Matthew
6:9 Common English Bible
9 Pray
like this: Our Father who is in heaven, uphold the holiness of your name.
Our church uses a liturgical style worship in its 9:00
service, following loosely the Revised Common Lectionary. The actual liturgies
are written locally by people who gently try to correct some of the perceived
Adventist departures from common modern norms. For example, the Adventist
church has prayed the Lord’s Prayer publicly in unison for a long
time—certainly as long as I can remember. It has always used the words found in
the King Jame version of Matthew 6: 9-13
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. …”
At one point I learned that in twentieth century English the
word “which” is usually used for animals and inanimate objects and “who” is
used for persons, so I unilaterally switched to “who” when I pray the Lord’s
Prayer, but I never promoted it generally:
“Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. …”
But then as “thee” and “thou” fell into disuse, the NKJV has
it as
“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. …”
However, in our liturgical service, I don’t remember
adopting that version. In our service our pastors tried to switch everything
possible to gender neutral. Longstanding terms for God such as “Lord” and
“King” were dropped and replaced by the gender-neutral term “God”. In fact,
masculine pronouns like “He,” and “Him” were replaced by never using a pronoun
for God, even though the English sounds uncomfortable. There were a number of
persons who tried using “She” and “Her” on an equal basis with “He” and “Him.”
But that never caught on.
Several people expressed strong resistance to the use of
“Father.” Some went so far as to indicate that they had experienced a terrible
father who abused them continuously while they were growing up. They stated
categorically that they would not be a Christian if they had to use “Father”
when referring to God. All agreed that they couldn’t use “parent:” it just
didn’t cut it.
After a protracted church board meeting at which I was not
present, our liturgy appeared with the first part of the Lord’s Prayer:
“Our holy Guardian God, hallowed be Your name. …”
Using “Guardian” instead of “Father” really sounds awful to
me. I get mental images of the whole foster parenting situation where guardians
have abused their foster children. I also get images of a prison situation
where prisoners are guarded in a cruel and heartless manner. It totally erases
the loving care that many fathers have had for their children—some notable
exceptions are inevitable in a sinful world. However, Jesus chose to use
“Father” in His prayer and throughout His ministry. He was more aware of men
who have abused their fatherly position than we are; yet He used “Father”
consistently.
I mentioned my feelings about “Father,” to both our head
pastor and the current writer of the liturgies. I was politely ignored and
dismissed. When I am liturgist, I consistently replace “Guardian” with the word
“Gracious”. It’s not that my choice is superior to theirs: it isn’t. It just relieves
me from using the offending term without disrupting the service. No one has
mentioned noticing it so far.
Heavenly Father, thank You for ignoring our petty
feelings and foibles and exercising true fatherly love and grace in Your
dealings with us. May Your kingdom come soon.
