WELCOME
Friends, you are welcome in this place as I am welcome. Our time together is God’s gift to each of us. We come with what we know of and have experienced in life, we come seeking to discover what we don’t yet know about God and God’s hopes and dreams for our lives. We declare in Jesus’ name that this is a safe physical, emotional and spiritual environment for all who search for meaning and purpose in life. Together let us seek to be Christ’s light and salt in the world. So, welcome.
Acknowledgment of Country
This land is God’s land and God’s Spirit dwells here. We acknowledge the Dharawal People, their elders, past present and emerging, the traditional custodians of this land under God. We commit ourselves again to working for reconciliation in this land.
Lighting the Christ Candle
As we gather today, let us remember that it is Christ Jesus who has brought us here today to worship. As this candle is lit, it is a symbol of Christ who is the light of the world, of Christ who is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
Over the last couple of months, the book club of 17 people has dived into Dark Emu. The author Bruce Pascoe reframes historical events and challenges the reader to consider a different viewpoint. Grappling with challenges to our views and perspectives can be daunting and confronting but if we allow ourselves to sit with the discomfort, a fresh perspective and awareness of how those events affect other people can emerge.
The lectionary readings for today include the Luke 11 passage of the Lord’s prayer and the subsequent parables on prayer. We say the Lord’s prayer every Sunday. It is so familiar. It can be like the proverbial piece of furniture: it is always there but ignored. Today I make no apologies: Today we are going to marinate ourselves in the Lord’s prayer through different perspectives.
But first the reading from the Good News Bible:
The Lord’s Prayer From the Good News Translation, Luke 11: 1- 13
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this:
‘Father:
May your holy name be honored;
may your Kingdom come.
3 Give us day by day the food we need.[a]
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.
And do not bring us to hard testing.’”
5 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend’s house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. 6 A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don’t have any food for him!’ 7 And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking. 9 And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks. 11 Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish? 12 Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? 13 As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Hymn: Aboriginal Lord’s Prayer (All Together for Good 574)
The words of our first hymn were written in 1996 from the Warmun Community and Music composed from Tiwi community Broome.
Aboriginal Lord’s Prayer (All Together for Good 574)
Words: Warmun Community, Music: Tiwi community Broome
© 1996 Tiwi Community WA, Broome Catholic Diocese
You are our Father, You live in Heaven
We talk to You, Father, You are good. (repeat)
We believe Your Word, Father, we Your children.
Give us bread today. (repeat)
We have done wrong, we are sorry.
Help us Father, not to sin again. (repeat)
Others have done wrong, to us
And we are sorry for them, Father today. (repeat)
Stop us from doing wrong, Father,
Save us all from the evil one. (repeat)
You are our Father, You live in Heaven.
We talk to You, Father, You are good. (repeat)
Let us now come before God.
Holy God,
we come asking for more of your Spirit in our lives,
we come seeking a clearer understanding of your will,
we come knocking for doors of opportunity to open,
we come, knowing that you are always more ready to give
than we are to receive
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen!
(Words by by Bruce Prewer)
The Lord’s Prayer 2: A Latin American Contextualized Version
Our Father and Mother who is in us here on earth,
holy is your name in the hungry who share their bread and their song.
Your Kingdom come, which is a generous land flowing with milk and honey.
Let us do your will, standing up when all are sitting down,
and raising our voice when all are silent.
You are giving us our daily bread
in the song of the bird and the miracle of the corn.
Forgive us for keeping silent in the face of injustice,
and for burying our dreams;
for not sharing bread and wine, love and the land, among us, now.
Don’t let us fall into the temptation of shutting the door through fear,
of resigning ourselves to hunger and injustice, of taking up the same arms as the enemy.
But deliver us from evil.
Give us the perseverance and the solidarity to look for love,
even if the path has not yet been trodden, even if we fail;
so we shall have known your Kingdom which is being built forever and ever.
Amen.
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FACING OUR SIN AND TRUSTING GOD’S REDEEMING GRACE
My sisters and brothers in the family of God, let each of us renew our trust in the saving grace of Christ Jesus.
Let us pray. (congregation say italics)
Holy, awesome Friend, some of us have come here feeling hassled and corrupted by the pressures and temptations of life. We need help.
Please forgive and restore us.
Holy Friend, some of us have come here feeling not so much sinful as frustrated by our clumsiness and stupidity. We need help.
Please quieten and reclaim us.
Holy Friend, some of us have come here feeling neither sinful nor stupid, but rather care-less or even cynical about ourselves and others. We need help.
Please confront and redeem us..
Holy God, we thank you that our judge is our saviour and our saviour our judge. You best know what needs rooting out or disinfecting, pruning or nourishing, weeding and nurturing.
By the grace of Christ Jesus, may we be saved from all that is ruinous and re-established in all that is healthy and strong. For your love’s sake. Amen!
(Words by Bruce Prewer)
The Lord’s Prayer: expression by Rev Josephine Inkpin of Pitt St Uniting Church
Breath of our every fibre,
Flowing in and beyond the stars,
May we rejoice in your ever-renewing life.
May your love flourish,
May your peace be known, in all beings and becomings.
Sustain us in what we need.
Transform the suffering we inflict, as we transform the suffering we endure.
Free us from all that crushes joy, and keep us from unbearable pain.
Let your way be our journey, your truth our story, and your life our coming home, now and always, Amen.
