The “Cosmic Our Father” and the Lord’s Prayer

A significant contrast between the two prayers is that in the Lord’s Prayer the chain of cause and effect is broken. Each of the sentences can stand side by side with the others. There is a linkage, but it comes about in a totally different way. Here is where the words “as above in the heavens, so also on the earth” become crucial. Through these words the first, heavenly part of the prayer is linked to second, earthly part.

Thus, we can ask the question: what is the source of our daily bread? In all likelihood we will have to accept the fact that the source is at least partly still in the debts we have incurred towards others, but we can work with the goal that we may experience the will of God more and more in our daily bread. As for the trespasses that we commit against one another and against the earth, we go on to a large extent with our unleashed egohood, but we can strive to bring the kingdom of God more and more into this realm. The fundamental law of the kingdom of God is forgiveness. This one is so important that Jesus added an explanation after he gave the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount. The next question is the question of temptation: if we allow ourselves to be led by the prevailing evil, we shall certainly be led into temptation; can we instead take the leadership from the realm of our Father’s hallowed name? And finally there is the issue of the evil itself: that we can address our Father in the heavens can form the beginning of our deliverance from the evil.