The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic
(Based on material by Neil Douglas-Klotz)
Lenten Course 2015, St. Michael’s Anglican Church
Chris Luyt
Matthew 6:5-14
Week 2: Your Kingdom come, your Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven
Last week we considered the textual context (Jesus’ teaching of prayer) within which the Lord’s Prayer appears. We saw how the rich imagery present in the Aramaic of the first line (first two phrases) of the prayer, echoes Jesus’ entire intention on prayer – that prayer is first and foremost an intimate engagement with God in all His infinite grandness. Jesus encourages us to retreat into, and sweep our hearts (and lives) clean of unnecessary clutter – rooted in fear and selfishness; and make way for a fuller experience of His divine presence in and through us.
Lights shining in the Darkness
We concluded last week’s lesson by affirming that the Lord’s Prayer calls us not only to a personal renewal of our inner connection with God, but, also, to a renewal of our connection with real life, the real people around us, and nature. Having dealt with the personal inner reality upfront, the rest of the prayer draws us outward to fulfil the call that God has placed on our lives as bearers of His love and light.
Your Kingdom Come (teytey malkuthakh)
In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus reveals that the kingdom of God is not an institution or a political movement – it is something deep within us. Following on from the imagery in the first line of the prayer, the second line portrays, again, a holy space within, used as a ‘workshop for envisioning and preparing for a new creation’. Teytey means “come” but includes the images of mutual desire, definition of a goal, and, in the old sense, a “nuptial chamber” – a place where mutual desire is fulfilled and birthing begins.
Malkhuthakh refers to a quality of rulership and ruling principles that guide our lives towards unity – hence ‘kingdom’. From ancient roots, the word carries the image of a “fruitful arm” poised to create, or a coiled spring that is ready to unwind with all the verdant potential of the earth. It is what says “I can” within us and is willing, despite all odds, to take a step in a new direction.
The word Malkatuh, based on the same root word, was a name of ‘the Great Mother’ (a reference to the earth) in the Middle East thousands of years before Jesus. The ancients saw in the earth and all around them, a divine quality that everywhere takes responsibility and says ‘I can’. Later, those who expressed this quality clearly were recognized as natural leaders – what we call queens and kings. In a collective sense, malkuthakh can also refer to the counsel by which anything is ruled, the collective ideals of a nation (like a constitution), or the planet. In this line, we ask that the kingdom come by clarifying our personal and collective ideas in alignment with the Creator’s (‘make our will one with Yours’) – toward unity and creativity like the earth’s.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
The Bible revealsthat God’s intention for ‘kingdom’ is an extension of the sacred community of the Trinity – ‘Let us make man in Our image… male and female… [to] be fruitful and increase in number; [to] fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:26-28). Jesus envisions a reestablishment of this foundational, relational connection (damaged by sin) in His words: “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:21-27).
He reinforces the fact that salvation is a restoration in relationship with the Trinity (Rom. 5:1-11) by commissioning His disciples to ‘go [into the whole earth] and make disciples [lead people back] of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:18-20).
This total regeneration of creation is what is envisioned in the request, “[May] your kingdom come” – may it be reestablished/may we be realigned.
Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven
(Nehwey tzevyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arah)
In this fourth and most central line of the prayer, heaven meets earth in acts of compassion. We have remembered our source in Abwoon, the Source of all conceiving/parenting/nurturing. We have let go to clear a holy space inside us, for this realization to live. From this new beginning we have clarified our goals, realized the power of our co-creation, and envisioned our next step. Now we are ready to act. In one sense, Jesus presented a prayer for all humanity, one that all creation joins in each moment. In another sense, He presented a very practical method by which to approach any undertaking or to renew one’s purpose in life.
Tzevyanach can be translated as ‘will’, but it is not what we usually think as willpower (trying hard) or arduousness (unrestrained force). In Aramaic, the word carries the meaning of ‘desire’, a harmonious cooperation of movement that includes natural discipline. This kind of ‘heart’s desire’ means that one’s goal or purpose has moved beyond the mental or ideal stage. It has become so much a part of oneself that one need no longer think about it. One’s whole being moves towards the goal with certainty. The ancient roots of the word summon forth images of a vortex of harmony and generation, of a host of stars swirling through the heavens.
Aykana (‘just as’) carries the sense of a determined desire towards consistency and stability. We pray that God’s heart-desire be done consistently through our lives in form as it is in sound (word) and light (image or vision) – d’bwashmaya.
Arha means ‘earth’, in fact, it may be the original source of that word. In sound-meaning it evokes the sigh of the human species whenever it feels the support of the earth underneath and remembers to treat it with deep respect, rather than as an object to be exploited. Behind that, the old Hebrew roots carry the meaning of ‘all nature’, all natural gatherings of mass and form produced by the universal force AR – power and movement. From this root, we also get our word ‘ardour’.
The Need for Personal and Cosmic Transformation
In this statement, Jesus is painting a picture of God’s intention for the salvation of creation and humanity. In Romans 8:18-27; Paul reminds us that as a result of sin, both nature and humanity groan under the weight of the bondage to decay brought about by sin. But God has not abandoned His creation, He has formulated a plan of redemption that involves the reformation, the transformation of those created in God’s image but corrupted by sin, as well as the entire cosmos.
Will the vast majority of humanity submit itself to this process of transformation? Is there evidence in our present world for this kind of submission to renewal? Jesus teaches (recorded in Matthew 10) that the pressure building up within the world –both physically and politically-will one day reach a head. Paul says in the Romans passage I have just mentioned that we wait patiently for the ultimate restoration of the entire created order. Peter (2 Pet. 3:1-10) tells us that we are waiting (and God is allowing things to deteriorate) because God is giving human beings an opportunity to turn spontaneously to Him in repentance and truth.
Because most will not do this, and because the resultant burden upon those who do repent, as well as the earth, is becoming progressively unbearable (for which Paul uses the image of childbearing and birthing), there is ‘a day’ when something will give on a cosmic level, and God will address the situation decisively through judgment. This theme comes across more strongly later in the prayer where we consider the phrase “deliver us from evil/the evil one” (see 1 John 5:18-20; 2 Cor. 4:3-4; Eph. 6:10-16).
Application
- In what ways do you think God may be priming you to bring about something of His kingdom on earth?
- What obstacles to change remain in your life? How may God be trying to warn you and encourage you to change?
Alternative translations of this line:
- Unite our “I Can” to Yours so that we walk as kings and queens with every creature. Help us love beyond our ideals and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.
- Desire with and through us the rule of universal fruitfulness on the earth. As we find your love in ours, let heaven and nature form a new creation
- Come into the bedroom of our hearts, prepare us for the marriage of power and beauty. Let your heart’s fervent desire unite heaven and earth in our harmony.
A Meditation on being held by the Earth
This is best done on a warm night in a place you can see the stars, but can be done effectively during the daytime as well.
-Find a place where you can lie on your back and look up into the sky. Relax and breathe quietly. Feel the earth underneath you, supporting your body. In this relaxed state, look up into the stars or the clouds and sky above you.
-Now, switch your perspective. Instead of looking up into the night or day sky, understand that you are looking DOWN into the infinite dimension of SPACE that is below you.
-What may begin to happen is a sense of disorientation and the possibility that you might fall into that infinity of space—lose contact with the world you know, and be lost.
-While feeling that disorientation, KNOW that you are being embraced and gently held by the Earth, and that it will not let you go. Enjoy the earth’s embrace, strength and provision.
-Switch your perspective back and know that all creatures and forms are held in this embrace (even the birds and others who fly) and thank God.