And Deliver Us from Evil

Our journey through the Lord’s prayer is nearly complete.  But we still have some beautiful and meaningful parts of this prayer to enjoy.  Right before the beautiful doxology (“For thine is the kingdom …”), we ask our Heavenly Father to, “Deliver us from evil.”  Like we discussed last time, this section of the prayer realized that we are about to leave our time of prayer and resume life in this world.  And we know that the world is full of evil.

So we ask God to deliver us from that evil.  Again, as we have discussed earlier, the word, “us” is important here.  The Lord’s prayer can be prayed alone.  But it always draws us into community.  Deliver us, O Lord from evil.

Not all of us are caught up in the evils of human trafficking.  But some are.  So we ask God to deliver US from that evil.  Not all of us are trapped by the evils of alcohol and drug addiction.  But some are.  So we ask God to deliver US from that evil.  Not all are equally affected by the evils of racism.  But some are.  So we ask God to deliver US from that evil.

I believe that as we pray that prayer, God also draws us into ways WE can be part of that deliverance, ways we can invest our lives into delivering our neighbors from the evils that afflict them, ways that our neighbors can invest their lives into delivering us from the evils that afflict us.

And, as Luther explains, as we pray, “Deliver us from evil,” we fix our gaze on a still more perfect future, when God will raise us up to heaven, a place free of evil for everyone.

May that vision of our heavenly future, along with that hope that God might use us to eradicate evil right here for us and our neighbors, carry us this next leg of the journey.

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