Here’s what I learnt this week. It came from reading the ‘Lord’s prayer’ in Greek in Luke 11. You can strip it down as follows – the first three requests setting the framework, the next three filling in the human-level detail.
Setting the framework | |
‘sanctified’ – set apart as holy | be your name |
‘let come’ | your kingdom |
‘let be done’ | your will |
The human-level detail | |
‘give us the needful bread’ | daily rations |
‘forgive us’ | like we forgive those who owe us |
‘lead us not’ into fiery trial; ‘deliver us from evil’ | Fatherly company in a rough world |
And then later on in the same teaching session, Luke has Jesus talk about asking the Father to send the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13).
This all reminds me of ways you can dismantle Genesis 1. That passage on creation starts with the Holy Spirit brooding over primeaval chaos. And then has two lots of three, as follows:
Setting the framework | |
Day 1 | Light and darkness; day and night |
Day 2 | Sky (or heaven) and earth |
Day 3 | Land and sea; trees and grass |
The human-level detail | |
Day 4 | Sun and moon as light and calendar markers – measuring our days |
Day 5 | Animals and birds everywhere |
Day 6 | Men and women as subregents of the animals; ‘cattle’ as a thing; vegetation for food |
Genesis 1 is a picture of God ordering the primeval chaos, making it fit for humans, and then settling in to work with them — this settling in is God’s ‘rest’ of day 7.
The prayer that Jesus taught in Luke 11 has resonances with Genesis 1: first, setting a framework of God’s rule; then promoting God’s rule at a human level. Genesis 1 is a hymn of creation; Luke 11 is a prayer of new creation. Both end with God and people either in a harmonious creation or building towards a harmonious new creation. Both are universal and both are personal. This comparison may be rather contrived; but it is fun to see the two passages in dialogue.