These questions were prompted recently as I was preparing a sermon on the Lord's Prayer. One of the books I consulted was Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer & Christian Life by Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas. They assert that a Christian is simply someone who prays the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1-13). To be a Christian is to pray and to pray as Jesus taught his disciples to pray. The Lord's Prayer boils Christianity down to its essentials:

• God is a loving, self-giving parent whose love is unconditional and limitless.
• God is holy; i.e., "God is God and we are not."
• God is Ruler of the cosmos whose rule and will ultimately prevail.
• God's children give their loyalty and allegiance wholeheartedly and without reservation to God and God's kingdom.
• God forgives sin.
• Only those who forgive others will be forgiven.
• God provides all we need to live and give life.
• We must depend upon God and God's grace to help us resist and overcome temptation and evil.

When we pray "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name," Jesus helps us understand that God is Parent to all: friend and foe, male and female, white and black and Hispanic and Asian and Native American, gay and straight, Republican and Democrat and Independent, conservative and liberal and progressive. All belong to God's family. We're related to one another through the waters of baptism. It doesn't matter if I know you or even like or agree with you. Because God is our Parent, I need to love you. As a Christian, I want to be like Jesus. If Jesus loves you, then I need to love you too. Being a Christian means loving those God loves as God loves them.

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray: "Father, hallowed be your name." This means that "God is God, and we are not." Jesus' prayer reminds us about who God is and is not. He does this because we human beings are inclined to believe that we are God or that God is like us; that God's wants and desires are the same as ours. Jesus' prayer reminds us that nothing could be further from the truth.

"Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come." Not only is God our loving parent, God is also ruler of creation. When we pray, "your kingdom come," we are doing two things:

First, we acknowledge God as ruler. God is the one who claims our primary loyalty and allegiance. Any other loyalty or allegiance must be secondary. Therefore, no ideology, political or religious, has any place in Christian life. The only "ideology" that is acceptable to God is Jesus Christ; the "ideology" of self-giving covenant love.

Christians ought not identify themselves as "conservative" or "liberal" or "progressive"; for when we put those labels before the name given in baptism, "Christian," we communicate to the world that we are "conservative," "liberal," or "progressive" first and Christian second. This is a distortion of Christ and the baptism he gives. It divides the church and damages its witness in the world. Christians are not baptized into an ideology. They are baptized into Christ and his household. Paul clearly addresses this issue in 1 Corinthians 1:10-30:

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose, for it has been reported to me . . . that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, 'I belong to Paul,' or 'I belong to Apollos,' or 'I belong to Cephas,' or 'I belong to Christ.' Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? . . . For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . . Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (ideology) For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. . . .

A contemporary paraphrase of verse 12 could read, "What I mean is that each of you says, 'I belong to the conservatives,' or 'I belong to the liberals,' or 'I belong to the progressives,' or 'I belong to Christ.'" Has Christ been divided? Where in the Baptismal Covenant does it say that anyone is baptized as a conservative, liberal, or progressive Christian. The answer, of course, is "nowhere"! We are baptized into Christ and his household. Our loyalty and allegiance are to him and him alone.

John Wesley addressed this problem in his A Plain Account of Christian Perfection:

"Beware of schism or causing separation within the Church of Christ. Such internal division begins when sisters and brothers in Christ, the members of his Body, no longer have love 'for one another' (1 Corinthians 12:25). This is the very beginning of all conflict that ultimately leads to every outward separation. Beware of everything that contributes to such discord."
(From A Perfect Love: Understanding John Wesley's 'A Plain Account of Christian Perfection,' page 78)

He goes on to quote the passage above from the Apostle Paul. Wesley's concern is that when ideology creeps into the church, the inevitable loss of love for one another leads to division within the body of Christ. For evidence of his prophetic wisdom we need look no further than the rhetoric used by both sides of the moral and doctrinal arguments that divide The United Methodist Church today. Both sides resort to distortion and even character assassination in their efforts to "win" the argument and get their way. The divisive spirit reached its zenith near the end of the 2004 General Conference when the idea of an "amicable separation" was proposed.

