Sunday February 1, 2015
Matthew 6:7-21; Psalm 20
This is a short clip from a very silly movie from a couple of years ago called The Campaign. It’s about a very corrupt congressman, played by Will Farrell, who has been in office forever and his very naïve and inexperienced opponent, who happens to be a devout Christian. The politician claims to be a Christian, but as you will see, he’s lacking in a few basics.
That particular clip has been cleaned up a bit probably so if you go looking for it, be warned there is some offensive language in other clips on youtube. But it reminded me of a time a number of years back, when I was just at the end of officiating at a wedding ceremony. We were just finishing the final prayers, ending with the Lord’s Prayer. Right in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, my mind went blank. Totally. I forgot where I was, and what the next words of the prayer were. I stared stupidly at the wedding couple, and they stared, incredulously, back at me. Fortunately, the groom’s mother, who was not so far away, picked up the ball and said enough words to get me back on track, and we finished. She didn’t have to perform any actions like in the movie clip – a few words sufficed.
Ever since then, if I have to lead the Lord’s Prayer on any occasion, I have the words written down somewhere in front of me. I kind of have a mental block about it now.
I didn’t know how widespread that experience was until I started talking about it with colleagues. I have found out that many clergy have had a similar experience. Believe me, the fear of repeating the experience strikes fear in our hearts.
For many of us, the Lord’s prayer is written on our hearts, memorized at an early age, even sometimes with mis-heard words. Did you catch Aloe Vera be thy name? Some of the more well known and funniest ones? Well, there is “Our Father Art, who is in heaven; or I’ve even heard “Our father’s art in heaven …” . Or if God’s name isn’t Art, then maybe it’s Howard, as Anne Lamott suggests, as in “Howard be thy name.”[1]
The old language of “thine” and “thee” is foreign and unintelligible for some, yet comforting to others. The image of father, the same, and the recently added “mother” is no doubt problematic for many, yet absolutely a dealbreaker for others. So what are we to do with this ancient prayer that Jesus taught his community, and how do we pass it on to the next generation so that it has meaning?
I don’t often think deeply about the words as I am saying the prayer, often just reciting them by heart as I learned them many years ago. Which is probably why I forgot them that time – I wasn’t thinking about what the words really meant.
I’m one that loves to read alternate translationsof the prayer because it helps reground me in what the prayer is really saying.
So I’d like to look at a few different translations today to see if it helps open up a deeper understanding of the intent of the prayer that Jesus recited to his community in that familiar passage that we heard today from the Sermon on the Mount.
On page 916 of Voices United you will see a paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer that actually comes from New Zealand. Let’s look at it together. It begins:
Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker,
Pain-bearer, Life-giver
Source of all that is and that shall be.
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven.
What do you think of that? Does it describe God for you? Do you hear the subtle difference in that last line? Not, “Our Father who is in heaven”, but “Loving God, in whom is heaven.” Heaven is in God, not the other way around. That’s a huge theological conversation we could have one day.
I always think of Miriam Therese Winter when I think about language for God. Winter is a Medical Mission Sister who has written many books, taught at Hartford Theological Seminary, and written many hymns, some in our own hymn book, including “Mothering God”. I heard her say in a lecture once “it is the height of human arrogance to think that how we name God can change God.” She said, when talking about using different names and images for God, “guess what … God can handle it.”
There will never be one version, one translation, one word that works for everyone. But as a community that honours diversity we should be able to understand and even embrace the variety. Winter says that a true community is one where “I will sing Faith of our Fathers one week, because I know it’s your favourite hymn. But next week, you will sing Mothering God with me, because you know it’s one of my favourite hymns.”
Anne Lamott, in her book on prayer titled “Help Thanks Wow”, says “Let’s not get bogged down on whom or what we pray to. Let’s just say prayer is communication from our hearts to the great mystery, or Goodness, or Howard; to the animating energy of love we are sometimes bold enough to believe in; to something unimaginably big, and not us. We could call this force Not Me, and Not Preachers Onstage with a Choir of 800. Or for convenience we could just say “God”.[2]
The next part of the New Zealand Lord’s Prayer …
The hallowing of your name echo
through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed
by peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done
by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
That really spells out what “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” means, don’t you think? There’s no ambiguity there … all peoples of the world are to be engaged in justice to bring about peace and freedom for all in the here and now.
The prayer continues:
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is
love, now and for ever. Amen.
A quick search on the internet will bring up many alternate versions of the Lord’s Prayer. This one is from St. Timothy’s Church in California:
Our Father who dwells within—All in All,
(pause and repeat …)
In you I live and move and have my being.
-That’s a very different concept than “who art in heaven …”
Wholeness is your name—
Your kingdom is here and now.
Give us this day our daily bread—
and help us let go of all grievances—
as weextend our love to others.
Lead us not into illusions of separation—
as you help us transcend our ego thoughts.
Surround us with your healing light—
for youare eternal truth and love.
Forever.Amen[3]
Or, here’s one from well known author and educator Parker Palmer:
Heavenly Father, heavenly Mother,
holy and blessed is your name.
We pray for your reign of peace to come,
we pray that your good will be done,
let heaven and earth become one.
Give us this day the bread we need,
give it to those who have none.
Let forgiveness flow like a river between us,
from each one to each one.
Lead us to holy innocence
beyond the evil of our days.
Come swiftly, Mother, Father, come.
For yours is the powerand the glory
and the mercy:
Forever your name is All in One.Amen[4]
Are you confused? Well I think that’s ok. Many of you have heard me say in bible studies that if you leave with more questions that you came in with, then I have done my job. I think I view sermons the same way. I love it when someone says to me “you’ve given me something to think about.”
Jesus’ teaching on prayer was not so much about content, but about method. Notice that he is not telling the crowd to pray, but how to pray. He is assuming that they already include prayer in their daily lives. He would not have like the congressman’s prayer on the video much – not because the content was all wrong, but because it was insincere.
It’s hard, for some of us who have one version etched in our memories, to imagine any other one taking its place. And I’m certainly not asking you to do that. There’s a poetry and beauty to it that has stood the test of time. But it is possible that new words sometimes give old words new meaning. I am grateful to the poets and theologians in the world who find new ways of expressing ancient ideas. I think there is room for all. Thanks be to God.
1
[1] Anne Lamott, Help, Thanks, Wow
[2]ibid
[3]
[4]