Let Us Pray

When the worship group met for the first time in April, those who gathered on that evening discussed ways to involve the whole congregation in worship more fully. One suggestion was to use a different translation of the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps to slow down the recital of it and make us think about the words we speak. I mentioned that there were three different versions offered in our United Church of Christ Book of Worship (they are also printed in our New Century Hymnal on p. 9), and offered to have the “forgive us our sins” version printed in the bulletin, for a change. A member of the worship group agreed to introduce it on the first Sunday that we prayed the new version(April 27).

Well, the change certainly got people thinking, and talking, but not quite in the way I or anyone in the worship group had expected. I think we were all surprised at the passion of some responses to the modern version. The next time the worship group met, we agreed to change back to the familiar version, for the time being, but to continue the conversation about worship, and about the Lord’s Prayer in particular.

So, here is the first in a series of studies on the Lord’s Prayer. This is intended not to put an end to conversation, but to infuse it with respectful dialog. I hope to receive some comments on this post! Let's keep the conversation open.
What we have come to call “The Lord’s Prayer” appears in two of the four gospels. Here is how the prayer appears in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, in Matthew and in Luke.

Matt 6:9-13

⁹ ‘Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.^*
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And do not bring us to the time of trial,^*
but rescue us from the evil one.

Luke 11:1-4

^{The Lord’s Prayer}

¹He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ ²He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father,^* hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.^*
3 Give us each day our daily bread.^*
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

Note the differences, as well as the similarities, between each of these biblical versions and the version we usually recite in worship. Consider the commentary of Eduard Schweitzer, who noted:

It is astounding how little legalism the early Christians showed in transmitting the words of Jesus. Even so central a text as this is reshaped with relative freedom, adapted to local usage, and elaborated. The community had no sacred texts in the sense of ones that had to be repeated without the slightest change. The Lord’s Prayer is therefore not the letter of the law; it is an aid to prayer, a guide to be followed without being bound to this or that precise wording.

--The Good News According to Matthew, p. 147

You might also notice that something familiar is missing from both biblical versions of the prayer featured above. If you consult the footnotes of your NRSV, you will read, “Other ancient authorities add, in some form, For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen.” The translators who worked on New Revised Standard Version of the bible had access to ancient manuscripts which were not available to previous generations. The earliest manuscripts of the New Testament do not include these words of praise; but the recitation of this doxology at the end of the prayer seems to have become the practice of the church by the turn of the first into the second century, when the Didache (DID-a-key) was compiled. The Didache reads like a Scout handbook on how to organize a church, and it includes instructions on how to pray.

The Lord’s Prayer in the Didache:

Likewise, don't pray as the hypocrites, but as commanded in the Gospel in this manner:
Our Father in heaven,
Sacred is Your Name.
Your kingdom comes.
Your will is accomplished,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debt
in the manner that we forgive our debtors.
And do not allow us to fall to temptation,
but deliver us from evil,
for Yours is the power and the glory forever.
Amen!
Pray in this manner three times per day.

Didache 8:2-3, tr. c. 1998 Ivan Lewis