Wesley's advice for preventing such division within the household of Christ is to

" . . . observe every rule of the society and the bands for conscience' sake. Never skip meeting your class or band. Never absent yourself from any public meeting. These are the very fabric of our society. Whatever weakens, or tends to weaken, our regard for these or our diligence in attending them strikes at the very heart of our community. As one said, ÔThat part of our community, the private weekly meetings for prayer, examination, and instruction, has been the greatest means of deepening and confirming every blessing that was received by the word preached and of spreading it to others who could not attend the public ministry. Without this religious connection and fellowship, the most ardent attempts by mere preaching have proved of no lasting use.'"
(From A Perfect Love: Understanding John Wesley's 'A Plain Account of Christian Perfection,' page 78)

Here Wesley is speaking of the importance of life together — Christian conferencing — to building up the body of Christ, and its members, in love. Wesley understood that grace flows and works best in community. This is the essence of what it means to be a "connectional" church.

Put in today's context, when people show up regularly for worship and are part of a small group, they are less likely to allow opinions to divide them. When people faithfully watch over one another in love through mutual support and accountability for following Christ and being his witnesses in the world, they grow in love of God, love of neighbors, and love for one another. Christ and his love become their guiding ethos or "ideology." All other opinions and ideologies become secondary. Whatever ideologies and opinions people bring with them are transformed and conformed, by grace, into the character of Christ (Philippians 2:5).

But when Christian conference is neglected, when it becomes optional and no longer an expectation, this is an invitation for division. Christ then becomes one choice among many. This then opens the door for the ideologies of the world to take hold. Neglect of Christian conferencing at all levels of the church inevitably leads to neglect of the other means of grace, which contributes to the church becoming a voluntary association rather than the covenant community Christ intends it to be.

Second, when Christians pray, "Your kingdom come," they promise to be witnesses to the reality and power of God's rule in their lives and in the world. Jesus gives a glimpse of God's kingdom in his parables and in the beatitudes:

"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man." (Luke 6:20-22)

God's kingdom is present wherever the least, the last, and the left out of the world are welcomed, forgiven, healed, and loved unconditionally. Those who pray Jesus' prayer are saying they will be part of this kingdom and will participate with him as ambassadors of reconciliation and love.

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus gave his disciples and the church a powerful gift. He gave them his way of prayer. This prayer is an outline of Christian faith and practice. It tells who God is and who and whose we are: God is our loving parent. God is God, and we are not. God is ruler of all creation, and God's rule is on the side of the least, the last, and the left out. God provides all we need to sustain and give life. God forgives and, by grace, enables us to forgive. We need to depend upon God's love and forgiveness to resist the inevitable trials and temptations of this world.

Jesus continues by telling those who follow him and join him in his practice of prayer: "Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you" (Luke 11:9). His way of prayer leads to a way of life. Jesus' way means, in the words of Willimon and Haurwas, "bending your life toward God."

Prayer and the other means of grace bend your life toward God. As your life is bent more and more toward God, your wants are bent toward God's wants (see Lord, Teach Us, page 19). The goal of this prayer and the means of grace is to form your character into the character of Jesus Christ. Prayer is intended to transform life as you know it into the life of Christ lived in, with, and through you. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote in Philippians 2:5, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus."

You are probably thinking that sounds way too hard. "I can't do that." And you're right. You can't do it. But God can. And God will. All you need to do is get out of the way and let God's grace work on you. The good news is that you're not alone. You're part of a family that has promised to do all in its power to "increase your faith, confirm your hope, and perfect you in love" (see Baptismal Covenant I, "Commendation and Welcome," page 38, The United Methodist Hymnal). We are in this together to help, and support, and teach, and love, and forgive one another — with God's help in Jesus Christ.

Can a Christian be "conservative," "liberal," or "progressive"? Of course the answer is 'yes.' Christ's love is offered and available to all without regard to political or religious opinion or ideology. However, Christ's love will not allow you to remain as you are. His love will form and transform your character toward his. When you enter into life in his realm he promises to love you as you are. And he promises to love you so much that you will not remain as you are. The goal of Christian discipleship is to be set free of the labels, ideologies, and limitations created by human wisdom in order to become more and more like Christ.

Steven Manskar is Director of Accountable Discipleship at the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tennessee.