Making It to the Party

Rembrandt: Return of the Prodigal Son

I cannot speak for my congregation, but the longer I spend with the Lord's Prayer, the more I am discovering an interesting and challenging surprise. These are not easy words! Yes - these are sacred words for they come to us directly from Jesus. Yes - these are holy words for they guide us on a spiritual path that is set by the one we call Lord. But they are not easy.

We teach them to our children - as we should - but as we do, we need to remember that this is not "Now I lay me down to sleep..." We are praying for God's kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven - and that is (forgive me for saying it) just a wee bit radical. Stop and consider the pronouns. There's not a single "I, me, or my" anywhere.

• Not "my Father" but "our Father."
• Not "my daily bread" but "our daily bread."
• Not "forgive me my sins" but "forgive us."

And then we get one of the most radical statements of all. Whether you use the word debt, trespass, or sin, the prayer doesn't let us off too quickly. Forgive us our debts as WE FORGIVE our debtors. And in case we don't quite understand, Matthew is quick to add a comment by Jesus just after he teaches us the Lord's Prayer: For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. The Gospel of Matthew seems adamant about what appears to be a condition in the forgiveness clause of the Gospel. Check out the parable in Mathew 18: 23-35 - if you dare! 

 It would seem that Jesus is insisting that his path of discipleship is inherently, inevitably, and unavoidably communal. 

So - as we approach the amazingly challenging statement on forgiveness this Sunday, I want to take a small bypass through a story that speaks a bit more softly, yet so very powerfully. We will seek to understand the path of forgiveness with the lens of the Prodigal Son - and his Elder Brother. Take a moment to remember this so very familiar story in Luke chapter 15. While you're at it, read the entire chapter. And then consider: 

Are you a Prodigal Son or an Elder Brother? 

See you Sunday!

Each Day, Daily Bread

Sunday, at Seneca Presbyterian Church, we move into the second half of the Lord's Prayer, beginning with "our daily bread." The image of bread is profound for humans. We need it to sustain life. And God wants to provide it - for everyone.
     We will be focusing on the story of the loaves and fishes as we seek to understand what "daily bread" means. That story is found at least once - sometimes more often - in every Gospel. (I confess a preference for the version found in John. It's the only one where a child offers up his loaves and fishes.) The story reminds us of Moses and manna and the wilderness wanderings of the Hebrew people.
      Can you imagine how powerful the image of Jesus feeding the multitude with five loaves and two fish must have been to those who first knew him and followed him? It spoke of justice - bread for everyone. It spoke of providence - God's unending care. It spoke of trust - what is here today will also be here tomorrow. Remember: the ancient Hebrews were only to take enough manna for one day at a time. If they let their anxiety rule and tried to save today's manna for tomorrow - the worms took over! (Don't believe me? Check out Exodus 16:20.) And it spoke of wonder - just five loaves and two fish could feed the multitude.
     We will be looking at Mark's first version of the story - the one found in chapter 6. In many ways, it is a teaching lesson in ministry for the disciples as much as it is a miracle story. When they realize the crowd is hungry and needs to eat, Jesus says, "You give them something to eat." When they protest that is impossible, he shows them how.
     Check out the story and ponder these questions:

• Would you have enjoyed being in the crowd that chased Jesus and the disciples around the Sea of Galilee?
• When have you been totally spent and tried to get away from obligations, but it didn't work? 
• How do you think Jesus expected the disciples to feed the crowd
• Verse 42 says: "And all ate and were filled." When have you been filled with the bread Jesus offers? 

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

This Sunday at Seneca Presbyterian will be the third of our six weeks set aside to truly listen to the prayer Jesus taught - this "hymn of hope for all humanity." We will look at two lines that are often taken together: thy kingdom come, thy will be done. When we hear these words, we have to remember that Jesus lived in a time that was dominated by power. Whenever anyone heard Jesus say "kingdom," thoughts turned immediately to Rome, for everyone lived under the "will" of Caesar. In these few words of simple prayer, Jesus was giving his followers a way to destroy Rome. They were to pray that the true Creator's kingdom would come, that the will of the true, holy, gracious, and loving God would be done. Because you see, if God is King than Caesar is not.

