Sunday, March 20
“For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory forever.”
Once again as I look at the lines from the prayer Jesus taught, I think of my grandma. She believed these were the actual words that Jesus said, and taught me so. Imagine my surprise when I went to seminary, and discovered otherwise in Church History class:
“In 1604 King James of England convened the Hampton Court Conference, and commissioned what was to become the Authorized King James book of the bible, published in 1611. This version forms the basis for the traditional Lord’s prayer, found in Matthew’s Gospel. It should be noted that this version includes the doxology, ‘For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen’, words which are omitted in the Catholic version of the prayer”… and apparently that was not in the prayers Jesus shared with his followers!*
These insights gave me a lot of permission to imagine this old prayer in new ways. One of them is to imagine God’s power differently than Grandma did. She talked about God who could do anything, was all-powerful and changed things because he knew best. I wondered why people died horribly when God could stop it, caused people to suffer hunger and seemed to do things for some people and not for others! Grandma didn’t really have a good answer, and I’m sure she wondered what I was learning in Sunday school.
Today I imagine the power of God as the love we share together, and the actions we do for justice. God’s power is present when we stand up for a society in which LGBTQQI people are fully valued and create an Open and Affirming church. God’s power comes alive when we welcome migrants from around the world, and find ways to help people everywhere have enough to eat, safe homes and healthcare. God’s power is realized through us, made present by us, and is incarnate in each of us. We are God’s strong back and calloused hands, work weary legs and tough, tender arms daring to create a world of peace and justice. That’s God’s power for me.
Fill us with love and hope and joy as we seek to be your presence of love and justice in the world. Amen
–Fran Bogle
*Read more: http://www.lords-prayer-words.com/lords_prayer_print_poster.html#ixzz42PsogeqM