Talking to God

Like so many people who grew up during the sixties and seventies, I wanted to be a rock star. I wanted to play my music on stage surrounded by adoring fans. I wanted that thunderous applause. But like most folks, I had to let those dreams go. Life got in the way. I had soon had responsibilities. And I always felt a little sad about that, especially when some character in some movie would remind us to “follow our dreams” and to “never give up.” Easier said than done, I’d think.

Then, when I got my first good computer and the internet was new and wondrous, I went on line for the first time. One of the first places I searched out was the web page for my musical hero, Arlo Guthrie (Woody Guthrie’s son—but then, if you don’t know Arlo, you probably wouldn’t know Woody). I found a web page for him and for his record company, Rising Son Records. I noticed a link to his concert schedule. Cool, I thought. Let’s see if he’s performing in Los Angeles any time soon. And as I looked down the list of cities Arlo would be visiting, probably in a red VW microbus, it hit me. This guy was on the road about 300 days a year!

This had been my dream. I wanted to be just like Arlo. And he was on the road 300 freakin’days a year! Well, I didn’t want that. The thought of being away from my home and the people (and animals) I love for most of the year did not sound appealing in any way. This was definitely NOT what I wanted. I guess dreams aren’t always what they seem.

Last night, my wife, Becky, and I were watching a comedy program that aired on NBC for exactly four episodes several years ago. It was called “God, the Devil, and Bob”. It was a great series, but, as you might guess, it offended a few too many people. The story was about this loser named Bob, and his dysfunctional family. The all mighty and Satan have a bet. If God fails to save Bob, then the universe is over. God looked a lot like Jerry Garcia. It was a very funny show. What has this to do with dreams of rock stardom?

As it turns out, this has also been a dream of mine. When I was a kid, I would see movies about people being visited by God or by angels and I so wanted to have an experience like that. I remember watching that old movie about the miracle at Fatima and thinking, I’d like to see something miraculous like that. Or I’d be watching John Denver and George Burns in “Oh God” and imagine how great it would be to be able to talk face to face with the creator. Life seems so uncertain so much of the time. It would be nice to get a little face to face advice from the godhead. I mean, wouldn’t it be nice if God just spoke to us? But then, S/He did.

I mean, that’s what the holy books are all about. Yeah, they’re all filled with stories that seem impossible to believe. And yes, some of them are pure fiction. But that doesn’t make them any less true. When I was in school, they used to show me a model of the hydrogen atom, with one proton and one neutron in the center, and a single electron orbiting around them, kind of like a mini solar system. But any physicist will tell you that’s not what an atom is like at all. It’s just the easiest model for people without a background in advanced mathematics to understand. And that’s what the holy books are. They are models of the spiritual universe put in a way we can understand—sort of.

Most of the teachings of Jesus, the man called the Christ, are put forth in those books we call the gospels, the “good news”. Many of those teachings appear in both the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew in a sermon called “The Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew, and “The Sermon on the Plain” in Luke. If you are a fundamentalist evangelical believer, then you probably believe that those were two separate events. But then, if you are a fundamentalist evangelical believer, you’re probably not reading this, unless you stumbled upon it by accident and if you did, I warn you now, you’re not gonna like what you’re about to read.

Most scholars believe that both Matthew and Luke are relating the same event. A careful read of both shows that both authors say Jesus went up to a high place. Luke mentions that he is standing on a flat place. The major problem is that the area in which Jesus taught is not particularly mountainous. I would suggest that both authors used the sermon as a literary device in order to put down on paper the teachings of Jesus, and that the things he said were taken from many, many occasions and all put into one definitive “sermon”. Both authors probably borrowed heavily from the famous missing Q document. It doesn’t really matter. The following reading is not from either of those sermons; however, it is still God talking to us:

“And it happened, as he was praying in a certain place, just as he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say, ‘Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Our bread, the super-substantial, give to us each day. And release our sins, for we ourselves release everyone who is indebted to us. And bring us not into temptation.’

And he said to them, ‘A certain one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and might say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread for my friend has come near to me from a journey and I have nothing which I will set before him.’ And that one within answered (and) might say, ‘Do not give me trouble. Even now, the door has been shut and my children are with me in bed. I am not able to get up and give to you.’ I say to you, if he will not rise and give to him through being his friend, yet through his shamelessness, he will rise and give as much as he needs.

