This is what Palgrave United will hear Sunday morning for the pulpit exchange. “Reclaiming Jesus” preached November 25, 2018 at Palgrave United Church, Palgrave Ontario (pulpit exchange)

Jeremiah 23:1-6 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing.  The days are surely coming, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “God is our righteousness.”

Luke 1: 68-79

Wonderful is the Holy One of Israel, who has visited and set the people free, and has sounded the trumpet of new life for the descendants of David. As the prophets preached long ago, that we should be saved from those who would harm, and from the hands of those who hate us, to live by the love promised to our forebears. To remembering the holy covenant, made with Abraham; that being free from the grasp of enemies, we might serve God without being afraid and do good things in God’s presence throughout every day that we live. And you, little child, will be named the prophet of the Most High. For you will go on ahead, to prepare a new way, so that people will know true freedom as all their errors are forgiven. This will be the outcome of God’s yearning love, when the new dawn shall shine on the heights, to shed light on those who cower in darkness and in the deep shadows of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

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Today is generally known in the Christian year as “Christ the King” or “Reign of Christ” Sunday. It’s the last Sunday of the current liturgical year, before we begin a new year with the first Sunday of Advent, next week.

I confess I don’t really like this Sunday. It’s not a part of the Reform tradition at all, since it really came into being only in 1925 by a decree from Rome, and we adopted it along the way. For me it embodies so much of the language in our Christian history which became the language of empire – conquering, oppression, power, authority. – we do still use words like “King, Lord, throne, kingdom, conqueror”, and despite how we bend ourselves into pretzels explaining that we don’t really mean those words exactly that way, language is critical to how we see ourselves, and how we see and relate to others.

Here’s an example of how words shape thinking. The word ‘tolerance’. Its root is in ‘tolerate’, and it actually means ‘to put up with’ or ‘to allow to continue’. When we talk about ‘religious tolerance’ or ‘racial tolerance’, we’re still using a word which implies that we who are being ‘tolerant’ hold power to change that. Instead, what about the word ‘respect’? What would happen if we use the words ‘religious respect’, or ‘racial respect’? There is a difference – one is a power word, the other is a relationship word.  Language does matter.

There’s a group of people emerging within the church who are identifying themselves not so much as “Christian” as ‘People of the Way’ , which is how the original followers of Jesus referred to themselves. Who was Jesus of Nazareth? What were the core values and the grounding in which his following developed? When did a first-century peasant known as Yeshua become known as “Christ”. What do we know? He lived and died.  He was a Jew, born in Galilee. Most of the people he knew  - colleagues, disciples, friends - were Jews. He went to services in synagogues, preached from Jewish text; celebrated Jewish festivals; went on pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. The gospels offer no sense that he came to found a new religion, nor that he was an educated rabbi. He was called ‘rabbi’ which means teacher, but that isn’t quite the same as being one.

The challenge, according to Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan, always “asks about the relationship between any and every historically reconstructed Jesus and any and every theologically accepted Christ.”  The late Marcus Borg identifies Jesus as a spirit person, a teacher of wisdom, a social prophet, and almost by accident – founder of a movement. He's completely embedded in the Judaism of his time. He's not a Sadducee, nor a Pharisee, nor an Essene, nor an insurrectionist. He does argue with members of these other groups because that's what the Jews all did - argue with each other all the time...and because he has a particular view of an increasingly doctrinal faith which is rigid in human-devised law which excludes; and the loss of compassion and openness, and inclusion, which *is* actually the law of God.

He talks about God’s realm using the language of empire – since his listeners are well associated with that – but turns that upside down by describing an empire of equality. After the death of John the Baptiser, he began to preach the realm of God as a healing in the present – a non-violent resistance to empire based in Love. God was described as Love.

There was an expectation following Jesus’ death that the Realm of God would arrive immediately.  Nothing happened, and the followers simply went home not sure what to do.  As time passed, they started looking into their own scriptures to find something which might give the experience meaning – and found among others, the passage from Jeremiah describing the shepherd who would rise from the line of David. Note that both shepherd and king are mentioned. Now, Jeremiah was a prophet, but prophets didn’t predict the future – they spoke directly to the people of the time. So while Jeremiah’s text didn’t predict the coming of Jesus, it gave the early followers a frame for explaining the Jesus experience and its purpose. Kings were not so much crowned, but anointed to be shepherds of the people. The early followers were looking for some way to make sense out of Jesus’ death.

