Forgive Us Our Debts AS
As I have explained before, I have tried to make it a habit to think though the Lord’s Prayer word for word before I get out of bed some mornings. I wish I could say every morning, but I have never been that organized. As result I have worked through the prayer hundreds of mornings and found that far too often the words have become so familiar that I not only miss the meaning I often overlook the words themselves.
One morning I was working through the words and was to the part that says, “Forgive us our debts,” and I suddenly sat up in bed and said, “Wait a moment, there is an AS there.” Forgive us AS we forgive others. I had skipped over that a thousand times and wished I could skip it again. Forgive me as I forgive others? What does that mean?
And then it even got worse. I remembered that one of the gospels says forgive debts and the other one said forgive trespassers or those who step on my territory. Perhaps that means this covers more than just debts. Could it mean that I am saying God don’t love me unless I love others or just love me to the same degree that I love others? It really can’t mean that.
God loves us unconditionally. His love is never based on our performance or our behavior. He did not come into the world to get us to behave ourselves. He came to build a relationship based on His unconditional love for each of us and nothing can diminish or limit that love.
Perhaps this prayer is not aimed at God’s love but at my arrogance. How dare I pray for God to love me when I do not love His children and the world He died for? How dare I pray for God to accept me warts and all if I reject others because they have different skin color or come from different cultures, life styles or beliefs?
What kind of arrogance allows me to pray for His love before I have fought through the seemingly inborn prejudice we all must stomp out of our lives?
How dare I pray for God’s blessings when I refuse to feed the poor with some excuse about their being dependent or lazy? How can I dare ask for His care when children go to bed hungry in the wealthiest nation on earth? How can I ask for His protection for me and my family while children have been torn from their parents and held in cages and I remain silent?
Jesus had a word about our coming to the altar while we had grudges, hate, or rejection about a brother. He told us to go take care of that and then come back to the altar to pray.
Maybe this is a sort of a do unto others as you would have God do unto you kind of deal.
The “AS” does not mean I have to earn God’s love, but it does mean I do not have the right to arrogantly expect or accept it as some kind of automatic birth right while my own love shrivels and dies in self-absorption.
Wait a minute there is an AS in there.