Abba Father – Praying the Lord’s Prayer in Kent

Introduction
Abba Father, Praying the Lord’s Prayer in Kent. The Lord’s Prayer is one prayer that people know even
today. This ecumenical Lent course, produced in association with BBC Radio Kent, is designed to encourage people
to explore what it means to pray in our own time and place this beloved and ancient prayer which lies at the heart of the
Christian faith.

Yet the words of this prayer are also known and even cherished by many who would not see readily themselves as
practising Christians today and can provide a bridge through which Christians and others can share both the things of
faith and the anxieties of our everyday lives.

Sometimes of course the very familiarity of the Lord’s Prayer can dull its impact. It is perhaps difficult to grasp how
radical were the words when Jesus first taught them to his disciples. The hope of those who have put this course
together is that during these weeks people may discover for themselves how the Lord’s Prayer is far from being simply
a formula of words but is also a prayer we need to pray ‘not only with our lips but in our lives’. So during the five
weeks of the course in February-March 2002 we will be focusing each week on a different part of the prayer –
exploring how it can be – and is being – lived out in Kent today. But we will be doing so in a way that reminds us that
God’s graciousness takes full account of our human needs and experiences, and that this prayer of the Church, past and
present, is still ‘valid’ not least because it is so responsive to these concerns.

The course also seeks to resonate the words and phrases of the Lord’s Prayer against the life of Jesus himself by
choosing gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) for people to explore. This is the lectionary
which is used each Sunday in those churches which make regular use of a lectionary, so the Bible passages we select
will be read in many churches during the five Sundays of Lent. Hopefully the gospel readings and the linked reflections
will help us to discover that Jesus himself lived out the words of his own prayer, in his life and in his death. The gospel
of Luke, in particular, reminds us that Jesus was a person of deep and frequent prayer - and it is in keeping him as a
model before our eyes that this prayer can ideally be prayed.

Week by week
The course is linked to the series ‘Abba Father’ that is being broadcast by BBC Radio Kent from 17 February - 19
March in the Sunday programme at 8.00am and 6.00pm and repeated on Tuesday evenings at 7.00pm. It will be
helpful if members of the group have had a chance to listen to the broadcast in advance of the group meeting.
Alternatively you might want to tape the broadcast and listen to it together during of your meeting. However the course
can also ‘stand alone’ for those who are not able to listen to these broadcasts.

Groups and Preparation

The course has been designed for groups of up to approximately twelve people in mind. It can be tackled by larger
groups - although if this is the case it would be helpful to subdivide the group for periods of discussion. As with all
group situations it is important to give attention to the environment the group meets in (eg with comfortable chairs and
a welcoming atmosphere), as well as ensuring that the group has the appropriate kind of leader who can facilitate the
contributions of all its members. It will be helpful if the leader can do some preparation before each week, and find
copies of any resources that are referred to in the text. The group will also need to have Bibles available – if possible
one for each person. It might well be helpful to encourage group members to bring notebooks for themselves.

Timing
It is envisaged that each session might last between an hour and a quarter and an hour and a half, including a time of
welcome and, if possible, light refreshments. Detailed timings have not been given for the individual parts of each
week’s material - to encourage you to be as creative as possible in your own situation and to meet your own needs.
Some groups may want to spend longer on Bible study, other groups may want to develop the experiential and practical
aspects of the material. Obviously if the group wants to spend time listening together to the broadcast, this will need to
be taken into account.. It is unlikely that the group will attempt all the suggestions in either ‘To begin with’ and
‘Following on’: for most groups two or three examples in each of these sections will provide ample scope for
discussion and follow up.

The following comments on the individual sections may be helpful:

‘To begin with’

This is the ‘ice breaker’ section of the material, in which people are encouraged to begin by reflecting upon themselves
and their situation and experience – both of life and of using this prayer. Some groups may also wish to start with a
brief time of prayer. Obviously the way this section is used might evolve as the course progresses and the group
members get to know each other a little better.

Bible reading and Bible reflection

The core of the session each week will be the Bible reading which will normally be the RCL gospel. In some weeks the
RCL offers alternatives – and we have tried to be aware of the various possibilities. Take time to read the passage
together, spending some time to think about it, then perhaps read it again. There is also a reflective meditation that
looks at the gospel story through the ‘eyes’ of one of Jesus’ lose companions. This is intended to help link the Bible
passage to the part of the Lord’s Prayer which we are exploring that week. There are also one or two questions for
discussion offered which relate to the Bible passage itself.

‘Following on’
The suggestions in this section are multi-faceted – some link closely to the words and phrases of the Lord’s Prayer
itself, others are more wide-ranging or practical. Some may be tackled in the group, others could be suggestions for
individuals to take away. The group leader may need to think in advance about which kind of suggestions to focus on,
or people may wish to explore this together during their first week.

Prayer
We would encourage groups to end their meetings with prayer. Some interesting possibilities are given each week, but
you may also wish to include a time of free prayer. It would also be appropriate to include a short time of singing, or
perhaps to use reflective music such as a Taize chant.

This Lent course has been devised by the BBC Radio Kent Religious Advisory Group and written by Clare Amos,
Theological Resource Officer of the Anglican world mission organisation, USPG. The accompanying radio series is
being produced and presented by Wilfred McGreal O.Carm and Revd Chris Stone, Communications Director for the
Diocese of Rochester, with music that has been written for the series by Margaret Rizza.

