Abstract
The Lord’s Prayer is known to many, even as early as childhood those, who can and do recite it from memory. It is prayed often in the context of worship settings: regular corporate worship, as well as funerals and weddings. The “Our Father,” as the prayer is often called, is perhaps the most well-known prayer in the Christian faith, yet what many have learned to recite from memory is not consistent with what is recorded in Scripture. The intent of this article is twofold. The first section offers a brief interpretation of the prayer, using the KJV translation of the Matthew text (6:9–13) plus the traditional but added-later conclusion. The second section offers a “congregational song” analysis of the prayer, employing the model of British hymnologist Brian Wren, who asserts, “Whoever sings to God in worship, prays twice.”
I was attending my first communion at the First Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, the first Sunday in September 1973. I had become active in the youth, Sunday School, and music ministries. This particular morning would be my first experience in celebrating communion with the congregation I would soon join as a member. After we had received and consumed the bread and the juice (remember, Baptist), the pastor announced that our benediction would be the singing of the Lord’s Prayer. I had been reciting this prayer since childhood, and the only time I heard it sung was by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir on their album entitled The Lord’s Prayer. 1 The version we sang that Sunday morning in September 1973, however, was the musical version by Albert Hay Malotte, often sung for weddings and funerals. The sound of nearly 1,500 people in worship singing the Lord’s Prayer (with pipe organ) was overwhelming, and I could not finish because I was in tears, and my voice kept choking from the emotions that filled my soul.
Fast-forward 42 years to Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Virginia, where I was serving as the interim Associate Pastor for Worship and Arts. The senior pastor of that congregation had attended First Baptist Church in Richmond while a student at the University of Richmond and had experienced the same emotions I felt as a teenager many years earlier. When I arrived at Columbia Baptist in the spring of 2015, the pastor shared with me that he had used the singing of the Lord’s Prayer in each congregation he had served since seminary and that he brought it with him to Columbia. My first Sunday communion service at Columbia became a flashback to that Sunday morning at First Baptist 40 years earlier, when I could not finish singing because I was overcome with God’s spirit and emotion.
The Lord’s Prayer is perhaps the most well-known prayer in the Christian faith, and while the version most have learned to recite through the years is not identical to the words recorded in Scripture, it remains the foundation, the bedrock of learning and understanding how to speak to God. It has become a staple of worship in many congregations and denominations. In the United Church of Christ congregation in which I currently serve as senior pastor, the prayer is recited following the community prayer, and on Communion Sundays it follows the blessing of the elements. During the early days of my congregation’s transition to live-stream worship, I became aware of how the use of the Lord’s Prayer had become mundane, how it had become rote, an act of routine.
During my reflection on this topic, I was approached to write this article. The article is divided into two sections. The first section is a brief interpretation of the prayer, using, as its basis, the text from the Gospel of Matthew (6:9–13) in the familiar language of the KJV plus the traditional but added-later conclusion. Reflecting my background in church music, I use musical terms such as “stanza” and “verses.” The second section of this article is a “congregational song” analysis, employing the thoughts and model of Brian Wren to aid in understanding the components, or rubrics, for effective congregational singing in the context of the Lord’s Prayer. In the first sentence of his book, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song, Wren writes, “Whoever sings to God in worship, prays twice.” 2 My hope is that this article will encourage readers to contemplate the use of the Lord’s Prayer, not in the spirit of mundane recitation, but rather in the spirit of praying twice to God through song.
Textual analysis
“Our Father who art in heaven”
The temptation in praying or singing the Lord’s Prayer, as is often the case with prayer, is to privatize the Prayer or make it simply about “me and mine.” And yet, as Warren Carter notes, “This prayer is so very central to our communal life in the church. It should form us in our faith and guide our social/ethical practice, sustaining a new identity and lifestyle.” 3 From the outset of the Prayer, the plural pronoun “Our” reminds readers of its communal dimension, resisting attempts to privatize this prayer. Throughout the prayer, pronouns and verbs are plural, a continual reminder that this prayer is intended for the community of faith.
“Hallowed be thy name”
This God-centered prayer begins with three petitions orienting the hearts and minds of worshipers toward God: the hallowing of God’s name, coming of God’s reign, and fulfillment of God’s will on earth. The use of “hallowed” is to signify or honor God as holy. Anna Case-Winters contends, When we worship and praise and adore God [especially through the act of singing] we live lives in imitation of God’s ways. As Augustine is attributed as saying, “We imitate whom we adore.” In this way we are led to seek God’s reign above all else, thus the prayer for God’s name to be hallowed flows logically into prayer for God’s reign to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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“Thy Kingdom Come”
The second petition of the Prayer does not refer to a specific physical location or place for God’s “kingdom,” but rather refers to the new reality of the reign of God in the world. Simply put, those who sing and pray this prayer pray for the dismissal of the present earthly order and the advent of God’s reign on earth in its wake.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
The final petition affirms God’s care regarding the cares and crises of the world. “Theologically this insight is carried in our most fundamental theological affirmations concerning creation, revelation, providence, redemption, and consummation.” 5 The desire for God’s will to be done on “earth as it is in heaven” centers around the message of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, the centerpiece of the gospel message, that of justice, mercy and righteousness.
