For several weeks, I have been contemplating the Lord’s Prayer. I have recited it almost daily, and I have explored the various ways it is worded by people who seek to bring out more of the broad, inclusive nature of this incredible prayer of the church.

For several weeks, I preached on the various parables of Matthew’s gospel where Jesus begins saying something like, “The kingdom of heaven is like …” or “The kingdom of God is like …” and then he tells about vineyard owners who level the playing field for all the workers, rulers who prepare wedding feasts and end up inviting people who would never have been accepted as guests, and ten young women who were supposed to bring the light into another wedding banquet.

During one of those sermons, I dug a little deeper into the Greek word for heaven, which is οὐρανός (ür-ænǒs). Contrary to how we often think, heaven is not another place separate and distinct from the world in which we live. The ancients use the word οὐρανός to talk about the firmament that is our sky. They thought of it as a great dome and that water came from above it. They thought of οὐρανός as the place that held all the stars … the known and the unknown universe.

So as opposed to being a separate place, heaven is that place that fully encompasses all that is … including the earth … including us. It is place where we are nestled and nourished … it is the place that is fully powered by a love more powerful than we can conceive. We are eternally at home here.

And the version of the Lord’s Prayer that has inspired me most is written by Parker Palmer, who is an activist, writer, educator and commentator on spiritual and religious life. He is a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), and his insights are profound. It was posted on the Spirituality and Practice website, and it reads like this:

Heavenly Father, heavenly Mother,
Holy and blessed is your true name.
We pray for your reign of peace to come,
We pray that your good will be done,
Let heaven and earth become one.
Give us this day the bread we need,
Give it to those who have none.
Let forgiveness flow like a river between us,
From each one to each one.
Lead us to holy innocence
Beyond the evil of our days —
Come swiftly Mother, Father, come.
For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy:
Forever your name is All in One.

Let heaven and earth become one.

That’s the key here. It is this prayer of Jesus that eliminates our need for duality … for putting up walls between us … for drawing lines in the sand. This is what led the apostle Paul to say, “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) There is no “them” and “us.”

There is finally only us and all of us belong together and we belong to God.

So as I pray this prayer each day, I sense how God is calling us to that greater unity … that heaven and earth may become one …. and that God’s name may be All in One!