Week One

Abba Father

Aim: To begin to reflect on the Lord's Prayer and to explore for ourselves what it means to pray to
'Our Father in heaven.… hallowed be your name'

To begin with...
 As this is the first week of the series, invite people to introduce themselves briefly and say
what they are hoping to gain from the course.
 If people have had a chance to listen to the BBC Radio Kent broadcast for this week, you
might wish to ask them what parts of the programme they found most helpful or
challenging.
 Reflect together on members of the group’s experience of praying the Lord’s Prayer. Can
people remember the place where they first learned it… at home, in school, at church? Are
there particular memories that individuals have of occasions when praying the Lord’s prayer
was especially powerful or meaningful? What phrases in the Lord’s Prayer do people find
most stand out to them? Are there any phrases that create difficulty for people?
  The Lord’s Prayer begins by called God ‘Father’. What does the idea of ‘Father’ mean to
members of the group? Does ‘Father’ have positive connotations for people? Is there
anyone in the group for whom the word ‘Father’ has negative meanings?
 There is a story that is told about the daughter of Karl Marx (the founder of Marxism – who
once famously described religion as ‘the opium of the people’). Not surprisingly she was
not brought up in any religion. She admitted to a friend that she had never been religious.
‘But’, she said, ‘The other day I came across a beautiful prayer which I very much wish
could be true.’ ‘And what was that prayer?’ she was asked. Slowly the daughter of Karl
Marx began repeating in German….: ‘Our Father who art in heaven’.
Why is it that the Lord’s Prayer has had such a profound effect on so many people
throughout the history of the last 2000 years?

Bible reading
In the New Testament itself the Lord’s Prayer appears twice, once in the Gospel of Matthew (6.9-
13) and once in the Gospel of Luke. (11.2-4). The two versions are slightly different and you may
want to look at them in the group and begin to notice the differences. Why do you think these
differences occur? Do you prefer one version to the other? Throughout the five weeks of the Lent
course we will also be looking each week at a reading from one of the gospels that gives us deeper
insight into what phrases of the prayer may mean. The readings help to remind us that ‘the Lord’s
Prayer’ was not simply a form of words used by Jesus on one or more occasions, but actually
summed up the ‘essence’ of his ministry. We can truly say of Jesus that he himself lived out the
Lord’s Prayer in his life - and ultimately in his death.
This week our gospel reading is Matthew 4.1-11, the account of the temptation of Jesus. It
is the gospel reading selected for the first Sunday of Lent in most churches in Kent that use a
lectionary.
This could be read through using three different voices for Jesus, the narrator and the devil,
or one person could read it slowly and meditatively.

Encouraging biblical reflection

This week’s reflection is presented through the lips of Peter, who would become the leader of
Jesus’ disciples. He is speaking at a point near the end of his life, when as a Christian in Rome he
like many others suffered persecution and death at the hands of Nero.

I wasn’t there with him, of course, during those days and weeks in the wilderness. No one was.
That was the point. It was a time when he was completely alone – with God. Just God and him. No
one else. And in the silence of the desert they got to know each other – and I think there he became
closer to God than any other human being has been before or since. Closer even than Moses –
though he too knew that the desert was the place where God could speak to human beings with a
special intensity. Its loneliness means you can’t protect yourself from the glare of God’s demands
and God’s love by the comfort of human noise and bustle. I have always been too scared to go out
to the desert. I myself am a person of villages and towns, of fishing boats and roof tops. I think I
can bear to meet God in those places, but I cannot bear too much reality, the sort of reality that
comes in the desert, when everything else is so completely stripped away.
It was just after those days in the desert, when he returned to Galilee, that I first met him.
He summoned us – pulled us away from our everyday lives. To this day I still don’t know how he
did it – and what made us leave everything and follow. It must have been his confidence, his
certainty that had been born out of that desert experience and which gave him the assurance that
God’s priorities were what counted – and that God would look after us.
 He even called God his father – our father – ‘Abba’, ‘Dad’. That too he had learned during
those long forty days. Everything else had been stripped away from him and he had been left so
vulnerable that he had to learn to trust God as a son will trust his father. And he had discovered too
that God cares for us with a father’s own love and intimacy. I remember the day that he told us not
to worry about where food or drink or clothing would come from – for our heavenly father knew
that we needed those things and would provide them. That was the sort of truth that he had learned
in the wilderness – the absoluteness of a son’s confidence in his father.
But it was a special kind of sonship that he had inherited/ whose mantle he had donned. You
all know about those sons of great men who swagger arrogantly around, believing that their father’s
glory gives them the right to have airs and graces of their own – though in reality they have done
very little themselves to deserve any influence. I think – indeed he once told me – that while he was
in the desert he too had been tempted for a brief space of time to tread that particular path, to seek
his father’s glory by means that would focus power and prestige upon himself. It could have been
so easy to bring in God’s kingdom by great signs and wonders that would compel faith – seemingly
acting for the best of motives. But the consequences would have been terrible, for the Son would
have ended up usurping the place of the Father.
Instead over the months and years we spent with him we learned what being a son of God
could really mean. Our ancient stories tell us of a father, Abraham, who was asked to sacrifice his
own beloved son. In turn we learned from our own friend and brother that to be God’s beloved
child does not allow us to escape suffering, indeed may even lead us down the path of pain. It was
at such difficult moments that the truth of his sonship became most fully apparent. That night, the
night that I still remember with shame when I deserted and denied him, was one of those times. In
that garden just outside the walls of Jerusalem, when he knew the soldiers were coming to arrest
him he was still praying over and over again ‘Abba, Father, your will be done’. He did not simply
pray the prayer with his lips, he consecrated it with his own flesh and blood.
In the years since then I have prayed the prayer he taught us, the prayer of sons to their
father, many times. Each time I do I reach back in my mind’s eye to the hills of Galilee where we
first learned those words, and I can still see the beautiful lilies of the field, those symbols of a
father’s profligate love for his children. In these dark days of persecution in Rome this prayer still
sustains me, encourages me, gives me the courage to face whatever may lie ahead. I pray simply
that until my life’s end I may be worthy to continue to pray ‘Abba’ – in a son’s confidence to the
one whose tenderness is far stronger than all the evil of the death-dealing powers.

