THE LORD’S PRAYER: Kneeling for Battle Matthew 6:13

THE LORD'S PRAYER: Kneeling for Battle   Matthew 6:13

 

The year was 1720, the date June 21st.  The pirate, Bartholomew Roberts, was just about to sail in to the Trepassey Bay in Newfoundland, the easternmost part of the United States of America.  As he got ready to enter that bay, he noticed that there were twenty-two merchant ships lined up around the coast of the bay.  In that day, merchant ships often carried artillery because there were others, like Black Bart, sailing the open seas, ready to take them down and take them for all that they were worth.  Black Bart, or Bartholomew Roberts, was one of the pirates who came up with, what we know now to be, the "Jolly Roger" flag.  It was a way to send a message that the pirates used.  They would simply hoist up this flag and it was an invitation to any ships that could see it "hey, if you're willing to hoist up your white flag and surrender, we're willing to not kill you."   They were trying to negotiate.  Bartholomew Roberts and his crew pulled into the Trepassey Bay in Newfoundland, June 21, 1720, surrounded by 22 ships in this bay and they, slowly but surely, hoisted the "Jolly Roger" flag. And every single one of the twenty-two ships in that bay, slowly but surely, hoisted up their white flag of surrender. Every single one.  The ironic part is that if you go back and read about this account, together for sure, but even independently, many of those ships that gave up without a fight had enough resources onboard to give the good pirate, Black Bart, a run for his money.  But they refused to even fight the battle.  They had enough to win and yet refused to fight.