Our Father
1 "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.[a]
5 "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.[b]
7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 "Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.[c]
Traditions are funny things. To some of us, some traditions are a comfort. To others of us, those same traditions are a bother. Some of us like singing the doxology after the offering. Some of us think that singing the doxology has become an old and tired tradition that we wish we could do without—at least once in a while. Some of us grew up celebrating the Lord's Supper once a week, others once a month, others once a quarter. We all come to church with traditions, and when we are called—as members or as a pastor---to a church we also find that there are spoken and unspoken traditions that have existed in the church since long before we arrived in that church. And that will probably carry on long after we are gone from the church.
Traditions are good things. They give our lives structure. None of us live without routines or traditions. And I would suspect most of us really enjoy some of those traditions. Jennifer and I have a tradition of trying to do something special on the 31st of each month that has 31 days, and call it our monthiversary. This may seem silly to some, but it is a way of making each other a priority and giving priority to our relationship.
One tradition that this church has had for several years is sharing in the Lord's prayer together. Fowler First Baptist church is not the first church that I have attended that has had this tradition. It is not a prayer that I grew up praying on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, as a younger person, I was kind of judgmental of people that prayed the Lord's Prayer on a regular basis. I thought they were violating the context of the Lord's Prayer, which talks about vain repetition. At first praying the Lord's Prayer was not something I liked to do in worship. Now it is something that is very meaningful.
Traditions are great things. The problem with traditions is when they become dull and rote. When they become something that we do, and we have no idea why we do it. In order for something that is a ritual to continue to be powerful, we need to pay attention, understand it, and seek to understand why we do it. This season of Lent, we are looking to the Lord's Prayer with this attitude. What are we praying when we pray the Lord's Prayer each Sunday? Why is it meaningful? Why did Jesus give us this prayer as a model to pray?
The Lord's Prayer is also meaningful for us to study for another reason. A couple of weeks ago I told you about the apostle Paul outlining the Colossians church mission for them by telling them to be about reaching those outside the four walls of the church, and about prayer. If we are going to be a church that is growing in our commitment and ability to be a praying church, it will not hurt for us to learn from the Model Prayer of Jesus.This morning we are going to focus on the first couplet in the Lord's Prayer. That is "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name".
So let us take these few words step by step. First….Our Father. Our Father. The actual word for "Father" is the word Abba. It is what many middle-eastern children call their father. It is a term more formal than Daddy and less formal than Father would be in English. It is a word—and this may seem obvious---but it is a word of relationship. Close relationship. Not a buddy relationship. But an intimate relationship.
Our relationship with our fathers define us. Some speak love and blessing in our lives, and give us someone to honor and to imitate. Some of our fathers speak anger, rage and judgment into our lives, and we live our lives trying to get past those wounds. And some of fathers speak louder in their absence than in their presence.
Our Father in heaven is different than our earthly fathers. He is perfect. Our fathers on earth are not so. But we call God "Father" because from the beginning God wants to have a relationship with us. A kind of relationship that knows us for who we are because he made us, but molds us and forms us into the people that he wants us to be.
Before the Lord's Prayer in this sermon, Jesus gives us some negative examples of how to not to pray. He says that we should not be putting on a prayer for show for others. He says that some people try to impress others when they pray. They try to make their prayers sound pretty. They try to sound spiritual. And holy. They try and sound loud and enthusiastic and theological when they pray. So that people will be impressed with their words. In light of this performance prayer Jesus asks us to pray to "Father".
The first step of praying is to start talking with God. Not talking about God. Not speaking prayers so that others will be awed or impressed. But come to God and talk to him like you would talk to someone you respect, and yet someone you know loves you for who you are. You don't have to say the right words. You don't have to come to God pretending to be more spiritual than you are. Prayer isn't something where you have to say the right words at the right time and in the right way to get God's attention. Prayer is like a conversation with someone who can finish your sentences, and has been where you were before you ever were where you are at.
This stands in contrast to other cultures of the ancient near east, who in their prayers, and their addresses to powerful leaders, felt it important to heap compliment upon compliment, and title upon title. God doesn't want us to pander to him. If I said to Tim Baublits….Greetings Timothy…organist of first Baptist church…..most excellent leader of exchange students….and most generous host of students from the four corners of the earth….Tim…..one who leads teenagers to be creative leaders of tomorrow and guardian of written resources for our community educational system…one who paints buildings and moderates our church business meetings…and on and on…if I said all of that…I would think Tim would say one of two things. Either he would say, "Clint what do you want," or he would say, "Clint, you really don't have to say all that every time I see you." Nor on the other end, would Tim want everyone to come to him all the time quoting the South Park cartoons and yell "TIMMMA". God does want pretentious pandering. Nor does he want us to come to prayer flippantly. He wants to come to us like a child can come to a parent that they depend on, need, look up to, and put their hope in. He wants us to say "Our Father".
