Biography
The Rev. Linda C. Loving is Associate Pastor at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago -- one of this city's great churches. Linda hadn't originally planned to be a minister, but began her career in hospital administration. After 10 years, she felt a call to the ministry and enrolled at the McCormick Theological seminary. Following her ordination, Linda served at the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, the church of our founder, Clifford Barnes. Linda is an accomplished actress. Recently she has been performing her one-woman show, "JULIAN," based on the life and writings of the 14th century mystic, Julian of Norwich. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Shivering at the Sound"
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name."  How often do you suppose you have said that phrase?  Three hundred times, three thousand times, thirty thousand times?  It is a phrase which across denominations and across the centuries has launched all Christians into the prayer taught to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.  "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name."

Having speculated how many times we have said the words, it seems appropriate to ask how many times we have actually prayed the words.  Do we see it to be a salutation rather than true prayer...the "Dear Sir" greeting before we get into any real content...sort of a corporate throat clearing, rather than a profound part of the prayer itself?

Metropolitan Anthony is a Russian Orthodox bishop.  He is known to many as Anthony Bloom and has written a beautiful book called Living Prayer.  My experience with Eastern Orthodox traditions is that in our Western culture we stand to learn a lot about prayer and spirituality from these brothers and sisters.  Metropolitan Anthony believes that the Lord's prayer is not only a prayer but a whole way of life expressed in the form of a prayer.  It is the image of the gradual ascent of the soul from bondage to freedom, and the Metropolitan analyzes the Lord's prayer working from the end of the prayer back to the beginning, working toward the ultimate truth (Our Father who art in heaven) that we are the sons and daughters of God.  That is our freedom, and regardless of anything else, that is where we stand.

He writes:  "Whatever we are, whatever our life is, however unworthy we are to be called the sons (and daughters) of God or to call God our Father, we have no escape.  That is where we stand."  "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name."  More, much more than a salutation.  This is a ritual and holy naming of who we are and who God is.  It is the naming of a mysterious, mystical and awesome relationship.  You and I by grace and baptism are one with Jesus Christ, and since Jesus called God "Abba, Father" we too, in union with Christ call God Father -- experience God as eternal parent, infinite caretaker and source of all life.  There is such a wealth of sermon material in this familiar phrase, "Our Father who art in heaven" and we acknowledge that God cannot be confined by a single name or image.  Rather than defining God, this opening phrase defines our relationship to God, as children of God.

The Presbyterian Church USA is in the process of approving a new statement of faith which helps to broaden our descriptions for God.  Listen to this excerpt: 

"Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage.  Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.  Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still." 

God cannot be confined by a single name or image.  If we are to truly hallow God's name, if we are to fully embrace our relationship with God, then we need to be as extravagant as possible in the naming. 

Brian Wren, a minister, theologian, hymn writer, worship consultant, has written an exciting book on this issue of God-talk entitled, What Language Shall I Borrow?  Wren reminds us: 

"Speaking to his first-century disciples, Jesus said, When you pray say 'Our Father.'  This is not at all the same as saying 'When all future Christians pray, they may only speak to God in terms of male authority figures.'  Seen in its historical context, what Jesus said is a statement with depth and motivating power.  Jesus calls God 'my father' showing his awareness and conviction of a special relationship with God.  Jesus taught his disciples to pray 'Our Father' not to make them idolize a word, but to help them focus a relationship.  He called God Father and taught his disciples to pray our Father in the context of his particular mission within first-century Palestinian Judaism.  His (Jesus) mission was centered on the announcement that God's active rule (kingdom) was at hand." 

Theologian Jergen Moltmann describes it further: 

"In this kingdom God is not the Lord he is the merciful father. In this kingdom there are no servants....

            there are only God's free children." 

God's free children. 

And we are back to Metropolitan Anthony's claim that the Lord's Prayer is about moving from bondage to freedom.  God's free children.  Our Father who art in heaven.  Our Father -- not my Father -- but our Father, implies community and reflects the responsibility we all have to all God's children.  God's kingdom -- God's active rule requires our participation, our conviction, our commitment, our sacrifice.  To say "Our Father" is to focus on the unique and amazing relationship we have with God but also to remind us of the responsibilities of that relationship.  For surely that is how we hallow God's name. 

Hallowing God's name means making it holy -- so that we should shiver at the very sound of it, at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer and every prayer and every time we use God's name, but hallowing God's name is much more.  To truly hallow God's name we must believe with all our hearts that we are God's free children -- free to strive for that kingdom where all God's children are free. 

To truly hallow God's name we must not only shiver at the sound of God's Almighty name, but shiver as well every time we see injustice, unkindness, mistreatment, despair, inequality, hunger or rejection. 

Our Father who art in heaven means we stand with one another; with all others who call God, parent.  Indeed, all others whom God calls children.  To hallow God's name, to make it holy, we must treat one another with reverence --  that is what will hallow God's name.  That is what will seal the searing truth of our relationship with God. 

God's name is hallowed when the "thy kingdom come" part of the prayer happens through us -- happens through you and me because we know we are God's free children and we know this is where we stand and there is no other place for us to stand. 

