“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed
be Thy name”
Isaiah 6:1-6; Matthew 6:9; Luke 15:20-24
Two images of God in scripture today:
The
Prophet Isaiah paints the picture of the “throne room
of
God high and lifted up”.
Jesus
uses the image of a Father “filled with compassion
Who
runs across town to embrace his prodigal son.”
Which
is the real image for us today.
Some would say that the first image is the impersonal
God
Of
the Old Testament and the second is the kinder, gentler
God
of the New Testament revealed in Jesus Christ.
But this Lent, as we study the Lord’s
Prayer and “enter
Into
God’s country” as the Walter Wangerin study suggests
Or
the “Strange
As
Theologican Karl Barth suggests,
We
will discover that both images of God are true
And
part of scripture, both Old and New.
And we begin our Lenten Study with the
images of God,
juxtaposed
in the first line of the Lord’s Prayer:
“Our
Father (daddy, Pappa) who art in
heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.”
We begin
with the first line in this prayer
Setting
up the personal and profoundly holy
Address
of the Triune God.
Contrary to my initial thought Jesus
wasn’t breaking the mold
Of
Jewish prayer in this opening address.
I
had always thought that Jesus was for the first time
Using
very personal and intimate language for God
However,
if we look at different Jewish prayers of the day
We
discover that Rabbi’s regularly prayed to
God
who was both Father and King.
A common synagogue prayer “abenu malkenu”
Starts
every petition with the words “Our Father, Our King”.
It
turns out that the Lord’s Prayer is a very Jewish prayer.
It
made sense that Jesus would have used both personal and
Profound
and lofty language to address God.
In
fact it could be used with Jewish and Christian
Congregations
worshipping together,
Since
it contains no explicitly
Christological
language.
That’s
radical, isn’t it.
William Barclay in his Book on the
Lord’s Prayer
Describes
the Jewish understanding of prayer as
“continuing
and unbroken conversation and fellowship
with
God.”
He
notes that the highest prayer
is always
the prayer of the community
so that it
makes sense that Jesus
would have
started with “Our Father”.
Jewish
teachings on prayer also emphasized brevity in prayer.
So when Jesus offered this prayer to his
disciples
He
was not saying that they should eliminate the corporate
Prayers
in the temple but rather he was giving them
A
prayer that would be said three times a day
To
be in constant communion with God.
And Jesus was taking on some of the
norms of the day.
He
was challenging the rigid formalism of Jewish prayer,
He
was challenging the notion in Greek prayer
That
God was impersonal and detached.
And so Jesus started the Lord’s Prayer
with the words
“Our
Father, who art in heaven”
Our
translation comes from the Greek, Pater but
Jesus would
have spoken in Aramaic Abba- Daddy.
The Language was more familiar than Jews
would have used
And
much more familiar that the Greeks.
And
yet Jesus use of Abba, Daddy, Father
Says
something to use about God.
God
hears our prayers just as a father
Or
mother hers the voice of a child
When
that child cries Mommy
Or
Daddy.
We
are listening for that name.
Now I have to admit that when I was in
I
actually didn’t hear my name called out.
We
were going to a bowling alley with my son and
Grandkids.
My grandkids
always call me Grandad or Grandaddy
And so my ears were attuned to
“Grandad.”
My son is “Dad”, I am
“Grandad” and my
Daughter-in laws
Father is “Grandpa”
And we
each respond to our names.
As we were
walking into the bowling alley
I heard someone saying “Dad” but I
didn’t respond.
I turns out that it was my
son telling me that the
Door I was going I
was the bar door
And not
the bowling alley door.
If I had
heard the name “granddad”
I would have responded but my ears
were not
Attuned to “Dad” in that
location.
What Jesus is telling his disciples and
us is that God’s ears are
Attuned
to use and that he is our father, attentive and aware
Of
our voice and our needs.
When
we call our his name he hears us and is
Attentive
to our cries and our praise.
It’s
like when I walked off the palne and heard
“Yea
Grandad, we’re glad you came.”
When
we say “Our Father” God’s ears are listening.
By starting the prayer with the name
“Our Father”
Jesus
is telling us that God is personal and yet
We
don’t own God, God created and owns us.
I
was at another church and one of the people
Was
talking about the General Assembly study
On
the Trinity which invites us to consider
Seriously
our Trinitarian language for God:
“Father,
Son and Holy Ghost”
And
other language that describes God
“Creator,
Redeemer, Sustainer”
“Lover,
Beloved, and Love”
All
the while knowing that God
is
ultimately beyond the bounds
Of
human language.
This
women said very matter of factly,
“Well
My God is Male”.
Her
minister wisely didn’t challenge her
Decision
about the gender of God
But
he challenged her pronoun “My”.
We
can’t personalize God to fit our ideals,
And
we can’t claim that God is ours alone,
That
God belongs to us,
Rather
we belong to God.
We
are collectively God’s children
And
therefore have the privilege to refer
To
God in person language, Our Father.
And yet this personal God is not to be
minimized in any way.
The
second part of the address
“who
art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.”
addresses
that God is different and beyond
our
understanding.
Martin
Buber would have said
“The
wholely other”.
The word for “Hallowed” is hagiasthato.
It is from the root hagios, holy or set apart, sanctified.
And
in this phrase we are not sanctifying God’s name
Rather
we are recognizing that God’s name is
By
it’s vary nature Holy and set apart.
And so in the Lord’s Prayer we have this
paradox
Of
God who is personal, loving and compassionate
as a Daddy or Mommy is to a little child
and yet is awesome and holy and infinite
beyond our understanding or
capacity for words.
This is the God revealed in the Lord’s
Prayer,
This
is the Lord’s revealed in the Old & New Testament Scriptures,
This
is the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
Amen