And I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone asking will receive, the one seeking will find, and to the one knocking, (it) will be opened. But what father among you, if a children will ask bread, will not give upon him a stone, or if a fish, will he, for a fish, give him a snake? Or, he will ask an egg, he will not give to him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know good gifts to give to your children, how much more the Father, the one out of heaven, will give the Holy Spirit to the ones asking him.’”( Gospel of Luke, Chapter Eleven—direct translation)

So, in a sense, God has spoken to us. This is how you live. It’s okay to be poor. Don’t worry about material things. Have faith. God will take care of you. You take care of one another. Share what you have. Help people out. Be willing to go that extra mile for people. Don’t spend so much of your life worrying. Look at the flowers. They don’t worry, do they? It’s good to make peace. Forgive one another. Don’t give up. Treat people the way you want to be treated. If you keep looking for the truth, you will find it. It’s all pretty simple stuff, but then, the really breathtaking things are. Can you imagine how beautiful the world would be if we all lived that way? What more do we need God to tell us? Jesus even taught us how to pray.

The prayer he teaches us here, the famous “Lord’s Prayer” existed from the earliest days of the church. Since it appears in both Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark, it almost certainly came from the missing “Q” document. The version in Matthew concludes with the doxology, “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.” Luke’s version does not. The earliest manuscripts of Matthew do not contain this doxology, so it is likely that it was added at a later time. However, the Didache, and early church document and manual, does include a version of the doxology in its version of the prayer.

Many scholars believe that this prayer is just a model for prayer. We aren’t really supposed to memorize it and repeat it. However, that early church manual, the Didache, advises all good followers of Christ to repeat that specific prayer six times per day. Early monks would repeat the prayer 108 times per day, and kept count on belts made of little beads—the origin of the modern rosary.

The prayer is not overly long, nor elaborate. And it is in direct contrast to the conventional view of God in the first century. At that time, God was a king. And you feared the king. You wanted to do what the king said, because otherwise you were in deep trouble. It was your job to protect and serve the king, and then the king would do nice things for you.

But Jesus refers to God not as a king, but as our “father”. You do what your father says because you love him and want his approval, not because you fear him. You take care of your king. But your father takes care of you. It is your job to protect the king, but it is your father’s role to protect you. These were radical words for the first century. The king doesn’t love you, but your father does.

The Lord’s Prayer has been called the perfect prayer. It covers all the bases. It is short and to the point. It remembers that God is holy. It calls for the coming of the kingdom of God, which, for Jesus, was just as internal as it was external. In other words, bring the kingdom of God into your heart. Embrace the godhead. It acknowledges our dependence on God for survival and our own imperfections. It reminds us to be forgiving of others. And, as has been noted by scholars, it is non-denominational. Any religion that acknowledges the existence of a higher being could pray this prayer. It contains no dogma. It is simply perfect and beautiful.

It came to me that my dream of being a performer really did come true. As a teacher, I perform every day in my classroom. I have my audience. My dream came true, and I don’t have to be on the road 300 days per year. I’m not away from my family. I’m not in a different city each night. I have all the benefits with none of the problems. My life is really better than I could have ever desired.

And really, my dream of talking with God came true, too. I mean, why would I want to see the all mighty face to face? Do I need to see God to have faith? No, I believe there is something there. I don’t understand it, but I know it’s there. Do I want some kind of guidance? If I live my life the way Jesus taught, I should be in good shape. That doesn’t mean things will be pleasant all the time, far from it. But I will be able to live with myself. All the guidance I need is in those holy books, all the holy books. God has spoken to us.

If I did see God face to face, it would probably freak me out. And when I consider the stories I’ve read, most people who have had some kind of heavenly contact don’t have the most pleasant of lives here on earth. Two of the three kids who had the vision at Fatima died. Saint Francis had a very difficult existence. People who have visions do not have an easy time of it. Besides, God talks to us all, all the time. S/He just doesn’t use words. I look at a sunset. I look at a new born colt. I look into a child’s eyes. I look at my wife when she smiles. I get the message. I see God all the time.