Lord's Prayer Revisited

I can resist everything except temptation.

Oscar Wilde

 It is prayed by all Christians, but it never mentions Christ.
It is prayed in all churches, but it never mentions church.
It is prayed on all Sundays, but it never mentions Sunday.
It is called the ALord=s Prayer,@ but it never mentions ALord.@
It is prayed by Christians who focus on the next life in heaven or hell,
but it never mentions the next life, heaven, or hell.
The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the LORD=S PRAYER.
John Dominic Crossan

A year ago I blogged about Pope Francis' comments about the Lord's Prayer or Our Father and the problematic phrase about temptation. Apparently the Italian Episcopal Conference has sent proposed changes to the Vatican, which they seem likely to approve, to change the line “lead us not into temptation” in the Lord’s Prayer to read “abandon us not when in temptation.”

Through the centuries scholars and pastors and laypersons have struggled with the notion of God as tempter, for obvious reasons. In the gospels Satan or the Devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness. But God? Isn't God is the One who gives us the strength to resist temptation not dangle it in front of us?

I knew I had written about this before so I went back to discover when. This is actually the sixth time I've addressed The Prayer That Jesus Taught as it's also called, and I did a sermon series on this prayer early in 2011 -- something I'd forgotten about!

I appreciate that Francis is open to exploring the intent of the original languages (Greek and Aramaic) rather than being slavish to one particular translation.

What do you think? Here is the text message Lord's Prayer from a few years back.

Dad@hvn. Ur spshl.

We want what you want & urth 2b like hvn.
Give us food &4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.
Don=t test us! Save us!
Bcos we kno ur boss,
ur tuf & ur cool 4eva! OK!