Not Ready For Prime Time

The Lord's Prayer, a prayer that invites God's kingdom to be established right in our back yard, is not an easy prayer to pray.

If we really listen to what we are saying in the Lord's Prayer, we will no longer be able to "recite" it.

The time is 1957. The place is Southside Elementary School. The scene is Miss Steele's second grade classroom. The school day is just beginning and students are putting away their books, settling into their desks, and whispering the latest news to nearby classmates. Talking is permitted until the tardy bell rings. The first bell signals that students can enter the building and make their way to the classrooms. The second bell means that you had better be in your desk and ready for prime time.

But first there is THE VOICE. THE VOICE comes to us over the intercom. THE VOICE belongs to the school principal, known only by name and never by sight (except by the unfortunate rule-breakers). It is THE VOICE that begins the daily routine. First, we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, hand over heart, posture erect, facing the classroom flag. No sooner has "with liberty and justice for...