 What do you think Jesus learned about God as ‘Father’ from his experience in the
wilderness?
 Was it particularly important that Jesus prayed using the word ‘Abba’ in the garden
of Gethsemane?

Following on

 People who have studied the New Testament comment that our word ‘Father’ does not
really give us the ‘feel’ of what Jesus meant. When Jesus talked to his friends about God he
used the word ‘Abba’ – which we could perhaps translate rather as ‘Dad’ or ‘Daddy’.
‘Abba’ seems to have been a word that people remembered as going to the heart of Jesus’
message – we know this because it is one of the very few words still appears in the original
Aramaic, Jesus’ own language in parts of the New Testament (eg Mark 14.36; Romans
8.15). Would you be happy calling God ‘Dad’? What might this tell us about God and how
he relates to human beings? You may wish to share (and enjoy!) the following poem.
My Dad
My dad's bigger than your dad.
My dad's as tall as the moon,
As strong as the wind,
As wide as the sky.
You should see my dad!
He's got stars in his fists.
He bends rainbows on his knee.
When he breathes, clouds move.

He's good is my dad.

You can't scare him with the dark.
You can't scare him with guns or sticks.
He makes bullies say sorry
Just by staring.
Big green monsters
Fall asleep on his lap.
Ghosts start haunting each other.

My dad's been everywhere

But he says he says he likes the world.
Earth people are fun he says.
My dad knows more than teacher.
He knows everything.
He knows what you're thinking,
Even when you try to trick him
By thinking something else.
If you tell a lie
My dad says he can tell
by the look on your face.

My dad's the best dad ever.

I say I love him
A million times a million
Times a million times a million trillion.
My dad says he loves me
A billion trillion times more than that.

My dad likes to love.

My dad made the world.
(Steve Turner)

 What does calling God ‘Abba, Father’ mean to you? In your life? In your prayers?
 If we are invited to call God ‘Abba’, what does this suggest about how human beings
should relate to one another?
 Father is clearly a masculine name for God. Is God’s gender important? Many people
today would wish to discover and use appropriate feminine images for God as well.
What does the group think about this?
  ‘Abba’ – however we translate it – surely suggests God’s closeness to us. But this is
perhaps balanced by what comes next in the prayer ‘in heaven’ and ‘hallowed be your
name’ . Look at this meditation by Hubert Richards:
You are as close to us, God, as any parent can be.
But you are also as far above us as the sky.
When I look at the sky, it takes my breath away.
God my Father, I feel you so close.
God in Heaven, how can I be close to you?
(Hubert Richards)
Do you find it easier/prefer to think of God close to us – or grand and far away? Do you think it
important to hold together both ways of thinking about God in a kind of tension?

 Spend a few minutes thinking together about places and people in Kent . Are there
people or places in our county that help us to understand better what it means to call
God ‘Abba’ or to wonder at his grandeur ‘in heaven’?

Closing Prayers

 Pray the Lord's Prayer together slowly pausing at the end of each petition. Individuals in the
group may want to pray the version with which they are most familiar and should feel free
to do so. (We explore some of these differences in Weeks Four and Five of the course. See
below p.** and p.**)

 Each week of the course (except for the last) we are offering an interpretation of the ‘Lord’s
Prayer’ written by a person or group of people who have tried to show what the Lord’s
Prayer means to them. This is our suggestion for the first week, and you may wish to pray it
together.

God of all people in the world,

Close to us as a father or mother,
Yet far beyond us as the sky,
We fall on our knees in wonder before you.

We long for your Kingdom

When all people will live in your way,
And the world will be a heaven on earth.

Unless you give us food every day, we will die:

Teach us to share it fairly.
Unless you forgive us every day, we will be without hope:
Teach us to forgive others the way you do.

If you put us to the test,

You know how easily we could let you down.
Rescue us therefore
As you have always rescued your people.

For you are the God we will always turn to

In sorrow and in joy.
We mean this.
(Hubert Richards)

Finally we offer a prayer that suggests something of what the ‘fatherhood’ of God should mean in
the life of the church:
Loving God, Lord of the Church,
We are your family because you have fathered us into being,
We belong to you because you have mothered us into life.
Help us to live like brothers and sisters:
Speaking and listening to one another;
Helping each other to grow up;
Forgiving one another after disagreements;
Knowing that we are linked not alone by our own choice
But by your deciding,
So that we learn this day to praise your holy name
With one voice and heart.
(Word in the World, NCEC)

Programme 2 24 & 26 Feb

Reading: Matthew 17:1-9 and John 3:1-17

Theme: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

1. Earth is patterned on heaven. The transfiguration (Matthew 17) is heaven

on earth.
2. The mission of Jesus is to do the will of the Father which leads into
issues of justice and of peace, and of compassion.
3. Justice and peace could take us to asylum seekers via Pearl Anderson
4. The childlikeness of being born again could take us to L'Arche community
5. Compassion could lead us to emergency service - esp. ambulance service
6. Justice again - Terry Lee (via Wilf) is a Christian JP. Or would this be
probation service again?

Reflection this week from John the Apostle

Week Two
God’s will on earth

Aim: To continue to explore the Lord’s Prayer and to discover for ourselves what it means to ask
God ‘Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven’ .

To begin with…
  If people have had a chance to listen to the BBC Radio Kent broadcast for this week, you
might wish to ask them what parts of the programme they found most helpful or
challenging.
 Invite people to share their concerns and worries about the world of the present. Life does
not feel quite the same since September 11 2001. What impact did that event and its
aftermath have on you, your family, your church, and the places where you live or work? At
the time of writing these notes (October 2001) there is a great deal of tension. Did you find
it easy to continue with your normal patterns of life during this period?

