Understanding the Lord’s Prayer

In the daily podcasts that inspired and complement the commentary in Getting to Know Jesus, Pastor Chuck Davis and I focused on the Lord’s Prayer over four days (April 19 – 22). Entire books have been written about the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples as part of His Sermon on the Mount near the Sea of Galilee. The prayer is so well known that it is easy to miss the depth and complexity of what is being said. Here is part of the prayer and our response to it.

This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9–10

In this first sentence alone, Jesus includes four declarations. First, He addresses God as “Our Father,” not as some stern and unfeeling taskmaster, but as “Daddy,” just as a child would address his own loving and protective father. Then He says, “hallowed be your name,” which sets this Father apart as holy and perfect and above the sinful and imperfect condition of men and women on earth. Then Jesus prays that God’s kingdom will be restored here on earth, replacing the kingdoms that are at war with God and His people. Finally, He prays for the unity that can only exist when the original design takes root here on earth, echoing the harmony that existed at the very beginning when God created the world and all the creatures in it, and He saw that it was very good (Genesis 1:31).

Give us today our daily bread. Matthew 6:11

In this plentiful and prosperous corner of the world, it is too easy to forget what would happen if all the food we find in markets and restaurants suddenly vanish. It is difficult to imagine a world where this kind of deprivation could become a reality; for many, getting access to food is the harsh reality of daily life. When times are good, it is easy to assume provision will be available from the endless supplies afforded by science and enterprise. But is this a reasonable position? Jesus prays to God for daily provision because He knows that God is the only true provider. As He says elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). To paraphrase another prayer: “Lord, for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray . . . Please keep me, guide me, love me, Lord, just for today.” Recognizing our daily dependence on God is the only way to live each and every day.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12

Whether we use the word “trespasses,” “debts,” or “sins” when praying the Lord’s Prayer, we are essentially asking God for forgiveness for the countless ways we have fallen away from Him. In an earlier encounter, Jesus makes His mission on earth abundantly clear: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Paul says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), so when we are praying, “Forgive us,” there are no exceptions or exemptions. Everyone needs to ask for God’s forgiveness because our sin causes us to betray Him time and again. When Paul asks, “Who will rescue me from this body of death,” he gives us the answer immediately: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24–25) This one line of the Lord’s Prayer is liberating because without forgiveness, we will never escape the destructive consequences growing out of our sin-prone nature. But it is not just about us: We need to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Just as God’s forgiveness cost Him dearly, to forgive others as God has forgiven us can be costly. But from an eternal point of view, the cost is worth it.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13

Why would God lead us into temptation? Perhaps it is best to think of this dilemma as fundamental to our relationship with God. Jesus seems to be requesting that God not place Him in a situation where He would be tempted to betray God. When Jesus was tempted by the devil three times in the wilderness, He resisted by remaining centered in the Holy Spirit. This prayer acknowledges the existence of an evil one, who wanders the earth looking for people not able to withstand the devil’s schemes. Here is the promise for those who believe: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Watch Andrea Bocelli sing “The Lord’s Prayer” with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Rediscovering a “lost” verse in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

On Saturday, I attended a magnificent Christmas Concert at Stanwich Church in Greenwich. Toward the end, the congregation sang “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” a carol so familiar I can almost sing the words without looking at the printed verses.

But yesterday, while singing this hymn, I was surprised to discover these words in the fourth stanza:

Come, Desire of Nations, Come!
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Adam’s likeness now efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.

Wow, I said to myself. Here is the Gospel in a nutshell. But for many, I’m afraid, these words will draw a blank. What do they mean? When Charles Wesley, brother to Methodism’s founder John Wesley, first wrote these words, in 1739, the hymn’s opening line was “Hark, how the welkin [the arc of the heavens] rings.” We can thank his evangelist colleague George Whitefield for changing the line, over Wesley’s protests, in 1753, to “Hark, the herald angels sing.” However it opened, in those days the words would have been understood for the full gospel message they contain.

Here is how I would paraphrase the poetic words of Wesley and Whitefield:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created mankind in the form of Adam and Eve and He created them in His own image. The deceptions of the Serpent, however, marred Adam’s image. Mankind lost its original relationship with God, but God did not lose His love for us. To bring the children of the first Adam back into relationship with Him would entail great cost. God’s abiding love moved Him to restore what was lost in Paradise. He called upon the second Adam, Jesus, to reverse the work of Satan through the cross and reinstate men and women in His love.