When you pray to your Father in heaven, at some point, I want you to go a place in your mind that is a place that is just for you and God. And I want you to look around that place, and I want you to see the pictures on the wall and on top of the mantle. And I want you to notice that those are all pictures of you. And that is God is beaming with pride that you are simply his child, no matter what you have done…he simply loves you. And when you confess your sins to God, fearing his disappointment with you, I want you to hear him saying, "My child, why didn't you come to me earlier with that? Don't you know how much I want to help you make this right? Why did you run away from me? Why did you hide from me? Do you think I would love you any less?" Nothing you can do and nowhere you go can make God love you any less. You know that don't you? You are his child for goodness sake.
Also from the start when we pray, we need to understand that this world, this life, this universe, and this God is about more than just me. We have already had hints at this. Notice the Lord's Prayer does not start with "my Father" but "our Father". We may pray the Lord's Prayer privately at times, and we may go into our closet and pray out of sight of others. We may pray privately…but we never PRAY ALONE. When we pray the Lord's Prayer we pray with Jesus. We pray with the believers that have prayed this prayer before, in all sorts of languages and in all sorts of places. As we pray the Lord's Prayer here in the comfort of our sanctuary, there is an African mother praying for her daily bread for her children after their father has died. We pray with her. There is a Russian man trying to quit drinking praying "lead me not into temptation". When we pray "Our Father" we pray with him as well. There is a soldier in Iraq, trying to figure out how to keep peace with all the warring factions in the chaos of that country, praying not for kingdoms of men, but for GODS KINGDOM to come. When we pray the Lord's prayer, he may feel alone, but we are praying with HIM. That is a small part of what it means when we say "OUR FATHER".
That brings me to what the prayer says that God is in the heavens. Now, when we hear this, we tend to think that means that God is far away and we are down on earth. This is mostly because of the point later in this prayer where Jesus teaches us to prayer "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". But Jesus's point is not to say that God is far away at all. No way. When we say that God is in heaven, we are admitting that God's perspective is bigger than our perspective is.
God is not just MY FATHER, remember he is OUR FATHER. He is not just tending to my needs. He is tending to the needs of all his children. God loves as each as if he were his only child, but he loves all of us with equal measure. God is in heaven because is over and above all of us. He created us, and he created the whole earth. Americans are God's children. So are Iraqis and Afganis. George W. Bush is God's child. So is Barack Obama. And when we pray to God, we are praying to a God who treasures Clint Walker and Osama Bin Laden. And wants to have each us come to know him and trust him. And he listening to all our prayers, and trying to listen to us and bless us, to speak to us and to guide us. When we pray to our God in heaven we pray to God knowing he isn't our personal genie. He is the Lord over all, Master of all. We need to trust his perspective. And from the start we must submit ourselves to his power, wisdom and love for all.
The prayer then says "Hallowed be thy name" or "Holy is Your Name". We start our prayer with a recognition that God is God and we are not. God is good and we are not. God is truly loving, and we fail to love. God is powerful, and often we are weak. God wants to be in relationship with us. But that relationship starts with recognizing that even though we are talking to our heavenly father we are not talking to our buddy. We are not talking to some God like the Greeks and Romans worshipped, that were simply powerful, but morally flawed. We are talking to the great one, the beautiful one, the one that causes the sun to rise and the sun to set. The perfect one.
And as we come to the Lord's Table today, we come remembering that Jesus suffered and died for each and every human being, whether they are in this room or not. As we come to this table we remember that God so loved THE WORLD that he sent his one and only son. As we come to this table, we remember that God wants EACH OF US to pray to him and have a relationship with him. He bled to make that happened. He was beat and whipped for us all to have the opportunity to spend eternity with him. We come to this table remembering our heavenly father created us all with that PURPOSE that Jesus died for. To love God. To serve God. To know God, his love, his presence, his power.
The Psalmist said, "Such knowledge is to wonderful for me".
Or as Jesus taught us, "Our Father, who art in heaven—hallowed is YOUR NAME.
1 comment:
This was very good. Do you think you could modify it down to a devotional for ABCRM? Let me know. Thanks!!
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