The Lord's Prayer is the foundation of reconciliation

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. (Matthew 6:9 -13)

The foundation prayer throughout Christendom is the Lord’s Prayer. For many of us, it is prayed at the beginning, the middle and the end of our day. It is an important prayer in our corporate worship.

The Lord’s Prayer is also the foundation of the work of reconciliation that Jesus commanded us to do individually and as communities of faith. We are to embrace all of humanity and unite us as the living Body with Christ.

Another element of reconciliation is miracles. Madeleine L’Engle called them the “Glorious Impossible.” I am often asked if I have witnessed a miracle. The questioners are wondering about shocking physical miracles, but the most frequent miracles are the ones overlooked or simply taken for granted. In 2 Timothy, he wrote of miracles as something simply when God cannot deny himself by refusing to hear our prayers, including our pleas for the forgiveness of our sins. God says “Yes, I will do that!” and forgives ALL our sins. Every single one of them! That’s a miracle. A fresh start for every one of us.

Our part of the covenant with God is to live in joyful thanksgiving with Him and to forgive the sins of all those that injure us and then joyfully desire reconciliation. It looks easy on paper — but is hard to do. Yet, how can I truly live as the forgiven if I don’t forgive others as I have been forgiven?

Never before in recent history has our nation been so divided, yet there are many people counting on us to be leaders. People are counting on us to become once again a resource of sound reasoning, justice and hope. Our national emotions are not that different than what our nation was experiencing the day before Sept. 11, 2001. The day after 9/11, we were able to put aside our differences and stand together as one nation under God. Hand in hand, we face a terrible new reality and a new fear.

At this time in history, we, the forgiven, are necessary to the process of healing our politically torn nation and must be the instruments of God’s healing and reconciliation.

After 9/11, people filled our churches seeking relief from their spiritual pains and asking us important questions such as, “Where is God?” and “How can we pray?”

We, the forgiven, need to pause and begin to be prepared for the days after Nov. 8, 2016. This could be a time in our beloved nation of a great spiritual awakening!

It is time to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

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