SAUCIER -- Rightfully ours

The disciples, desperate for something more tangible than homespun allegories, asked Jesus to teach them to pray.

I wonder what their reaction was when he gave them the “Our Father.”

Were they relieved just to have a go-to text for prayer in groups?

Or did they notice the challenge of his words? You know, things like being judged on the scale of our own forgiveness, or allowing God’s will to trump our own.

When you think about it, the subversion begins with the very first words. Ironically, a modern parable may explain.

A man answered his doorbell and found a stranger standing there decked out with a scruffy beard, clothes that hadn’t seen the laundry in weeks, and a garbage bag hung over his shoulder.

At first surprised, the homeowner quickly regained his composure and asked, “Can I help you?”

“I hope so,” the man confessed. “I haven’t eaten today, and I was wondering if you might spare me some food.”

It didn’t take long for the man inside the door to check the needle on his moral compass.

“Just take a seat here on the porch while I go see what I can find,” he told his mendicant guest.

The homeowner went to his kitchen and rummaged through the refrigerator. There was some chicken he grilled a few days ago, a dish of rice that was still good, some baby carrots and an apple he found at the back of the drawer.

Returning to the porch, he gave his visitor the bag of food. The man responded with obvious gratitude and relief.

As he turned to leave, his host stopped him. “Before you go,” he said, ‘I’d like to pray with you.”

“Okay,” the man said hesitantly, “but I don’t know any prayers.”

“No problem,” his host replied, “Just repeat after me, ‘Our Father …’”

“Your Father,” the man said.

“No. Say ‘Our Father.’”

“Your Father.”

“You don’t understand, it’s ‘Our Father,’ my Father and yours.”

“But if he were truly Our Father,” the homeless man pointed out, “then we would be brothers.

“If I was truly your brother, you would invite me into your house. If we were brothers, you would have set the table and eaten with me, maybe even something besides leftovers. I am thankful for your kindness, but that alone doesn’t make us brothers.”

So, when we say, “Our Father,” who’s in our “Our” — and who’s not?

When we answer that question, we will have started to pray.