Boy, am I going to get creamed for this one....but here goes anyway. I copied this from a friend who posted it on the church's private bulletin board. It's an interesting excerpt from a book by Forrest Church, called "Lifecraft: The Art of Meaning in the Everyday"
Our Swiss cabdriver was definitely Kierkegaardian with a keen eye for idolatry; he loved Christianity and disdained Christendom. But he was also Bergsonian. He sought to enliven his own faith with a more dynamic dimension. As it turns out, what he really wanted to talk to us about was prayer. Changing his tone entirely, he raised what he called "a serious religious question"-one he answered for himself in the following monologue.
"I don't know about you," the driver said, "but I have trouble with the Lord's Prayer.” I believe in God, but the Lord's Prayer, I mean, since I say it every night before I go to bed, I had to improve on it. I just had to. What's this “Our Father” business? If God's a man, we're finished. And how about ‘Who art in heaven.’ Wait a minute, all of us are here, so what I say is this: ‘Holy Spirit, whom art with and among us,’ and then I drop the bit about the hallowed name, because that doesn't mean anything.
‘ Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,’ same problem. I say `Be with us as we would be with you.'
Then, 'give us this day our daily bread.' That didn't make sense to me until I heard a sermon once. I didn't like the preacher but it was a good sermon; it got me think-ing. We're not talking about hamburgers here; we're talking about spiritual food, the stuff that makes us human. So I left that in.
As for ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’, just talk to my girlfriend .l had to leave that in. But this `Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil' business. Give me a break. What's the deal? We ask God not to lead us into temptation, and then when bad things happen even when we've been good, blame God for it? That's ridiculous. I dropped that out.
Which leaves only ‘Thine is the power and the glory for ever and ever, Amen.' I have no real problem with that but it doesn’t really do much for me. So I say. ‘Thank you for the blessing of life. I pray I may be worthy of it’. Believe me, it sounds better in German. It doesn’t sound bad in English:
The Revised Version would look like this:
Holy Spirit, who art with and among us,
be with us as we would be with you,
Give us our daily bread.
Forgive us of our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Thank you for the blessing of life,
I Pray I may be worthy of it.
Excerpt from Lifecraft: The Art of Meaning in the Everyday.
By Forrest Church: Boston: Beacon Press, 2000
You see what I mean. I kind of like it myself. What do you think?
3 comments:
Hi Ron, Beth's mommy here. I rather like it too, and it came from the cab driver's heart. I believe the Lord taught us the Lord's Prayer as an example of praying, not necessarily word for word and over and over.
This really up sets me, I go to church every Sunday (Catholic Church) WE say the "Lords Prayer" with our hands raised up the altar where Jesus is on the cross.We say it the way "HE" said it and that's the way it should stay. Don't go messing with the "LORDS" words. I'm sure you know who this is.
This is one of the reasons I'm not Catholic any more...stagnant thinking. The Lord's Prayer is a beautiful prayer, but prayer can be any words, not repeated words over and over. And Jesus isn't on the cross any more, He is risen to make those who believe in Him FREE.
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