To Pray as Jesus Taught Sermon Feb 28, 2010
February 28, 2010
Scripture: Matthew 6:7-15
And Jesus said, “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Sermon: To Pray as Jesus Taught
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Several years ago, very early on in my seminary education, I attended a week-long class on Prayers of the Cosmos with the author of the book. It was a multi-modal experience. In addition to study, we chanted, we danced and we prayed. I can’t begin to tell you what a profound experience this class had on me, the way it touched my soul and opened me up. Now I couldn’t possibly provide you with such an experience in the 15-20 minutes allotted for my sermon, but even just the study part was fascinating. And so I would like to share that with you. The foreword of the book begins with these words: Reader beware: though this book is brief, it contains the seeds of a revolution. Those who understand what is at stake in a paradigm shift will immediately grasp the power in this little book. A paradigm shift requires a new pair of glasses by which to look anew at our inherited treasures. Just as all translations of our mystics are affected by the worldview of the translator, so the same is true of the translations of our Scriptures.” What the author does is to try to recover the native Middle Eastern language that was the first language of Jesus: Aramaic.
The New Testament was originally written in Greek based on the stories that had been passed on about Jesus and the church. The Greek language had been introduced hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth, but it was never the common language of the people of Israel. Jesus would have taught and expressed himself in Aramaic. If anyone here is multi-lingual, you probably know better than I do the difficulty of translating from one language to another the fullness and richness of your thoughts. There are things in a culture that go beyond substituting word A for word B. There is a way of conceptualizing and expressing that varies. The Greek culture tended to draw sharp line between things. There is a start and a finish, a means and an end, an inner quality and an outer action, a body and a soul and a mind. This was not the case in Aramaic. There is much more fluidity. The start is the finish and the finish is the start. The soul is your body and mind.
This multi-layered sensibility of language leads to some very rich understanding of the words that Jesus likely spoke. This book looks at the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, from the Aramaic perspective. In this faceted, fluid exploration looks at the words of the prayer from at least 3 viewpoints – the intellectual/literal, the poetic or metaphorical, and the mystical or universal. The author asserts that as a Middle Easter mystic and prophet, Jesus would have held this sensibility. Let me share what I learned. I will say a line of the prayer as we say it, then sound out the Aramaic words that are represented, and talk about the roots of the words and how they might have been understood by the disciples. And I will offer a different English translation suggested by the author that may capture something Jesus had in mind.
Our Father who art in heaven- Abwoon d’bwashmaya
The roots of the word abwoon refers to all fruit, all that proceeds from the source Unity. It is the blessing that comes from parenting. The sounds are broken down as such: The “A” sound represents the Oneness or the source. Think “A’llah,” the Muslim name for God. The sound “bw” means a birthing, a creastion, a flow of blessing. The sound can shift to emphasis on the b or the w, and the meaning would shift between personal or spiritual. Jesus likely meant his followers to hear echos of both. The translation “Abba” captures the sense of a personal parent figure, beloved Daddy. But in Aramaic these roots are not gendered, but move beyond concepts of male and female. The “oo” sound is the breath or spirit that carries the flow, the birthing, and the “n” sound is the vibration of the creative breath from Oneness as it touches and becomes part of form.
D’bwashmaya, or heaven, has as it’s root shem, which may mean light, sound, vibration, name or word. It is that which rises and shines in space. The Aramaic concept of heaven was not a separate place one goes to after death. Shmaya says that the universe we live in is the vibration or word by which we recognize the Oneness that is God. Heaven is here, in the Unity.
Abwoon d’bwashmaya – O Birther! Father-Mother of all the Cosmos, you create all that moves in light!
Hallowed be thy name – Nethqudash shmakh
This line calls for a clearing of space for the shem, the vibration, to live. We hallow the name by setting it apart. It points to the creation of an inner shrine, something set apart within our being where the Oneness can live.
Nethqudash shmakh – Focus your light within us, make it useful.
