2/18/18
First Sunday of Lent: “The Lord’s Prayer”
“Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed by Thy Name….”
I am often lost. I often live without a sense of clear direction. The times we live in are particularly confusing and decentering. But I have been truly lost only twice. One was in a village in the mountains above Ensenada, Mexico; the other was in Red Bluff, California. The first involved a work camp, high school students, and being left behind in the middle of the night because of an emergency that took all the staff away to the hospital, leaving me alone and responsible for the 30 students. I was in charge and alone. My high school Spanish was hardly useful, and I couldn’t even find the North Star.
The other involved the death of our second child just hours after he was born. I was completely alone again. Joel, our first born, was with grandparents. Judy still in the hospital; the phone calls were made. While this was undeniably harder for Judy than for me, I was home after a harrowing day and completely lost. Lost and alone.
In nearly every respect, these represent the human condition. We have all experienced what “lost and alone” means.
Such times are disorienting. The world shifts under our feet and nothing is as it seemed. In Mexico the sky was larger; the sounds louder; my heart could be heard for miles; and the distances vast; I felt very small. In Red Bluff, the world hadn’t just shifted; it had turned upside down, I was free falling, and God seemed a bit careless. We are thrown out of balance and confused because what we thought was true—suddenly, seems not so.
In these times, ritual matters; in these times, we can do little but put one foot in front of the other and pray that somehow sense and meaning will be restored.
Into such times, the prayer we call “The Lord’s” comes. A prayer that provides the ritual and the re-orientation we need—a North Star.
OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN,
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
Jesus teaches us to pray to the "Our Father"—not just any father, but the one “the heaven.” The one whose name is holy; the one who assures and orients. The true north star. This invocation locates us; whenever and wherever we pray this that space becomes sacred. We begin all of our conversations with a greeting because greetings provide welcome and focus. As does this greeting; we open a door and invite God in—and God shows up.
Not just any God. This is not my God; this is our God—personal, yes, but not private. We don’t own God. This is a holy God—the God who is beyond what we may imagine. This God is to be revered and worshiped. This God has a name; in fact, this God has many names—Jesus teaches us—in his time and space—to call God father, but God is beyond gender, so we call may call God mother. God is “The Mother of us, the one in the heavens.” Our divine parent. Jesus, who knows this One best, called God “abba,” that is, daddy; as can we so long as we remember that this one is also Yahweh, meaning I Am; I am who I am; I will be whom I will be; I am becoming who I will become. But the meanings that flow from this are many: all Kairos; no chronos; no beginning and no end; so holy to the orthodox Jew that it must be substituted with Adonai, simply “Lord.” This is the ground of all being; the one on whom everything depends but who depends on nothing; yet desires our friendship.
We often say that Jesus came and turned the world upside down—which is how our world often feels; I think the truer statement is that God comes to turn the world right side up. So here’s what I think matters and what we must remember as we journey with this prayer through this season: you and I are invited to pray this prayer, which means you and I have access to God, personal, communal, and direct. This prayer and the One to whom it is addressed, transcendent and beyond, is available to us in the extremis of our lives when we feel more like praying, “O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small”; then, we pray
OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN,
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
—it’s a door opener; not a closer; it’s not the end of a conversation but the beginning of one, a true north star even in the darkest of nights and the stormiest of seas—invoking the Source and sustainer of life, the One who does, after all, show up as God did for me in Mexico and Red Bluff.
THANKS BE TO GOD.
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