Karen Hollis | July 27, 2025 Pentecost 7
Luke 11:1-4
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” So he said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, may your name be revered as holy.
May your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Neil Douglas Klotz Translation:
One: O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos,
Focus your light within us – make it useful:
All: Create your reign of unity now – through our fiery hearts and
willing hands.
One: Let your heart’s fervent desire unite heaven and earth
through our harmony.
All: Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.
One: Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the
strands we hold of other’s guilt.
All: Deceived neither by the outer nor the inner – free us to walk
your path with joy.
One: From you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to
do, the song that beautifies all, from age to age it renews.
All: Truly – power to these statements – may they be the ground
from which all my actions grow: Amen.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
I love this practice we have of sharing worship together in July. Those who are able to attend, get to see and experience some more of the many ways our siblings in Christ live into his teachings. Our local practices are shaped by our traditions, by the values of those who came before us, by our physical spaces, the unfolding of our life together, and the big moments we respond to. Each congregation is unique and gifted and beautiful. When we visit churches, we can expect to learn something new about how to be in Christian community, we also know some things will be familiar.
I was interning at a Catholic church in seminary and my supervisor asked what our worship looks like in my denomination, a church like Comox United. I explained how we gather together, proclaim scripture and hear a reflection, we pray together, share monthly communion, and are sent out in the world to serve. When you look at the big picture of what we do, the structure and the flow is not so different from her Catholic church, even though the details are different. When visiting a different church, we know scripture will be read – but we might wonder from where and by whom? We know we will sing together – who will lead us? Piano, choir, praise band, musical director extraordinaire? We know we’ll pray the Lord’s Prayer – where in the service will that come? Will we be trespassers, debtors or sinners? Will we speak the prayer or sing it?
I have a confession – whenever I pray the Lord’s prayer with other people, I read it off the page or screen, whatever is provided. I worry sometimes that people will think: doesn’t she know the words? I do . . . I know so many different versions that they all get mixed up in my head. I grew up a debtor – anyone else? How about trespass – who prayed those words growing up? Any sinners? (I think that translation came later) The different versions I know are all structured a bit differently, so I always have fumble my way to a certain place, like I’m doing the upward climb of a roller coaster. And once I reach the peak, I know how the rest of the prayer will go and it’s smooth sailing the rest of the way. It’s much more prayerful when I can read it off the screen.
I love that we have this prayer . . . that Jesus gifted it to us because our ancestors in faith asked: “how, then shall we pray?” . . . because sometimes I don’t know how to pray. But I have within me a version of the Lord’s prayer that feels like home, and I always have that as a starting place if I need it – we all do. More than any other bit of scripture, this prayer has a presence in our worship life and within us, especially if we’ve been following the Way of Jesus for decades. No matter where we choose to worship, or whichever version feels like home, we all have this gift from Jesus to lead us into prayer.
One of my favourite versions of Jesus’ prayer is the one translated by Neil Douglas Klotz that we read responsively. When translating a text, Klotz begins with an Aramaic version of the Bible, called the Peshitta. Aramaic was the everyday language spoken in first century Galilee, Judea, and throughout the Mediterranean. So, it is in all likelihood the language Jesus, himself spoke. This is the first reason I love this version so much – when I read it, my imagination draws me close to him. I imagine Jesus speaking these words and teaching them to his first disciples. I often wonder what it was like to be in his presence, to listen to him teach, to pray with him . . . to pray words like this: “O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos, Focus your light within us – make it useful.” I invite you to close your eyes or soften your gaze for a moment and pray these words silently with me: “O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos, Focus your light within us – make it useful.” With a breath in and out, let’s bring our attention back to the gathering. Right from the beginning there is praise “O Birther!” There is relationship: “focus your light within us” . . . it’s a giving and receiving in relationship. And there is a desire that the gift of light might have an impact on our living . . . might help us grow and deepen in our humanity and with that, serve others.
But that’s not all. Translations of any kind are quite challenging, because any given language articulates a worldview that doesn’t have a direct corollary in another language. So it’s difficult to express those words and ideas in another language. According to Klotz, “[Aramaic,] like its sister languages Hebrew and Arabic . . . can express many layers of meaning. Words are organized and defined based on a poetic root-and-pattern system, so that each word may have several meanings, at first seemingly unrelated, but upon contemplation” one can see connections between them.1 He gives an example: for instance, the same word may be translated as name, light, sound, or experience.2 Because of this quality of Aramaic, he translates one line at a time and offers several translations for that line that collectively reflect what is available in those words. Does that make sense? So, he translates the same line in 8 different ways, and when you look at all of them together, you can see the meaning in the original language.
Here’s what he did with the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, beginning with the language Jesus spoke. (next slide) “Our Father in heaven”
O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos,
you create all that moves in light.
O Thou! The Breathing Life of all,
Creator of the Shimmering Sound that touches us.
Respiration of all worlds,
we hear you breathing - in and out - in silence.
Radiant One: You shine within us,
outside us - even darkness shines - when we remember
Name of names, our small identity
unravels in you, you give it back as a lesson.
Wordless Action, Silent Potency -
where ears and eyes awaken, there heaven comes.
Fifteen years ago, when I did my first deep dive into the Lord’s Prayer, and I received the insight that it is a gift to us, a starting place for prayer, and I thought, from here, any number of prayerful doorways open . . . I never imagined what Klotz found within these words of Jesus spoken so long ago. The God language is so expansive and the words take hold of my imagination. Where is the gift in this prayer for you this morning? Do you get excited by new dimensions in a prayer that already had a special place in your faith life? Or is it something else? You know what is also so beautiful and amazing is to pray the prayer of Jesus the way our hearts know it best, in unison, in community, the way we’ve done it thousands of times. When we don’t have to think about the words, when our mouths and breath just know what to do, there is a kind of opening to the holy in real time, there is a kind of communion that can happen. The prayer Jesus taught us contains all of the beauty and particularities that bring us meaning and connection to God. It’s all there in this prayer we share and lift up among us. Thanks be to God.