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The Lord's Prayer I: "Praying for Reverence"On our refrigerator at home we have the usual collection of family pictures, special cards and notes, partial lists of groceries and other needs, art works by the grandchildren and "wise sayings," which I call refrigerator theology. This morning, on the second Sunday of the Easter season, as we begin a new series of sermons on the Lord's Prayer, I would like to share some of the refrigerator theology from an unknown author. It says: Everyone is a house with four rooms: We tend to live in one room most of the time, Assess the condition of your four rooms. My suspicion is that the least visited room for many of us in modern America is the spiritual room. However, by the fact that we are all here together in a spiritual setting, that observation may not be completely true of all of us. But it may be partially true for some of us. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal pointed out that there is a growing trend in America of professionals in their 40's and 50's returning to churches and synagogues. Having it all in terms of job, housing and car is not enough. Without a sense of spirituality in life, life was empty and without lasting satisfactions. So these folks have been doing something radical: they are starting to return to church. But there is a problem, reports the Wall Street Journal. "This new class of churchgoers are not quite sure how, or where, to go back. Religious institutions in turn, don't always know how to reach out to them." Indeed, the question of finding our way into a deeper, more spiritual faith is broader than just the newcomers in church. I think all of us continually need to strive to deepen our faith and trust in God, if we are to be a faithful and trustworthy people. One way to accomplish this awesome task is to consider anew, with fresh eyes, our prayer life together, beginning with the Lord's Prayer, phrase by phrase, to understand what it is we are praying for each time we say it. It is way of bringing fresh air to our spiritual rooms. I. Our Father Let us begin at the beginning, with "Our Father." God is more than a great idea. God is more than a religious concept. God is personal and God has a name, in fact many names. Many of our predecessors in faith refused to speak God's name for fear of irreverence. Some though they would be struck dead if they named God. Others spoke God's name only once a year when the high priest entered the "holy of hollies" on the Day of Atonement. While we do not honor that practice today, we can identify with that fear of getting too close to God in trepidation that God might punish us for our imperfections. Several important things happen when we pray, "Our Father." -- When we pray "Our Father," we shift our attention from ourselves to God. This takes courage and boldness, for in this prayer we shift from our own needs and ask God to bend us to his will. We ask for help, express gratitude, seek wisdom or share our deepest cares and concerns with someone who has known us from before we were born, and loves us as the perfect parent. We ask this parent for direction and change in our lives. Indeed, this loving parent longs for us to share our lives, our joys, our cares and our fears. -- When we pray "Our Father," we remember that this is the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, including us. It was how he, the historical Jesus, saw God. Jesus can teach us the name for God because he was the Son. It does not limit how we can see God; it only adds a dimension to God that was relevant and reverent for him in his earthly ministry. -- When we pray "Our Father," we remember this is one more "of the gifts of God for the people of God." It came from our Lord not only so that we might learn how to pray, or to give us a model, or a paradigm for prayer. Rather, it was given to us that we might learn how to communicate with God regularly, so that we might have an intimate and warm relationship with God. Martin Luther was so zealous that his students would learn to pray that he frequently told them, "I wish I could get you to pray the way my dog goes after meat!" -- When we pray "Our Father," we are reminded that while this prayer is deeply personal for each of us, it is not a private prayer. We pray it in the context of community when we say Our father. Whether we pray this prayer in church, or in our room at home, at work, our in a nursing home, we should recognize that others around the world in other churches, other businesses, other languages are sending this same prayer up to our God. It has been this way for more than 2000 years and across many cultures and settings. II. "In Heaven" Now let us shift to the second phrase in the Lord's Prayer, as we pray to God who is in heaven." -- When we pray to God "in heaven," our vision shifts from the earth, which we know and touch, to a place that is beyond our dreams and cannot be touched. It is in this new setting that we celebrate that the God who is "Our Father" is also the creator and chief of the cosmos, who speaks through earthquake, wind and fire -- as well as in a still small voice. -- When we pray to God "in heaven," we are praying to a leader who lives and sees beyond this world and what we know. This God is larger than our charity, our politics and our social activity. Because this God is "in heaven" we can pray for preposterously lavish gifts, such as bread for the whole world, the end of war and racism, healed marriages, cures for fatal diseases and the like. We pray to a God who has an address; "in heaven," is the name given to God's realm. -- When we pray to God "in heaven," we need courage and boldness as we remember our kingdoms