Bible reading
This week we offer two different biblical passages – because our different churches select one or
other for their Sunday gospel reading. They are Matthew 17.1-9 and John 3.1-17. You may want
to focus on the one used in your church on Sunday, or to opt for the other – for a change – or
perhaps to look at both! Indeed both passages do have a shared thread – both encourage us to
reflect on ways in which in the life and ministry of Jesus a connection was made between heaven
and earth that can never be broken, that it is not an impossible dream to speak of ‘the will of God
on earth as in heaven’. Our meditation in ‘Encouraging biblical reflection’ explores both biblical
passages and helps us to make this connection.
Whichever biblical passage you choose you may want to use several voices to read the text,
to convey the sense of dialogue between heaven and earth that both passages contain.

Encouraging Biblical reflection

This week’s reflection comes from the perspective of John, another of the most intimate friends of
Jesus, and whose name is closely connected with the Gospel of John.

Light and darkness, brilliance and shadow, good and evil, heaven and earth, spirit and flesh.
Whenever I remember my beloved friend it is these sharp contrasts which spring to my mind.

Following on
 What, for you, would this earth look like, if God’s will was being done upon it?

 One of the great debates among people who have studied the New Testament is whether
God’s Kingdom is still entirely in the future, or whether, through what Jesus did in his life
and ministry, the ‘Kingdom of God’ is already beginning to happen on earth. What do you
think? What for you are/would be signs that ‘the Kingdom’ is already breaking into this
world? Are there such signs that you can see around you among the people and places of
Kent?

 ‘The “Our Father” compels us to recognise that we have a role in the world. To ask that his
kingdom may come while doing nothing to further the rule of love in the world is to mock
God.’ (R Coste). What ways can we as individuals or as members of a group help to ‘further
the rule of love’ in the places where we live and work?

 Some people find that using such language as ‘Your Kingdom come’ is not altogether
helpful in our day and age. To them the word ‘Kingdom’ gives an unhelpful sense of ‘top
heavy power’. What do you think? Are there other words or phrases such as ‘rule’ or ‘reign’
that you prefer to use instead? It seems that this was a discussion that went on even in the
first Christian centuries because there are a few ancient manuscripts of Luke’s gospel where
the words of the Lord’s Prayer include the sentence ‘May your Holy Spirit come upon us
and make us holy’ which replaces the phrase ‘Your Kingdom come’. (Luke 11.2) Why do
 you think this alternative ‘crept’ in (it is probably not what Jesus originally taught)? Which
do you prefer? (see also the prayer ‘Come Holy Spirit’ below)

 Last week people were encouraged to think about what ‘Father’ meant to them in their life
and prayers. This week people might wish to think about the Holy Spirit – and how the
Spirit helps us to pray, even if the Holy Spirit wasn’t actually mentioned in the Lord’s
Prayer (unless those ancient manuscripts of Luke’s gospel were right!). In a famous passage
in his letter to Romans Paul reflects on this. You may find it helpful to read Romans 8.15-
17, 26-27. Notice how in this passage (8.15) we actually find the Aramaic word ‘Abba’
(=Father/Daddy) that was so important to Jesus and his followers. Members of the group
may wish to share experiences of what the Holy Spirit means to them and how the Spirit
helps them to pray.

 Have the events of September 11 2001 made you think differently about ‘God’s will on
earth’?

? Aramaic Lord’s Prayer – goes back to our Christian and Jewish roots. …. What would Jesus and
his contemporaries have meant when they thought about ‘God’s Kingdom?’

dad@hvn,ur spshl.we want wot u want&urth2b like hvn.giv us

food&4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.don't test us!save us!bcos we
kno ur boss,ur tuf&ur cool 4 eva!ok?

http://cargo.ship-of-fools.com ‘R Father’

Closing prayers
Peace prayer – from Rochester email list

Lord,
Help us to see in the groaning of creation
Not death but birth pangs.
Help us to see in suffering
A promise for the future
Because it is a cry against the inhumanity of the present.
Help us to glimpse in protest
The dawn of justice,
In the cross the pathway to resurrection,
And in desolation the seeds of joy.
(Rubem Alves, Brazil )

We thank you God

That you so love our world

Grant us, Lord God,

The vision of your Kingdom,
Forgiveness and new life,
And the stirring of your Spirit;
So that we may share your vision,
Proclaim your love,
And change this world,
In the name of Christ.
(Church in Australia, Prayers for a Decade of Evangelism)

Following on the pattern of last week, we offer another example of a reworking of the Lord’s
Prayer by a modern writer. Notice how this example makes a link between the Holy Spirit and the
Lord’s Prayer.

Come Holy Spirit, bring us love

And may we know our Father who is with us.

Come Holy Spirit, bring us joy

And may we honour your name in all we do.

Come Holy Spirit, bring us peace

and may we show the kingdom.

Come Holy Spirit, bring us kindness

And may we share each day our daily bread.

Come Holy Spirit, bring us goodness

and may we walk away from sins.

Come Holy Spirit, bring us patience

And may we forgive every one who does us wrong.

Come Holy Spirit, bring us self-control

and may we resist every temptation.

Come Holy Spirit, gift us yourself

and may the kingdom, the power and the glory come to life in our living. Your will be done.
(Francis Brienen)

Programme 3 3 & 5 March

Reading: John 4:5-42 The Samaritan woman at the well

Theme: Give us this day our daily bread

1. The phrase from the Lord's Prayer and the Reading bring together bread
and water and lead us to focus on natural resources.
2. A visit to Yalding may remind us of the power of water. (Dot Hooker)
3. The Vale in Burham may be a bakery to visit, talking about the
ingredients of bread and how they work together etc.
4. Can we find an organic farm and perhaps somewhere where there are GM
experiments? (Perhaps Fruit Research Station at E Malling?) John
Mason/Michael Insley for contacts.
5. Are there food co-ops in Kent?
6. One poss contact is Rev Keith Fazzani who was an international
businessman - 01233 758322.