The resurrection narratives didn’t come along until approximately 70 years after Jesus died. The followers still continued to practice their faith – but identified themselves as one of many small sects within Judaism. The ‘People of the Way’ simply went on doing what Jesus had taught them. In the book “How Jesus Became Christian”,  author Barrie Wilson notes what he terms the “Conventional Model of Christian origins” - a straightforward chronological line from Jesus to church to Paul to wild success. This impression stems from the Book of Acts, written in the late first or early second century. Yet it seems, according to Barrie Wilson, that the original Jesus movement continued – at least until the year 62 CE and the death of Jesus’ brother James – within Roman-occupied Israel.

The resurrection stories were written after Jesus’ death – Mark approximately 50 years after, Matthew and Luke about 75 years after, and John 100 years after. The “Christ” Movement arose out of Paul’s travels, and in fact the two were often at odds with each other.  After the death of James, the original movement gradually died off; and the leaders of both the Jesus movement and the Christ movement never met each other.

Paul was in Damascus when he had his conversion experience – and began reaching into the Gentile communities about five years after Jesus' death. There were Greek-speaking communities in Greece, Macedonia, Turkey; and within that time a church was also founded in Rome, but not by Paul. 

And by then there were Christians saying that the Roman emperor, and the state, were ordained by God. By the third century, Christians claimed loyalty to the state, and by the fourth century and the Emperor Constantine, Christianity became the mandated state religion with the now Greek word Christos, the ‘anointed one’ but now set up as a King/Emperor. As the Roman empire gradually declined, the church of Constantine became the empire. To me, all of this would have been contrary to Jesus’ message.

In my mind, and a conclusion I’ve drawn as I observe and research, is that just as Christ and Jesus gradually converged in early Christianity, in modern-day practice Christ and Jesus are diverging again, and are now two different persons.

In the church today, there appear to be several phenomena:

 - first, a trend among the more conservative, fundamental and even reactionary practice of Christianity towards the Christ of Empire, Christ the post-Easter Deity, the Lord and King who supports violence to claim and maintain a way of life – those who brandish a Bible, a gun and a flag, and claim Christ backs them up.

-second, a progressive Christianity which still uses empire language, but says the words no longer hold those same meanings – kings and lords, crowns and thrones of the empire which spread around the world subjugating many different groups of people. This group is working to retain the language, but reclaim its original meaning - ‘king’ and ‘lord’ as shepherd, someone who restores balance, who ‘makes things right” as Jeremiah states in the scripture.

-third, a movement towards reclaiming discipleship, following the teachings and way of Jesus, the pre-Easter human person who preached Love. Marcus Borg, John Shelby Spong, John Dominic Crossan, writers about the church such as Diana Butler Bass and Barbara Brown Taylor.  It’s a stepping back from, a stripping away of, the traditional language and structures of the last 1800 years; an attempt to go back to the beginning – the birth, life and teachings of Jesus, and those who identified as ‘People of the Way’.  It’s a re-claiming of original principles, a re-framing in non-empire language, what Jesus was teaching. It says we don’t have to cling to formulae or doctrines to live the Way. To me it says striving to live in relationship to others, with  Love as the core motivator. Simplistically, it’s a “what would Jesus do” theology.

Both the Jeremiah and the Luke passage set up this difference: “Woe to the shepherds who destroy the flocks”, says Jeremiah – and maybe we could read into that statement religious leaders in power, in any time and place, those who subvert the Gospel for their own need for power. They will be replaced, says Jeremiah, by shepherds who have the good of all the flock at heart. The prophet Zechariah sings of the new ‘king’ who sets things right, who prepares a new way, who teaches an alternate way of being that rejects violence and anger but is based in love. Jesus taught that the Realm of God was right at hand, right around the corner  - he taught a new and alternate way of being, rejecting violence and anger – and that love was the key.

And so I use a different set of words – rather than ‘Christ the King”,  or “Reign of Christ”,  I use “Realm of God”  or “God of Love” - the state of being to which Jesus constantly made reference – the realm at hand in the here and now.  To me it’s more consistent with that presence in which we ‘live and move, and have our being”. It removes all barriers, declares a way of Love as the key, and calls for the Realm of God to come into being “speedily and at a near time”. May it be so.

This sermon is a condensation of an original paper “From Christ to Jesus: Reclaiming the Way” – presented at the Power Conference in Tampere, Finland in August 2016.

1.       Borg, Marcus. “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time”. HarperOne, 1994.

2.       Crossan, John Dominic. “Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography”. HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.

