KEYS TO THE KINGDOM as found in The Lord's Praeyer

The first “Key to the Kingdom” is the beautiful balance when we orient ourselves to God as both “King of the Universe” and “Our Father.” Many Jewish prayers begin with, “Blessed art Thou, O LORD, King of the universe . . .” Abraham Joshua Heschel in his classic work, God In Search of Man, contrasts the reasons people have for seeking after knowledge. He says the Greeks sought knowledge to understand the world around them, to organize their thoughts and to ponder truth through their various philosophies. We are indebted to the Greeks, for it is this system of knowledge and their methodologies that are the foundations for our modern system of science.

Heschel laments that modern man seeks knowledge mainly for pragmatic reasons with an end toward utilitarianism. Our main focus is how we can use knowledge for the development of more “things” whether they be for the good of medical technology, the pursuit of comfort and convenience or the horror of ever greater weapons of death and destruction.

The Jewish mindset, on the other hand, avers Heschel, is to seek knowledge in order that such knowledge may draw us ever closer to the Eternal One and to do so draws us ever more deeply into a state of Awe. I capitalize the word “Awe” in order to capture Heschel’s sense that we are interacting with the Living God, the Creator, the King of the universe in such a way as to leave us breathless in His presence, on our faces before His Magnificence.

As in any other culture, any other ritual, any other thing that becomes familiar, there is a difference between the ideal and that which the average person actually experiences over time. I ask people to recite the Lord’s Prayer with me, and those who know it “by heart” recite it, almost without exception, in a monotone voice often slipping and eliding (slurring over) the words, quickly and seamlessly but without true, deep thought and passion.

Here we have before us a prayer to our King, our LORD God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and I simply ask you to honestly reflect upon this: “Do you speak these words with a sense of Awe? Is there a sense of true Wonder, of deep-felt humility and honor to be in the very Presence of the Almighty God? If not, then here is where we must begin in order to hold in our hands the first Key to the Kingdom.

May we humble ourselves before Him and ask His help in restoring to us a true sense of Awe, of Holy Reverence, Wonder and deep Love and Appreciation for Him, our God.