"The Lord's Prayer Revisited"

A Sermon |July 20, 2025
Heidelberg Beach. OH
Frank A. Mills

"The Sermon on the Mount"
The Lord's Prayer is part of the Sermon on the Mount
Credit: Unknown Artist

[NOTE: The Aramaic script and Aramaic transliterations were not part of the original sermon, but added for those who might want to see the original.]

Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4

Periodically, I read an online Jewish theology site. A few weeks ago, a woman asked the Rabbi if it was okay for a Jewish person to recite the Lord’s Prayer? She noted that the Lord’s Prayer is often used in settings where everyone may not be of the same religion. Her concern arose from her experience at the AA meeting she attended that ended all of its meetings with the Lord’s Prayer. It was taken for granted that no one be offended by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

We Christians often think of the Lord’s Prayer as a Jewish prayer, after all Jesus was Jewish. However, no Jewish person would think that. It is after all in the Christian Testament.

The Rabbi’s answer was that while the Lord’s Prayer is similar to the Hebrew Kaddish it is still a Christian prayer, and that no truly devout Jew considers Jesus to be the Messiah. His suggestion was to ask the group to substitute a more generic closing.

This got me thinking, has our reciting of the Lord’s Prayer become so rote that we just gloss over the words as we recite it? Do we like the AA group in our story think, how could anyone be offended by reciting the Lord’s prayer?

We often think that Jesus spoke in Hebrew. A reasonable enough mistake considering that the Hebrew Testament was mostly written in Hebrew. Jesus however spoke Aramaic and he would have delivered the prayer in Aramaic, not Hebrew. [In our unison reading we recited a fairly literal translation of the original Aramaic.

Both Matthew and Luke was written originally in Greek, thus the writers of both Gospels used a Greek translation of the Aramaic. It is plausible that the writer of Matthew spoke Aramaic, Luke however didn’t. And from the Greek, many translations later, we have the English version, the one we often repeat.

The question for, and it should be the question that all ask, what did we lose along the way?

Quite a lot it seems.

There’s a lot to be discovered in the Aramaic about God, heaven, and our connection to God. This morning, I want to highlight some of the more significant ones.

Aramaic scholar, Neil Douglas-Klotz, suggests that there are two parts to the prayer, and that these parts follow an Aramaic tradition. The first part is what he calls the source of our life energy (Abwoon Abwoon Abwoon Hayy / ܐܒܘܢ ܐܒܘܢ ܐܒܘܢ ܚܝܐ — Hayy is life energy in Aramaic.) The second part, our petition. The “Amen” serves as an affirmation.

v. 9 “Our Father”

We recite, “Our Father who are in heaven.” And in doing so we miss something vital to our understanding of God:

In Aramaic, the word (abwoon / ܐܒܘܢ) we have as “Father” combine both “abba” – father – and the word for “womb.” The word does not mean a father and a mother, but the melding of two distinct energies—the masculine and the feminine. And it is these two energies as one indistinct energy that creates life.

Celtic myth understood this, as does Eastern religion. Celtic myth claims that the masculine divine energy moved over the feminine divine energy, becoming one, and as one, gave birth to the cosmos.

In Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew and Old Canaanite this word coupled with the phrase, “you create all that moves in light” is a chant for peace—Sacred Unity. The creation becomes united in peace as is the divine masculine and feminine. We translate it, “Holy be your name, or as we usually say, “Hallowed by thy name.”

If we look at the reading, we see this theme of unity amplified in the literal translation, Create your reign of unity now--through our firey hearts and willing hands.

Compared to the Aramaic, it seems to me that, the English translation is lacking.

“in heaven”

For us Christians, when we speak of Heaven we immediately think of a place somewhere out there, or if we speak of a place as “Heavan on Earth,” (such as I do when I sit in my backyard among the flowers, flittering birds and butterflies). we are comparing it to that place out there somewhere known as “heaven.”

In Aramaic heaven (Shamaya / שָׁמַיָא) is not a separate place, but rather divine presence that permeates all of creation, both within and around us. “All,” by the way, means not only the animate, but also the inanimate. Such an understanding shifts our perspective from envisioning God in some distant realm to recognizing God’s immanence everywhere. Creation is no longer for humankind’s use – come what may – but rather as a sacrament of divine blessing. Should make us think about what we are doing to the environment. (Just look at this beautiful lake and think about how we pollute it.]

If you’ll pardon another reference to the ancient Celts, these ancients held to the belief that heaven permeates earth. That most of the time one could not distinguish between the two. Yet, there were those places where the otherworld revealed itself to us, “Places of Resurrection” they were called. Pilgrimages were taken is search of them. Those places perhaps are those places we call “Heaven on earth.”

Some biblical scholars think that the Epistle of Hebrews might have been originally written in Aramaic. Whether it was, or not, the writer certainly understood the Aramaic concept of Heaven, when he (or she) wrote, “We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.” They’re not out there somewhere, but right here in some mystical way.

v. 10. “Thy Kingdom Come. Thy will be done.”

“Thy Kingdom Come,” again puts the Kingdom out there somewhere. Such thinking has given rise to some sort of literal return of the Kingdom that is yet to come.

That of course, does not fit the Aramaic understanding. Create your reign of unity now through our fiery hearts and willing hands..

