Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

For some, this is the kind of prayer that comes out in a desperate situation. We seek God’s mercy to get us out of a bad place, to heal us or a loved one from a terrible disease, or to forgive us from some deep dark sin that keeps us riddled with guilt, shame, or regret.

In the flow of ordinary life, however, our need for mercy rarely comes bubbles to the surface. After all, we are good people. We’re not out committing immoral acts in need of constant forgiveness. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to condemn others we deem “sinners” because their so-called immoral behaviors or beliefs are unthinkable to us, even if we don’t know them or if they have not done any harm.

The problem is that the more we focus on everybody else’s “sin”, the less we are able to experience God’s mercy for ourselves and in turn, the less we are able to extend God’s mercy to others…

For nearly 15 million (10%) Americans and 2.37 billion people globally (30%) who face food insecurity in some form, the prayer for daily bread is truly a desperate cry for their very survival.

Most of us, however, probably think very little about it. When we ask where our next meal is coming from, it is often a question of which restaurant we will go to or who will deliver rather than a question of whether or not there will be any food available for us at all.

Perhaps from our places of relative comfort, this prayer for daily bread should trigger something more…

On earth as it is in heaven…

Of all the things that sound too good to be true, surely this ranks among the top. It seems so far fetched that most Christians have all but given up on the idea. In practice we have traded in this line of the prayer Jesus taught us for another prayer, a simple and almost magical formula for Jesus to forgive our sins so that after we die we might get into some distant heavenly city somewhere over the rainbow or beyond the Crystal Sea.

Such thinking might seem innocent enough, but historically the influence of such teaching has led to an utter disregard for the physical realities of an earth and of bodies which we assume are passing away. Violence and destruction against creation and humanity is much easier when we assume that one day we will “fly away” into glory and nothing on earth will matter anyway.

The theme of God’s Kingdom coming on earth is not only central to the prayer Jesus taught us, but also to the whole of Jesus’ teachings and the New Testament. One could argue that Jesus must have missed something, as we continue to wait over 2,000 years later for a Kingdom that feels more distant now than ever. We are not alone in our impatience and anxiety. The apostles certainly believed Christ would return to earth in their lifetimes, as have countless faithful Saints in every generation since, and still it seems that God waits. As Peter reminds us, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, but remains patient toward us, giving everyone time to change their hearts and lives (2 Peter 3:9).

So what do we as anxious and impatient people do in the waiting?…

…Jesus invites us to pray not to some distant God, but to God, Our Father. Sometimes though, God Our Father feels a lot more like the father in Erma’s story. We know God loves us, but when it comes to our everyday lives, we’re not always sure what Our Father actually does.

To make matters worse, not everyone’s experience with their earthly fathers are positive. Some are outright painful or even abusive. For better or worse, our image of father will always fall short of who God is. Nevertheless, Jesus invites us into a shared relationship with “Our Father.” Instead of creating God in the image of earthly fathers, he essentially says, “My father is your father too. My father in heaven, who loves me, sent me to tell you that he loves you too. You are my brothers and sisters and my beloved father is Our Father.”

Perhaps Pope Francis puts it best when he says, “When we address God as ‘Our Father’, we are invited to remember that, regardless of whether our human fathers loved us deeply or abandoned us entirely, or whether our fathers died or were simply absentee, we are not orphans.” Jesus’ Father is your father... my father… OUR FATHER…