Ruth was always delighted to meet me. First, she would express her surprise, and then approval, that her new pastor was a woman. “You’re my pastor? You’re my pastor? Well, I think that’s wonderful.” She would then welcome me to town, ask if I had any family, and coo appropriately over wallet-sized photos of my small children. She was always so welcoming, so genuinely warm and hospitable, our visits never failed to lift my spirits.
At the conclusion of every visit, I would offer to say a prayer, and she would accept, and we would join hands and say the Lord’s Prayer together. Ruth couldn’t remember if she had any living relations. She didn’t remember that the Pioneer Home was her home, but she remembered every word of that prayer.
Our friend Lilja Behr, who served as chaplain at our local Good Samaritan nursing homes, tells me that this is not uncommon. Even people who have lost the ability to form original speech may still be able to recite prayers and sing hymns they learned in childhood.
Which is why my mind and heart are divided on the question of which Lord’s Prayer to print in the worship bulletin and teach to the children of our church. On the brain’s side, the translation that we commonly use is archaic. It was contemporary in the early seventeenth century (and traditionalists complained about having their Pater Noster taken from them), but we do not talk that way any more. Speakest we no more thusly. Thou, art, thy, thine, these words receive the squiggly red or green underline in Microsoft Word.
But in my heart resides the memory of Ruth, and so many others-- preliterate, illiterate, or post-literate-- speaking the words they learned, by heart.
As we continue our conversation on the Lord’s Prayer, I encourage you to consider another point of view. If you find you are living in your head, listen to someone who is speaking from the heart. If it is your heart, listen to someone who is speaking from the intellect. Let each one honor the other. In this way, we can each benefit from another’s understanding, and we can all move toward becoming one heart and mind.
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
-- Philippians 2:1-4
