Sermons from the Pulpit
Preached to Exeter Congregational United Church of Christ on Reformation Sunday, October 31, 1999, by Michael L. C. Henderson, pastor.Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:4-14; Matthew 21:33-46Pray then in this way. -Matthew 6:93:13-14
Sometime in the eighties, when Jane and I were still up in Plymouth and not keeping an eye on you people, somebody in this church - I guess it was the pastor and Diaconate - made a change, a radical change, in this church's worship. I don't really know what went into the decision, but ever since I first heard about it, I have marveled at it and wondered whether it sprang more from raw courage, studied wisdom, or utter cluelessness. The change was in the wording of the Lord's Prayer. It went from forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, to forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Now you may think the nineties have been a revolutionary decade here on account of the New Century Hymnal, or the Open and Affirming policy, or the endowment proposal that's in the works now, but I say any church that messes with the Lord's Prayer is already out there on the fringe. I remember, oh, about five years ago, some guy, some visitor from out of town, came up to me in the Vestry after the Christmas Eve candlelight Lessons and Carols service, when the whole place was glowing with goodwill and peace and joy, and he was so mad he was spitting: You changed the Lord's Prayer! he said. He wouldn't even shake my hand. You changed the Lord's Prayer -- he was blaming it on me! I wanted to chase him out into the snowy night with my robe billowing in the winter wind, protesting my innocence. It wasn't me! They did it! I wasn't even here! And what makes you think ministers in the United Church of Christ are in control of anything anyway?
The point must have been that the use of debts and debtors makes the church sound like a bank. It focuses on economic rights and duties, when in fact Jesus intended for us to seek and practice forgiveness in much broader terms, covering the whole range of human interaction. This makes sense. However, the New Testament in its earliest written form, in the Greek, uses a word that doesn't translate as sins. It means debts.
That's why so many Protestant churches use debts: The Reformation was a Back-to-the-Bible movement. It was Protestant Biblical scholars who used the skills and tools of archaeology and linguistic and textual analysis to rediscover what it actually said and what it meant. The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which you have in the pews, and its successor, the New Revised Standard Version, which we use in the pulpit, are more faithful to the originals than any other translation in history. And they both say, you guessed it, debts.
So which do we choose, what the Bible really says, or what makes sense? Ah, there you have in a nutshell the culture wars of this century. And in this instance as in so many others, it's a false either-or. We don't have to abandon either the Bible or our brains. There's a difference between Biblical accuracy, which is one of the greatest things that we Reformed churches have contributed to the faith, and Biblical literalism, which is just plain silly.
If we used the word debts, is there anyone here who would actually think we were talking literally about bank loans, credit cards and electric bills? The Reformers expected the people in the pews to use their brains when they read the Bible, and even when they pray. They felt no need to protect folks from the perils of metaphor and poetry. They figured that when we see or say debts, it'll provoke us to ask ourselves, What do we owe to each other? What do we owe to God? How do we collect on our debts? How does God collect on God's debts? What does it mean to be bankrupt? Is it possible to write off a debt without writing off the debtor too? These are good questions. They enrich our grasp of forgiveness.
Nevertheless, heedless of me and the Bible, a lot of churches have switched to saying sins and those who sin against us, in order to avoid confusion about what Jesus really meant. This is a slippery slope. What about all the other things that might confuse somebody? For instance, what about: Lead us not into temptation. We're being led into temptation all the time! In the Gospels, the Holy Spirit deliberately took Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Temptation comes with the territory of living in this world, why blame it on God? So let's change that too. What should we change it to? Let's ask those famous Protestant Biblical scholars! So they go down into their holes for a while and when they emerge they announce that we should change it to: Save us from the time of trial. Because, you see, it's not about your ordinary everyday temptations, it's about the one big overwhelming test of the end of time and history, the final separation of the sheep from the goats.
So the scholars advise, and you will find prayerbooks, including our own Book of Worship, which offer that as an option. But once you call upon scholars you can't call them off, so the scholars say, "Listen, as long as we're on the subject, there's also a problem with the other half of that sentence. It doesn't really mean Deliver us from evil. It means Deliver us from the Evil One. That's the big guy in the red Union suit with horns and a tail and a pitchfork. You may not like having him in your daily prayers, but it's what Jesus was talking about. Not to mention that line about our so-called daily bread. That's a whole nother can of worms."
There has to be a better way of figuring out how to pray. Maybe we should say the Lord's Prayer in Greek. That would quiet the arguments. Maybe we should all say it the way we prefer. I bet some of us have been doing that all along. I bet some of us even say Trespasses! You know, in the early New England churches they sang their hymns without any instrumental accompaniment, and they didn't feel any obligation to sing in the same key as the person next to them, or even the same tune. It must have sounded like a barnyard at feeding time, but do you think God had any problem with it?
Or maybe we should pray for God to guide us as we pray. Paul wrote in Romans, We do not even know how to pray as we ought, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. So who needs words? That's why we have a time of silent prayer. But we also need words, don't we? God's Word, and the words that our souls speak to God.
What's important about the Lord's Prayer is not which side we take in the various battles about its exact language. Two things are important. Well, three.
First, it's important that this is a thing we do together with each other and all the Christians of every place and every time, regardless of variations in the exact language. It is written in the plural not the singular: We, not I.
Second, it's important to understand that the real heart of the prayer is in the first few phrases, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. It's a prayer that puts God at the center, not us, and it prays for things to be done, at long last, in the way that God intends, or as Jane suggested, in the way that God yearns for. At long last. It's a daring prayer, a dangerous prayer - you have to trust God a whole lot to say it. It invites God to turn our world upside down, overrule us, and abolish our agendas, our ambitions, our grudges, our assumptions and our privileges. When you think about it, how else could forgiveness happen? Forgiveness is exactly like crossing the Jordan river on dry ground, with the Law of God holding back the waters in a great heap.
Third, it's important that the Lord's Prayer is the underpinning of a lifetime practice of prayer. It's not the end of prayer, it's the beginning. And the practice of prayer is a thing we undertake for its own sake, not so that others will see how Christian we are and admire us for it, and not so that God will somehow favor us with prosperity and happiness, but simply because it must be done. It must be done. The soul requires it. That is the only true approach to prayer.
And fourth . . . . oops. I promised to boil it down to three, didn't I? Well, OK. It's an amazing, singular, universal prayer intended for all people at all times, and there's a lot more that could be said and a lot more that could be asked about it, but you'll have to join me for the follow-up discussion tonight if you want that. Not that I'm your teacher. We all have one teacher, and we are all students. Lord, teach us to pray.
Amen.