The phrase most often repeated from the Bible opens the Lord's prayer: "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." These words carry a theology in themselves.
The word "our" clearly is inclusive of every human being. No person of any race, creed or color can be omitted from this group. "Our Father" puts every human being into a relationship with our creator and with each other. We are siblings across the globe.
"Our Father" means that we are not alone. We are created beings. We are in touch with our creator. Our creator has begotten us as a father conceives. That creator cares for us as a father. We are purposeful creations. Being created means that we have a relationship with all that is past.
"Father" is not a name but a relationship. This puts us in a family with a dimension that reaches not only to a different generation but to different order which we can only imagine. We pray to our Father "in heaven" because that Father is beyond earthly definitions and limitations.
"Hallowed be thy name" because giving a name brings that named being into our level, and that demeans the Creator God. When we call out a name we are asking for fraternity, but God is in a different phase of being. His name is unknown to us as a result. It is hallowed beyond our naming. The closest we can come to naming God is to recognize God as Father.
The opening of the Lord's prayer opens the door to a first step in identifying God. We reaffirm our faith every time we say the Lord's prayer.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Twisted Tale
Over many centuries, a debate has consistently been waged on this question: does God reward us for our good acts and punish us for the evil we do? The positive answer to that equation has been promoted by moralists who insist that God dispenses rewards and punishments according to our actions. Let's call them PROVERS. .These moralists think that pain and accidents prove God's punishment for evil.
However, some moralists have investigated that idea more deeply. Call them PROBERS. These thinkers see that if a person prospers or suffers, these are not the result of God's intervention.
Of course, there is no proof of either position. So the debate continues, fueled largely by the moralists who want to promote goodness by predicting divine punishments and rewards.
Some centuries before Christ, a group of PROBERS decided to demonstrate their conviction by telling a story about a man who suffered unduly. They pictured a man who was a model of moral behavior, admirable in every way. But he suffered accident, illness and family disaster. Friends of the suffering man visited him regularly, accusing him of sinful actions -or else, why would God punish him so severely?
In order to make the story realistic, they gave the sufferer a name: Job. And to make sure that everyone who heard the story knew it was make-believe, the narrators opened the story with a fantasy debate between God and the devil.
Now, the central story is long, consisting mostly of the friends' unyielding efforts to persuade Job that he is a sinner - or else, why would he be suffering? Job is just as certain that he is guiltless, and he defends himself vigorously. A grand conclusion comes when God appears in majestic form and tells both Job and his friends to quit judging what God will or will not do. God's majesty is far beyond human calculation; his judgments are beyond man's analysis.
The PROBERS have made a strong conclusion, carefully argued and decisively stated. But, as the strong determination of the PROVERS held that God's judgment favors the righteous and rejects the evil man, their editors dreamed up a new ending to the story, portraying the good man Job recovering his health, possessions and family after all. This violation of the original story is a shameful reversal of the lesson the PROBERS intended. But it attached itself to the wonderful picture the PROBERS drew. And because that second ending was included in early translations, we Bible readers today are the victims of this awful hoax. It's a twisted tale!
However, some moralists have investigated that idea more deeply. Call them PROBERS. These thinkers see that if a person prospers or suffers, these are not the result of God's intervention.
Of course, there is no proof of either position. So the debate continues, fueled largely by the moralists who want to promote goodness by predicting divine punishments and rewards.
Some centuries before Christ, a group of PROBERS decided to demonstrate their conviction by telling a story about a man who suffered unduly. They pictured a man who was a model of moral behavior, admirable in every way. But he suffered accident, illness and family disaster. Friends of the suffering man visited him regularly, accusing him of sinful actions -or else, why would God punish him so severely?
In order to make the story realistic, they gave the sufferer a name: Job. And to make sure that everyone who heard the story knew it was make-believe, the narrators opened the story with a fantasy debate between God and the devil.
