Recently I've been trying to change the way I start my prayers from 'Lord' to 'Father', because it's more intimate, and because it's the address Jesus suggests in The Lord's Prayer. When asked, 'how should I pray', he goes with 'Our father'. I mean 'father' is still a fairly formal address to one's dad. How many of us ever address our dad as 'father', I don't know.

Even the more modern form of the Lord's Prayer - the one without 'thee' and 'thou' and 'trespasses' is fairly archaic in its phrasing: 'lead us not into temptation' is full of 't' 't' 't' 't' sounds, and 'hallowed be your name' is technically a step forward from 'hallowed be thy name', but it's really not how you'd hear it in any other conversation. When else do we say 'hallowed be anyone or anything! Even the most beloved footballers, the ones society raise aloft as heroes, don’t get ‘’hallowed be Ronaldo’, o holy Gareth Southgate. I sometimes think we should speak of God more like we talk about footballers to make sure we’re using terms that we link to real, spontaneous enthusiasm and feeling. (At other times I wish we spoke of God in the same ways we talk about John Shaft. On any interruption, we declare ‘but I’m talking about Christ!’ Now I’ve wondered off my main point, but I’m sure you can dig it.

For me, at least, that hallowing language makes God seem distant and super-formal, and I worry it isn't helpful. Maybe that degree of formality helps some people, but Jesus has already said we should approach God as a close relative, not as a distant emperor.

So, the Lord's Prayer - which nobody ever calls the Father's Prayer* - is something everybody knows. I suspect any given atheist here in the UK could rattle it off if you asked.

I was once advised to go through the Lord's Prayer word by word, and spend time meditating on each word of it, as they're all carefully chosen. It's well worth doing.

Reading through it recently, I was struck by two things that aren't in it. First, we don't say please! We don't say, 'please give us today our daily bread'. We just ask directly for what we need. I mean, arguably 'hallowed by your name' and 'your will be done' are enough buttering up, making 'please' redundant - but I don't think that's what those lines are for. But when I pray, I'm often quite hesitant and polite, saying, 'please could you do this, I quite understand if you don't...', but the Lord's Prayer isn't so weak and wary as that. It's in the imperative: do this! Give us that bread! — which is quite bold!

The other thing that isn't in the Lord's prayer is asking for help for other people. Or, it doesn't seem to be there on a surface reading. We all have friends and relatives who are ill and getting iller, people who struggle, who despair, in predicaments and under sorrow. Maybe that's included in the line 'deliver us from evil' - an appeal to rescue us; 'us' is always said in the plural, so perhaps we should never just be praying 'deliver me from evil'. When Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane to be released from the burden of the crucifixion, he prayed for himself, but he also prayed for the disciples.

The other line which might include relief for others is at the start, 'your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven'. That may be a call for the end of the Earth to hurry up and arrive, but I don't think so. God's kingdom is already here, in good work done by the spirit and the church. I don't think 'your will be done as in heaven' is an appeal for theocratic law, but for God's perfect peace to be known on earth, for every disease, every debt, every anxiety and addiction to bow before God, submit to him and cease plaguing the living. 'Your kingdom come, your will be done' isn't calling in the cops to smack people down, it's a fervent desire for peace and healing.

I had a go at rephrasing the Lord's Prayer in a way that brings out some of this rich flavour, but you may be happy to know I've forgotten it entirely, so we won't hear it today!

* I'm aware it's 'the Lord's Prayer' not 'The Father's Prayer', because it was spoken by Jesus, the Lord, but we could have been calling it 'The Son's Prayer' this whole time.