Title: Bread of Life

Aim: To continue to explore the Lord’s Prayer and to discover for ourselves what
it means to ask God ‘Give us this day our daily bread’.

To begin with
 If people have had a chance to listen to the BBC Radio Kent broadcast for this week, you
might wish to ask them what parts of the programme they found most helpful or
challenging.

* The group might enjoy making and baking bread together tonight. If the process was begun ay the
beginning of the evening, bread rolls for sharing and eating could be ready by the end.

 Have there been times in the lives of members of the group when they have been really
hungry in a way that gnawed at their insides? Why were they so hungry? Was it caused by
lack of money or other reasons? How did this hunger make them feel?

 In the 1980s the world was deeply moved by the TV reports on the famine in Ethiopia. It
led to the founding of charities like Live Aid. The following report by the BBC newsman
Michael Buerk was particularly powerful and you may want to read it, following it with a
moment of silence: ‘We were in a town filming and we hadn’t anything to eat. Somebody
told us where we could get something. If you’ve got money there is food you can buy. So
we went to this place and had a Coca Cola and a little bread roll each. We were just about to
start eating when in the doorway there must have been about fifty or sixty people. You
know, children looking with big, wide eyes, an old man who fell on his knees and came
shuffling into the café, and started kissing my feet. The idea of actually eating that bread
roll, I mean, I would have been sick on the spot. Instinctively, you start breaking the bread
into tiny little pieces, which isn’t going to help anybody, and start giving to people – and
hundreds more come clustering round the doorway.’
o But these days have we become ‘anaesthetised’ to pictures of hungry people in other
countries?

* Have any members of the group ever deliberately fasted? What was their motivation for doing
so? How did it affect you?

 What about thirst? Have they been in situations where thirst was a problem? Perhaps on a
long walk or on holiday in a desert situation… In the United Kingdom we are fortunate to
have easy access to clean water. But in many other parts of the world clean drinking water
is a luxury and only comes at considerable cost or labour. Have members of the group ever
lived in such regions themselves? Invite people to share experiences.

Bible reading
This week’s reading is the beautiful passage John 4.5-42 in which Jesus encounters a
Samaritan woman as she comes to find water at a well. It is a reminder that throughout
history women have born on a daily basis a major role in ensuring that their families have
the essentials - water and bread. The passage lends itself to being read as a dialogue.

Encouraging biblical reflection

This week we hear from the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well.

Following on…
* In the last couple of weeks we have encouraged people to become more aware of how the Lord’s
Prayer takes us right back to Christian roots. This week we are reminded that the Lord’s Prayer is a
prayer that is said today in hundreds of different languages and is shared in common by different
people all over the world. In the church of the ‘Pater noster’ in Jerusalem there are many sets of
beautiful tiles on which the Lord’s Prayer is written in hundreds of different languages. You can
see something of this for yourself if you visit the website of this church www.**. The website also
contains the text of the Lord’s Prayer in lots of different languages – the group might want to
download a few of the more unusual examples and enjoy reading them through. What does it feel
like to remember that at any moment in time there will be Christians all over the world praying this
prayer in their own language?

* Perhaps this sense of the universality of the Lord’s Prayer is a helpful prod to reminding us that
the prayer does not mention ‘me’ but ‘us’. The following rhyme is perhaps a little old-fashioned –
but makes this point well:

You cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer

And even once say ‘I’
You cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer
And even once say ‘my’
Nor can you say the Lord’s Prayer
And not pray for one another;
For when you ask for daily bread,
You can’t miss out your brother.
For others are included in each and every plea –
From beginning to the end of it,
It does not once say ‘Me’.
(Charles Thompson)

Do we sufficiently remember this when we pray this prayer? It is not simply about us as
individuals… nor even us as the people of Kent… but us as human beings among other human
beings in God’s world.

 On the surface this phrase of the Lord’s Prayer sounds simple enough and its meaning is
obvious. ‘Give us this day our daily bread’. But you might want to take a closer look. Look
at the prayer as it is given in Matthew 6 and Luke 11**. Different possibilities begin to open
up are we asking God to give us ‘each day’ our daily bread, or ‘this day’? And is there a
difference between the two phrases? What do you think? And then that word ‘daily’. If you
have access to a Bible with notes you may well see that alternative meanings for that word
are suggested such as ‘for tomorrow’. Another possible suggestion is ‘of our portion’. The
problem is that biblical scholars are not exactly sure what the word ‘epiousion’ means –
 though we normally do translate it as ‘daily’. Perhaps you might like to try out saying the
Lord’s Prayer with a translation such as ‘of tomorrow’ and see how it feels.

 One of the main differences of opinion about this line in the Lord’s Prayer is whether we
should be understanding ‘bread’ as ‘physical bread’ or ‘spiritual bread’. Or can it be both at
the same time? One Christian writer has made the thought-provoking comment ‘Bread for
myself is a material matter: bread for other people is a spiritual matter’. (Nicholas
Berdayev) In other words I am all too anxious about my own physical well-being - but not
nearly so worried about the physical wellbeing of others. Do you think this is true? Are
there ways in which we can draw links between these two understandings? It is, of course,
worth remembering that many of those who pray the Lord’s Prayer today in the other
languages recorded in the Church of the Pater Noster may well be praying it – hungry.