One pastor I worked with had a special habit whenever he led the congregation in praying the Lord's Prayer. If you listened carefully, you would hear a clear and distinctive emphasis on the word THY.

THY kingdom come; THY will be done.

It is a reminder to us that when we pray with Jesus for God to hold power in our world, we are also praying for God to hold power in our lives. So I ask you:

• What does God's will look like to you? How would that will be manifest in our world, in your world, and in your life?
• In your mind and heart and experience, what does God WILL to happen?
• Have you ever known a time when the will of God seemed powerful and controlling? 
• Have you ever known a time when the will of God seemed freeing and exciting? 
• What prayer of power do you offer for our world today that would usher in the Kingdom of God?

Hebrew Matthew

Sometime very late on Friday night or very early Saturday morning, I stumbled upon a fascinating find. I went searching on Google for some visual interpretations of the Lord's Prayer that might inspire a thought or embellish a sermon for the saints of Seneca Presbyterian Church. I came upon a visual recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Hebrew. That video took me to a site and a resource entitled A Prayer to Our Father: Hebrew Origins of the Lord's Prayer. I've been fascinated ever since.

The book tells the story of an unlikely collaboration between an African American Methodist pastor (Keith) and a Caucasian American Jewish scholar (Nehemia). Their story is fascinating - and too complicated to recount here. Their friendship has enabled them to study - extensively - a manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew. It comes from 14th century Spain and scholars debate its history. Yet its discovery intrigued Nehemia who is a Hebrew linguist and translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nehemia invited his friend Keith to share a journey of exploration and interpretation, focusing especially on the Lord's Prayer in Matthew as it is found in this manuscript, what scholars call Hebrew Matthew.

I realize one must be skeptical of biblical scholarship that is found through Google and You Tube, but when I read an endorsement of the book by James Tabor, professor of religious studies at UNC-Charlotte, the entire matter gained some credibility for me. We once invited Dr. Tabor to speak at St. John's Baptist in Charlotte. He, too, is an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls and I found him a reputable and insightful scholar.

What Keith and Nehemia believe they have found is a translation of the prayer that lies at the heart of Christian faith that also speaks to the Jewish faith. Even though each holds passionately to the faith he proclaims, they find joy and wisdom interpreting this prayer together. They even traveled together to Israel searching for what they believe is the site where Jesus first spoke these words.

The entire adventure is based on two debatable assumptions:

• that Hebrew Matthew is not a translation of Greek Matthew but is instead authentic to the first or second century; 
• that Jesus spoke in Hebrew and not Aramaic. (Nehemia, Keith, and Dr. Tabor all believe that Hebrew was a spoken language even in the first century, and at the very least Jewish texts would have been written in Hebrew.) 

Regardless, scholars have long believed that the Lord's Prayer comes from the Jewish heart of Jesus. How fascinating it is to see in the 21st century an affirmation of a shared vision that unites two major world religions. Could it unite even more?  

The Household of God

Beginning this Sunday at Seneca Presbyterian Church, we are going to spend six weeks together with the Lord's Prayer. That seems strange to say, doesn't it? How can you put a limit on time spent with the Lord's Prayer? As the model prayer Jesus gave us, we never cease our relationship with these simple, holy, and powerful words. Yet as we spend six weeks together focusing on the images and truths behind these words, it is my prayer that our relationship with them will deepen and our understanding will grow. And we will change. We will become more attuned to dreaming God's dream and sharing God's vision.

Along the way, we will need to find ways to continue the discipline of prayer, realizing that it is a life-long journey of transformation whose ultimate goal is to conform our will - our hopes, dreams, desires - to God's will. Not simply in words, but in heart and spirit and deed.

There are so many resources available to us as we engage this study. I mention three now. First, there is William Barclay's simply titled: Insights: The Lord's Prayer. Next would be N. T. Wright's The Lord and His Prayer. And finally, at least for now, is John Dominic Crossan's The Greatest Prayer.

So let's begin at the beginning. Let me ask you:

• Why do you pray? 
• When do you pray? 
• How do you envision God as you pray? 
• What do you pray for and how do you expect to be answered? 
• How do you listen?