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A Sermon by
Cynthia Bauleke
A Sermon by
Cynthia Bauleke
The
Lord's Prayer: Changing the Way We Pray We live with voice mail, whether we
like it or not, we have learned to listen with a discerning ear to determine if
the voice on the other end of the line is live or recorded, and if it is
important enough to us, we wait for the beep to leave our message. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if
God installed voice mail? Imagine praying and hearing: "Thank you for
calling heaven, we are unable to answer your call. Please select one of the
following options: Press 1 for requests; Press 2 for Thanksgiving; Press 3 for
Complaints; Press 4 for All Other Inquiries. Or what if God used the familiar excuse . . .
"I’m sorry, all of our angels are busy helping other sinners right now.
However, your prayer is important to us, and will be answered in the order it is
received, so please stay on the line," while waiting you listen to angelic
music. We may live with voice mail, but most of expect
immediate attention from God when we pray. Praying, communing with the Divine, is perhaps
one of the most intimate things we do. Prayer is an act of love in which we can
feel profoundly connected to God. Connecting with the Ground of our Being gives
us a way to sort through and bring perspective to the happenings of our day.
Prayer is a source of solace and peace, it can spark our creativity, or
challenge us, or empower us to move beyond our comfortableness finding new ways
to live our faith. Prayer is a mystical act, and for those who
approach it from a scientific, or even technological, frame of reference, we may
wonder if prayer works, or if we are doing it right . . . apparently we are not
the first to doubt our ability to pray. According to both Luke and Matthew, the
disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. And Jesus teaches a prayer similar to the
prayers the disciples used in the synagogue. What is unique is the familiar way
Jesus addresses God, instead of Almighty or Most High King, Jesus uses an
intimate and relational term, "Father." According to the Gospel of Luke the prayer
begins "Father," according to the Gospel of Matthew it begins
"Our Father." The difference isn’t surprising when you consider the
way we have received scripture. Bear with me as we take a whirlwind course in
Bible 101. Jesus spent his life among peasant people in an
oral culture. Story was told by one person to the next, to the next, to the
next. There was no one around to digitally video tape Jesus’ teachings, no
reporters waiting to write down his every word. For more than fifty years the
words of Jesus where remembered and repeated orally, from one person to the
next. After several decades first the author of Mark, and then others gathered
together stories and put them in writing, each author using their own focus to
make certain points in the way they compiled the stories for their selected
audiences. Since there were no Xerox Copiers or Kinkos,
each gospel, once written, was laboriously copied by hand for centuries before
the printing press was invented in 1440. In the copying, mistakes and changes
were often made. Biblical scholars search for the oldest
manuscripts they can find to ascertain the most authentic translations, but the
originals were lost long ago and there are only fragments of the very oldest
manuscripts. So the scholars gather together the pieces they can find and fit
them together like a giant puzzle. As they do this, they find many
discrepancies, places where the words in the different manuscripts are not the
same. Part of their task is to choose the manuscript they believe to be most
authentic. Another part of the scholars’ task is
translating from the Greek, in which the books of the New Testament were first
written. I delved into learning Greek first in college and then in seminary, I
can tell you translating from Greek is no easy task. For each Greek word, there
are usually a number of English words which could be used in translation. The
translator seeks to find the word or words in contemporary English which are
true to the intent of the original language which will make the meaning of the
text understandable today. Each translator can’t help but infuse some of their
own bias in their work. The Bible we use, we believe to be some of the
best scholarly work available, but we know it is a document which has undergone
countless changes through the years, and will continue to be revised as
scholarship improves, and the way we use English changes. Which is a very long way of saying it is often
difficult to go to the Bible for a definitive answer. We look to the Bible not
so much for proof texts to make a point, but rather for themes, stories, poetry,
and metaphors which speak of the faith of those who have gone before us, and
inform our own faith. So back to the Lord’s Prayer, there are two
different versions found in Matthew and Luke. Sometime in our history we agreed
upon one version to use as we pray together each Sunday. And yet not everyone
agrees on the wording. The biggest difference is usually in the second half of
the prayer where we ask to be forgiven our debts as we forgive our debtors. We
use debts, others use trespasses, and some use sin. It makes it a little
confusing at ecumenical gatherings as we pause for the trespassers to catch up
with the sinners and debtors, but it works. We have learned we don’t all have
to pray the same way when we seek to honor our diversity in sharing our common
faith. The question I propose today, is what would
happen if we considered changing the way we address God in the Lord’s Prayer? A decade ago we had a series of conversations as
a congregation on the use of inclusive language in our life together. There
were, and are, some of us who love the traditional language of faith, there
were, and are, others of us who long to use language inclusive of our
differences. As we discussed and debated and listened to each other we agreed to
use language referring to people which included both female and male, rather
than using man as a generic term for people. We also looked at the metaphors we use for God.
