupp quotes St. Aelred of Rievaulx, a 12^th century writer: “In a single act of love hold the entire world in your heart. There consider all the good people together and rejoice. There look upon the evil and lament. Gaze upon those in trouble and oppressed and share their suffering.” She goes on to say, “While we ought not to absorb another’s suffering—this just adds to the sorrow or pain—we can connect to the love within us, deliberately send it forth to support and strengthen those who hurt, and then engage in some action to help alleviate that suffering. How much good can happen if we make an effort to be truly compassionate.” (Rupp 3/1 Newsletter)

The entire Lord’s Prayer is encouragement live a rule of life that impacts your corner of the world for good, as the Talmud and Jane Goodall both point out. 

We end the prayer as we began by remembering that Yours is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever and ever. Amen. We are called to live into that Kingdom, that Beloved Community and to bear witness to it. Yet it is only in the giving up of ourselves and centering on Jesus way of Love that we have any hope of succeeding.

Lucado brings us back to how we are being tempted to take the power and glory and kingdom for ourselves when he reminds us “there are certain mountains only God can climb… Mt. Messiah…Mt. Self-Sufficient…Mt. Applause…as you confess God is in charge you admit that you aren’t. As you proclaim that God has power, you admit that you don’t. As you give God all the applause, there is none left to dizzy your brain.” (pg. 166-7)

In my book, The Lord’s Prayer: Walk in Love, I say, “Through the Lord’s Prayer we ask for help to forgive, to find strength, and to live so that ‘your will [is] be done on earth as in heaven.’ God is with us and God will not leave us. God will love us even if we sometimes slip into temptations or fear. God is the loving Father we address in the Lord’s Prayer. God is fully and totally love. Our response as the Beloved Community, as Kingdom people, is to hold the pain and fear of the world in and to God’s love.”(Davis, pg. 78)

Elizabeth Gilbert writes on Episcopal Café, “what if you are the light? What if you are the very agent of illumination that a dark situation begs for?...When life feels especially grim, or when I feel particularly powerless in the face of the world’s troubles, I ask myself, What can I do, right now, to be the light? Of course, I can’t personally end all wars, or solve global warming, or transform vexing people into entirely different creatures. I definitely can’t control traffic. But I do have some influence on everyone I brush up against, even if we never speak or learn each other’s name. No matter who you are, or where you are, or how mundane or tough your situation may seem, I believe you can illuminate your world. In fact, I believe this is the only way the world will ever be illuminated, one bright act of grace at a time…”

May you have a Blessed Holy Week and Easter. See you on the 24th for a new series.

Words to Create Beloved Community

 Thanks to those who have been on this Pentecost journey with me. I’ve been exploring how Words affect the Story we build about ourselves, about our culture, about our own lives, and about others. I’ve considered ways that we use the Story we were taught by education or by observation to categorize one another as ‘other’ and how our cultural and personal Story impacts our response to the events of life. 

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been pondering how to start reframing the Story of relationships with those who are ‘not the same’. We are, as this pandemic has highlighted, really closely interrelated. We are more alike than we are different. That’s true on a genetic level and it’s true on an inter-personal level. When we can pause and set aside our preconceptions, we may just learn that our neighbor or the stranger on the corner have very similar wants, fears, hopes, and desires. I think that deeply listening is the way to start finding those similarities.  

This graphic from Facebook attributed to Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove notes that the true miracle of Pentecost is to learn to ‘understand languages that aren’t our own—the joy and struggle of Beloved Community.’ Last week I shared some ways to listen to one another with focus and compassion.

But, what next? What action are we then called to in order to more fully bring to fruition the Beloved Community, the Kingdom of God, that we pray for every time we say the Lord’s Prayer. How do we ‘Love our Neighbor’ as we are commanded in the Golden Rule? What steps can help us see past the differences to the similarities. Eberhard Arnold notes, "It is increditble dishonesty in the human heart to pray daily that this kingdom come, that God's will be done on earth as in heaven, and at the same time to deny that Jesus wants this kingdom to be put into practice on earth. Whoever asks for the rulership of God to come down on earth must believe in it and be wholeheartedly resolved to carry it out." (Salt and Light: Living the Sermon on the Mount)

I don’t have any answers as to how to live this way. I’m groping my way toward understanding with one step forward and two steps back sometimes. One day I may smile at the homeless man on the corner and even give him the donut I bought for myself, or a couple dollars. The next day I may roll up my window and pretend I don’t see the sad woman and her dog at the intersection hoping for a handout. I can be enraged by stories of Indigenous children buried in unnamed graves at boarding schools, but I cannot bring myself to travel to stand in solidarity. I may believe that ‘Black Lives Matter’, and wonder what that means to me as a white woman, while at the same time not wanting to lose the ‘privilege’ that comes with being a white woman.

We are probably all struggling similarly. In Boundless Compassion Joyce Rupp quotes Christina Feldman’s book Compassion. Feldman states, “Our capacity to be a cause for suffering and our capacity to end suffering live side by side within us.” Rupp also refers to Marianne Williamson who says “A little cancer, unchecked, turns into a monstrous killer. So do small, insidious, seemingly harmless judgmental thought forms become the pervasive cancers that threaten to destroy a society.” (Illuminata)

I think, I hope, that the effort to see another person, to hear their story, to relate to the pain and struggle on any level is a start. It’s a step toward understanding, a step toward fully loving our neighbor, a step toward Beloved Community.

We all need to drawn near the One who, through Paul, said clothe yourselves with compassion. (Colossians 3:12). It is true that when we put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with malice, and [are] kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven (Ephesians 4:31-32) we begin to create Beloved Community.

What can I do today, tomorrow, this week, to act out of compassion, to listen, to meet, to be a piece of Beloved Community?

Next week, I’ll offer one last reflection on this theme by looking to where we need to all start: The Word made Flesh.