 It seems difficult not to feel that when Jesus taught his disciples this prayer he was thinking
at least in part of physical bread. In Galilee during his lifetime genuine hunger was a real
and often present possibility for many people. But is it possible for us today in Kent to pray
this petition in the prayer authentically? What do you think?

 Bread, of course, is not something that is found ready made in nature. It requires human
effort to make it. So what are the things that ‘bread’ means or symbolises to you? The
group might make a list. You might also want to make a similar list about ‘water’.

 ‘Through ‘bread’ we can link together the Lord’s Prayer and what happens whenever
Communion or the Eucharist is celebrated. In this act of Christian worship we take, bless,
break and share bread. Whenever the writer of these notes reads the story told by Michael
Buerk (above) the Eucharist comes to her mind. Do you think this is a wrong association?
You might want to consider the following comment made by a well known Roman Catholic
Christian ‘As long as there is anyone in the world who is hungry our Eucharist is
incomplete’. (Pedro Arrupe) Do you understand what he means? Do you think this is true?

 Are there people and places in Kent where you feel that these words in the Lord’s Prayer
are being lived out in a special way in people’s lives?

Closing prayers

 A meditation: that challenges those of us who receive Jesus’ gift of ‘living water’ to
remember our responsibility to work towards clean water for all human beings.

One who said, ‘I am the eternal water’

Dwelt among us
Living with us
Sustaining us.

To receive a cup of the living water

Is not only to cleanse ourselves
But also to cleanse all the waters,
River and well, lake and ocean,
And to share them with all.
(Christian from Japan)

 A prayer that helps to remind us of the different perspectives from which people pray for
‘Daily Bread’

What is this bread from heaven?

It is Jesus himself, his presence,
Healing, challenge, grace,
Hs hope for each one of us.
Bread of Life, may we take and eat so that you live in us.

For some affluence has brought a food surplus

With much wasted;
Then it is all the harder
To trust in the gift of heavenly bread.
Bread of Life, keep us hungry and thirsty for righteousness.

For others, a loaf is the most blessed gift of all,

To be received with thankfulness,
For it is the chance to live another day.
Bread of Life, help us to share – that all may be satisfied.

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.

Through your goodness we have this bread to offer,
Which earth has given and human hands have made.
It will become for us the bread of life
Blessed be God for ever
(Bernard Thorogood)

 A prayer that encourages us to share in the responsibility for answering our own prayer

Lord, when I am hungry give me someone to feed.

When I am thirsty give water for their thirst.
When I am sad, someone to lift from sorrow.
When burdens weigh upon me lay upon my shoulders the burden of my fllows.
When I stand greatly in need of tenderness,
Give me someone who yearns for love.
May your will be my bread; your grace my strength;
Your love my resting place.
(Anon, translated from the French)

 This week our reworking of the Lord’s Prayer is produced by a community in Central
America for whom the possibility of hunger is clearly as ever-present reality:

Our Father
Who is here on earth
Holy is your name
In the hungry who share their bread and their song.
Your kingdom come,
A generous land where confidence and truth reign.
Let us do you will
Being a cool breeze for those who sweat.
You are giving us our daily bread
When we manage to get back our lands
Or to get a fairer wage.
Forgive us
For keeping silent in the face of injustice
And for burying our dreams.
Don’t let us fall into the temptation
Of taking up the same arms as the enemy,
But deliver us from evil which disunites us.
And we shall have believed in humanity and in life
And we shall have known your kingdom
Which is being built for ever and ever.
(from Central America)

Reading: John 9:1-9 (healing of blind man) plus Luke 2:33-35 & John
19:25-27 (Mothering Sunday readings).

1. We have Hart-Dykes (son went missing but returned), Mrs Blackman (mother
of Lucie) and the Kertons (daughter missing now) for whom we have contacts.
How do they forgive?
2. Bill Peters (Deal) of Jubilee 2000 campaign
3. Perhaps need someone whose been forgiven???
4. Dorton House School for blind - need advice on sensitive handling
5. Autism - Helen Allison school at Meopham plus Mary-Ann Nossent from
diocese.

Reflection this week is from Mary, mother of Jesus, trying to make sense of
all that's happening.

Week Four
Forgive us as we forgive

Aim To continue to explore the Lord’s Prayer and to discover for ourselves what
it means to ask God ‘To forgive us as we forgive’.

To begin with
  If people have had a chance to listen to the BBC Radio Kent broadcast for this week, you
might wish to ask them what parts of the programme they found most helpful or
challenging.
 Have there been times and situations where people have found difficult or impossible to
forgive others? Have there also been times when people have found it difficult to ask for or
receive forgiveness from others for things that they themselves have done? What kind of
situations were these?
 Is anyone in the group prepared to speak about what it felt like to be forgiven?
 Do people think there are some things that human beings can do or have done that are
ultimately unforgiveable?
 The questions above perhaps take on a new significance in the light of the events of
September 11 and what has happened since. Perhaps people might share thoughts on this for
a few minutes.
 It seems to be particularly awful when something happens to one of our children. It is very
difficult to ‘forgive’ those who have hurt – or worse – those whom we feel it our particular
responsibility to protect. Are people prepared to share personal experiences or situations
that they known about? See also the prayer by Bishop Deqani-Tafti in ‘Closing Prayers’
below.
 We can use the concept ‘forgiveness’ quite widely these days. For example the Jubilee 2000
campaign spoke of ‘forgiving debts’ for the poorest nations of the world. Do you think this
is a helpful use of the word? On a recent visit to India, the author of these notes met a
remarkable Anglican bishop from Sri Lanka who was angry about the way the Western
nations talk about ‘debt forgiveness’. In his view the nations of the west have in the past
plundered the wealth of countries like Sri Lanka. So to speak of people now ‘forgiving’ the
debts of these poorer nations seemed to him a gross misuse of the term. What do you think?

