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Presented are transcripts of radio broadcasts by R.L.D.S. President Frederick M. Smith in 1938 on pertinent topics that continue to be of considerable interest in this 21st century.
IV. Social Elements in the Lord’s Prayer One of the most outstanding and characteristic of the sayings of the Master is what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer. There is, perhaps, no other prayer so nearly universal in its use. Everywhere in Christendom it is quoted and repeated, and for all I know it may, because of its excellence, be used elsewhere. It is a model of praying devotion, and of course was by Jesus so meant to be, and if understood by the users carries a richness of meaning and covers a breadth of importance achieved by no other petition of equal length. It is doubtful if expansion would improve it; yet it is profitable experience for students of that prayer to attempt such expansion. A Model Prayer I do not know, of course, because the record is silent upon that matter, whether the Lord’s Prayer sprang spontaneously from the lips of the Master, or whether he gave it to his disciples only after he had by thoughtful revision condensed it to an irreducible minimum. If you think it can be condensed any further and have it remain a smooth bit of language, try it. You will probably conclude after fruitless effort, no matter how long continued, that its compactness is complete. Your efforts along this line will not be entirely without avail, for you will rise from the task with finer appreciation of the beauty, the scope, and quality of the prayer, and with surer conviction that Divinity found play in its production and construction. I have said that this prayer is quoted and repeated throughout Christendom, but I am positive that its social import is far too often unrecognized by either those who repeat it or those who hear it. It is not in any portion of it individual or personal. I shall here repeat it, and then attempt an analysis.
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy Name Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.” —Matt. 6:9-13, A.V.
A slightly different rendition is given in Luke. The Matthew version seems to be the most complete. I have said that it is not known whether the prayer is spontaneous or studied. To all intents and purposes, probably the latter; for doubtless Jesus had given much thought to the matter and manner of praying. He had heard thousands of prayers uttered by others, and had himself often engaged in this form of devotion, for devotion it is, or ought to be. In the preceding chapter Matthew tells of Jesus going up into a mountain and his disciples coming to him for instruction. He gives them the Beatitudes and follows with other characteristic and beautiful teachings. He tells his disciples to avoid ostentation in almsgiving or prayer. Then he says, “After this manner therefore pray ye.” Luke writes, “And it came to pass, that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”—Luke 11:2-4 I have quoted the Luke version for two specific reasons, (1) the information it contains as to its genesis, and (2) the variations in the prayer itself. Instruction in Prayer In the Matthew version the Master is represented as including the instructions concerning how to pray along with other instructions, while Luke tells us that one of the disciples had asked his Master to teach them how to pray. Another difference is that in the Luke version the disciples are told to say certain words, while in Matthew the instruction is to pray “after this manner.” This would indicate that Jesus meant his prayer to be a model after which the disciples should shape their own prayers. And I like this much better than to be told that we should use these exact words and only these. The prayer exemplifies, in other words, I quite believe that Jesus’ prayer was designedly formed by him for his disciples, as one which contains the essential elements of such prayers as we should present to Deity, and the various things for which we are expected to pray are rightfully proportioned in the model given. Social Implications It is a matter of considerable satisfaction to me as one who believes that the Christian gospel is social in its application to know that the first word of the Lord’s Prayer socializes it. He did not tell us to use the first person singular pronoun, but he said “Our.” We cannot utter that word understandingly without thinking of others. How many we might think of depends upon our situation, the general and specific conditions prevailing, or the training and experiences and resultant attitude of the petitioner; or upon all these. It must mean at least two. So it may mean me and my wife; or it may mean, “me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more,” as one man was wont to pray. Or it may mean those of a group large or small, the neighborhood, the people of the town, of the city, the whole nation, or the whole world. It depends upon the social growth of the individual praying. But this much it does mean, one cannot use the Lord’s Prayer exactly, or use it as a model without having someone else in mind besides himself. He must in his praying be one of two or more. And this idea or thought carries over into the next word, “Father.” We are children of this Father of all, hence all others are our brothers. Here again there is play for breadth of vision, for the ultimate scope of what should be included in the children of the All-Father will be all mankind. Of one blood hath God created all nations. But far too many do not believe that, and so to them our means less than all. Such petitions doubtless specifically limit the scope of the pronoun, though they may be more generous than the one I’ve cited. “In heaven” fixes the one to whom we direct our petitions as the Supreme being. Heaven we all think about as the abode of Deity, the center from which the whole universe is regulated. “Hallowed be thy name,” directs our attention to the necessity of all worshipers in prayer to utter words of adoration and love. The love for God in the heart of the true and understanding worshiper should be the very ecstasy of that refined passion. We owe tribute of praise and respect to the Heavenly Father. “Thy kingdom come.” These three words expressed the great objective of Christianity in the ultimate, though in the minds of far too many who call themselves Christian today the comprehension of the word “kingdom” is much too narrow and limited. There are some who in their belief that this refers only to a spiritual kingdom will still further limit it till it means, not a group, large or small, who are banded and bonded by a common religious belief, but only a strange experience of the heart or an emotion defined in the parlance of the vulgar, “getting religion”—a purely personal proposition or matter. But Jesus meant far more than this. In his mind, as he taught his disciples to pray for the coming of the kingdom, God’s kingdom, he envisaged the ultimate consummation of the great and universal plan Deity had for man’s development and happiness from the beginning of time and creation. Spiritual that kingdom must be; but spirituality in man cannot exist as a separate and distinct qualification or attribute. It is inextricably mixed with factors physical, mental, personal, and social, which influence in a thousand ways the quality of our spiritual life. The kingdom for whose coming we are to pray is a condition of mankind which will influence and determine every phase of man’s existence and experience. To have only a motion of the heart or soul of a person, in the midst of social evils, errors, and maladjustments is too much like a beautiful flower immersed and lost in muck. We Latter Day Saints, especially the Reorganized Latter Day Saints, have looked and still do look, for the coming of the kingdom in the way of perfect social conditions, brought about by the gospel of Jesus Christ reforming men, individually and collectively, so that every conscious act will be motivated by good will toward men. So to us the “kingdom” is a reformed and perfect social order, based on active faith in God as the Ruler of the Universe, Creator of man. It is what we call Zion. When you pray, keep before you the prayer Jesus taught us. Repeat it, if you must, but better still use it as a model, and submerging your own self in the interest of others, pray for better conditions to come to us all; and with the effort you make to include others in that for which you pray will come an expansion of soul, refining and uplifting in influence, and distinctly Christian in quality. |
