Our Grandfather Who Art In Heaven

By Justin Gray

After a week of casual observations from social media, co-workers, etc.  I asked myself the following question:

'If I were to rewrite the "Lord's Prayer" according to the standards of American culture, how would it read?'

This question provides the basic premise for the rest of this post.

I believe the rewrite of Jesus' words would sound something like this:

Our grandfather who art in heaven, inaccurate is your name, my kingdom come, my will be done, on earth as it should be in heaven’… and so on.   

Interestingly, in C.S. Lewis’ book The Problem of Pain he says that most humans want “…not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven…” this is an incredible insight, and I feel, very much ahead of its time. 

Many people bristle at the notion of a holy God, because so many of us hold fast and live according to the idea that ‘nobody’s perfect’. 

This presents a great dilemma for most people. If we are in fact called as Christians to live holy or (morally perfect) then it would seem that God has placed a demand upon us to conform to an impossible standard.  And for non-Christians this concept seems even more ludicrous in light of the notion that 'nobody's perfect'.

In reaction to God's demand for holiness, I believe we have created a God in the likeness of a spoiling and passive grandfather.  

Primarily, because the great expectations and correction of a loving heavenly Father is seen as being far too lofty a concept, or too unbelievable for our post-modern sensibilities.   

As Lewis puts it, "He (God) has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense.” 

So what are the implications of living out the CRV (culturally revised version) of "The Lord’s Prayer"?  What are the results of a “grandfather in heaven”? 

I believe the simple answer is moral relativism.

Moral relativism has been incubated by post-modernity. And represents a shift in categorical thinking particularly concerning 'truth', fostering a belief that an individual’s worldview is all there is apart from any governing standard.

A world with no governing standard is the equivalent of a completely unsupervised universe. 

We can do whatever we want, because our heavenly grandfather doesn’t care as long as we’re having fun. 

We can eat our fill from the cookie jar, and have ice cream on demand. If we hurt ourselves, he will come running to attend to our wounds only admonishing us to ‘be careful.’ 

However, what it means to actually ‘be careful’ is undefined and left for us to decide.  

In our culture there seems to be no definitions; only applications. We create our own sense of reality based upon the way we choose to do things.

In light of this point, imagine what it would be like to be invited to dinner only to find the table spread with ice cream, candy bars, and fruit snacks- for most people this would be strange and even unappetizing. 

However, "dinner" in post-modern terms is nothing more than a word to describe a meal served at the end of the day; so “dinner" is what we make it.   And the host of this "dinner" smiles with his rotten teeth and invites you to partake in the meal he has so graciously prepared for you.

If moral relativism is truly the order of the day, we are all doomed to dine at its buffet of beliefs. 

And what’s more, our heavenly grandfather chuckles with delight to see us eat our fill, oblivious to the fact that we are rotting away.

By creating a “grandfather in heaven” we have lost what it truly means to ‘be careful’.  And only a holy God can define for us what being careful truly means.

To be clear, God did not leave us to fend for ourselves in this world but he sent his son to live amongst us exhibiting all the attributes of a holy life.  Not to set the bar of achievement, but so through Christ's sinless life, death, and resurrection God’s righteous standard would be satisfied in Him.  And we by faith in Christ have become holy and have been empowered to ‘be careful’.  

So let us forsake the way of the orphan,
which leads to loneliness and despair,
and turn to the One who will embrace us,
the One through Christ who makes us heirs.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed will be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.