Fr. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Frair and founder of the Center for Contemplative Action, sees in the Aramaic understanding of Kingdom of God (Malkutha d'Elaha), the idea of Shekina, the divine presence of God’s Love and Wisdom. It is not a call for something in the future, but a call to embody God’s love, compassion and mercy, especially toward those in need, in our everyday ordinary living.

[“Thy will be done”]

I saw an ad for a conference for high school kids how to discern God’s call to the ministry – God’s will that you become a minister. “Thy will be done” nothing to do with this sort of thing, nor does it have anything to with some specific act such as the floods in Texas.

God’s will is Unity, which we bring about through our works of justice, mercy compassion — peace and unity.

Such living is what brings about the unity of peace between all creation and with the divine. The literal reign of Unity—Love and peace … The Kingdom of Heaven.

You’ll note that the Lord’s Prayer centers around a kingdom that is Unity & Love.

v. 11 “Give us today our daily bread”

In the Aramaic, “Grant us what we need each for our daily substance and insight.” “Substance” implies that we ask only for that which we need, nothing more. “Substance” is food and other material things, “insight is Divine wisdom, our spiritual food, but then again only what we need to get through the day. This is how we are called to live in the Kingdom of Heaven, day by day.

v. 12 “Forgive us our debts”

The original Aramaic adds “and sins” after “debts.” Emphasizing both our actions and shortcomings.

The Aramaic literally reads, Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others' guilt. Our mistakes – both actions and shortcomings – hinder our task of living love and peace, of restoring the unity of creation (which by the way is both individual and corporate).

That which we translate in English, “as we forgive our debtors,” is really not so much about forgiveness for what they’ve done to us as it is about letting it go. If we harbor ill-will toward one who wronged us, we are just as much bound as we are by our own sins.

v. 13. “Lead us not into temptation … Deliver us from Evil”

Literally, Don't let us enter forgetfulness, But free us from unripeness (bisha / בישא).

What we translate “evil” in English, in Aramaic translates as “unripemess.”

It is not talking about what we understand at all. Some have understood “unripeness" to be “inappropriate action.” I think this misses the meaning, just as does “evil.”

“Unripeness,” I think, implies that we are not doing enough, that we are not doing all that we could do to further the Unity that the prayer speaks of. It is about being complacent, satisfied with the status-quo because it doesn’t directly affect us.

Jesus tells his disciple and us that we need to pray that we don’t become complacent.

We are in danger of being forgetful and thus unripe.

“Unripeness” implies that we can move toward a greater “ripeness.” A ripeness that makes us more Christ-like. However, this doesn’t refer to some sort of progression of holiness or a mystical spiritual awaking (revival?), but rather a movement toward living more justly, demonstrating mercy and compassion. Even moving toward giving our own life, as did Jesus. Doing whatever it takes to restore harmony to our fragmented world.

“Give us our daily substance and insight (v. 11)” is asking for what we need to sustain our growing “ripeness.”

“Deliver us from whatever holds us back.”

In Aramaic the prayer ends with an affirmation, Ameyn (Amen). We generally expand that to mean, “So be it.” A fuller understanding is:

Truly —
may the power to these statements--
be the source from which all my actions grow.
Sealed in trust & faith. Amen.

An understanding that for our actions to grow we must actively seek to embody the Kingdom of God in our lives.

Many scholars connect the Lord’s Prayer to an ancient mystical tradition that sought to allow the words to dissolve into a wordless experience of God, and melding of the infinite and finite—a harmony of unity, of peace and love.

Along those lines, I want to end with this version by Fr. Rohr:

Father, Mother, Creator of the Universe
From whom the breath of life comes
who fills all realms with sound, light and vibration
Focus your light within us and make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Let your will come true – in the universe [all that vibrates],
just as on Earth [all that is material and dense]
so that your one desire then acts with ours.
Grant us wisdom, understanding, assistance and insight for all our daily needs
Detach the cords of faults and mistakes that binds us,
like we release the strands we hold of the guilt of others.
Do not let us get lost in superficial things of materialism and common temptations
But let us be freed from what keeps us from our true purpose.
From you is born all ruling will, all lively strength to act, the song
that beautifies itself from age to age.
Sealed in trust, faith and truth,
This is the solid base from which all my actions grow
I confirm this with my entire being
Amen

(1) Translation by Aramaic scholar, Neil Douglas-Klotz. His Aramaic language version (transliterated)

1. Abwoon d'bwashmaya
O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos/ you create all that moves in light.
(Countermelody chant for peace—Sacred Unity in Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew and Old Canaanite: Allaha Allah Elohim Elat)

2. Nethqadash shmakh
Focus your light within us--make it useful: as the rays of a beacon show the way.

3. Teytey malkuthak
Create your reign of unity now--through our firey hearts and willing hands.

4. Nehwey sebyanach aykanna d'bwashmaya aph b'arha.
Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms.

(Conclusion of first half: Abwoon Abwoon Abwoon Hayy)

5. Habwlan lachma d'sunqanan yaomana.
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight:
subsistence for the call of growing life.

6. Washboqlan khaubayn (wakhtahayn)
aykana daph khnan shbwoqan l'khayyabayn.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others' guilt.

7. Wela tahlan l'nesyuna
Don't let us enter forgetfulness

8. Ela patsan min bisha.
But free us from unripeness

9. Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l'ahlam almin.
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.

10. Ameyn.
Truly--power to these statements--
may they be the source from which all my actions grow.
Sealed in trust & faith. Amen

Ameyn.