[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Jul/2014]
One of the many churches around Jerusalem is the Church of the Paternoster (which means “Our Father”) and is built above a grotto where Jesus is believed to have taught the Lord’s Prayer. The church is famous for the tiled panels in the cloisters which show the Lord’s Prayer in more than 60 different languages. When we visited there our guide, Amnon, who is fluent in several languages, read the Lord’s Prayer from a number of the panels and ended with the one in Hebrew. He then asked me to read the prayer from Matthew’s gospel and when I finished I said, “Shall we say the Lord’s Prayer together”. I hadn’t meant it as a question but the whole group enthusiastically called out “Yes!” For us to have had the experience of praying that prayer where Jesus first taught it to His followers was very moving.
I was reminded of this when Russell used the prayer as a basis for the service entitled “A Praying Community”. In pointing out the importance of praying together he emphasised that the prayer begins with “Our Father”, and so our church should take every opportunity to meet together in prayer, which is very true. But what about those times when we pray alone? I use a devotional prayer book which often includes the Lord’s Prayer and it didn’t seem completely correct to start the prayer with “Our” when I was praying on my own. It took a while for me to realise that every time I started the prayer that there would be others, perhaps thousands and thousands of Christians around the world, who were praying the Lord’s Prayer at the same time as me. To God who hears all these prayers at the same time this means that we are praying to OUR Father together even though we are miles apart and are praying the prayer in all the different languages and more that are displayed in the Church of the Paternoster. This makes the Lord’s Prayer, and all other prayers as well, so meaningful and powerful, whether we are seemingly praying alone or at those special times when we pray together as a church, because we are praying as part of a much larger community.
There is a time coming when the whole community of believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour will gather as one body and pray together in the heavenly realms. The apostle John saw a vision of this and described it in this way.
“After this I saw a vast crowd too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting in a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” (Rev 7:9-10 NLT)
A modern songwriter expressed a desire for this time in a way we can all relate to.
“I long to be where the praise is never ending, yearn to dwell where the glory never fades;
Where countless worshippers will share one song and cries of “worthy” will honour the Lamb!”
At that time there will be one community of countless worshippers, the whole Church, singing one song, a prayer of praise and worship to our Father who saves us.
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Contributed by Michael Goble; © the Author
