Alternative Lord's prayer

The Lord's Prayer
(from the New Zealand Prayer Book
Rev ed.: He Karakia Mihinare O Aotearoa)

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever. Amen

The Lord is my Shepard

Bobby McFerrin does a great version of the Lord's prayer that comes at it from a different angle.

The 23rd Psalm Lyrics - Bobby McFerrin

The Lord is my Shepard, I have all I need, 
She makes me lie down in green meadows, 
Beside the still waters, She will lead.

She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs, 
She leads me in a path of good things, 
And fills my heart with songs.

Even though I walk, through a dark & dreary land, 
There is nothing that can shake me, 
She has said She won't forsake me, 
I'm in her hand.

She sets a table before me, in the presence of my foes, 

She anoints my head with oil, 
And my cup overflows.

Surely, surely goodness & kindness will follow me, 
All the days of my life, 
And I will live in her house, 
Forever, forever & ever.

Glory be to our Mother, & Daughter, 
And to the Holy of Holies, 
As it was in the beginning, is now & ever shall be, 
World, without end. Amen

God is like the mum or dad who really cares... who is holy and makes you feel holy.

"...It is a kind of secular theology in the sense that the argument is not from the great biblical tradition, citing the epics or the law. Instead it stands in the tradition of sages who employ the everyday to do theology, also rooted in biblical tradition. We should not imagine that Jesus played the one off against the other. Clearly his theology is informed by the great tradition, but it is also grounded in perceptions about human life and human relationships. The tradition has a way of being hijacked by the articulate and educated, and then employed in ways which reflect their agenda. That agenda is usually about holding onto power and privilege and creates a theology of God in those terms: the most powerful and therefore the most privileged. That easily becomes the basis for hierarchical control.
Instead, Jesus democratises the basis for doing theology, locating it in the human relations which we all know and experience, and where we all have some basic insight and understanding, whether we can articulate it in abstract or not. Do we know what it is like to love and be loved? Then we are well on the way to a sound theology. What is more, it is a sound basis for critical theology where you can then see through ‘father’ and ‘king’ or ‘kingdom’ to the qualities they are meant to represent and which they often stifle. God is not a ‘father’ and a ‘king’. God is not a male. God is not a claimer of privilege. God is like the mum or dad who really cares (and confronts us with reality), who is holy and makes you feel holy. So prayer is an activity of intimacy and awe and thus a model for all relationships; it is the language of the kingdom. It brings the gift of the Spirit."
http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkPentecost10.htm

Come your kingdom

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial." Luke 11:2-4

Great Parent God,
Come, come; come your kingdom.
Come your kingdom.
Come your kingdom glowing light.
Come your kingdom piercing truth.
Come your kingdom outraged cries.
Come your kingdom tears of sorrow.
Come your kingdom gracious tender.
Come your kingdom strong determined.
Come your kingdom dancing hope.
Come your kingdom compassion burning.
Come your kingdom daily-bread justice.
Come your kingdom holding hands.
Come your kingdom good forgiveness.
Come your kingdom aching hearts.
Come your kingdom joy surprising.
Come your kingdom life no limits; ever new.
Come your kingdom dove descending.
Come your kingdom touching, welcome;
Come, come, come your kingdom.
Come your kingdom; come.


© Ken Rookes

A prayer that asks for change

"Unfortunately for us, we are stuck with the irony that this is a prayer where we are asking God for change.
          After beginning with acknowledging God as the source of all goodness we move on to, “Your Kingdom come.” May the day come when you, loving God, reign over everything and everybody and every place in justice and love and peace. Rather than a specific request, this is an expression of a general longing; a longing for the new and for change. When faced with all that is corrupt and brutalized about the world, we long for the tide of God's goodness to wash over the earth and renew it all. When faced with the atrocities of Bosnia, the hypocrisies of the response to East Timor, the tragedies of abused kids selling their bodies on the streets, the obscenities of injustice, hatred and the abuse of political power, we don't know where to start in our prayers so with deep sighs of longing we capture it all up in our plea for God to come and renew the face of the whole earth. Your kingdom come.
          If you like we are putting ourselves on God's side and at God's disposal. We are aligning ourselves with God's purposes in the world. We are adding ourselves to God's movement for change. And it is in the context of that renewed orientation that we bring the specific requests. These could be summed up as “God give us the sustenance to help us through the change” and “God help us to change and to forgive others.”
          That then is Jesus' basic lesson in prayer. Acknowledge the goodness of the God to whom you pray, then be prepared for God to use you as an agent for change and to be changed yourself."

http://www.laughingbird.net/SermonTexts/0213.html

poem - Lord's prayer

Poem found in a mailing from the Omaha Home for Boys:

You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "I."
You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "My."
Nor can you pray the Lord's Prayer and not pray for one another,
And when you ask for daily bread, you must include your brother.
For others are included ... in each and every plea,
From the beginning to the end of it, it does not once say "Me."