'Our Father'.
We're taught to pray Our Father. Does that strike you as strange? No? Perhaps when you pray that you're aware of your kinship with Christians everywhere... Or perhaps not... I dare to say that the reality of these simple words is that they have have lost their original meaning and become absurdly sentimental. "Destroyed by years of repetitive indoctrination through school assemblies" is how my friend put it (...okay, he might not have used the word "indoctrination").
"Give us this day our daily bread..."
I can believe people pray this with others in mind, the starving perhaps, or even for every person in the world, but...
"Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us."
This most necessary, most intimate of requests... the spotlight shines on all our selfishness. Do we really think about others when we say these lines? Perhaps the second half of the sentence is there to force us to think of them. As you speak these words do you plead for the souls of others you know? Jesus could well have taught us to use the words "me" and "my", but he didn't; this prayer is about "us". We will pray for those we love.
What I'm getting at is that if you don't live in close community with others, if the love you have for people is not so personal as to mean that you live for them, how can anyone pray this prayer with honesty? It strikes me that you can only really pray such a prayer with full effect if you are conscious of your brotherhood with other Christians. Conscious enough for it to hurt, for it to mean that you want to make a difference, rather than conscious of brethren in a vague way.
Living in community does not mean I'm better than others. There are millions who live lives that would put me to shame, but it has woken me up to the fact that if I'm going to love and follow Jesus then this prayer has to mean something: I'm not alone, there are others with me. Oh, how ridiculous to have your own house, your own possessions, your own plot of land, your own income and expenditure, your 'own' friendships, and to pray, "Our Father..."
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
You are an amazing brother in Christ! May the good Lord continue to work in you as you share HIS work as lived in the 21st century. All of us who have entrusted our lives to Jesus will one day be the building materials of the New Jerusalem. We'll be living on top of each other anyways...so much of your words are true! God Bless!
ReplyDeleteLike the 'us' take, hadn't really thought of it that way - thankyou
ReplyDelete; ) The TJ
I dont agree with you Tsacha
ReplyDeleteWhy not, why shouldn't you have your own land, own house, own possessions, and still not pray our father. God loves us all, even those that are not in community. Im quite sure he wants us all to pray to him, in what ever capacity we are able.
love pads
Again, your words wake me up to what's important. That's good.
ReplyDeletePads, I also reacted on the last words; I believe selfishness is not in owning things, but in not being willing to share what you own, is it then much or little.
BUT as soon as something I have becomes more important than loving my brother/sister, f.e. yelling nastily at my father who just scratched our car, again... Then I'm on the road where praying 'Our Father' should make me ashamed.
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ReplyDeleteoh, btw, above deletion was moi..it just didn't read right, sorry.
ReplyDelete; ) The TJ
I hope what you've posted causes a chain reaction. A tsunami in prayer.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly true that we all pray the same prayers, but those in fellowship don't always recognise their one-ness with the greater fellowship with all other fellowships. Which I beleieve you're saying.
Fellowships tend to be insular. Sad.
I'm not sure that ownership of anything is a sticking point. The NCCF (JA) own, after all. Ownership is meaningless. But in prayer, we own nothing. One person, one God, together in a common objective with one love in prayer, God.
Isn't that the baseline?
I guess someone, along the line has to reach out to the fellowships, and use something along the lines of your post as a comon denominator.
What makes you think that Community and sharing and the "OUR" only comes in your sort of community. An extended family is community enough for us, and when I think of my friend in old peoples home that is definitely a community that speaks to OUR father. Its wherever two or three are gathered in my name that counts. I met some of the most selfish unsharing people I ever met in my life in your sort of community. You are a bit too smug at times my friend!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments everyone. This has obviously pushed a button.
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote this I did have in mind that 'community' referred to a range of types of community rather than one specific model. It did not escape my attention that every mother who prays this prayer will have her family in mind, but I think Jesus meant more than that.
It is important to recognise, as Jenny pointed out, that possessions and ownership get in the way of our relationships, particularly (as Jesus pointed out) our relationship with God. His statement, "You cannot serve both God and Mammon" comes shortly after the prayer itself, and then of course there is this positive challenge:
"no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
We can't ignore Jesus' words and claim to be Christians, so the challenge comes to us all. There is great danger in claiming to be in fellowship with others and yet not really sharing anything tangible with them, not even a meal. It can be vague and unreal. To not leaving anything behind us for the sake of Jesus and the gospel...
From my perspective admittedly, I focussed my argument on the opposite extreme of being alone and not really sharing anything. But I am equally selfish. I can only be thankful that this community experience has woken me up to the inescapable reality of "give us this day". Living out the practicality has birthed a community in my heart where sadly, there really was nothing before.
"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Jesus)