Assurance: Holy Scripture declares: “God did not sent his Son into the world to condemn it, but that the world through him might be saved.”
So ask right now, and it shall be given to you.
Seek right now,and you will find.
Knock right now, and the door will be opened.
In the name of the Son I declare to each repentant soul: Your sins are forgiven!
Thanks be to God!
Hymn: Our Father, God in Heaven. (Tis 550)
From an Aboriginal version of the Lord’s Prayer to a hymn penned over 500 years ago by our church father Martin Luther to the tune Vater Unser was found in Valentin Schumann’s hymnal, Geistliche Lieder (1539), but the composer remains unknown
The tune Vater Unser here.
The Lord’s Prayer: New Zealand Prayer Book
Eternal Spirit: Earth-Maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all. Loving God, in whom is heaven.
The hallowing of your name echoes through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the earth!
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.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever.
Amen.
Sermon: Loraine, speaking from an article in Sojourners Magazine 2013 by Joe Kay. (Loraine speaks from 5min 40 sec to 22min)
If we pay attention, it’s (The Lord’s Prayer) a prayer that makes us very uncomfortable.* These words of a peasant Jewish rabbi from 2,000 years ago challenge so much about the way we live — all of us, regardless of what religion we follow. If we’re honest, most of us don’t like it and have no intention of living by what it says.
Which presents a question: Isn’t it a problem if we pray one way and live another? Shouldn’t our prayers reflect how we actually try to live?
Along those lines, perhaps we should rewrite the Lord’s prayer and make it conform to what we really believe. In that spirit, here’s a rough draft of what it might sound like if the Lord‘s prayer was actually our prayer:
My father …
Not “our” father or parent. That would make us all equal children of God, including those whom we don’t particularly like — those from another religion, race, country, ethnic background, sexual identity, age group, economic status. Calling God “our” father invokes a responsibility to love and care for everyone as an equal brother or sister. We certainly don’t live that way, do we? We prefer to limit God to our narrow world — our religion, our country, our immediate family. God is my parent, but not necessarily yours.
… feared be your name.
Not revered. That’s what the prayer intends: We revere the God of great compassion and love and social justice by being committed to those divine qualities. Instead, we would rather condemn each other using God as a weapon. We prefer a God who is feared rather than revered.
My kingdom come …
We’ve heard all about God’s kingdom, and we don‘t really like it. Jesus was very specific and emphatic about it. Love one another. Forgive. Love the person you think of as your enemy. Care for the poor and the vulnerable. Visit those in prison. If you have two coats, give one to a person who has none — don’t wait for some charity to help them. See a needy person by the side of the road? Stop and help. Be a healer. Don’t just talk about peace, work for it. Put away all of your weapons — all of them. See money as the evil it is. Don’t aspire to prestige and privilege — those things drag you down. The first are last, the last are first. Give a drink to everyone who is thirsty, food to everyone who is hungry, and do it without ever judging whether they are worthy because God considers them worthy. This is how God’s kingdom works. Look at our society — do we live that way? So let’s stop pretending we really want God‘s kingdom.
… my will be done on earth, and in heaven, too.
A follow-up to the previous point. We don’t want things done God’s way. We’d rather that they’re done our way. And if God sees it differently, then God should change and conform to our values.
Make sure that I get everything that’s coming to me …
Give us this day our daily bread? Really? For starters, we don’t like the “give” part. Sounds too much like charity or welfare or an entitlement program. Makes us sound dependent upon grace. And what about the implication that if one person doesn’t have their daily bread, the rest of us have an obligation to help them get it? That we’re all in this together? Uh-uh. In our world, everyone is on their own. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Work harder. Maybe then you’ll have some bread. And keep your hands off mine. I’ve earned all of it, all by myself.
… and forgive any very, very small and insignificant shortcomings that I may possibly have …
Shortcomings? Well, I suppose I have some. Not many. If I really believed that I come up short, then I wouldn’t be so judgmental of everyone else’s shortcomings. I’d be more accepting and forgiving. I wouldn’t second-guess their decisions or think that they’re simply not good enough.
… but make sure that everyone else is held totally accountable and pays the full price for their shortcomings.
Pretty self-explanatory. And pretty much how most of us feel, isn’t it?
And lead me not into temptation …
Don’t put me in situations that force me to second-guess my certainties. Don’t challenge me to see beyond my self-centeredness.
… but deliver me from everyone else and everything else that I think are evil.
Basically, anyone who is different from me or anything that challenges me.
For mine is the kingdom, the power and the glory now and — it better be — forever.
Amen.
So, what do you think? Doesn’t that conform more closely to what we really believe and how we actually live? Isn’t it more truthful?
Now, some might object to the thought of rewriting this prayer, reckoning that it amounts to blasphemy. But isn’t blasphemy praying one way and living another? Saying the words with no intention of living them?
(Joe Kay is a professional writer living in the Midwest USA).
Song: The Lord’s Prayer, by the ‘Singing Nun’, Sister Janet Mead
The version of the Lord’s prayer was a top hit in Australia and around the world in the early 70’s.
Offering prayer
Prayers of the people (Bruce)
Announcements
Closing Benediction
God so holy, full of grace, make the world a better place.
Give us the food we need for today. Forgive us our wrongs when we go astray.
Help us always to do good, and love others, like we should.
God we love you; we are yours. Swing wide open heaven’s doors.
Amen.
(Words by Ministry Matters)
(https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/4763/rhyming-lords-prayer-for-kids)
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