A Three Letter Word that Could Change the World

Something over fifteen years ago I started going through The Lord’s Prayer word for word in my mind during the few moments before I get out of bed. I am not organized enough to claim that it became a habit because I don’t always remember but I have continued the effort all these years and still find new meanings and appreciation for the words. I really want to share what these words mean to me.

Jesus sat on the side of a hill facing what would, in that day, be considered a large group of people. Someone may have asked Him a question or He may have just thought they needed to know how and why to pray, so He gave them what we call The Lord’s Prayer. We have quoted these words almost by rote until they may have become just words spoken without much thought or meaning. Maybe they are important enough for us to look at each word together.

I did my thinking through the prayer for several years before I even noticed the very first word and found it amazing.

The crowd was large and, since Jerusalem was an important city of commerce and diversity, almost every faith and culture were in the crowd. My mind’s eye sees Him opening his arms wide and saying OUR. An inclusive word that covered them all. He did not start with “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which would please the Jews and exclude everyone else. Nor did He begin with “The God of the Holy Roman Empire” He began with OUR FATHER.

OUR, a little three letter word that includes the whole world. A three letter word that says that God belongs to all of us. A three letter word that says we are all brothers under this God. A three letter word that could change our world.

It is inconceivable to me that the God who loves the whole world would confine His fellowship and salvation to our very small percentage of the earth’s population; that He has no concern nor relationship with millions or, over history, billions, of people most of whom never had the chance to hear what we have been blessed with all of our lives, that those who have a different concept of God and worship are all going to Hell?

That creates a tremendous theological problem for me. On the one hand I have always believed in salvation through Jesus Christ. But, on the other hand, God loves the whole world. Do we have some corner on God? Are we going to heaven mainly because we were born where Christianity was part of our world?

I do not have any answers for that question. I found a concept that gives me at least a glimmer of a way to relate to the issue. It may not fit anyone else and that is fine but it helps me.

I fell in love with the Quaker Concept several years ago. I consider myself a Quaker though I have never attended a single Quaker meeting. At a meeting where I was speaking a woman introduced herself to me and said she was pastor of a Quaker church. I was stunned. I did not know they had pastors, much less female ones. She explained that some churches were called “silent” with no pastors while others chose to have one. Then she told me she was actually a Presbyterian but they would not use her so she pastored a Quaker Church. I asked why her group would not use her and she said because she was lesbian. I asked if her congregation knew that fact. She said they did know, that she did not flout it or live with anyone but they knew. Then I asked if they agreed with her being lesbian and she said they did not and I almost had to sit down, but she said, “You don’t understand the idea of the inner light.” I begged for an explanation and she said. “We believe that everyone has an inner light and God speaks to each individual’s light. If a person feels like God has spoken to them and I do not agree, I have the right to tell them I disagree but then I must accept and love them.”

Since that day I have been amazed at how many times I have talked to people of different faiths, different cultures, some with no faith at all but when I speak about the inner light almost inevitably they respond with how they talk to God inside of themselves. To me that means that God is not just talking to white American Christians. I don’t know if that is the answer or if that is adequate but I have decided that how He deals with others is His business. We have no way to know what is happening in human hearts all over the world.

I do believe if He were here today speaking at some event the crowds would be huge. Modern media both social and public and our propensity to go gaga over celebrities would fill the largest stadiums. The crowd would be made up of white Christians, fundamentalist and liberals, Jews, Muslims, Buddhist, Hindu, persons of every color and genealogy, gay, straight and those who judge both sides. A totally eclectic gathering of humanity.

My vision of that event is much the same as the Biblical one. He would not start His prayer with “God who lead our forefathers to found this “Christian nation.” I think He would stand with outstretched hands encompassing all of humanity and say “Our”.

How He relates to the folks of other faiths and cultures is His business, but I know that our relation to them is supposed to start with OUR.