And here is how Paul tells it:

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. . . . Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5: 12-17)

As anyone can see, Charles Wesley, author of more than 6,000 hymns, took complex theology and distilled it into a few lines of poetry. Brilliant.

Watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

Fourteen Great Reasons to be Thankful

Here in one post are the fourteen reasons to be thankful I’ve been reflecting on this week:

#1. A General Thanksgiving: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians: 5:16-18)

#2. I am thankful to God: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:2-5)

#3. I am grateful for Jesus Christ: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 4:4-6)

#4. I am overwhelmingly thankful for the gift of the Holy Spirit: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)

#5. I am grateful for God hearing my cry for help when I was in great trouble: “. . . And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” (Psalm 50:15)

#6. I am blessed by the gift of each day:

Lord, for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray
Keep me, my God, from stain of sin just for today.
Let me both diligently work, and duly pray,
Let me be kind in word and deed, just for today.
Let me be slow to do my will, prompt to obey;
Help me to sacrifice myself just for today.
And if today my tide of life should ebb away,
Give me thy Sacraments divine, sweet Lord today.
So for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray,
But keep me, guide me, love me, Lord, just for today.

—“Just for Today,” Sister Mary Xavier (Sybil F. Partridge)

#7. I am thankful for Stanwich Church, its pastors and leaders: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18-19)

#8. I am blessed by the companionship, friendship and love of my wife: “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” (Proverbs 31:10-12)

#9. I am most grateful for the challenges and the blessings of being a father of four children. And my prayer is that they will know and love Jesus as the Father in heaven loves His own Son: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16)

#10. I am blessed by a large extended family: “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 1:39-41)

#11. I am grateful for being given the privilege to lead: “When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.” (2 Samuel 23:3-4)

#12, I am blessed with a great team that is helping me build a new ministry: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

#13. I am thankful for all the friends and experiences that walking the Appalachian Trail has brought me: “. . . because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

#14. I am thankful for many good friendships: “Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord.’” (1 Samuel 20:42)

Fourteen Great Reasons to be Thankful – Part Four

Wishing everyone a Thanksgiving filled with tender mercy and joy as I wind up my series of posts of reasons to be thankful:

#12. I am blessed with a great team that is helping me build a new ministry: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

#14. I am thankful for many good friendships: “Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord.’” (1 Samuel 20:42)

Fourteen Great Reasons to be Thankful – Part Three

This week I’m spreading out what I’m thankful for over four days. Today I’m devoting to family:

#8. I am blessed by the companionship, friendship and love of my wife: “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” (Proverbs 31:10-12)

Fourteen Great Reasons to be Thankful – Part Two

Continuing this week’s theme of thanks:

#5. I am grateful to God for hearing my cry for help when I was in great trouble: “. . . and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” (Psalm 50:15)

#6. I am blessed by the gift of each day:

Lord, for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray
Keep me, my God, from stain of sin just for today.
Let me both diligently work, and duly pray,
Let me be kind in word and deed, just for today.
Let me be slow to do my will, prompt to obey;
Help me to sacrifice myself just for today.
And if today my tide of life should ebb away,
Give me thy Sacraments divine, sweet Lord today.
So for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray,
But keep me, guide me, love me, Lord, just for today.
—“Just for Today,” Sister Mary Xavier (Sybil F. Partridge)

#7. I am thankful for Stanwich Church, its pastors and leaders: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18-19)

Fourteen Great Reasons to be Thankful – Part One

This week I’m devoting my blog to the many things I’m thankful for this season. To give them proper attention, I’m posting them in four parts:

#1. A General Thanksgiving: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians: 5:16-18)

Will We Let Paris Burn?

I was traveling in my car back from western Virginia when around 5 pm news began filtering in over the radio of a shooting in Paris. The information was sketchy at first, but then, as new information streamed in, the extent of the horror became clearer.

