We
Are Family
Matthew
6:9-15
The denomination in which I grew up is one that sends its
ministers to the positions the leaders want them to fill. This includes assistant pastors as well as
senior pastors. My father, known for his
ability to work with young ministers, was often sent an assistant right out of
seminary. This young man or woman would
be fresh from the classroom, eager to begin a ministerial career, and usually
without much of an idea as to what that career would entail.
One year the young man assigned to us was Robert
Watson. I think I was a sophomore in
high school when he was appointed to assist my father. One of our family stories was that he met us
for the first time at a New York Giants (yes, that’s right) baseball game. That was where we happened to be going when
he was to arrive in town.
Bob went on to a distinguished career as a leader in the
denomination. Although I was several
years his junior, he was always Bob Watson to me, and remained a dear friend. Bob once wrote, “We can’t say ‘Our Father’
without acknowledging that we are brothers and sisters.”
The Lord’s Prayer is a significant part of most Christian
worship services. Not every congregation
recites it every Sunday, but a huge majority makes this prayer a regular part
of worship. One of the problems with
this kind of familiarity is that it is easy to fall into rote repetition, and
forget to think about what we’re saying.
For a few years I sat next to a good friend in church choir who recited
the prayer with fervent intensity. It
was an inspiration to hear his devotion to God and his commitment to the words
of the prayer each Sunday. It gave me a
new appreciation of the Lord’s Prayer. I
had fallen into the rote repetition habit.
My friend rescued me from that failing, for which I am grateful.
I remember attending an interfaith, interracial worship
service in the 1960’s. Many of you will
remember it was a period of turmoil and disagreement. Racial tensions were high, and several
Christian organizations in the city where I lived tried to bring Christians of
different faiths and different races together to find ways of moving forward to
understanding and love. One of the
leaders of that service, just before we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, reminded us
that when we said the words, “Our Father,” in such a setting there was much
deeper meaning than when we said it in our all-white/all-black congregations on
Sunday mornings.
I think this is something of what Bob Watson was getting
at. Whenever we say “Our Father” we are affirming
that all those around us are members of one family—our brothers and
sisters. Even if we don’t get along well
with the person sitting next to us, or across the aisle, or two rows in front
or in back of us, that person is family, united with us through our parental
relationship with God.
What would it be like if we prayed “Our Father” with our
Jewish brothers and sisters? There’s
nothing in the Lord’s Prayer (that I can think of) that would prohibit them
from reciting it. What if we figured out
a version of the Lord’s Prayer that would allow Muslims, and Hindus and
Buddhists to join us? Wouldn’t that be
admitting that we are all brothers
and sisters because we are all God’s children?
I realize that my vision is nearly impossible to achieve,
but there must be something we can say that will bring us together, that will
help us realize that we are related, that we have more in common than what
separates us, and that we have an obligation to get along, to work together, to
live together in peace—shalom—because
our Father expects it.
Wouldn’t
that be something!
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