“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

Luke 11:1

Yesterday I showed our confirmation students the animated classic of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This scene from Disney’s 1940 classic “Fantasia” is cinema gold from some of the earliest days of the animation studio. You’ve likely seen the clip. And the orchestra piece composed by Paul Dukas has an uncanny ability to get my feet tapping to the beat.

Mickey is the young apprentice who spends his days hauling water to fill the cauldron. Overworked and under appreciated—the mouse finds his opening. The sorcerer’s hat—the same one that was the main symbol of Disney Hollywood Studios park—is his ticket to easy street. Mickey places the hat on his head, finds a broom. The magic starts and the broom starts to haul the water instead of the young apprentice.

Of course, everything goes haywire. The brooms multiply. The buckets of water are unending. The cauldron overflows and the room floods. All while Mickey falls asleep.

The sorcerer returns. Panic ensues. Order is restored as the flood waters recede.

Disney displays incredible storytelling ability without a single word spoken. You follow the story and are moved by it. The exhausted ingenuity of the apprentice. The hope-filled solution that goes awry. Drastically awry. The climactic return of the one who brings order to the chaos. The discipline of the young apprentice who is forced to clean up the rest of the wet floor with the original broom.

But why did I show it to my confirmation students? Besides the fact that they were not familiar with the scene—I mean, I gotta do my part to show them such things, right!? But the real reason is because of the word apprentice.

What is an apprentice? Hopefully, we have a little better understanding than the servitude of Mickey under the sorcerer. But the image is still relatively accurate. An apprentice is a learner. It is someone who is learning under the tutelage of a master. It is someone who is not yet fully released on their own. They still need some guidance. They still benefit from checking in with their teacher to make sure they are doing it right. An apprentice follows the teaching and the ways of the lord.

For Mickey, he was resourceful enough to get one broom to help him. But he was way out of his league to reverse the chaos that he started. He needed help. He needed his master to show him the path.

This is what a disciple is as well. Apprentice and disciple are synonymous words. They mean the same thing. To be a disciple is to be a learner. It is to sit under the teaching of a master. It is to know enough to do some things, but also to know enough that you don’t know enough. Disciples need help. Disciples are followers. Their master and teacher is ahead of them, showing and shaping by the lessons and life they live.

In the 11th chapter of Luke, Jesus’ disciples are asking for their next lesson. Teach us, Jesus, like John teaches his students. How shall we pray?

A couple of key elements from this opening verse: First, it is worth noting that Jesus’ disciples were not the only disciples. John the Baptist had disciples too. He had a group of apprentices that were learning and growing under his teachings. Why is this important? Because the same is true today. Every one of us is being discipled in any number of ways by any number of teachers. The question is not—are you being discipled? The question is—who is discipling you? Your favorite source of news is teaching you. Your social media and its algorithm are shaping you. The friends you keep help to form you. The books you read, the shows you watch, the places you shop—all of them have a way of nudging you into their ways.

Second, it’s a good thing to be aware of this and come to Jesus asking for His shaping work. The disciples came to Jesus and asked—do for us what John’s disciples are doing for them. That’s beautiful. And it is an opportunity for us to come with a humble heart to our Lord and ask Him to shape and form you.

Finally, if we take seriously that one understanding of disciple is that of being an apprentice of Jesus, then we can know that we are not going to get it right. We are still learning and growing. The beauty of being a learner is that mistakes are part of the program. They are par for the course. Jesus doesn’t expect, or even want, perfection from you. You will mess up. You will, like Mickey, start down a path of trying to do good and lean into your training. And, like Mickey, you’ll make a bigger mess than you could have possibly imagined.

Being a learner implies you have not mastered anything yet. Being an apprentice means that you still need coaching. You still need help.

The disciples ask Jesus to help teach them to pray. And Jesus does. The following verses gift us with the Lord’s Prayer. And, as we are young apprentices, we follow these words and we pray them. They speak peace and truth over us and well up within us a sense of presence and peace. I hope that you never grow weary of praying these blessed words.

And, I also hope that you follow Jesus deeper into these words. I invite you to marinate on each phrase of the Lord’s prayer. Instead of seeing this prayer as a race to get through, what does it look like for your mind and heart to linger on each phrase?

Our Father—what does it mean that He is “our” and how is He a good Father? When have you experienced this in your own life?

Who art in heaven—what does it mean that God comes from heaven and will establish it again?

Hallowed be thy name—hallowed means holy. How have you experienced the holiness of God? How does it speak into your encounters with Him?

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven—When was a time that your will was changed as you saw a more beautiful image of God’s will?

Give us this day our daily bread—How has God brought his provisions for you throughout this life?

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us—When was a time you received forgiveness? What did it do for your heart and spirit? How will you extend this gift to someone else?

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil—What does it mean to walk on the Jesus Way? To view each step as another chance to be faithful.

The Lord’s prayer, gifted by Jesus, is an invitation for each of us to draw near to the Lord and be shaped by his teaching. To be his apprentice.

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Who are you apprenticing—who is learning from you?