And so we shall remember as we pray that this opening phrase is so much more than a salutation.  It is a call to action, as well as the naming of a relationship.  Our Father who art in heaven...Abba.  Again the words of Brian Wren: 

"Abba is our nudging discomforted waking our lives to creative unease; our straight talking lover, speaking the truth that sets us free; and the Weaver of all our stories quilting our histories, patching our sins with grace.  Abba is the mother of creation, caring for her people, making humankind God's midwife, helping to bring new possibilities to birth on this planet.  Abba is the spirit seeking peace and justice.  Abba is vulnerable and self-giving, the lover of creation who joins us in our history, the life giving loser, wounded and weeping, whose love heals and redeems."

Abba...Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  I really believe it's possible for one short phrase to mean all those things, and in closing, I will tell you why. 

A young man, a friend, a member of my congregation had a serious brain tumor and had gone home to die.  I drove down to his parents' home on behalf of the congregation so that we could all share communion.  One of the side effects of the tumor was that Mike was unable to speak, so his parents and I carried the conversation and we chatted about the weather and the crops and the Cubs.  Then we enjoyed a wonderful, plentiful, small-town farm lunch banquet...and then we moved to the banquet of the Lord's Supper.  As we moved through the familiar words and rituals we were all aware that it would probably be Mike's last communion.  And since he had no words, we communicated a lot with gestures and tears, and smiles and nods.  And then at the close of the communion prayer, as we moved into the Lord's prayer here came Mike's voice....clear as a bell.

                        "Our Father who art in heaven," 

words called forth in the mystery and ritual and miracle of truth, 

                        "Our Father who art in heaven." 

It was all that he said and in it he had spoken everything.  The precious relationship we have with our Creator who carries us till the end of time.  The movement from bondage to freedom, the hallowing of God's name through the holiness of our lives, the standing together, side by side, to bring the kingdom. 

                        "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name." 

Interview with Linda Loving
Interviewed by David Hardin

(The interview began with a short clip from Linda Loving's one-woman show, "Julian," in which Julian of Norwich says: 

"The sorrowing, the sick, the unwanted, the lonely, both young and old, rich and poor, all come to my window.  No one listens, they tell me, and so I listen and tell them what they have just told me.  And, I sit in silence, listening, letting them grieve.  'Julian, you are wise,' they say, 'You have been gifted with understanding.'  All I did was listen.  For I believe full surely that God's spirit is in us all, giving light, wisdom, understanding, speaking words in us when we cannot speak, showing us gently what we would not see; what we are afraid to see; so that we may show pity, mercy, forgiveness to ourselves. 
 

"There is no creature that is made that may know how much and how tenderly and how sweetly our Maker loveth us, for He loveth and liketh us and so willeth He that we love and like Him and to mightily trust in Him." 

David Hardin:  That is an excerpt from Linda Loving's one-woman show, "Julian."  I had the pleasure of seeing the show last Christmas.  Tell me about Julian of Norwich.  Who was she?  What is an anchoress?  Give us a little background. 

Linda Loving:  She was certainly a woman ahead of her time.  This has made her especially interesting to me and is the reason I think she is enjoying a rebirth of study and popularity in the seminaries and with theologians, etc., especially among men and women interested in feminist theology.  She lived in the fourteenth century; she was a contemporary of Chaucer; and was the first-known English woman whose written work survives.  So, that is exciting. 

As you say, she was an anchoress, which is like a nun, a person who made the choice to give her life to God and to live in a cell attached to the church, in this case in the town of Norwich in England.  In the preceding scene, she is describing how people come to her window which was like a Dutch door.  She would open the top half and when the "doctor was in," so to speak, people came from all over.  We know she must have been very powerful because people traveled from all over to seek her wisdom and guidance.

Hardin:  She was really a version of a wise pastoral counselor, wasn't she? 

Loving:  That is one way of looking at it because, as she said, "All I did was listen."  She was a woman of great depth.  Because of a terrible illness -- almost dying -- and revelations that she experienced during that critical time, she devoted her life to God.  She spent the rest of the time trying to interpret those revelations and write them down -- the showings, as they are known -- and interpret them for other people.  Because of her own suffering, she was able to offer empathy and spiritual guidance to those who were suffering. 

Hardin:  What I saw was a woman who had given up the normal life entirely in order to serve God in the way she felt called to serve Him.  It is very touching and powerful.   

You have been an actress.  Tell me about that.  Did you ever consider becoming a full-time actress? 

Loving:  Yes, I did.  Maybe once an actress, always an actress!  I seriously considered it.  My undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan was in theater, but I have always felt a call to serve.  First, I found myself in a hospital setting for ten years and then going to seminary.  But, it had been a long-time dream to integrate acting with my ministry.  Then, I discovered this one-woman show which was actually written by a Jesuit priest named J. Janda.  I was able to work with that script to integrate acting and the ministry. 

Hardin:  It really touched you. 

Loving:  Very much so, and not only me.  The intriguing thing about Julian is that everybody who encounters her is touched.  I have really been amazed by people's reactions to the script and to Julian.  I thought it might have a rather select audience but it has been wide spread. 

Hardin:  It's nice to see a growth in interest in women of the church.  I think we would agree that has not been played very hard.  We hardly know about Julian.  You say now it is coming up. 

Loving:  Yes.  It's a treasure to recover what she has written and who she must have been in her time.   

Hardin:  Are there others? 

Loving:  Yes, and I keep looking for more one-woman shows. 

Hardin:  We sure hope you find one because "Julian" has been exciting.  It has been great to have you and I am looking forward to your next show.  We wouldn't miss it.