3.      Curtis, Ken.  Church History Timeline 301-600 CE. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/constantine-11629643.html

4.      Fredriksen, Paula. “From Jesus to Christ”. Yale University Press, 1988.

5.      Meyers, Robin R. “Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshipping Christ and Start Following Jesus”. HarperOne, 2009.

6.      Spong, John Shelby. “This Hebrew Lord”. HarperOne, 1993,

7.      Wilson, Barrie. “How Jesus Became Christian”. Random House Canada, 2008.

8.      https://www.westarinstitute.org/blog/how-to-read-pauls-letters-chronologically/

9.      http://www.politicususa.com/2016/01/02/cruz-calls-clergy-awaken-energize-christs-body-white-house.htm

10.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

11.  Sermons from the New Testament “People of the Way” http://executableoutlines.com/text/ac9_2.htm

November 25, 2018 Pulpit Exchange - this is what Trillium will hear Sunday morning.

Sermon: It’s Raining Men (It's Raining Christ)
Reign of Christ Sunday

Scripture: Ezekiel 34: 11-24, Matthew 25: 31-46

Delivered at Trillium United Church, Mono Mills on November 24, 2018 by Rev. G. Daly

I must admit when I thought of the sermon title, the music in me started scheming. I do like to sing. But perhaps lesser known, I also like to dance!

So, imagine 1982. First, I had hair. Second I had big hair, 80’s hair: short on the sides and likely thrown very high in one direction or it could have been a big and I mean big swoop down one side. I had just graduated from Bible College in Calgary and had begun to explore the freedom that living away from home and on my own might bring. That included going to my first gay bar in Calgary. It was called the “Cha Cha Palace.” No word of a lie. My favourite thing about the place was that it was a beautiful old downtown bank and you could actually get up on the old tellers booths and dance. I could go on, but suffice it to say, I have good memories of this place.

Part of the good memories are a song that was released that year! Someone please call out a guess. I know some of you are thinking it –

the name of the song?????

…………….

At 19 years of age and dancing around with men in the freedom that represented to me at the time, I have great memories of that song.

It's Raining Men! Hallelujah! It's Raining Men! Amen

I will spare you the rest.

Here’s the thing though, and I tell this because when I put my mind to the scripture this week, this idea that we are sheep and goats and when the Messiah finally arrives, blazing in beauty and with all the angels, I thought of the energy and the joy and the abandon of those early moments in my life.

I thought to myself, can I get just as worked up about the reign – r-e-i-g-n

– of Christ as I could about that song and that freedom from so long ago in my life.

Both our Old Testament and Gospel reading have a discussion of sheep and goats. This is one of those times where the pairing in the lectionary is spot

on in my opinion. More than that, I am so convinced of this link that there is little doubt in my mind that this parable was uttered by Jesus, a good Jewish boy who knew his readings from Ezekiel.

Let’s start with this Old Testament reading. Ezekiel has a very specific setting and, more than most of the books of the Old Testament has a great deal of corroborated factuality. If that’s a word. Ezekiel the person, was part of the group of Israelites who were exiled to Babylon in 597 BCE. Many thanks to my History of Christianity prof for being able to recall that date. That Ezekiel was exiled suggests that he was from a wealthy family. The exile was intended to breakdown Jewish society. So, no wonder that the book of Ezekiel spends  much time discussing the role of God, the relationship of God to the people, and trying to make sense of “bad things” happening and the consequences of that.

So, in our text we have a discussion of how God will act with the people. A shepherd who tends a flock, but also a Shepherd that will separate out those who cut muster and those who don’t. It is about hope. There will be one who will come – David – who will watch over the sheep and be a prince. This is prophetic speak for the coming Messiah. Something that people in exile, people defeated, people scattered, would naturally grab on to.

In our Gospel reading we are also talking prophecy.  The time of Jesus life on earth, the Jewish people were again (or some might say still) under siege. The Roman Empire ruled with a heavy hand and so conversations of hope, of prophecy, of a coming Messiah would be something that people, oppressed, would naturally grab on to.

Next week we begin the season of Advent, we are entering a time of hope. Our reading reminds us of what Jesus is about to introduce to the world through his human life, through his humanity, and what is ultimately going to happen as a result of that experience. This is where our Christian understanding of hope takes us.

So, the reading is about what to expect. Yes, the Messiah comes in glory and all of that, but there is a real kicker here isn’t there. The Messiah will separate the sheep from the goats.

Who is a sheep and who is a goat? We may think we have a clear view of who is who, and a solid basis on which to judge others, but this parable intends to disabuse us of that self-righteous notion that anyone of us is above, or better than another, and turn the spotlight on our own actions.

