I would like to help us to allow the Lord’s Prayer guide us into a deeper way of praying.

The great 20th century Jewish/Catholic philosopher and humanitarian Simone Weil said,

“The Our Father contains all possible petitions; we cannot conceive of any prayer not already contained in it… It is impossible to say it once through, giving the fullest possible attention to each word, without a change, infinitesimal perhaps but real, taking place in the soul.”

The key, as she says is, “giving the fullest possible attention to each word.”

Prayer is the practice of directing and concentrating our attention in such a way that opens our awareness to the wider reality of the Divine and to the relationship of our own beings to the Sacred Source of all being, God.

The gift of memorizing and repeating the Lord’s Prayer is that the practice returning to it, week after week, season after season, can focus and deepen our attention in the ways that Jesus taught, learning to relate to God as he related to God, so as to nourish and transform our souls. The danger of memorization and repetition is that the words just become rote, we rattle them off without paying attention to what they actually can mean for us.

So, it is worth it to come at the Lord’s Prayer fresh.

Two weeks ago, what I did in my sermon is slow down and savor the prayer word-by-word. I spent a lot of time reflecting on the first word. Then a lot of time reflecting on the second word. I got through about ten words that way, the first two phrases, until the gaff hook came out.

I suggest to you that continuing in that way through the prayer, being deliberate and contemplative about each word and phrase, is well worth your time and attention.

But this week, I’ll take a different approach.

This week I’m going to take us through the whole prayer several times, with different versions of the Lord’s Prayer. This way we can get a fresh sense of the whole prayer.

In the scripture readings for today, we heard three different versions from different biblical translations. What I’ll offer you now are a few poetic interpretations that various people have written for the sake of personal devotion.

When I share these with you, I invite you to listen to them with the ears of the heart. Prayer is not just a cerebral, analytical exercise. At the same time, it isn’t only about being moved emotionally. Rather, the early Christian teachers of prayer taught to approach prayer with the “awareness of the heart.” They advised things like, “listen with the ears of the heart,” or “see through the eyes of the heart.” They taught about letting the mind unite with the heart. The contemporary Christian teacher of contemplative prayer, Cynthia Bourgeau talks about this as “heartfulness” in contrast to “mindfulness.” Praying with a fully attentive heart.

I invite you to hear the prayer in this way.

What I’m first going to do is to make the familiar strange.

I will pray for you the Lord’s Prayer in the original Greek of the New Testament.

Then I will pray in Aramaic, the language that Jesus actually spoke. This has been preserved in the Syrian Orthodox tradition. I will do my best. My intention when I was preparing these sermons a few weeks ago, was to call my friend who’s a Syrian American Christian and get his coaching. But, as you know, some more pressing matters intervened for me the past couple of weeks.

My hope is to help us hear the prayer in new ways, to invite wonder and mystery into how we approach it.

My we attend with the awareness of the heart.  

The Prayer that Jesus taught, in Koine Greek:

 ‘Πάτερ ἡμῶν

ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς·

Ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·

Ἐλθέτω* ἡ βασιλεία σου·

Γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου,

Ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς·

Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον

δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·

Καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν,

Ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·

Καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν,

Ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς                                      

ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.’                        

In Aramaic (transliteration)

Abwoon d’bwashmaya nethqadash

shmakh Theythey malkuthakh

Nehwey sebyanach

aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arha.

Habwlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana.

Washboq lan khaubayn

aykana daph khnan

shbwoqan l’khayyabayn.

La tahlan l’nesyuna

Ela patsan min bisha.

Ameyn.

Then I invite us to hear a version of the Lord’s Prayer by Parker J. Palmer (a Quaker spiritual educator)

“Heavenly Father, heavenly Mother,

Holy and blessed is your true name.

We pray for your reign of peace to come,

We pray that your good will be done,

Let heaven and earth become one.

Give us this day the bread we need,

Give it to those who have none.

Let forgiveness flow like a river between us,

From each one to each one.

Lead us to holy innocence

Beyond the evil of our days –

Come swiftly Mother, Father, come.

For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy.

Forever your name is All in One.

Amen”

 Version in the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer (An Anglican Prayer book from New Zealand, that’s very rooted in Maori expressions of Christian devotion)

“Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Creator of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven,
The hallowing of your name echo
through the universe!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and
freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
For the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power
that is love, now and forever.   Amen.”

Lord’s Prayer Version by my father, Arden Mahlberg, who was a psychologist and peace activist

“Momma…! Papa…!

We are totally dependent on you.

When we call your name, may we only call it out of love.

May we adopt your way of universal love as our way of daily living.

May we insure that none of us goes hungry.

As your love for us remains steadfast, despite our failings, may our love for each other be equally unbroken even when others’ actions harm or disappoint.

We acknowledge how unstable our love really is and pray that it will not be tested to the point of breaking; that we will not be controlled by selfish motives and self-serving blinders that lead us to cause harm.

This world belongs to you; not to us for our taking.

It is infused with your love and beautified by your radiance, as it always was and forever will be.

This is so true.”

So, I’m very interested to hear from you: When you hear these prayers, with the attention of your heart, what was fresh to you, what was moving, what was provocative, what was inspiring? What does this teach you about what it means to pray the Lord’s Prayer, to pray in the way of Jesus?

I’m genuinely interested to hear from you.

You can view video of this sermon here.

Delivered Sunday, June 16th, 2024, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg, at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge.