Thursday, November 20, 2008

Quote from Joseph Campbell – ‘An Open Life’

What the Eastern teachers are telling us is that the important thing is not what happened thousands of years ago when the Buddha was born or when Jesus was crucified: what’s important is what’s happening in you now. And what’s important is not your membership in a religious community: it’s what that membership is doing to your psyche.

The divine lives within you. Our Western religions tend to put the divine outside the earthly world and in God, in heaven. But the whole sense of the Oriental is that the kingdom of heaven is within you. Who is in heaven? God is. Where’s God? God’s within you. And what is God? God is a personification of that world-creative energy and mystery which is beyond thinking and beyond naming.

We think not only that our God has been named and known, but that he’s given us a whole set of rules. But this system of rules is not from God, it’s from man, and the rules are man’s clues as to how to get to the realization of God. …

A Response to 'The Shaping of the Lord's Prayer'

From Cliff L., Retired UCC Minister....

Barry, regarding your article about the changes in the "Lord's Prayer," it is unfortunate that we cannot get back to the person known as Jesus of Nazareth. We cannot know exactly what he said. We can only know what others said about him. Many have tried to isolate the sayings and the activities of Jesus, but have failed.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer was one of the first and foremost to begin this search in his 'The Quest for the Historical Jesus' (1906). The Bible literalists insist that Jesus actually said the things that the Bible says he said, but no serious scholar of the Bible would hold to that view, I think.

This means that the "Lord's Prayer" is a misnomer. Jesus may have prayed similar words, but we have no tape recording of his actual sayings. This, of course, has implications for worship. If we are to be honest, do we keep saying, "Let's pray the words Jesus taught us to pray?" Perhaps the best we can do is to pray as Jesus "might have prayed" or "the words ascribed to Jesus."

Worship is and ought to be always changing to reflect our understanding of our faith.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Shaping of the Lord’s Prayer

“Let us now pray the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, saying…..Our Father, who art in heaven….”.

With this (or a similar) preamble, on any given Sunday morning, millions of Christians around the world are prompted to recite the Lord’s Prayer. But is it true that the prayer we pray today is the prayer Jesus taught?

Answer: Absolutely not! The words of the Lord’s prayer have actually been changed many times by many people.

Here is a litany of some of the dramatic changes that have shaped the verbiage of the Lord’s Prayer over the past two millennium…

Biblical historians mostly agree (?) that Jesus probably spoke several one sentence prayers during his years of ministry….

“Your name be revered.”
“Let your basileia (kingdom) come.”
“Give us the bread we need for today.”
“Forgive us our debts to the extent we forgive those who are in debt to us.”
“Please don’t subject us to test after test.”

Of course, none of these things were written down at the time they occurred.

Some forty years later, in about the year 75 c.e., the writer(s) of the book we call Matthew wrote these words….

“Our Father in the heavens, your name is revered. Let your kingdom come. Enact your will on earth ,as you have in heaven. Give us the bread we need for today. Forgive us our debts to the extent we forgive those in debt to us. And please don’t subject us to test after test, but rescue us from the evil one.”

Several years later, in the early 80’s, the writer(s) of Luke wrote….

“Father, your name be revered. Let your kingdom come. Give us the bread we need day by day. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone in debt to us. And please don’t subject us to test after test.”

Then, somewhere between 100-150 c.e. a Christian document known as the Didache records these words….

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debt, as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for Thine is the power, and the glory, forever.”

From another church document (anon.) supposedly authored sometime in the third century, we find ….

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debt, to the extent we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.”

Today, the words that are recited have a more modern sound….

"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.* And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen."

· * In some churches an alternate, “…forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” is used.

So, perhaps the intent, but certainly not the words of Jesus are ensconced in what we recite today as the Lord’s prayer.

Just and interesting bit of history. Enjoy…

barry e