A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 30

Chapter 30 – Our Father

 

Our Father in heaven… (Matthew 6:9)

 

I think the majority of Christians accept the concept that God has no physical body which means no physical gender. God is everything and everyone. God is transcendent and has no need for corporal form. Therefore, many people are taking the time to remove gendered language wherever possible because limiting God to male pronouns and descriptors limits God.

 

Everywhere, except for the Lord’s Prayer. While there are versions of the Lord’s Prayer that try to replace Father with other terms, it tends to be simply an addition of “our Mother” or combining it into “Our Parent”. Seems to be that the common feeling as we begin reciting this prayer is that we consider ourselves to be children of God. The terminology of Our Father then appears to be a term of endearment, then, for the one who created us, even as we work to make other areas of our worship and prayers to be more inclusive.

 

“Our Father”, then, becomes a term of endearment, a term of love for our creator. The love that can be found between father and child, between parent and child. But as a caution, not every child has felt such love. A child who has been abused by their father, neglected by their father, treated poorly in any way by their father, might hear the words “Our Father” and may cringe at them, rather than feel the love that is being offered in the opening words of the prayer.

 

We begin the Lord’s prayer in venerableness by saying “Our Father in heaven” but we should always be aware of the power that a single word can have over someone’s mind and soul.