Today's lengthy gospel text contains some of Jesus' most familiar and well-loved words the so-called "Lord's Prayer" (vv.2-4) and the "ask" saying (vv.9-10). It is the very familiarity of these words that demand we examine them now with a careful eye and an open mind trying to focus on the text instead of the centuries of tradition they now represent to us.

Note first that the disciples are the ones who ask Jesus for a prayer. He does not simply volunteer it to them. It would, in fact, be far more appropriate for the church to refer to this petition as the "Disciple's Prayer" rather than the "Lord's Prayer." Like the other lessons Jesus has been giving his disciples as they have been journeying "on the way," the prayer Jesus now recites is another way to create in his followers the proper …