Holy Wisdom Church
Last June 6th, it said in the news Pope
Francis changed the Our Father. A shocked and appalled seminary president said,
“This is the Lord’s Prayer. It is not, and has never been, the Pope’s prayer,
and here we have the very words of Jesus…being changed.
What is different is the liturgical French
translation, which now follows the Spanish and Portuguese: the equivalent phrase
“lead us not into temptation” now says “do not let us fall into temptation”. The
French responded to what the new testament and its scholars have been saying all
along: God does not lead people into temptation; only our own inclinations and
the evil one do so.
The Lord’s words were not changed. Pope
Francis helped some people see the prayer’s meaning more clearly. It was the
internet that led many astray.
In the
gospel today according to Luke, chapter 17, Jesus gives four stark sayings: on temptation and bad things,
on forgiveness, on faith, and on serving God. These sayings are not simply
a list of moral duties. Some popular expressions, like, “A word
to the wise is sufficient!” and "There are none so
blind as those who will not see!" might better describe them.
They are at the heart of living together in community as the people of God
[Charles Hendrickson].
Trials and temptations will come. Be careful
and alert you don’t cause them. Confront those who offend or do harm. Forgive those
who are sorry again and again. Serve God without expectations.
Jesus often calls new believers "Little
children" (Lk. 10:21), "children" (Mk. 10:24), or “little ones”
(Matt. 18:6). They sometimes lack social influence, power, status, or maturity.
To deliberately discourage them, he warned, or cause them to despair or sin, is
more than despicable.
Jesus had already noted the Pharisees who refused
to enter the kingdom of God but also kept others out (Lk. 11:52). They’re misleading
those who need spiritual leadership…away from God.
Christians from
the beginning have also too often not been open to God's mercy and forgiveness. Invoking
rigid legal and religious rules, when someone needed to repent, find relief, live
the faith according to their own conscience, or could not follow because of dire
circumstances.
God has ways of forgiving we may
not know. God
cannot make a rock so heavy God cannot move it; there cannot be a sin beyond
God’s power of forgiveness.
When Jesus said, “You must forgive seven times
a day,” those disciples who first heard it suddenly realized their huge need
for faith in order to be able to be good mentors and to forgive!”
When Jesus said, "If you have even a tiny
bit of faith, you can move a mountain or gigantic tree," he didn't mean
use force to send the tree into the sea. Faith is not for the blind denial of
difficulties. It's much deeper than that. Faith is about forgiveness and
trusting God’s word. The people who wronged us: It’s easier to use their sins
against them than mercifully offer forgiveness.
To forgive someone may seem impossible, but
genuine faith can remove that mountain. Theologian Paul Tillich once defined
faith as courage. If you have the courage to listen and act when the spirit
says, “Forgive,” you can speak to all kinds of brokenness and dysfunction and make
them whole.
With the faith to forgive, comes the hope to
love, and love knows no impossibilities. We also need faith for the possible, seeing
goodness around us, doing the right thing, being kinder than needed. The Little
Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry shows this brilliantly. It’s a book everyone
should read.
So in fact we are the little ones, inhabitants
of the kingdom of God, unworthy servants of God, bearing with one another, yet
God’s holy people, friends and lovers of Jesus, brothers and sisters of the
Lord. We are called to be true to self, to God and to one another, without
expectation of honors and reward.
Christ is in our midst.