When the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, none of the reports assumed the worst. First reports suggested it was a small plane; then it became evident that to cause such damage it couldn’t have been a private aircraft. It had to be something much bigger. But no one knew for sure, until a second passenger jet smashed into the South Tower. Suddenly, everyone knew that something very new was happening.

In the aftermath of the events in Paris on Friday the thirteenth, the leaders in the West reverted to form. To quote Kevin Williamson in National Review:

“There was the usual sentimental outpouring on social media, the tricolors and the invocations of the Marquis de Lafayette and the Empire State Building lit in honorary blue, white, and red. Professor Ebony Elizabeth Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania chidingly reminded no one in particular to report anybody who was engaging in anti-Muslim rhetoric on Twitter. All of that is useless, of course, but one feels the need to do something.”

The lamentations and limp expressions of concern suggest that a sense of moral lassitude is enervating the leaders in Europe and America, as if these statesman cannot muster enough energy to even name the enemy. In 1941, Winston Churchill, one of the twentieth century’s greatest leaders, stated the principle underpinning his own actions in the face Hitler’s unstoppable armies when he spoke to the students at Harrow School:

“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

It takes belief and historical and moral imagination to say, “never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”

In 1915, T.S. Eliot captured the turpitude of our Ruling Class and its contrasting indecision and inaction in the face of mortal danger:

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet…

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

—“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
The world as we have known it since the end of World War II has tilted off its axis. Moral clarity is gone and in its place desert weeds have grown. The French President declares the outrages of Friday night are an act of war; but what banner will he raise to mobilize his people to the very real dangers of our times? We shall see, but I will leave you with the words I read this morning written by Deana Chadwell on the American Thinker website:

“We can almost make a flow chart showing the paths through which the moral decline of America has traveled: from the church (ironic and horrifying as that might be) which early on began replacing morality and the love of God with social justice, to the schools where all societies, and all individual choices have been declared morally equivalent, to science which no longer used empiricism to learn about God and His creation, and instead used a warped version of the scientific method to erase Him, to the newsmen who learned in their schools to see journalism as a calling to change the world, not to merely record its events.”

The danger is real and growing. Will our leaders be able to act prudently but forcefully to save the world we grew up in or will they delay and dissemble as they wander about an empty room muttering, “Do I dare? Do I dare?”

Recalling an Encounter on Mt. Moosilauke’s Gorge Brook Trail

It was the summer of 1992 and my three sons and I were attending a boys’ camp reunion at Camp Pemigewassett in New Hampshire. Outdoor activities filled each day. On the first day, we canoed down the Connecticut River north of Hanover. On the second full day, we had several options and I chose a hike up nearby Mt. Moosilauke. I had fond memories of family trips up Moosilauke as a child; my only worry was my youngest son Arthur being able to make it to the top and back. He had hiked before, but nothing as strenuous as this New Hampshire four-thousand footer. Its summit rose above the tree line into an exposed jumble of rock. Though he had a birthday coming up, Arthur was still just four years old. I could easily imagine hearing the plaintive cry that often came from the back seat of our car: “Dad, are we there yet?”

Moosilauke is the first high mountain on the Appalachian Trail north of Virginia. Hikers coming from the south look for it as a landmark as they push into the challenges of the White Mountains. The Gorge Brook Trail departs from the Ravine Lodge at the base of the mountain and is one of the easier ways to ascend, but it’s 7.4 miles round trip. For inexperienced hikers, that’s a full day venture.

As soon as we began, the two older boys, Alex and Peter, took off and quickly disappeared into the woods. We wouldn’t see them again for hours. That left me with Arthur and the fear that the inevitable cry, “Dad, carry me!” would soon pierce my ears. What would I do then?

But the cry never came. Instead, Arthur talked his way up the trail as if the climb was the most normal thing in the world. Motivated by a desire not to end up lugging him up three arduous miles, I joined in what became a lively continuous conversation. The big topic was his upcoming birthday. He was excited about the possibility of getting some Transformer Action toys, and he kept speculating about which one would be the best to get. Up and up we chattered until suddenly we were beyond the trees and near the open summit, the 3.7 miles behind us. Alex and Peter were waiting to greet us at the top.

