union avenue christian church |
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Taxing Situations Luke 11:1 – 4 Mark Twain said: “I don’t know of a single foreign product that enters this country untaxed except the answer to prayer.” Some things don’t seem to change. Even the most stable of things change, causing taxing situations for us. “Taxing” in the sense of wearing, burdensome or troublesome situations. An Interim Pastor, in Pawnee City, Nebraska, changed the words to the Lord’s Prayer. Instead of asking for debt forgiveness we asked that our sins be forgiven. I think he said that “sin” was clearer and that it was more ecumenical. Later, I found out that the International Consultation on English Texts, had produced translations of standard worship texts. Their translation goes: Our Father in heaven, Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins Save us from the time of trial, For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours Now that’s a pretty radical change, so he just inserted “sins” where we were used to saying “debts.” The challenge to the familiar was taxing. Forgive us our…debts..trespass, sin. That raised the question: what does the scripture say? As you can see from the front of the bulletin the version in Mathew mentions “debts” and is familiar, but has footnotes with all kinds of alternate texts and readings. From looking at the Biblical texts I found out that the early Christian community worshipped before they wrote. The experience of faith and the response of worship came before the written word. By the time the New Testament was written, there existed a variety of worshipping traditions, with differing practices and forms…like the differing Lord’s Prayers. Scripture didn’t seem to have a definitive answer for me, so what about the WORSHIP TRADITION? The Didache, is the oldest written source we have on worship, and it’s version of the prayer reads like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name; your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us today our bread for the morrow; and forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but save us from the evil one, for yours is the power and the glory forever. You should pray in this way three times a day. Nothing definitive again, but that comforting everyday bread is now…”bread for the morrow,” and if repeating the prayer once a week is numbing imagine repeating three times a day! HISTORICAL TRADITION might help but it depends which tradition you come from. One tradition connects groups that ask that their “trespasses” be forgiven. The groups connected to the Reformed tradition of John Calvin ask that their “debts” be forgiven. That includes Presbyterians and Baptists and therefore members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Things seem to change slowly, but they do change and for funny or forgotten reasons. “We’ve always done it that way” may mean that’s all I remember. Suppose that the early Disciples of Christ had insisted that everything be done in a good, orderly and fixed-frozen-unchanged Scots Presbyterian way? We might pray like this: Faither o us aa, bidin abune, Gie us ilka day oor needful fendin, That’s a bit much. Anyone want to attempt it in unison? Some change is for the better! One scholar attempted to find the “Aramaic” words, Jesus' mother tongue, behind the Greek texts of our New Testament. He proposed that that prayer would translate like this: Dear Father, Let’s look closer and break down the prayer.
Exalted and hallowed be his great name, May he let his kingdom rule And to this, say: amen. I believe that Jesus taught the Disciples to pray so as to be pulled into the future; to be pulled toward God’s full reign; NOW, in their lives, in their society…”speedily and soon.”
Bread seems to be common food, comfort food. But, the ancient wording seems to suggest more: ”the bread of salvation,” “heavenly manna,” “the bread of life.” It reminds us of the table fellowship of Jesus, eating with disciples, the multitude, castaways and sinners. “Our bread for the morrow” is to be given a taste “today” of what is coming “tomorrow.” We are pulled into God’s future where life becomes holy and we participate in the great Banquet Feast set for all people. Jesus life, teachings and mission brought, taught and enacted forgiveness.
When we remember Jesus and acknowledge him as Christ we see that the Kingdom of God was made present in him. If that piece of eternity could be made real then it can touch us now as we are pulled into God’s vision and future for us. Praying the Lord’s Prayer is dangerous. The repetition will not only sink it into your memory, it may sink into your soul and pull you towards God’s intentions. I believe that God intends to include all people as God’s people. The “Our” of “Our Father” makes the prayer a prayer of the community, not of an individual. Specifically, I believe that God intends Union Avenue Christian Church to be a multi-racial, multi-cultural, radically inclusive community. Let’s consider it, let’s pray about it, but be prepared to be pulled into the future. And the only taxing thing is to hold onto the past. “Clement of Alexandria has preserved a saying of Jesus which is not written in the gospels. It says, “Ask ye for the great things, so will God add to you the little things.” Jesus taught a prayer that went after the “Great Things!” “Attempt something so impossible that, unless God is in it, it is doomed to failure.” After first saying Da-Da and Ma-Ma, we learn the ABC’s. The coming reign of God, is a litany of ABC’s. It is… an Alteration of the situation, RD |
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