First-Person Singular?

First-Person Singular?

(Warning: I am probably going to get into trouble for this one.)

Several years ago, I went to a conference to discuss the issues going on in my church denomination. We were given name-tags and encouraged to put our name and our preferred

pronouns. I had never heard of that before, much less considered what my pronouns might be. But I reckoned if that would make people feel more comfortable, then it was an act of welcome and hospitality. I admit I struggle with some of it, especially using a plural pronoun for a singular person. “I ran into Mike the other day at the grocery store. They was (were?) buying groceries for the week.” But I should not be thrown off too much. After all, I’m from the south, where “y’all” is singular and “all y’all” is plural.

I was telling Cathy about it as we talked on the phone that evening. She asked what pronouns I had put on my name-tag. In my usual smart-ass way I said, “I. Me. Mine.” Cathy responded, “Yep. It’s all about Mikey!” She has said that many times before. “It’s all about Mikey. And the sooner everyone knows that, the better it will be for everyone.” Sometimes she jokes. Other times, I’m not sure.

For some reason I was thinking about pronouns as I prayed the Lord’s Prayer. It dawned on me that there are no first-person singular pronouns in the prayer. Not one. This prayer is important. Of all the things the followers of Jesus could have asked him to teach them- how to feed multitudes, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, walk on water, calm the storms, speak truth to power, etc.- the only thing they asked Jesus to teach them was how to pray. And for one of the few times in the gospels, Jesus gives a direct answer. (Most of the time he either asked a question or told a parable, making you think and work out things yourself.) He said, “When you pray, say ‘Our Father….’”

I learned that prayer when I was a child, and I have prayed it daily for most of my life. We pray it together in the churches I serve every Sunday. Some other churches, preachers, denominations do not use it literally. They say it is a “model for prayer” and not meant to be prayed literally by Jesus’ followers today. Oddly enough, most of those same people claim to follow the Scriptures literally. And Jesus did not say, “Pray like this. He said, “When you pray, say…” So we do.

I find that saying it together regularly, over time, makes me ponder the prayer and all its implications. I often compare it to the other prayers we hear, see, and use in worship or in our private times. What strikes me is that so many of our prayers are in the first-person singular. “Lord, thank you for your grace to me. Help me to find ways I can serve others. Bless my family, my friends, my country. Turn me away from the things that harm others. Guide me in your truth. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.” Not a bad prayer. But it centers on I, Me Mine. Jesus didn’t teach us that.

We have personalized our faith so much that many people either do not know or have forgotten that it is more corporate than individual. People often ask me “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?” Though I usually do not tell them this (I don’t want to spend the next several hours in a theological discussion that will probably not change anyone’s mind), I want to respond, “Actually, I have accepted him as savior of the world.” John, one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers, put it this way- “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2) Even the Hebrew Scriptures tell us that “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it,” (Psalm 24:1)

This is not easy for me. Following Jesus makes me include people I do not want to include. There are some in the Christian tribe who spread falsehoods about me and others in the hope of harming, even destroying, our part of the family. Yet, they are part of the Our in the Lord’s Prayer. There are some who exclude me from the ranks of the believers and followers, but they are part of the family that Christ includes. There are some who want to act in ways that hurt others who do not believe as we do, who want to destroy their humanity, if not their very lives. Some who have given themselves over to believing a lie as if it were the truth. And Jesus tells me that they are as much as part of his family as I am.

So, I guess pronouns do matter. And maybe I, Me, Mine are not the most important. It’s just that living in the Our is hard to do.