Thy kingdom come – Teytey mulkuthakh
Teytey is a call to God to come, or come, come. This desire of ours for God is combined with mulkuthakh which refers to a quality of rulership, an arm poised to create. It brings the “I can” from within us, a willingness to step in a new direction.
Teytey mulkuthakh – create your reign of unity now, through our fiery hearts and willing hands.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven – Nehwey tzevyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arha
Tzevyanach, the “will” that is to be done is less understood as willfulness or will power than a sense of desire, a harmonious cooperation that includes discipline. Aykanna, translated as “as it is,” carries in it a determination toward consistency and stability. We pray that God’s heart-desire can be done consistently through the form of our lives as it is done in the forms of sound and light. The shmaya is repeated, with the sense of light that shines through everything. And the last word of the phrase, “arha,” translated as “earth” evokes the connection between humans and the ground beneath them, the ground that supports us, and we remember to treat it as another living being rather than an object to be exploited. God’s heart-desire is for universal compassion.
Nehwey sbevyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arha –As we find your love in ours, let heaven and nature form a new creation.
Give us this day our daily bread – Hawvlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana
We all understand that bread represents sustenance beyond food. It represents food for all forms of growth. The word translated as daily may be understood as just enough for this moment to carry us to the next. It helps us treasure the source of our sustenance, neither hoarding nor demanding more than we need.
Hawvlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana – Grant what we need each day in bread and insight: subsistence for the call of growing life.
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us – Wasboqlan khauban (wakhtahayn) aykanna daph khnan shbwoqan l’khayyabayn
The roots of the Aramaic word for forgive, shbwoqun, can also be understood as a return to original state, embrace with emptiness, or to re-establish slender ties to something. Our original state is clear and unburdened, in which our slender ties to creation are based on mutual releasing. The word translated as trespasses or debts, khauban, can also mean hidden past, secret debt, hidden stolen property – any kind of inner fruit that harms the soul. There is another word used in the second part of the phrase, where we agree to forgive others. We forgive them their khayyabayn, which can mean failures and mistakes, but can also mean frustrated hopes or tangled threads, things that imply that mending or restoration is needed.
Wasboqlan khauban (wakhtahayn) aykanna daph khnan shbwoqan l’khayyabayn – Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ guilt.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil – Wela tahlan l’nesyuna, Ela patzan min bisha
In our translation, it seems that we are worried that God would lead us into temptation. Anathema! The Aramaic understanding is that no one outside of ourselves leads us into temptation. Rather than “lead us not” we hear “don’t let us enter,” or “don’t let us be seduced by the appearance of.” Temptation is seen as forgetfulness, losing oneself in appearances, a failure to look deeply. The word for evil can also convey unripeness or inappropriate action, doing something at the wrong time.
Wela tahlan l’nesyuna, Ela patzan min bisha – Don’t let us enter forgetfulness, the temptation of false appearances, but break the hold of unripeness, the inner stagnation that prevents good fruit.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, now and forever. – Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l’ahlam almin.
Beautiful words in any translation, I’m sure. The Aramaic word for kingdom also presents a planting image, an abundantly fertile field, one sufficient to produce everything. Power refers to life force more than power over, it is power in unison with natural creation. The word for glory, tesbukhta, calls forth an image of song, a glorious harmony.
Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l’ahlam almin. – From you is born all ruling will, the power to do, the song that beautifies all – from age to age in renews.
With fresh ears and open hearts, hear now the words that Jesus taught us:
O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos, Focus your light within us – make it useful. Create your reign of unity now. As we find your love in ours, let heaven and nature form a new creation. Grant what we need each day in bread and insight. Loose the cords of mistakes binding us as we release the strands we hold of others’ guilt. Don’t let surface things delude us, but free us from what holds us back. From you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to do, the song that beautifies all, from age to age in renews. Truly – power to these statements- may they be the ground from which all my actions grow. Amen.
