Today’s Gospel reading* is one of the most well-known Gospel passages. Jesus returns from a time of prayer, and a disciple asks Jesus to teach them how to pray. In response, Jesus teaches what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, and other wisdom about prayer.
Since we have become so familiar with these words, the version in The Message seems particularly helpful. In it, Jesus says: “When you pray, say,
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”
This version isn’t as poetic as the more literal translations are; it sounds, and even looks, more like a check-list. And that is what appeals to me about it. We aren’t tempted to make this version into a liturgical prayer that we recite verbatim, with cadences and inflections that we all have in common. That familiar and beautiful version is a very real support, but here there is a different invitation.
The Message’s version seems to bridge between the meaning of prayer as saying a particular set of words in pre-set language, on the one hand, and prayer as an attitude of heart and spirit that is open and attuned to the fullness and meaning of Presence in each moment in all that is unfolding within and without us. It invites us to a more child-like simplicity of naming our true deepest longings.
We long to survive, to continue living, to have life’s necessities.
We long to know who or what God is, who it is who is Present in all life, to know the One we long to give our gratitude and praise to when we are overwhelmed with life’s beauty, and the One we cry out to in times of pain, sorrow, and despair.
We long for the world to be set right. In times like those we live in, when everything seems to be flying apart, unraveling, or imploding, collapsing into a muddy chaos, and we see that our human efforts cannot save the day, we beseech the One who is Unity and Coherence.
Forgiving and being forgiven: when the Flow of Life is so often blocked by our mistakes, hard-heartedness and close-mindedness, or that of others. Including forgiving and being forgiven in our prayer is to ask for help in re-opening to the Flow of Life, and in letting go of whatever in us blocks that movement.
Lastly, I am quickened by the phrase asking that we be safe from ourselves. There is part of me that continues to urge bad choices for my life—food and drink, activities and cultural content—that do not serve my life well: what a great phrase to keep me mindful that I need support staying safe from my own self!
When we move from our formal prayers into our daily activities, we can stay in prayer like this—simple, honest, moment-by-moment, open and attuned to Spirit’s frequency.
“Amen” means “so be it”, but that phrase doesn’t quite capture the fullness of the meaning. It is closer to say, “May my heart’s longings help make it so.”
So, Amen.
-Jeanne Marcus, Bread of Life Church
