Something Amazon can't deliver

Yesterday, while working on Sunday's sermon, I was forced to contemplate the incredible breadth and depth of the petitions offered to God that comprise the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).

Each request is important.  Each could be a sermon subject on its own.  But I was especially drawn to the final petition - "but deliver us from evil" or "deliver us from the evil one."  Both are correct interpretations.

In this petition we tend to focus on the evil from which we seek deliverance.  However, the request is more interesting when we direct our attention to what is meant in the word "deliver."

Here is an example.  If I order a book online from Amazon I must first identify the item to be purchased, then make the item mine by purchasing it.  But the deal isn't done until possession of the book is transferred from Amazon's hands into mine.

"Deliver us from evil" is both a plea and a reminder that God rescued us from the hands of the evil one and brought us into his own care and protection.  We belong to him.

Here is how he delivered you to himself.  (Notice how God did all the work.)

He identified you as one of his own by giving you his name when you were  baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  He purchased you with the blood of his only Son, Jesus, who died and rose again to make you presentable to God.  And through the Gospel he caused faith to arise in you, placing his Spirit in you so you would trust his promise of unending life with him.

Delivery complete!  A delivery Amazon can't match.

If the Amazon example fell short, here is a video of a water rescue that helps visualize one's delivery from the hands of the evil one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voU0ayp2KRI

Pastorich