Jesus’ prayer suggest that anyone who is passionate about doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven will be passionate about feeding the hungry – and forgiving debts  – and thereby freeing all the debt-slaves from their bondage.

Jesus doesn’t teach his disciples to pray: ‘give me this day my daily bread.’ Jesus teaches his disciples to pray: ‘give us this day our daily bread.’ Through his prayer, Jesus invites his disciples to make his passion – for every man, woman and child in the world to have their basic needs met – their own.

John says ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If any of us has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in us? Dear children, let us not love with words or in speech, but with deeds and in truth.’ (1 John 3:16-17)

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray ‘forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.’ Note that the word Jesus uses here is not ‘sin’, but literally ‘debt’.

What Jesus says is so important about forgiveness is not that we preach it, but that we practice it. There is no liberation from the cycles of poverty in our lives without forgiveness. And we have no right to expect forgiveness, if we do not extend forgiveness. We need to develop a global culture of forgiveness.

Jesus says ‘For if you forgive people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins’. (Matthew 6:14-15). Note that that word Jesus uses here is not ‘debt’, but ‘sin’. He seems to be saying that in order to show God’s love in the world, we should start with forgiving cash ‘debts’, and move on to forgiving all kinds of ‘debts’ – ’sins’ if you like. So we can not only be liberated from our cycles of poverty, but also from our cycles of violence!

Jesus says ‘You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect!’ (Matthew 5:43-48)

He says to us, ‘Let your light shine before people’ in this ‘New Dark Age’, ‘that they may see your good deeds’ – not your good ideas, or your good intentions, but your good deeds – and so ‘have a reason to praise your Father who is in heaven’ – because at long last, they can glimpse something of the goodness of God at work in their world in the way that you live your life. (Matthew 5:16)