We descended the mountain as a family, but Arthur’s non-stop birthday talk did not cease. In fact, about half way down, we met an older gentleman who stopped to say hello. Serendipitous encounters with strangers frequently happen on the Appalachian Trail and over the years I’ve come to expect, savor and cherish them. Arthur immediately brought our new friend into the birthday conversation and the kindly gentleman seemed to listen intently. It was a moment to remember. Even then, I recall thinking: maybe someday, in the distant future, Arthur would be ascending this same Gorge Brook Trail where he would come upon a family with a four year old. And I could imagine Arthur leaning over to hear the child talking and talking about his upcoming birthday and the wonderful gifts he might receive. My gift that day was the image of that moment on the mountain where generations intersected and a young boy shared his happy visions with someone just passing by.

Remembering the Charm and Camaraderie of Crag Camp

As the Appalachian Trail wound down Mt. Guyot to Crawford Notch, it took me past the Zealand Fall Shelter to beautiful Ethan Pond where I spent the night. Rain made the hike a dreary slog, but the next morning cleared and I descended to the Notch that had once been a magnet for travelers and tourists seeking mountain relief from the summer heat of Boston and other cities to the south. The first transcontinental automobile road, The Theodore Roosevelt International Highway (now #302), went through Crawford Notch. In the early years of the twentieth century, the area boasted four Grand Hotels. Even in 1967, the Notch was still active with tourists, but the splendor of an earlier era had long vanished.

After crossing Route 302, the trail takes on a new character. It ascends the walls of Webster Cliffs on switchbacks. The exposure is moderate, but as you rise above the Notch, you enter a new world: the southern Presidentials, a prominent range of mountains named for American presidents that is notorious for having some of the worst weather on earth. Its high winds can produce winter-like conditions even in summer.

I crossed Mt. Jackson with its rocky top and pushed on through the low-lying pines to Mt. Pierce (also known as Mt. Clinton) that provides some good views far to the north of Mt. Washington, the tallest of the range at 6,288 feet, and its weather and radio towers.

Shortly after descending Mt. Pierce, the trail rises again above tree line and remains in the open over the next eleven miles of the rock and bolder strewn Presidential Range.

I spent the night at Lake of the Clouds Shelter near Mt. Washington where I heard rumors of an off trail shack on the edge of King Ravine on Mt. Adams. Later I would learn that the shack was Crag Camp. It had been privately constructed at a dramatic 4,200 feet in 1909 – the last of the high cabins – and was taken over in the 1930s by the Randolph Mountain Club. I was told that the camp could be accessed by the Spur Trail at Thunderstorm Junction below Mt. Adams.

My ankle had been acting up, so I decided to detour off the main route and descend to the Crag. I arrived in the rain. When I pushed opened the creaky door, I entered a hazy blur of people and smoke. All eyes turned to me as I tried to decide whether this was a vision of paradise or something more ominous. Then someone said, “Come on in and close the door.” I did as instructed and entered a world of camaraderie and warmth that came to represent everything I treasure about the trail.

The difference between normal life and trail life is that on the trail everything is compressed. In our everyday existence, time is elastic; it can seem to stretch on forever, but on the trail, time is a stern companion. You track when the sun rises and sets and live consciously by the cycle of each day. Hikers delight in fair weather but struggle under blasts of pelting rain and gusting wind. As the environment changes, so do your companions: they appear and disappear with regularity. We may have our own agenda, but nature and the trail are the ultimate schedulers.

My stay at Crag Camp lasted two nights. I left behind nameless friends and powerful memories but I had to push on. I climbed back up to Thunderstorm Junction, hiked up the rocky side of Mt. Adams and then over Mt. Madison before descending to Pinkham Notch and the long journey back to my future. But the memory of Crag Camp lives on. In fact, I could not stay away. I returned to Crag with my son Alex in 1995; two years before, the old cabin had been torn down and replaced by a very different version of the camp. It still rested spectacularly on the edge of King Ravine, but the new building was nothing like the ramshackle cabin I remembered from 1967. In most ways it was much better – by AT standards the cooking, dining and sleeping facilities are now luxurious – but even so, the memory of those few days at old Crag keeps me coming back again and again.

The Randolph Mountain Club’s video introduction to Crag Camp today.

Getting to Know
Jesus

An Invitation to Walk with the Lord Day by Day

Eric Kampmann