A Prayer in My Pocket

Spirituality Column #114
January 13, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

A Prayer in My Pocket
By Bob Walters

First in a series on The Lord's Prayer

Having grown up in the Episcopal Church of the 1960s, the Lord’s Prayer was a weekly staple in the worship service:

Our Father, which 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 trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

It was something you learned as a kid “by heart” (memorized) … like the Pledge of Allegiance or the Boy Scout Oath. You heard it over and over and just knew it in case you ever needed it, but probably never thought seriously about what it meant.

Today outside the liturgical churches such as the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist and a very few other denominations (“liturgy” means standardized worship services and prayers), the Lord’s Prayer is not part of the routine Christian experience. I think that’s sad.

And speaking of routine (and sad), at this point many Christians would routinely begin to argue various points of this example of the Lord’s Prayer:
- It’s “debts” not “trespasses;”
- No, wait … it should be “sins;”
- The “thy” and “thine” language is antiquated;
- “For thine is the Kingdom … ” etc., is a doxology and not part of the Catholic version;
- You should pray what’s in your heart, not some rote bit of archaic liturgy.
- It’s not a prayer, it’s an instruction.

The Lord’s Prayer comes from the Bible: Matthew 6:9-13 in the Sermon on the Mount, and again in Luke 11:2-4. Matthew, in the Greek, says “debts” (Gk opheilema), while Luke says “sins” (Gk hamartia). “Trespasses” doesn’t appear in any version of the Bible … the word was inserted in the prayer by Origen of Alexandria in the third century.

Christians often fight and disagree over all the wrong things, but here is why the Lord’s Prayer, to me, is critical:

When I wasn’t going to church and needed a prayer with no idea how to pray, I could say the Lord’s Prayer and know Jesus was listening.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes God loves all of us all the time; many of us however do a bad job of loving God. More on the Lord’s Prayer next week.