S6E1 | The Prayer We Thought We Knew, Ep. 1: “Our Father”—Not My Father
Converging Paths Podcast
213 views
Two billion people know this prayer by heart. Almost nobody stops to ask what Jesus hoped would happen inside us when we say, “Our Father.”
In the first episode of The Prayer We Thought We Knew, Rev. Eric Elnes explores the Lord’s Prayer one line at a time—in the company of Rabbi Brian Mayer, who says the word “Father” bums him out, and Zen Buddhist teacher Esther Freinkel-Tishman, who finds the whole phrase alien and then describes her devotion to prajna—the dark Mother, the perfection of wisdom.
This episode:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
Together they ask:
• Can we call God “Father” without reinforcing patriarchy?
• What changes when we pray our Father rather than my Father?
• How can God be both intimately near and utterly beyond us?
• What does it mean to hallow a name for the One who cannot finally be named?
Along the way: a cross made from a salmon box, the silence at the bottom of a swimming pool, pages of rabbinic commentary on a single letter, whether God can say two things at once, and why ba-shamayim might mean something closer to “between the waters” than “far away in the sky.”
They don’t arrive at agreement. They're people who pray differently, working on one line until it opens. The Lord’s Prayer may be the best-known prayer in the world. It may also be the prayer we have barely begun to understand.
CHAPTERS
00:00 “What’s Jesus actually asking us to pray for?”
04:05 Your earliest memory of the sacred
09:27 Brian throws a flag on the play
11:02 Why “Our Father” feels alien to a Zen teacher
12:55 Losing the word “Father”—and finding it again
15:37 Prajna, the dark Mother, and devotion without a deity
17:23 Bereshit: pages of commentary on a single letter
18:51 Could God say two things at once?
22:54 Ba-shamayim: the God between the waters
25:50 Why you can’t just smoosh the traditions together
29:25 So where does “hallowed” fit in?
33:32 Where do you find intimacy with the transcendent?
36:39 Next time: “On earth as it is in heaven”
GUESTS
Rabbi Brian Mayer
Esther Freinkel-Tishman, Zen Buddhist teacher
HOST
Rev. Eric Elnes, Ph.D.
Lead Pastor, First Congregational Church of Eugene
Converging Paths is produced by the Eden Tree Foundation, a 501(c)(3) using present and emerging technology to foster spiritual growth and interfaith understanding. This series remains free because listeners support it.
[DONATE LINK]
If this conversation opens something in you, subscribe and share it with someone who may be ready to hear this prayer again for the first time.
1 Comments
S6E1 | The Prayer We Thought We Knew, Ep. 1: “Our Father”—Not My Father
Converging Paths Podcast
213 views
Two billion people know this prayer by heart. Almost nobody stops to ask what Jesus hoped would happen inside us when we say, “Our Father.”
In the first episode of The Prayer We Thought We Knew, Rev. Eric Elnes explores the Lord’s Prayer one line at a time—in the company of Rabbi Brian Mayer, who says the word “Father” bums him out, and Zen Buddhist teacher Esther Freinkel-Tishman, who finds the whole phrase alien and then describes her devotion to prajna—the dark Mother, the perfection of wisdom.
This episode:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
Together they ask:
• Can we call God “Father” without reinforcing patriarchy?
• What changes when we pray our Father rather than my Father?
• How can God be both intimately near and utterly beyond us?
• What does it mean to hallow a name for the One who cannot finally be named?
Along the way: a cross made from a salmon box, the silence at the bottom of a swimming pool, pages of rabbinic commentary on a single letter, whether God can say two things at once, and why ba-shamayim might mean something closer to “between the waters” than “far away in the sky.”
They don’t arrive at agreement. They're people who pray differently, working on one line until it opens. The Lord’s Prayer may be the best-known prayer in the world. It may also be the prayer we have barely begun to understand.
CHAPTERS
00:00 “What’s Jesus actually asking us to pray for?”
04:05 Your earliest memory of the sacred
09:27 Brian throws a flag on the play
11:02 Why “Our Father” feels alien to a Zen teacher
12:55 Losing the word “Father”—and finding it again
15:37 Prajna, the dark Mother, and devotion without a deity
17:23 Bereshit: pages of commentary on a single letter
18:51 Could God say two things at once?
22:54 Ba-shamayim: the God between the waters
25:50 Why you can’t just smoosh the traditions together
29:25 So where does “hallowed” fit in?
33:32 Where do you find intimacy with the transcendent?
36:39 Next time: “On earth as it is in heaven”
GUESTS
Rabbi Brian Mayer
Esther Freinkel-Tishman, Zen Buddhist teacher
HOST
Rev. Eric Elnes, Ph.D.
Lead Pastor, First Congregational Church of Eugene
Converging Paths is produced by the Eden Tree Foundation, a 501(c)(3) using present and emerging technology to foster spiritual growth and interfaith understanding. This series remains free because listeners support it.
[DONATE LINK]
If this conversation opens something in you, subscribe and share it with someone who may be ready to hear this prayer again for the first time.