Bible reading
This week we offer three different Bible readings. The first of these is John 9.1-9, the account of
the healing of a blind man at the Pool of Siloam. This is the RCL gospel reading for the 4th Sunday
in Lent. But many churches keep this Sunday as ‘Mothering Sunday’, so we also suggest the
lectionary readings which are set for Mothering Sunday. These are Luke 2.33-35 and John
19:25-27. Since the readings are short you may want to look at all three. The biblical reflection
given below draws on them all.

Encouraging biblical reflection

Appropriately, this week’s reflection is presented as from the lips of Mary, Jesus’ mother.

Following on
 Look once again at the two versions of the Lord’s Prayer as they are set out in the gospels
of Matthew and Luke. (Matthew 6.9-13 and Luke 11.2-4) The petition that we are focusing
on this week is one of the points in the prayer where the two gospels differ. Matthew speaks
of forgiving ‘debts’ while Luke refers to forgiving ‘sins’ (or in some older translations
‘trespasses’). What do you think about the difference between the two. Which is there more
important to forgive? ‘Debts’ has got a concreteness about it that can help to remind us that
‘forgiveness’ itself must be concrete – not simply about thinking nice warm thoughts! On
the other hand ‘sins’ perhaps better reflects the unfortunately vast range of possibilities that
might be included!
  What about ‘trespasses’? The version of the Lord’s Prayer that many people still regularly
say talks about ‘trespasses’ rather than ‘sins’. Do you think this is helpful? Is it perhaps that
we find it difficult to name some of our actions as ‘sins’ – and ‘trespasses’ sounds a bit
better? Or is it rather that ‘trespasses’ helps us to understand what ‘sin’ actually means –
something like ‘Crossing the boundaries that God has set’? Is this what ‘sin’ is? How would
you understand ‘sin’ and explain it to other people?
 This petition somehow lies at the very heart of the Lord’s Prayer. It is interesting for
example that in Matthew’s gospel the two verses immediately following the Lord’s Prayer
(Matthew 6.14-15) pick up and comment on the essential need for people to ‘forgive’. Why
do you think this link is so important… that we can only be forgiven if we ourselves are
willing to forgive? Do you think that is true in your own experience?
 Of course, if we follow Matthew and understand the word as ‘debt’ this does encourage us
to think in national and communal as well as individual terms. What might ‘forgiving debts’
mean on a world scale? Would we ever be prepared to use the Lord’s Prayer as a principle
to guide government or politics?
 Are there people and places in Kent where you feel that these words in the Lord’s Prayer
about forgiveness are being lived out in a special way?

Closing prayers

A father’s prayer on the murder of his son

 The following prayer was written by Bishop Hassan Deqani-Tafti, then the Anglican Bishop
in Iran, shortly after he had heard that his only son, Bahram, had been murdered on 6 May
1980 during the Iranian Revolution. It is so powerful that it probably needs to be followed
by some moments of silence.

O God
We remember not only our son but also his murderers;
Not because they killed him in the prime of his youth and made our hearts bleed and our tears flow,
Not because with this savage act they have brought further disgrace on the name of our country
among the civilised nations of the world;
But because through their crime we now follow your footsteps more closely in the way of sacrifice.
The terrible fire of this calamity burns up all selfishness and possessiveness in us;
Its flame reveals the depth of depravity and meanness and suspicion, the dimension of hatred and
the measure of sinfulness in human nature;
It makes obvious as never before our need to trust in God’s love as shown in the cross of Jesus and
his resurrection;
Love which makes us free from hate towards our persecutors;
Love which brings patience, forbearance, courage, loyalty, humility, generosity, greatness of heart;
Love which more than ever deepens our trust in God’s final victory and his eternal designs for the
Church and for the world;
Love which teaches us how to prepare ourselves to face our own day of death.
O God
Our son’s blood has multiplied the fruit of the Spirit in the soil of our souls;
So when his murderers stand before you on the day of judgement,
Remember the fruit of the Spirit by which they have enriched our lives.
And forgive.
* This week’s version of the Lord’s Prayer was produced by children in India. It may remind us
that children are especially vulnerable.

Dearest Father who lives in heaven,

May you name be kept pure.
Let peace reign and everyone be equal
On earth as in heaven.
Provide us with our daily needs as well as our spiritual needs.
Please forgive us the things we have done wrong
As we will forget the bad things others have done to us.
Help us not to be tempted to hurt you
And keep Satan away from us.
Because you made the earth and heaven and everything in it
And you are all powerful and we should give you glory
Through all eternity.
We all agree with this!
(from North India, written at a children’s camp)

Programme 5 17 & 19 March

Reading: John 11:1-45 - the raising of Lazarus

Theme: Lead us not into temptation ... deliver us from evil

1. Bluewater and temptation

2. Young adults and temptation
3. Regeneration: Thames Gateway - Anthony Dunnett of SEEDA?
4. Genetics and cloning - Caroline Berry
5. Contemplative nun at Minster Abbey
6. (Depending on impact) Lord of the Rings movie or Harry Potter movie.
(?Headteacher at St. Mary's Island)
7. Need for grace: evil is the absence of grace.0

Week Five
Deliver us from evil

Aim To explore the remaining petitions of the Lord’s prayer and to seek to make the prayer our
own.

To begin with
 If people have had a chance to listen to the BBC Radio Kent broadcast for this week, you
might wish to ask them what parts of the programme they found most helpful or
challenging.
 Invite people to share what are particular temptations for them as individuals – and for us as
the people of Kent. Are there any specific temptations that are peculiar to life in Kent?
Some people have commented, for example, that the presence of Bluewater near what is a
fairly deprived part of the county is not altogether helpful. What do you think?
  Since September 11 there has been a new sense of unease and perhaps even fear which has
affected the lives of many people. The striking poem ‘September 11 2001’ by Godfrey Rust,
text downloadable from his website www.wordsout explores some of these feelings. He
suggests we will never be able to look at our world in quite the same way again. Give
people the opportunity to share their particular fears – the ‘evils’ that have surfaced for
them in the last few months and from which we seek deliverance.