“Give us this day our daily bread”
With this phrase, the Lord’s Prayer shifts into requests for the needs of humanity: daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from the bonds of temptation and evil. Case-Winters states that these petitions are consistent with the previous petition requests “that look to the future establishment of God’s reign and God’s will on earth.” 6 The particular petition regarding bread is significant in bearing testimony to the congregation’s commitment to the cause of justice. God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven” is that all should have enough food for each day. For those who seek to participate in the kingdom of God, it is impossible to pray this prayer through song or the spoken word and withhold bread from those who are hungry and in material or spiritual need.
“And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”
Using a musical analogy, one can hear this stanza of the prayer as the beginning of the crescendo toward the prayer’s climax or apex. Christians cannot speak or sing this prayer with any authenticity without a commitment to the spiritual act of forgiveness. In the context of justice, when believers ask for forgiveness, they have surrendered their privileges in being right. Case-Winters asserts, We need what can only come from another’s acceptance of us. Praying God’s forgiveness does not take the place of asking those whom we have offended to forgive us. Indeed our readiness to come before God is connected to our readiness to ask forgiveness.
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In his keynote address to the Eleventh Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation, then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams stated, Neither the forgiver nor the forgiven acquires the power that simply cuts off the past and leaves us alone to face the future: both have discovered that their past, with all its shadows and injuries, is now what makes it imperative to be reconciled so that they may live more fully from and with each other.
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“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”
This stanza continues the musical crescendo toward the closing statement of affirmation and confidence in the power of God’s presence. The phrase also echoes the three temptations Jesus himself experienced in the wilderness: the temptations to turn stone into bread, thus using his divine power to satisfy his personal needs; to leap from the pinnacle of the Temple, creating a spectacle of himself; and finally to honor and worship Satan and consequently to amass power for himself. Arguably, the fundamental points in this stanza of the prayer are (1) the temptation to doubt the coming of God’s reign or God’s will being established on earth, and (2) the temptation to choose to withhold the act of forgiveness from others despite knowing that forgiveness is part of the bounden duty of Christians.
“For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever”
Finally, the prayer has reached its musical climax. This stanza does not appear in the earliest manuscripts; the words are later additions to those in the Gospel of Matthew. Regarding the addition, Case-Winters tackles the “what” and “why”: Can it be that we are much more preoccupied with kingdoms and power and glory than Jesus was? That may well be. Nevertheless, this addition makes an affirmation consistent with the message of the book of Matthew. Jesus teaches that the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to God and not to some other.
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Although the final stanza of the Lord’s Prayer is not original to the Gospel of Matthew, it is wholly fitting as a part of reciting or singing the prayer.
Congregational song exegesis
The second portion of this article considers the importance of, and justification for, using the Lord’s as a congregational song. Brian Wren has developed an assessment rubric for the lyrics of congregational song, to evaluate their quality for use in churches. He considers how both meaning and significance impact congregations. He argues that “a good congregational song lyric is devout, just, frugal, beautiful, communal, purposeful, and musical.” 10 Examining the Lord’s Prayer through this lens supports the use of the Lord’s Prayer in congregational music as an act of deep, meaningful worship.
Meaning
In the context of congregational song, the local congregation assumes “ownership” of the text once they have used it in the context of worship. The key to ownership, however, is the congregation’s understanding of the meaning of the text. When the congregations of First Baptist, Richmond, and Columbia Falls Church Baptist celebrate communion, they understand well the meaning of the text of the Lord’s Prayer, in part because it has become an element of their faith tradition through congregational song. Wren strengthens this point further: “Thus, though one of the earliest meanings of a lyric is what the author intends to communicate, it is more important to ask what it means to the people who first sang it, and what it means today.” 11
Significance
“Significance” of lyrics suggests the meaning or interpretation for each individual singer or the congregation. How might lyrics shape life and faith? For example, the stanza “forgive us our debts” will have a different impact on a congregant struggling with forgiveness than one who is indebted. Similarly, a congregant wrestling with temptation or sin may hear God speaking in powerful ways through the lyric “and lead us not into temptation.” Singing may help a church member hear or internalize the prayer in new ways. As Wren says, “When a congregation sings a song, the music affects the significance of the words, even though it does not alter their meaning.” 12
Devout
Whatever congregants do in the context of worship, all those actions must be offered in the spirit of divine worship. “Devout,” in Wren’s context, describes texts or lyrics that are “God-centered, focused on serving God alone, and on praising, glorifying, and delighting in the Name Unnamed, creator of the universe, embracing all things, incarnate in Jesus Christ, present as Holy Spirit.” 13 Without question, the Lord’s Prayer text exemplifies these qualities of worshipping God, especially in the opening stanzas. Hallowing God’s name and praying for God’s kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done on earth orient singers toward a posture of devotion to God. The “devoutness” of texts gives a balance of awe/wonder and intimacy with God, as well a balance of companionship and reverence as God relates to humanity, and this devoutness creates space for praise, celebration, and lament as the congregation looks outward to view God in the world.
