Like any good rabbi, Jesus liked to draw on the rich wisdom of his Tradition. The "Summary of the Law" which he taught is a quotation from Hillel. The Our Father (called by protestant's "The Lord's Prayer") is a wonderful Jewish work as well. Every Jewish male in the first century was obliged to recite three times per day the Amidah prayer. Jesus, who had just been talking about limiting one's words in prayer, abridged the key elements of that prayer to make the succinct oration we know today as the Our Father.
The version in today's gospel (Lk 11: 1-13) contains portions of the full prayer which can be found in Matthew. Important key portions. Let's take a look.
Father - The first words the Jewish child would learn are "imma" and "abba," mama and papa. The latter is never used as a title for God anywhere in Hebrew Scripture or worship resources. To call God, in effect, "Daddy" is simply too intimate a form of address to a transcendent deity. But, in the experience of Jesus, we do come into intimate relation with God in a new way.
Hallowed be your name - The verb is passive . God sanctifies his own name by blessing his People.
Your Kingdom come - From childhood the Jewish child knew the kaddish {"holy") prayer which is about the coming reign of God on earth as in heaven, final victory. Yet, we reflect God's blessing of us by being a blessing to others through smaller daily victories of love, justice and peacemaking, as agents of the redemption of the world.
Give us each day our daily bread - We ask for what we need for the coming day. Not what we want. Not everything we can steal or hoard away. Years ago some nun friends of mine gave away bumper stickers which said, "Live simply that others may simply live." This line is countercultural. And when we pray for what we need, we may find that what we really need is quite different from what we have imagined. God is a God of blessing to those open to his guidance and blessing.
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us - This is the ancient Jewish teaching that we may not approach God for forgiveness until we have straightened out relationships with other people. We cannot withhold forgiveness from others and be ourselves forgiven. Each year on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) no Jew is welcome to come to Temple in the evening to ask for God's forgiveness and blessing for the coming year who has not first made a sincere effort to forgive and ask forgiveness of others.
And do not bring us to the time of trial - The operative expression is "hard testing." Life is hard enough, so we ask to be given a break even as we hope for the grace to persevere in life's trials. For, as Jesus reminds us, it is the only the one who perseveres to the end who will find salvation-- that is, right relationship with God. (Mt 24: 13)
From this wonderful, abridged Amidah we see our way clearly. In intimate relation with the Father, we seek to be a blessing in the world as kingdom-builders and therein are ourselves blessed. And as we proceed we seek only what we truly need and seek to be in straight relation with others, knowing that our relationship with God depends on it, and finally we persevere to the end in God's true life.
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