The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
November 23, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 46

Everything But...
           Margaret Atwood, in her book, Payback, shares some of her remembrances of attending a United Church Sunday School as a young girl. Her participation was of her own volition. In fact her parents, who had never caught the habit of Churchgoing, had apprehensions of her brain being addled by the experience. But their daughter seems to have survived without irreparable damage. Young Margaret enjoyed the Bible stories she heard in Sunday School, but she also read those parts of the Bible incised from the United Church curriculum, which she found more exciting and interesting, and which raised numerous questions in her young inquiring mind.
          Margaret’s brother chose to attend an Anglican Church where he sang in the choir. The two, returning home from their respective Churches, would frequently compare notes. They wondered, for example, why, wine in one, and grape juice in the other? And they noticed liturgical differences. The Anglican Lord’s Prayer said, “Forgive us our trespasses.” The version used in that particular United Church was, “Forgive us our debts.”
          Curious as to why the differences, Margaret consulted her Bible and could not find any version of the Lord’s Prayer that used “trespasses.” Matthew’s version uses “debts.” Luke’s uses “sins.” She tracked down the “trespasses” version as the form used in the Book of Common Prayer.
          While there might be some merit in discussing which version is more appropriate for use in worship, Atwood’s book is about debt, not trespasses. She contends that debts must be paid by the due date, or there will be conseque¬nces. There will be payback if you don’t pay up!
          The Lord’s Prayer implies our indebtedness to God. We shall see that these debts are not exempt from the principle of Payback, as witnessed by the parables of Divine Judgement in today’s Scriptures.
          Howard Hanson