Throughout the Bible we find masculine images of God, and that is not surprising
considering the times. Last Sunday Lad Anderson had the women present take off
their name tags, to illustrate the point that women of the Bible were, for the
most part, nameless. Bible times were patriarchal, women were possessions with
no power or authority, children were of even lesser value. Men held power, and
depending on their place in the hierarchical structure had authority over women,
children, animals, and all creation. It is not surprising then that God is referred
to with masculine metaphors - it was necessary to use the language of power.
Gradually we have changed the way we speak of God. This has been inspired by
feminist theology, but the impact goes beyond feminism. We have found that our
understanding of God has changed with our language. Language shapes worlds, it shapes the way we
think. Because our human brains cannot contain the infiniteness of our Refuge
and Strength, we cannot ever completely understand, or name, the One who used
the name I am who I will be. Any language we use for God is a metaphor.
We know God is not our father, but God in some ways, has the qualities and a
relationship with us like a father. In some ways God has the qualities and a
relationship to us as of a mother. No matter how profound, rich, or comforting
our metaphors and names for God, they are not themselves God. By using a variety
of names we expand our image of God. Brian Wren, best known for the hymns he
composes, writes about metaphors: "The revelatory value of our God-metaphors
change over time. Metaphors of divine kingship in ancient times helped make the
important transition toward monotheism, when Israel worshiped one God, and set
standards for Israel’s government. Yet for contemporary society to image God
as an all-male absolute ruler makes God a patriarchal idol, out of tune with our
knowledge of the universe, and does not portray God’s love as we know it
through Jesus." Brian Wren suggests that as our experience of God changes,
new metaphors are needed to express new qualities of relationship. Often we use metaphors retrieved from the Bible
and from our tradition. In the Bible there are over a hundred different
names used for God: Creator, Light, Awesome, Steadfast, Loving One,
Keeper, Shelter from the Storm Midwife, Mother, Womb, Mother Hen as well as Father, Lord, King. and Prince of
Peace From our tradition we look to the mystics of the
middle ages, where we find maternal imagery used for God as well as paternal
metaphors. One of my favorites is Julian of Norwich who wrote of Christ our
Mother. If I were truly radical, I might suggest we sometimes use only feminine
images and pronouns for God. Most of us would agree that God is neither male nor
female, so it shouldn’t make any difference if we refer to God as he or she,
since we are limited by our English language. But that may be further than we
want to go right now. In looking at other United Church of Christ
congregations, and even within our own, we find some begin the Lord’s Prayer
with Our Father, some Our Creator, some Our Father-Mother, and some Abba-God. The point is not to be trendy, or change for the
sake of change, but rather to open up, to expand our understanding of God, how
we view God, how we relate to God. It is possible that we will come nearer to
God as we think about the ways in which we pray and imagine new metaphors
reflecting our relationship. Recently the Diaconate had a lively discussion
on the way we address God in the Lord’s Prayer. Some members of the Diaconate
like the language we currently use and see no need for change, while others are
interested in exploring the alternatives as we seek to broaden our understanding
of who we are in relationship to God. Diaconate members have a variety of views
and I suspect the rest of the congregation does as well. Their recommendation is
talk about it, and if we are to consider changing, take our time to investigate
and discuss what this might mean for us. I am not recommending a change, I am asking us
to think about what it might mean if we were to change the way we address God in
the Lord’s Prayer. To help us with our imagining, today I have used
different forms of the Prayer in our liturgy, in the Prayer of Invocation and
the Lord’s Prayer, following the Communion Prayer, which comes from our
hymnal. You are always welcome to use different language
in worship. We often print an invitation in the bulletin for you to amend the
words of the service as we sing and pray if they do not adequately express your
faith, we hope you will accept this invitation and assist us in creating new
expressions, or remind us of traditional ones, in our common faith and life
together. I invite you to try on different metaphors and
images. Does it make a difference? Does it change your focus of prayer? And if
it does, is that good? Experiment in your personal prayer life, using different
metaphors for God and see the effect on your relationship with God. As we come to know God in new ways, in
surprising, more intimate ways, we become more and more like this One whom we
adore, we become more loving, more sensitive to social justice, caring for
others, and the earth. The Giver of Life who longs for intimacy with each of us
continually invites us into the mystery of relationship, the response is ours to
make. Rev. Cynthia Bauleke |