The Lord's Prayer and its preface

This week's questions

What rule hath God given for our direction in prayer? The whole Word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called The Lord's Prayer.

Question 99

What doth the preface of the Lord's Prayer teach us? The preface of the Lord's Prayer, which is, Our Father which art in heaven, teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.

Question 100

Question 2 named God's Word as the only rule for glorifying and enjoying him; Question 99 asks for the rule of prayer, and points to the Word again. Having learned what prayer is last week, we now follow the Lord's Prayer itself. The Larger Catechism divides it into "a preface, petitions, and a conclusion" Larger Catechism, Q. 188, and the course's last five weeks keep that order.

The whole Word, and the special rule

All of Scripture teaches us to pray. The Psalms are Israel's prayers and songs, and God's people pray on page after page. Among them the Lord's Prayer is the special rule. When Jesus had finished praying, one of his disciples asked him to teach them, as John had taught his disciples (Luke 11:1). Matthew gives the prayer in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9-13), Luke where the request was made (Luke 11:2-4). In the oldest manuscripts Luke's form is shorter, and the BSB prints it so; the KJV follows later manuscripts that bring it close to Matthew's.

That the wording differs a little between the Gospels shows that it is no formula to be repeated letter by letter; yet the church has prayed it word for word from early on. The Lord's Prayer, says the Larger Catechism, "is not only for direction, as a pattern, according to which we are to make other prayers; but may also be used as a prayer, so that it be done with understanding, faith, reverence" Q. 187. Not everyone agreed. In seventeenth-century England some Puritans and Separatists would not use set forms in public worship, and some would not say even this one. The Westminster Assembly's Directory did not bind public prayer to set forms, but commended the Lord's Prayer for the prayers of the church. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer says it at Morning and Evening Prayer and at the Communion, and Catholic and Orthodox Christians pray it at every Mass and Divine Liturgy.

Our Father in heaven

The first word holds the gospel. We were not God's children by nature; we became his children by adoption (Question 34). The preface's proof text says where the cry comes from:

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Romans 8:15

God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry the same word (Galatians 4:6). So we come with confidence, not fear, and yet with reverence, not carelessly. Lutherans learn from Martin Luther's Small Catechism that by this little introduction God would "tenderly urge us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children" Small Catechism, the Lord's Prayer.

"Which art in heaven" tells us what kind of Father he is. The Heidelberg Catechism explains why the words are added:

That we may have no earthly thought of the heavenly majesty of God, and may expect from his almighty power all things necessary for body and soul.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 121

The next proof text argues from the lesser to the greater: if evil parents give good gifts, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13). Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa, reasons the same way: "for what will He not give to His sons when they ask of Him, who has given them that first that they should be sons?" Augustine

"Our" keeps us from praying alone, even in a closed room. When Peter was in prison, "the church was fervently praying to God for him" (Acts 12:5), and Paul asks for prayer for all:

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone— for kings and all those in authority— so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity.

1 Timothy 2:1-2

Augustine warned rich Christians that the poor also call God "Our Father", and "they therefore cannot truly or piously say this unless they acknowledge such for brethren" Augustine. For the Lord's Prayer from the beginning, see Learning to pray and How should I pray?

To ponder this week

When you say "Our Father" this week, who else is in that "our", and whom will you pray with and for? Choose one name: someone at home or at church, a friend far away, a neighbour in trouble. Each day this week, pray the Lord's Prayer and hold that person before God as you say it.

Practice