Importantly, the story is set in time where we are being called to reckon for our actions. In this way, it is similar to Ezekiel in Babylon.  They exile has happened. There is no future opportunity, we are being called to account. In the Matthew context, people have lived their lives, the way in which people have treated other people in the past is being called to account. The time to care for those around us, is past.

The parable emphasizes the connection between seeing a need and acting on it. It reminds me of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke. In that instance, all three observers of the person in the ditch "saw the person." The first two engaged with twofold action. First they “saw” and then in response, they "passed by on the other side." The third person however, had a threefold response. The last person “saw” then was “moved” and then “took action.”

So three things happened: They see

They have compassion They act.

In the parable this morning, Jesus is speaking about the same threefold action, but the interesting part of the parable is that, though they didn't realize it, but in their actions, the ones who did see the poor and help them, saw and helped Jesus. By contrast, what makes others cursed is that they never really did see Jesus suffering and in need because they never really saw the poor.

The Sovereign One – the r-e-i-g-n- ing One addresses the two groups individually and pronounces them as either blessed or cursed and announces the consequences—enter into the kindom or depart from it. Several examples are used. There was a need that they either met or did not meet:

"I was hungry, thirsty, homeless, shivering, or in prison and you fed, gave me drink, gave me a room, clothed me, visited me, came to see me."

Then we get to the big question – “When?”

“When did we see you hungry, When did we see you, etc., etc., and meet your needs?" Interesting that in both instances, those who acted and those who did not, they would ask this question – When?

The ones who did it without question, have no pretense. They do it because they understand that it is the right thing to do, they are not seeking gain from it.

Of course, the second group asks the same question – When?

But these people are asking for a different reason. It is their attempt to excuse themselves from the consequences of their actions.

“Me? When did I not help you Jesus?”

‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

The kindom of heaven, shows up where we least expect it. The presence of Jesus is hidden – ALWAYS - in the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the shivering, the sick, and the imprisoned. They are not just Jesus kin; Jesus identifies his own self with them.

As is often the case when Jesus speaks, there is a paradox. If you want to experience the kindom of heaven have active compassion toward and engage those that society and, in many cases, religion, judge as accursed. The parable points out that we as individuals, as churches, and as a society, are not very good at judging others. We judge by appearances, or we make assumptions about the depths of others' feelings and experiences that are not ours to make. We exclude and we make allowances on grounds than Jesus makes clear are irrelevant. When we set ourselves up as judge and jury over others, we promote ourselves and our own glory rather than seeing, being moved, and acting.

It is clear from this reading that we need a better, wiser judge than ourselves. Who is that judge, according to Matthew's gospel? This parable combines the paradoxical qualities of the Son of Man. Jesus is the majestic, exalted Sovereign whose identity is hidden in the outcast. Our lives will be judged by the extent to which we see, have compassion, and act in response to these people in this world now. The parable calls us to evaluate our own actions, rather than deflect our energies toward judging others, deciding whether they are sheep or goats.

Like the Jews living in Babylonian exile, the Jews living under Roman rule, we look today for hope, for a sign of better things to come. Jesus gives

us a roadmap for this. There is a way to live in hope. When we live with passion and compassion we open ourselves to a threefold action of response:

We “see”

We “have compassion” We “act”

This is Christ’s call in the message of loving neighbour as self. This is Christ’s call in the parable this morning: we are called to act, without expecting return.

Jesus modeled these actions throughout his ministry. This is why we call Jesus the Messiah, the Sovereign One who reigns.

When we act as Christ acted, then the kindom of heaven, the reign of Christ, is here and now. The Messiah has returned in our acts of passion and compassion. The Messiah has returned each time we see Christ in the face of the hungry, thirsty, homeless, unclothed, sick, and imprisoned. When we act this way, it is literally raining – r-a-i-n – raining Christ.

This is living with abandon and energy. This is living with joy. This is living in the fullness of the Spirit that Jesus offered. This is the kindom of heaven, here and now. This is how Christ reigns on earth.

So, even without the big hair, can I get as worked up about the return of Christ as I can about the Cha Cha Palace?

You bet.

It’s raining Christ, Hallelujah It’s raining Christ, Amen.