Now, the central story is long, consisting mostly of the friends' unyielding efforts to persuade Job that he is a sinner - or else, why would he be suffering? Job is just as certain that he is guiltless, and he defends himself vigorously. A grand conclusion comes when God appears in majestic form and tells both Job and his friends to quit judging what God will or will not do. God's majesty is far beyond human calculation; his judgments are beyond man's analysis.
The PROBERS have made a strong conclusion, carefully argued and decisively stated. But, as the strong determination of the PROVERS held that God's judgment favors the righteous and rejects the evil man, their editors dreamed up a new ending to the story, portraying the good man Job recovering his health, possessions and family after all. This violation of the original story is a shameful reversal of the lesson the PROBERS intended. But it attached itself to the wonderful picture the PROBERS drew. And because that second ending was included in early translations, we Bible readers today are the victims of this awful hoax. It's a twisted tale!
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Prove It!
Over the centuries, an Easter cry has been made by Christians: " Christ is risen.". That proclamation has meant to many people that the body of Jesus was somehow transformed and became a living being again. That miracle is the foundation of many Christian's faith.
Three important messages are here in those three words. First, it is Christ who is risen. Not the body of Jesus the man but the spiritual being, God's offspring. It is Christ the embodiment of God, the carrier of God's presence.
Second, the verb tells us that this is not a historical event but a fact, a declaration. The verb "is" proclaims that something exists. And that something is the spirit of the living God, the Christ.
Third, the statement CHRIST IS RISEN is a personal commitment. The world listens to the Christian who cries it and says "PROVE IT. You claim to be the body of Christ risen. Show us by your actions that the spirit of Christ lives in you. Your actions, your words, your decisions, your acts of love and forgiveness -these alone can justify your cry!"
Yes, crowds of people shouting "Christ is risen" are not convincing. The world looks for that Christ to appear, to be visible in our lives.
Three important messages are here in those three words. First, it is Christ who is risen. Not the body of Jesus the man but the spiritual being, God's offspring. It is Christ the embodiment of God, the carrier of God's presence.
Second, the verb tells us that this is not a historical event but a fact, a declaration. The verb "is" proclaims that something exists. And that something is the spirit of the living God, the Christ.
Third, the statement CHRIST IS RISEN is a personal commitment. The world listens to the Christian who cries it and says "PROVE IT. You claim to be the body of Christ risen. Show us by your actions that the spirit of Christ lives in you. Your actions, your words, your decisions, your acts of love and forgiveness -these alone can justify your cry!"
Yes, crowds of people shouting "Christ is risen" are not convincing. The world looks for that Christ to appear, to be visible in our lives.
Good Samaritan
The most familiar story in the New Testament is about an alienated man doing an extraordinary act of compassion. Jesus concluded the story with a question about being a good neighbor. My ending is different: when the injured man asks the Samaritan why he did this act of mercy, the Samaritan said "I did it so that God might exist."
What the Samaritan did was to transform God from being a distant idea to being a present fact. In that act, the divine dream becomes a reality. The unimaginable turns out to be real.
When we love, God becomes tangible. That is true when we forgive. . . when we work for justice or peace or healing. It is as though God is waiting for us to let Him/Her loose in our lives.
That old question that asks "do believe in the existence of God?" cannot be answered with YES or NO. It can only be answered by enabling your conception of God to act.
Through the ages, theologians have speculated noisily about the nature of God. That continuing debate provides stimulating discussion. Bit if we really mean it when we pray "thy will be done", we are responsible for bringing God's will Into existence. Apart from that action, God is but a concept.
What the Samaritan did was to transform God from being a distant idea to being a present fact. In that act, the divine dream becomes a reality. The unimaginable turns out to be real.
When we love, God becomes tangible. That is true when we forgive. . . when we work for justice or peace or healing. It is as though God is waiting for us to let Him/Her loose in our lives.
That old question that asks "do believe in the existence of God?" cannot be answered with YES or NO. It can only be answered by enabling your conception of God to act.
Through the ages, theologians have speculated noisily about the nature of God. That continuing debate provides stimulating discussion. Bit if we really mean it when we pray "thy will be done", we are responsible for bringing God's will Into existence. Apart from that action, God is but a concept.
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