 What are the things that help you when you are fearful – or tempted? Prayer? The support
and love of friends and family? What other ways do you seek and find help?

Bible reading

Encouraging Bible reflection

Our final reflection looks at the gospel passage from the perspective of Mary/Martha.

Following on

 ‘By giving us this prayer, Jesus invites us to walk ahead into the darkness and discover that
it, too, belongs to God’. Do you find these powerful words of the New Testament scholar
Tom Wright to be true in your experience?
 In the Bible passage today we came across the short sentence ‘Jesus wept’. It is an
important reminder that Jesus himself experienced the whole range of human emotions.
Does this help you cope with your own fears and sorrows?
 Many people who practice contemplative prayer – this includes monks and nuns, but also
other people as well, discover that while their prayer can be a ‘weapon’ in struggling against
evil, there are also times when prayer itself can seem a time of darkness and desolation – the
‘Dark Night of the Soul’ experience of which St John of the Cross speaks. The group may
wish to share their experiences – perhaps also reflecting on the thoughts shared in this
week’s radio broadcast.
 There are two rather different forms of this section of the Lord’s Prayer in common use in
our churches. Some Christians say ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’
Others use the words, ‘Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil’ – which are
probably closer to the actual sense of what Jesus meant. (There may well be other versions
you know as well!) Which form do you use in your church? Which do you prefer? Do you
think it is important to try and get as close to the original sense of the New Testament as
possible, or do you feel that it is important to stick with a phrase with which many people
have become familiar – even if it is not a completely accurate translation.
 If we use the form ‘Lead us not into temptation’ are we implying that God is actively
involved in tempting us?
 It is probable that the words ‘time of trial’ refer to a particular period of testing and danger
which the followers of Jesus and the early Christians believed must take place before God’s
kingdom would be fully revealed. It would be a time of great persecution, when things
would get a lot worse before they could get better! What might be the equivalent in our time
and context? Is a ‘time of trial’ these days something for individuals to go through, or is it
also something that a church or a nation might have to face?
 Look at the prayer ‘When anarchy threatens’ given below. What for you helps to overcome
‘the things of death’?
  Sometimes we end the Lord’s Prayer with the words ‘Deliver us from evil’ – and sometimes
we add afterwards ‘Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen. ’ The custom is different in different churches. These extra words are what are
called a ‘doxology’ and it was the normal practice to have such a doxology at the end of
Jewish prayers. Notice that Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t include this
doxology, but it may have been a part of Matthew’s version. What is the custom in your
church? Do you prefer saying the prayer with or without this ‘doxology’? What do you
think people added doxologies such as this?
 Are there people and places in Kent where these words and phrases of the Lord’s Prayer are
being lived out in a special way?
 Invite the group to write (individually, in pairs, or as a whole group – whatever seems most
appropriate for you) your own reworking and interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer. You have
the examples that we have offered in the previous weeks of the series as a guide. But now it
is the opportunity to explore what are the most important themes and ideas for you? What
does it mean to make the Lord’s Prayer ‘your own’? Include the prayer(s) you have written
among the closing prayers at the end of the evening. Try and find a way to ensure that each
member of the group will eventually have a copy of all the prayers that have been written to
keep for themselves. They will provide a helpful way for group members to remember and
continue to pray for each other. You may also want to share some of your examples with a
wider audience. If so you are invited to send them to BBC Radio Kent, The Great Hall,
Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ. Mark the envelope c/o Lent series Lord’s Prayer.

Closing prayers
Our closing prayers for this week – the final week of the series – are rather different and you may
need to allow extra time for this section.

 First invite people to read through for themselves the following reflection.

I cannot say Father if I do not demonstrate the relationship in my daily life.

I cannot say Who art in heaven if I do not bow in reverence before the Almighty.
I cannot say Hallowed be thy name if I, who am called by his name, am not holy.
I cannot say Thy kingdom come if I am not doing all in my power to hasten its coming.
I cannot say Thy will be done if I am questioning, resentful of or disobedient to his will for me.
I cannot say Give us this day our daily bread if I am lazy and not prepared to work for the good of
all.
I cannot say Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, if I harbour a
grudge against anyone.
I cannot say Lead us not into temptation if I deliberately place myself in a position where I am
likely to be tempted.
I cannot say Deliver us from evil if I am not prepared to fight it in the spiritual realm with the
weapon of prayer.
I cannot say Amen if I do not also add ‘Cost what it may’.
For to say this prayer honestly will cost everything.
(MW Gass from ‘Prayers that Live’ by Frank Colquhoun)

 Then if people are willing, pray the Lord’s Prayer together slowly – pausing at the end of
each petition.

 Take the opportunity also to pray together the ‘version(s)’ of the Lord’s Prayer that you
have devised (see above) as individuals or as a group.
  Pray for each individual member of the group – that they may be strengthened in the
coming months by what you have discovered together over the past few weeks.

 Finally use the prayer given below – or a well known prayer such as ‘The Grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ’ – to close the evening and the whole course.

Where anarchy threatens,

where trouble is endless,
where violence corrupts,
we pray for the ordinary good things of life
– sharing, endeavour, hopefulness and love,
– that they may finally overcome the things that speak of death.
(Christopher Burkett, ‘Hasten the Time’, USPG)

Bibliography
Kenneht Stevenson
Tom Wirght
David Rhoads
Neville Ward