The Prayer of Jesus Matthew 6:5-13, Luke 24:28-35 November 18, 2018

Next week, November 25 is known as "Reign of Christ" Sunday - the last Sunday of the liturgical year before we begin Advent and another cycle. This week November 18 sets us up for looking at the 'reign of Christ' through the lens of the Lord's Prayer.
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Several years ago, 2007 to be exact, I left the Lord’s Prayer out of the service. You would have thought I had cancelled church altogether. There were mutterings about the Lord’s Prayer being taken out of  schools, and now being taken out of churches too. One gentleman said there was no point coming to church if we didn’t have that prayer –so I asked him if there were restrictions on saying it whenever he liked. His response was it belonged in church. I asked why. He had no answer.

So that congregation learned what many congregations don’t realise –that when a question like that is raised, they need to have an answer. I challenged that congregation to tell me why the Lord’s Prayer was so important that it needed to be in every service. Not right there on the spot, of course, but after they had thought about it for awhile. Interestingly, no one took up the challenge. I let it go several weeks.

Right when they thought I’d forgotten about it, I did a series of four sermons exploring the history, language and use of this prayer. This sermon is a combination of two of those –and explores the prayer in the language Jesus spoke - Aramaic. I’ve said often that this is the most profound prayer - and if congregations really understood it, it would frighten them. So I want you to think about the words and how profound they really are, each and every time you say it.

And it’s critical to remember that the prayer we have today is a translation from Hebrew to Greek to English. The Bible was not written in English, and it’s pretty well accepted that the beloved King James was not an accurate translation. Anyone who speaks another language knows that there aren’t always parallel words in each language. About twenty years ago Norio translated a book by Reginald Bibby – called“Mosaic Madness”- into Japanese. English phrases were used which don’t exist in Japanese, either as words or as concepts, so words had to be made up to convey the meaning. Every single time we translate, meaning shifts a little.

Here’s a very simple example. In Hebrew, ‘ruach’ means Spirit, breath. Translating into German, Spirit became ‘geist’ or ghost –the phrase Holy Ghost’. But ’ghost’, spirit and breath’ aren’t quite the same.

Jesus was a devout practicing Jew; everything he said and did arose from his traditions. He would have learned to pray first from Mary. The first prayer a Hebrew mother teaches is 'Into your hands, O God, I commend my spirit' - to be said before falling asleep, and before death. Jesus used these words on the cross before death –every Jew used those words before sleeping, and before death. Jesus would have heard Mary at sunset on the Sabbath eve, blessing the lamps, 'Blessed are you, O Lord, King of the Universe, who has given us your commandments and bids us light the Sabbath lights'. He would have heard Joseph say 'Blessed are you, O Lord, King of the Universe, who has given us this bread to eat, this wine to drink, fruit of the earth, of the vine, and the work of human hands'.

 

Jesus’ disciples asked to be taught how to pray, and he gave them a very Jewish prayer. It was, in fact, quite commonplace for teachers to give prayers to their followers, particularly beginning or ending a teaching session. The Gospel of Matthew gives the prayer in rather crude Greek, behind which one can sense the Hebrew, Matthew 6:9-15:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

In Luke's sophisticated, yet far simpler, Greek version, 11: 2-4, this becomes:

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.

Mark gives us instead the Jewish Prayer of the Good Name, the Sh\ma ,12:29-31: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.’, then speaks of God’s name as blessed, and the kingdom as enduring for ever; then adds to it the prayer of loving God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength, from the blessed Tau Prayer (which is over the threshold of Jewish homes since the Exodus), and one's neighbour as oneself - phrases taken directly from Deuteronomy and Leviticus. The Lord's Prayer echoes Jewish prayers to God, hallowing God’s holy name, speaking of the kingdom, and of the Jubilee - a forgiving of all debts, freeing of all slaves.

It is, in fact, not a very original prayer; it is a combination of formulas which were in circulation among Hasidic Jews. The first part, for the coming of God’s realm, echoes the Kaddish - the prayer for the dead – ‘May his great name be hallowed in the world which he created, according to his will, and may he establish his Kingdom, speedily and soon.’

The whole of the formula  ‘Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven’ expressed one idea common to Jews - that the Messianic kingdom would appear quickly, and always subject to the will of God. Heaven was not  “out there” ...heaven was where we belong, here and now, here on earth.

Back to the Kaddish, that the realm of God would be established quickly and at a near time. The realm is not a place or system, but a state of being, in which the sacred and holy gives meaning to everything. We pray that we may be brought into a state of being ‘in tune’ (thy will be done), that in the choir of the universe, we aren’t found to be singing flat!