Just
In considering lyrics’ just-ness, the crucial question whenever a local congregation sings a song, specifically in this case the Lord’s Prayer as spoken/sung on a consistent (weekly) basis in worship, is do those lyrics bear faithful testimony to that faith community? Are congregants “just” when they sing “and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors?” Do they forgive the debts of others? Do they seek to provide daily bread for others, thus joining in the movement of God’s will on earth? Singing the Lord’s Prayer invites a congregation into the work of divine justice in the world.
Frugal
In the context of congregational song, frugality speaks to a practice of economy in the lyrics. It speaks to the need for simplicity, brevity, and clarity. The thoughts of nineteenth-century hymn text writer John Ellerton explain the importance of simplicity in congregational song, that they “are not for the few, but for the many . . . they should be easy to understand, the language plain, the thoughts not too far-fetched.” 14 Stanzas of the Lord’s Prayer such as “give us this day our daily bread” exemplify this frugality of lyrics.
Beautiful
The beauty in congregational song texts comes not only from the musical arrangement of notes to lyrics but also from the memorable durability of the text. Texts must be able to stand the act of repetition, for through repetition congregants are reminded of the spiritual and emotional impact such beautiful texts make along their journey of faith.
Communal
This particular rubric is perhaps the best rationale for singing the Lord’s Prayer in worship. The very act of congregational song is communal, clear in meaning, purpose, and diversity. Can the singing of the Lord’s Prayer speak to the spiritual needs of the faith community regardless of the situation, gender, culture, or lifestyle? From a personal perspective, that the Lord’s Prayer has been a central component for worship in three denominations I have served (United Church of Christ, Episcopal, and United Methodist) is an affirmative response to the previous question.
According to Alex Scott, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church, and other denominations have encouraged the use of gender-inclusive religious language. In the Lord’s Prayer, an example of such community-expanding practice could be to replace “Our Father” with “Our Creator.” Scott observes, Gender-inclusive language recognizes that all women, men, and non-binary people are equally loved and valued by God. It also encourages us to remember that God is neither male nor female, and that God transcends gender identity.
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Purposeful
The disadvantage of reciting the Lord’s Prayer in worship is manifest when the prayer becomes a routine, is understood as a duty to perform to complete the “checklist of worship,” or is included merely to fill time. This past November, when I sang the prayer in worship, I felt a sense of purpose I had not experienced when the congregation recited it. I was reminded of the First Baptist and Columbia congregations and the powerful presence of hundreds of voices in unison giving praise and thanks for God’s love. Singing disrupts what is often a patterned approach to the Lord’s Prayer and renews a sense of purpose in this prayer from Jesus.
Musical
“Musical” or “musicality” refers to the pleasantness and sensitivity of the hymn or song. In Wren’s rubric, this element is the foundation that supports the previous eight characteristics. The crescendos, chord progressions, and musical notation give the hymn its power and majestic impact. For example, one might recall powerful emotions experienced in singing “How Great Thou Art?” or in hearing the final measures of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus. When sung, the musical interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer reminds the singing congregation of the spiritual message and presence of God. In my opinion, Wren concludes with this rubric because, if the previous eight contain deficiencies or shortcomings, the musical impact is meaningless.
Conclusion
It has often been said that one can determine the theology of a congregation by the hymns or contemporary praise songs they sing in worship. The theology of the congregational music during my childhood and into my teenage years was based on the traditional hymns. Not until my later high school and college years was I introduced to contemporary songs and choruses that spanned from Carmen, Bill Gaither, and Take 6, to Matt Redman, Brooklyn Tabernacle, and Israel Houghton. Yet the Lord’s Prayer remains for me one of the constant musical expressions of prayer in the Christian faith. According to Hymnary.org, as of 29 January 2021, 16 some version of the Prayer can be found in 588 hymnals or collections. The singing of the Lord’s Prayer should, without question, become a more active part of corporate worship, especially in congregations in which the prayer enjoys a common space in worship. Brian Wren was correct; when we sing, we lift our prayerful petitions to God twice, that God hears us twice. My hope is that this article’s analysis of the Lord’s Prayer will inspire and motivate churches to understand congregational song as truly a holy act of worship. And, after lifting prayer petitions and needs to God, congregations can affirm God’s presence and blessing even more so by singing Our Father.
Footnotes
1.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, The Lord’s Prayer, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy, Columbia Masterworks MS 6068, 1959, vinyl.
2.
Brian Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000), 1.
3.
Warren Carter, Matthew and the Margins: A Socio-Political and Religious Reading (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 164.
4.
Anna Case-Winters, Matthew, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2015), 111.
5.
Case-Winters, Matthew, 112.
6.
Case-Winters, Matthew, 113.
7.
Case-Winters, Matthew, 116.
8.
9.
Case-Winters, Matthew, 121–22.
10.
Wren, Praying Twice, 189.
11.
Wren, Praying Twice, 170.
12.
Wren, Praying Twice, 173.
13.
Wren, Praying Twice, 175.
14.
Wren, Praying Twice, 181.