We've been delving into the Lord's Prayer for a couple weeks now, in a very intentional way. [This is the prayer Jesus gave us in love, a prayer Christians have been praying now for over 2000 years. When we pray these words, each week in church, daily in our own prayer time, at weddings and memorial services, in hospitals in moments of crisis, with our children, with our parents and grandparents, with complete strangers who happen to be sitting in the pew near us ... whenever we pray these words, we are praying the prayer Jesus offered us so long ago. Whenever we pray this prayer, alone or in a group, we draw closer to God and to one another.]

When those first disciples asked Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray, "they were really asking him, "Lord, how do you pray? What do you pray for? What do you say to God?" And many of us are still asking those same questions, aren't we? How should we really pray? What should we pray for? And in praying, are we being the disciples Jesus would have us be?

One commentator has said that this prayer now should really be called "the Disciples' Prayer," for it is the central prayer of the church in every place and through all of time. Jesus teaches us how to center our prayer and our very lives on this God. Before you ask for anything else, Jesus says, ask that God's name be kept holy, that God's kingdom come and that God's will be done. It's as if he's saying, "Christians, put God first, and everything else will naturally fall into place."

Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

A biblical scholar has said that we should always be cautioned to linger awhile at this point in the prayer before we rush on to the next lines which take us to what we're asking for ourselves. Because we're so prone to do that anyway, he noted, just wait a minute. Hit the pause button. Stay awhile longer with this first part about God's name, God's kingdom, God's will ... wait, and let the truth and power of God's presence and God's desire sink down into your bones. Let it become such a part of you that every time you lift up the name of God, every time you seek God's attention, every time you dare to ask God to dedicate a moment's attention to you and your needs ... that first you remember what God has in mind for you.

Ah, my beloved disciples, he wants us to hear, you are God's children. And our God wills for his kingdom of righteousness and peace to be the way of the world.

And as his children, you're called to be part of it. Before you ask for anything for yourselves, first remember what your life is about now that you are my disciples. You're part of making that kingdom come into being, on earth as in heaven. You are co-creators of that kingdom with God. That's your life's work, whatever your paying job may happen to be.

If you start there, the next lines fall right into place, for they're actually about life in the kingdom. What's it gonna look like, be like? If the kingdom of God were present among us right now, what would that mean? What would we see?

Two things, according to Jesus. The two basics are this, just this: everybody would be fed, each day and every day. And the community would be bound together in a healing web of mutual forgiveness. Food and forgiveness. Imagine that! Of all the things Jesus might have told us to pray for, for ourselves, this is what he said, "When you pray, say ... give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Now, let me ask something here, and I just want you to think about it for a moment. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands or share with your neighbor or anything potentially embarras-sing. Here's the question: in your own personal daily prayers, if it weren't for the Lord's Prayer, do you always ask for these two things first, food and forgivenessŠand not just for yourself, but for the whole community? I fear notŠthat's why this prayer is so important for our lives of faith. Jesus is teaching us here how to start off on the right foot, how to put things in perspective.

First, pray that we'll all have daily bread. The original language of this prayer implies that this means both actual food to eat for our bodies and spiritual food which nourishes our souls. Both kinds of food are part of Jesus' ministry start to finish. He's always feeding people and eating with people. Remember the miracle of the loaves and fishes? How he said to his disciples that day, "Give the people something to eat." Remember how, when he appeared on the lakeside after his Resurrection, he said to those same disciples, "Come, and have breakfast." Remember how he told his disciples, "If you love me, feed my sheep."

In the kingdom of God, everybody will have something to eat each day. It's God's gift, intended for all. Give us this day our daily bread. And Jesus said, "We do not live by bread alone." "I am the Bread of Life," he said. God feeds our bodies and our souls. Daily. And every day we should remember, and give thanks, and never take it for granted for ourselves, nor deny it to any of God's children. Our holy, loving parent, give us bread and the bread of life today.

Fed, body and soul, what then are we to ask for? That God forgive us as we forgive others.

Forgiving someone who's hurt us badly is one of the hardest things, isn't it? Forgiving a parent, a spouse, a neighbor, a friend, a child, a colleague, another church member ... . Most of us are far more adept at nursing our grudges, at keeping the flame of bitterness alive than we are at forgiving.

We cling to pride and self-righteousness, don't we, and it's frankly easier, emotionally, to stay broken, to stay proud and angry, than it is to risk letting go and moving beyond whatever the past has brought.

The topic and work of Christian forgiveness is worthy of a lifetime of study, but because there's so much misunderstanding about it, let me at least say today what forgiveness is not. Jesus does not ask us to forgive and forget. Nor does he ask us to forgive and excuse. That is, sometimes in this life, horrible and painful and cruel things happen ... between people, within families, between tribes and nations ... and when they happen, they are always with us as part of our experience and our memory. Jesus is not asking for amnesia or for a kind of moral relativism that says well, maybe it wasn't so bad.

When Jesus asks us to forgive, he is saying, "As my disciples, you will need to learn another way. In this new kingdom which God is establishing now through me, there will be no more of an eye for an eye. You will learn how to set aside your anger and your resentment and your appetite for revenge. You will learn how to say to one who has hurt you, 'Though I may not forget what you did and though I might not condone what you did, I will refuse to let that sever our relationship. I am still in this body with you and you with me. Therefore, let us be reconciled. Let us continue in relationship despite past wrongs. Let us together acknowledge that God's love is working for healing and we shouldn't stand in the way. '"

A short story to illustrate this was told to me by Father Martin Jenko, a Catholic priest held hostage for 19 months in Beirut in 1985-86. Father Jenko had gone there to serve as interim director of Catholic Social Services for three months until a permanent director was found. Instead, he was captured and held in solitary confinement for most of the time, for some period of that time in a closet with only enough room to stand. He was blindfolded and knew his captors only by their voices, voices filled for the most part with curses and taunts.

On the day of his release, Marty said he was walking out and behind him recognized one of them by his voice. But now the voice was pleading for forgiveness for what he had done and to which he had subjected this gentle man. Marty said that he knew God was speaking to him to change his heart. Only true forgiveness could ever bring healing, he realized. Not forgetting. Not condoning. But moving past his bitterness and anger so that his life could go on and he could heal and not be warped forever by the violence and cruelty he had endured.

Dear brothers and sisters, you see, the community of God's people should look different than anything the world has ever seenŠa community where hurts and grudges and old wounds and grievances are acknowledged and then offered up and lived beyond.

In spite of what happens in this life, in spite of the sin that sometimes tears us apart, Jesus says that we are to do the work of constantly repairing the breaks, continually reweaving the fabric of connection, making sure that the channels stay open so that God's healing love can flow and do its work of bringing new life out of every situation of death. Before we're ready. Until we're ready.

When you pray, say, Forgive us, O God, as we forgive.

OK. If you think this sounds like really hard work, you were paying attention. It is. If you think it applies to every other Christian but you, think again. I have a hunch Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he taught us how to pray. He knew just how hard it would be and how some of us would ask to be excused from the assignment. So he told us all to pray these words. Over and over again.

But he also made sure that we'd have the strength to do it, food for body and soul, bread for the journey, sustenance along the way. Strength to do the hardest work of all: the repairing of broken hearts among the people who would be his disciples.

Food and forgiveness. Given freely that they might be shared freely within a community of faithful people, kingdom people. Give us, O God, and forgive us, O God, that we might serve you on earth as in heaven.