There are then petitions in this prayer:  First, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.’. In this understanding, heaven literally comes to earth. They are not two separate places. The word ‘tzevyanach’ can be translated as ‘will’, but not in the sense of willpower, or strength of will. Rather it means ‘heart’s desire’, harmonious cooperation among all things. Heaven and earth are one, from potential to actual. ‘Arha’ means ‘earth’, and may be the root of our word. It carries the meaning of  ‘all nature, all natural gatherings of mass and form produced by the universal force - power with movement.”

The second petition is ‘Give us this day our daily bread...’ The word for bread is ‘lachma’, but the word also means ‘understanding’. So substitute that into the sentence - give us the understanding we need for today. Or, give us the food for all forms of growth and for elementary life in general. The root of the word demonstrates growing vigour, green-ness, passion, possibility, and generative power. It became the word ‘hochma’ which in Proverbs translates as ‘Holy Wisdom’, the breath, and the embodiment of the feminine principle in everything. This reminds us that as well as the grand picture of unity in creation, we also need just food or understanding for the moment. It stands within the context of Messianic expectation, and is quite radical. It is reminiscent of Solomon praying ‘give us our apportioned bread’, or give us what we need for today. It makes a strong comment about having more than we need, over against those who have less. It doesn’t ask God to fill us up with everything we want - it says clearly give us what we need. Implicit in that is sharing what we have with others who need more than we do.

On another level it refers to something outside of the physical needs of the world. The Greek word used means something close to ‘the stuff we need to survive’, or ‘give us today tomorrow’s bread’ - and can possibly be read as ‘give us a foretaste of the bread of heaven’ where the universe is drawn together as one.

In the first part of the prayer we remember our blessings from the cosmos. In the second part we move to a new cycle of blessing, facing each other and remembering that we are all part of the divine Many, pointing to the earth which stands under and supports us. So if we live out the prayer, we treasure the source of the bread by not hoarding or demanding more from the earth than we need. That means we are, in fact, creation centred and aware of our >footprint= on the earth, now and into the future.

‘Forgive our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us –‘

Not only can the word ‘washboqlan’ be translated as ‘forgive’, it can also be ‘return to original state’, ‘reciprocally absorb’, ‘embrace with emptiness’. The prayer reaffirms that our original state is clear and unburdened, releasing those things which tie us down and prevent our growth. While Matthew’s version of the prayer translated the word as ‘debts’ or ‘offences’, it also means ‘hidden past’, ‘secret debt’ any negative ‘inner fruit’. Luke’s version can be ‘sins’, but could also be ‘failures’, ‘mistakes’, ‘accidental offences’ or even ‘frustrated hopes.’

Two dispirited disciples trudge along a road, all the stuffing taken out of them. How many times they must have walked the road from Emmaus to Jerusalem and back again. A stranger meets them on the road, and begins to talk - and they pour out their hearts and end up in tears. They reach their home in Emmaus, and persuade him to stay rather than walk a dangerous road after dark. A simple meal is set out on the table, and the stranger picks up the bread and says Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech ha olam, hamotzi lechem min haartez.....”, breaks and shares it.

The stranger breaks bread and suddenly they do know him; in both the meeting and the meal, their needs are met. They are fed with the spiritual bread they need, and then they sit down and feed their bodies. I cannot help but see action in this prayer. It is a symbol of the realm of God, in the here and now - on the everyday road of life, the road we travel so often, sometimes without thinking. How often do we pick up bread and just stuff it in. How often do we trust that we have enough? That we have been fed?

It isn’t enough, for me, to put the words into the liturgy just because they’ve always been there. ‘Because we’ve always done that’ isn’t good enough. It seems to us a simple prayer –but it wasn’t and isn’t. It was a radical prayer meant to change lives.. Jesus always, always pushed his followers not to be complacent, and it is the role of preachers to push you sitting in the pews not to be complacent, even if it makes us unpopular. We cannot afford to just sing or say the words. The whole intent of the prayer and the actions we take is to make us new people, in the realm of God, in the here and now.

O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos

Focus your light within us—make it useful.

Create your reign of unity now— through our fiery hearts and willing hands.

Help us love beyond our ideals and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.

Animate the earth within us:  we then feel the Wisdom underneath supporting all.

Untangle the knots within so that we can mend our hearts' simple ties to each other.

Don't let surface things delude us, but free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.

Out of you, the astonishing fire, returning light and sound to the cosmos. Amen.

Sources: 1. www.jewishencyclopedia.com

2. Religion and Ethics: The Lord’s Prayer www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/prayer (Archbishop Rowan Williams)   3. Prayers of the Cosmos  - Neil Douglas-Klotz