A question about the Lord's Prayer

As familiar as the Lord's Prayer passages are (Matt 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4) I was surprised by them last week.

I was thinking of Luke's version, where the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.

Teachings I have heard about prayer emphasize that it is a relationship with our heavenly Father, we shouldn't think there is a magic set of words or an approved vocabulary, but we should feel free to open our hearts to God.

But Jesus doesn't say this (at least not in so many words) when asked to teach them how to pray. He teaches them a prayer that can be learned by rote. Why?

It is true that if you think about the words, they lead into an awareness of relationship. But why did Jesus give a set of words rather than talk about relationship?

Is there a missing part of Romans 13?

No, I'm not starting a conspiracy theory about a secret manuscript of Romans that has been zealously guarded by generations of fanatical monks. It just seems to me that logically something is missing in Romans 13. The other times that Paul makes an exhortation to part of society, he balances it with exhortations to the corresponding part of society. Children, obey your parents; and parents, don't exasperate your children. Husbands, love your wives; and wives, obey your husbands. Slaves, obey your masters; and masters, don't forget you have the same master in heaven. So why does Romans 13 exhort people to obey the government, without an exhortation to the government to govern well?

I'm guessing Paul felt he had to leave that implicit, Christianity was already being suspected of subverting the Roman Empire. But he does give us a challenging picture of what government ought to do, right there in the exhortation for citizens to obey the government. Verse 4 says the ruler "is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." So the exhortation to the government would be "act against those who do wrong, not against those who do right." He might also have added that rulers ought to be humble. God placed them in authority to be instruments of His wrath. They should not think they are irreplaceable. God can remove them and put in other authorities if they don't do what is right.

On this day before election day, I'm thinking we citizens ought to understand both sides of Paul's exhortation. We are ordinary people, who ought to obey the government in our daily lives. But in our representative democracy, we are also the sovereigns, who get to choose who will be the authority for the next four years. May we choose wisely. May God show us the truth about the two candidate, and may we be wise enough that the truth matters to us.

All Saints Day

Chatting with a Facebook friend reminded me that today is All Saints Day on the traditional Christian calendar. This reminded me of a hymn I loved in my college years that haven't heard for a while, For All The Saints.

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For more lyrics and the music, see the Cyberhymnal page

A surprising discovery

I just spent the last 9 days in England. One morning I took a walk and saw something that compelled me to go back to the house and get the camera. A car in Stockport, England with an Obama sticker. (Click picture for larger view).
We never saw a car with a McCain sticker on our trip, and we never saw another car with an Obama sticker. So I suppose the significance of this electorally is that Obama enjoys a slight lead in the county of Cheshire (1 supporter vs 0 for McCain, out of a total population of ?)

Sarah Palin and Internet Security

The recent news about a hacker getting into Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo mailbox shows at least one lesson about Internet security. When you have a login account to a website, make sure that if it has a "security question" to recover your password, you make it a question that someone can't look up or guess the answer from knowing your basic biography. Gov. Palin's secret question apparently was "Where did you meet your husband?", and the answer was on her Wikipedia page.

It did take some guessing though, because the answer was not just "Wasilla", but "Wasilla High". The account I've read says the hacker was at the "I've forgotten my password" page for 45 minutes until he guessed the right answer. This also seems like a lapse on Yahoo's part, that someone could submit several wrong answers to the secret security question without their system locking the account or locking the password recovery option.

PS. The above should not be construed as a defense of what the hacker did. If someone steals my car, he is a car thief. I may conclude it would be more prudent to get better locks on my next car, but it doesn't mean I 'deserved' to have the car stolen because I didn't have good locks on it.

This commercial deserves an award

If the annual award show for commercials has a category for best unintended use of irony this one would be a clear winner.

Young boy aware of market risks

The little boy comes in to his mom and dad's room worrying about the family's financial future. "Dad, does your retirement plan provide predictability of income and protection against market risks?" I bet the AIG company wishes they'd signed up with a plan that provided those things.

But wait, the commercial is for AIG! We can see how well the coverage must work, AIG isn't worried at all about market risks right now, is it?

Today in history

August 27, 1775.

The Battle of Brooklyn.
A British victory was almost inevitable. George Washington was defending a city built on islands (Long Island, Manhattan Island, Staten Island) and his attacker had command of the waterways between the islands. The British had learned at Bunker Hill not to underestimate the American ability to withstand a frontal assault, and had won a maneuver victory by attacking the American flank after a night march. But perhaps the British had learned too much caution at Bunker Hill, or perhaps General William Howe was too sympathetic to the Americans, and thought wiping out Washington's army would make a settlement with the rebels impossible. For whatever the reason, the British had an opportunity this day to largely destroy the American army and they let them escape.

Winston Churchill once wrote about an admiral (Admiral Beatty in WWI) that he was the only person who could have lost the war in an afternoon. Was William Howe the general who could have won the American Revolution for King George in an afternoon, and let it go?