When I grew up, the version of The Lord's Prayer I learned had "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." In our current church, the phrase is "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."
Typically, when I have gotten used to something (the "debts" version, in this instance) I tend to prefer it. Yet, when we moved to this church and started saying the "trespasses" version, I liked it better. "Trespasses" is closer to "sins" and that's what we're really talking about.
Where do the two versions come from? One might think that it's from the two gospels where Jesus teaches the prayer. And, in fact, Matthew records the "debts" version. But when the Lord teaches it again in Luke, but that version uses "sins". So why do we use "trespasses" at all? Well, if you want to know, there is an explanation at the LCMS website, but the net is that Jesus uses the word which used to be translated "trespasses" in his explanation of the "debts" version in Matthew. This was used by the author of a 16th century book called the "Book of Common Prayer," and became traditional. The LCMS is nothing if not traditional, so it stuck.
The thing that brought my mind to the topic again was the Gospel reading from two Sundays ago. It was Matthew 18:21-35, where Jesus tells the parable of the unmerciful servant. The servant in question owes his master more than he could ever repay, and the master is merciful, forgiving the debt. Yet the servant, having just experienced mercy, acts mercilessly to someone who owes him a much smaller sum.
The "debts" version of the Lord's Prayer fits very well with this parable, and the parable makes it clear: we cannot possibly repay God for the value of his mercy, and so we must show our own limited mercy, or we really haven't taken God's to heart.
So, while I still think the "trespasses"version is clearer on its own, and I'd prefer we move to a "sins" version, I have a better appreciation for the "debts" version.
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And, of course, the "debts" version works much better in a song. Much more lyrical.
Which is nice.
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The link above is to a YouTube video with the Michael W. Smith version of "The Lord's Prayer" playing.
1 comment:
We had that sermon last week, so I guess ELCA is only one week behind LCMS. Not bad!
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