and comforts are constantly being challenged by God's kingdom. We are well advised to remember that life is lived under the providence of a loving, active and intruding God who seeks to confront us and change us for the better. -- From heaven, God has a good view of us, all of us. As individuals, communities, nations, all of us tend to be nearsighted. We have difficulty seeing beyond our needs or interests. Only God sees all of us clearly. In a way this is a puzzle. On the one hand "Our father" is close to us, in loving us and hearing our needs. At the same time, God also stands apart from us, as every good parent needs to do -- to give children freedom, to discipline them, to offer advice, remembering that children are not carbon copies of the parent. Closeness and separation are both needed in the ideal parent. -- One final thought about praying to our God "in heaven." The word "our" not only expands our understanding of God, the word "our" also enlarges our vision of heaven. Heaven is not solely God's address; it is also home for all the loyal children from previous generations. Heaven is not just God's private villa in the sky; it is the crowded, boisterous place where those who have died in the faith rejoice full time, according to Revelations 5:11. When we pray to God "in heaven," we join our voices in prayer and praise with all the raucous and reverent folks in "the communion of saints." That is, we pray with John Calvin and Teresa of Avila, with Thomas Aquinas and Mother Teresa, with Dietrich Bonhoeffer the women of the early church. Indeed, with the whole company of heaven. III. "Hallowed Be Your Name" In his book The God Named Hallowed, pastor John Killinger tells the story of six year old named Bobby, who was lost in thought and tracing designs in his mashed potatoes with his fork one Sunday after church. He was quiet and focused and then he blurted out a question: "Why is it that every week we pray 'hallowed be your name,' but we never call God that? We never call God hallowed." Exactly what do we mean when we call God "hallowed?" Hallowed is one of those words we use m the Lord's Prayer and the Gettysburg Address, but frequently forget what it means. My dictionary defines "hallowed" as 1. To make or set apart, as being holy; sanctified; consecrated; 2. highly venerated; unassailable; sacrosanct. To "hallow" something is to honor it as being holy, revered, adored. -- So when we pray "hallowed be thy name," we are praying for reverence. But what is reverence? It is 1. honor or respect felt or shown; deference; especially, profound adoring; awed respect; 2. it is a gesture of respect, such as a bow, or closing one's eyes and lowering the head in prayer. Another definition of reverence refers to one held in reverence- used as a title for a clergy person. -- When we pray "hallowed be thy name," we express reverence toward God by praising God. One of the key ingredients of reverence is praise; not false praise, but justified praise. This God who reigns in heaven and on earth, and who loves the creation and us beyond all understanding, deserves to have a hallowed name. As Scripture reminds us this God deserves to be called holy, since it is to that name that every creature bows --every creature -- blue whales, mockingbirds, women and men. As William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas have said: "Not to know the name of God, not to know how God's name is hallowed, in other words, not to know who to worship, is to live in fundamental conflict with our true selves. We are created for no better purpose than praise." To live reverently, we must learn the melody of adoration and praise. In praying the Lord's Prayer, we are teaching ourselves how to hallow the name of God rightly. Our Old Testament lesson today, Psalm 150, is just one of many reminders of how often Israel and the people of God are called to praise the creator with resounding and reverent joy. -- When we pray "hallowed be thy name," we express our gratitude to God. Gratitude is the second central element of reverence. It is a rich expression of thanksgiving for the many benefits God has showered on us. And something strange and life-changing happens when we do this. As we revere the holy God in our worship, we exercise the faith that makes us more holy ourselves. As Augustine and most modern sociologists will tell you "We imitate whom we adore." As we pray the Lord's Prayer, we struggle to reflect the One to whom we pray. There is a magnificent line in the movie "As Good As It Gets." Holly Hunter and Jack Nicholson are in a restaurant and in a moment of frustration she asks him to pay her a compliment. After considering the request, he replies that "when I am with you, I want to be a better person." That is what reverence is like; it is praise coupled with sincere gratitude. When we are with God, especially in prayer, we are inspired to be better folks. -- Finally, when we pray "hallowed be thy name," we are expressing our awe. Awe is the third key element of reverence. We are praying to an awesome God, one who is beyond our comprehension in goodness and wisdom. This awe-inspiring, majestic, and wonderful God reigns in the universe and also seeks to be "Our Father." In the Lord's Prayer we are invited into the same intimacy with God that Jesus knew on earth. We are encouraged to crawl up into God's lap and receive God's love, comfort, healing and strength. We can laugh and weep freely and openly in the arms of a hugging and caring Abba, our Father God. We can bridge the gap between ourselves and this holy God by approaching with reverence: made up by gratitude, awe and praise. Thanks be to this God, who shows us the way home. Let us pray: Most Holy God, |
Stephen Palmer