Lord's Prayer

March 29, 2018

Dear Friends and Fellow Members of St. Simon & St. Jude,

Several weeks ago, when Bishop Waldo visited our parish, he requested that we change the wording the The Lord’s Prayer from the traditional translation, found in the left column at the time of page 364 in the Book of Common Prayer, to the contemporary translation found in the right column of the same page.  At the time, I explained that we were doing this for that particular service.  Since that time, I have chosen to continue using the contemporary version of the prayer.  This has caused at least some people a bit of anxiety: “why change such a beautiful prayer, one that we all learned when we were children, and one that we can all recite without even looking at the words?”  These are all valid questions and I’d like to take this opportunity to explain a bit about the Lord’s Prayer and why we might want to consider changing the version we use every Sunday.

First of all, let me say that the traditional translation is beautiful.  It was written in 1389 as part of the Wycliff Bible, a translation that actually came 200 years before the King James Bible.  The language is regal and poetic.  And like all poetry, the word choices reflect the culture of the times.  There’s nothing wrong with the words they use. But just as we often have to reinterpret a Shakespearean play for modern audiences, we need to be aware that 14th century prayers may need to be reinterpreted for modern worshippers.

Let me give you two examples:

Forgive us our trespasses – “Trespass” is a one of those words that means something very different today than it did in the 14th century.  At that time, trespassing was something a commoner often did when he crossed the property line of a king or nobleman, usually for the purposes of hunting.  Earlier translations used the word “debt” instead, which implied a financial obligation.  In either case, the word is a euphemism for something Jesus took much more seriously – sin.  When Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, he was teaching them about the importance of forgiveness of sin, not stepping over property lines.  What was most important to Jesus – and to us –  was that we seek forgiveness of our sins, and forgive others for the sins they commit against us.

Lead us not into temptation – This is beautiful poetry but terrible theology.  It implies that God, our heavenly Father, might, if he chose, tempt us into sinful behavior.  But nothing could be further from the truth!  Our God, who is all loving, would never do that.  It is simply not part of the nature of the God of Abraham, the God of Jesus, the God of us all.  Instead, what we seek is to be “saved from the time of trial.”  That is, those times in our lives when we are most under duress – the loss of a loved one, the times when we have been betrayed, the times when we are most alone. Furthermore, given the fact that Jesus was tried, both in the garden as he prayed before he was arrested, and in front of Pontius Pilate, who convicted him even though he was innocent, we know that our “times of trial” might take on even greater significance.

As Episcopalians, we have always believed that “praying shapes believing” (lex orandi, lex credendi).  That is, the prayers which we pray reflect our theology and what we actually believe about God and our communal life in Jesus Christ. In spite of all this, traditional version of the Lord’s Prayer is, and will remain, an important part of our worship, just as the traditional version of the 23rd psalm is.

What I am asking you to do is to give the new wording of the prayer a chance.  Let’s use it for a couple of months and see how it feels.  After we try it out, and we become more comfortable with the language, then we can decide when it is appropriate to use it and when it is more appropriate to use the traditional version.

 

Faithfully,

Fr. Mark+