The Lord's Prayer: re-imagined
I think we miss it with the Lord's Prayer. It has become the symbol of formalized religion - using language to no one talks in anymore, to pray to a God that no one talks about anymore. As I pondered my sermon for this morning, I wondered what the Lord's Prayer might sound like with the radical intimacy that Jesus calls us to have with God."Daddy, you are so special, you are so great;
Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone could have a daddy like you? I hope that everyone can be that lucky.
Daddy, thanks for all the great meals you've given me day after day. Will you please fix me supper again tonight?
Um ... Daddy? You know that thing you asked me not to do? I did it. But I know that you still love me -- you always love me.
And Daddy, you remember that fight I had with my sister? Well, we're friends again. I always try to be friends with her, even if she is sometimes mean to me.
Daddy, please keep me safe. I get scared sometimes; will you hold me tight and let me know that you are always there for me?
Thanks Daddy! You're the best."
5 comments:
perfect!!!
Way to lax for me. Your talking to a "Supreme Being" here not just an everyday daddy. I think Jesus got it right for all generations.
I do think you have to pray to God in your own words EXCEPT for this one prayer. This is how Jesus taught us to pray and it works for me.
Cookie,
That's precisely the point. Jesus' language about God shocked the religious leaders -- it was way too informal and way to familiar. And now we use the most formal language we can find. It seems an inversion of the way Jesus spoke of God.
In terms of the Lord's Prayer, both Jesus and Paul did not use the formal word "father", but the more informal "daddy" to talk about God. We are the ones with the hang-up and the need for formality when we address God -- Jesus called us to a relationship of radical intimacy with God.
I'm not as knowledgeable as you when it comes to the Bible so can you tell me where in the Bible that Jesus, or Paul, called God the Father "Daddy"?
Father, to me, means respect that is due to a loved one.
The Aramaic word, "Abba", appears untranslated by the Greek authors of scripture. Mark 14:36 find it on Jesus' lips, during his prayer in the garden. Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 both use the word "Abba" in the context of our relationship with God.
Abba is one of the few words that was not translated from the language of Jesus (Aramaic) to the language of the New Testament (Greek). It is a term of endearment (dad, daddy, papa), not a formal title (father); you can hear in it the universal sounds that children make very early in life to address those they love. Until its use by Jesus, I am not aware of it being used to speak of or to God.
I believe that part of the radical message of Jesus - the good news - is a radical intimacy with God for Jesus (son of God) and for his followers (adopted as sons and daughters). This relationship - which Jesus has and which he offers to us - is part of what shocked and offended the religious leaders of his day (and still makes religious people uncomfortable today) -- you just aren't supposed to talk about God like that. Yet he did, and he invited us to.
That term -- abba -- become so important to the Christian community, that we used it to describe those who were in positions of trust and authority in the Christian community. Thus, the head of a monastery is an "abbot" (based on the earlier abba and amma of the early Christian communities), the most influential of the bishops were known as "papa" (the only one who retains this title is the bishop of Rome, the Pope).
I could be wrong. But I think that while, yes, we are called to reverence and respect of God, we are also called to intimacy, a radical familiarity and trust.
And, at the end of the day, we do pray to God in our own words -- even with this prayer. That's what translation is. Some translator, at some point, decided on the words that we currently use in the Lord's Prayer -- and what we use in worship does not actually match up with how we translate the Lord's Prayer where it occurs in the Gospels.
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