Sermon: The Lord’s Prayer: Papa, Holy Are You
March 17th, 2019 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Luke 11:1-4
I remember the first time I visited my in-laws house (this was before they had become my in-laws, before David and I were married), I was struck by how many family portraits and framed photographs of various family members hung all around the house, in every room. In my house growing up, we usually had one bulletin board covered with family photos, including pictures of the wider family, aunts and uncles and cousins. As adults in our own home, David and I have a few smaller framed pictures set on a shelf or on a dresser, with the refrigerator acting as the additional gathering place for family photos. How about you all? Do you carry any photos with you? Family photos are reminders, of who we are and who we belong to, and an important part of making a house feel like home. They are reminders of the relationships that are important in our lives.
Last week we started a sermon series for Lent on the Lord’s Prayer and focused on the conversation and stories that took place as the disciples asked Jesus to teach them about prayer. We noticed that Jesus taught them that they should approach prayer with boldness, and persistence, and confidence, unashamed to ask God for what they needed. We can do this because God is always listening, will always respond, and always wants to give us good things, the things that are best for us. Yet in Jesus’ teaching and examples, we also see that prayer is not primarily about getting things from God, but instead it is first and foremost about the relationship we have with God. The stories Jesus tells are framed in the context of relationship: between friends/neighbors, between father and son.
So it is with a reminder of our relationship with God, that Jesus begins the prayer he teaches. This prayer has become known as the Lord’s Prayer, but is really a prayer he taught his students, his disciples, to pray so it might better be titled the Disciple’s Prayer.
Father, Papa
We enter the door of the prayer with an acknowledgement of who God is, and what God’s relationship is to us. Like walking into a home and seeing the photographic reminders of who we are in relationship with. How many of you have had the experience of a child bursting through the door into your home with words like, “I’m hungry! What’s to eat? And ohhh, my day was horrible. A kid hurt my feelings and the teacher embarrassed me. And hey, I need some money for the birthday party tomorrow…” I’d usually say something like, “Don’t I get a ‘Hello, Mom’ first?”
As we enter into God’s presence in prayer, we start with acknowledging who it is we are talking to: Father. Jesus called God “Father” over 200 times in the records we have of his life. Since that only covers a small portion of his life, we can imagine there were hundreds of more times. We know he started the practice early, for when he was 12 years old and was reunited with his parents at the Temple after they’d left him behind in Jerusalem, he said to them, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Lk.2:49) Jesus continued that practice right up to his dying breath, for his final words on the cross were, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Lk.23:46)
It seems understandable that Jesus called God “Father”, when we believe Jesus was indeed God’s Son – one of the three parts of our One God. But Jesus also teaches his disciples, teaches all of us who are his followers, to address God as “Father”! The beginning of John’s gospel explains that “to all who receive Jesus, to those who believe in his name, God gave the right to become children of God, not because we are God’s biological children, but because we are re-born of God. The apostle Paul calls this the “spirit of adoption.” (Rom.8:15)
I’ve been reading Max Lucado’s book about the Lord’s Prayer, which is titled The Great House of God. In it he says, “I’ve heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I’ve never heard of an unplanned adoption.” When we consider what in involved in adoption, we know that what comes first is a longing, a longing to love and to fill an empty space. Adoptive parents set out on a mission to search for a child. They willingly take on the responsibility of that child, an orphan that is abandoned, who may have a spotted past and a dubious future. That is what God has done for us. “God has adopted you. God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.”
I hate to break it to you, but God didn’t adopt you because of your good looks. God didn’t adopt you because he needed your money or your wisdom or your creative abilities. Sorry. God adopted you simply because he wanted to. Knowing full well the trouble you would be and the price he would pay, God signed his name next to yours and took you home. God became your Father. (The Great House of God, pg.17)
Paul explains this “spirit of adoption” further in his letter to the Romans. He says that it is God’s Spirit, God himself/herself, that leads us to become children of God. Then God’s Spirit confirms that new relationship, confirms the new reality of our being a full member of the family and just as entitled to all the love and riches as every other sibling, by encouraging us to greet God, saying, “Papa, Father!”
I have recently taken up again the practice of a style of prayer called Centering Prayer. Centering Prayer is a prayer of silence and stillness in God’s presence. In this kind of prayer, a person uses a single word, like ‘Jesus’ or ‘Love’ or perhaps just the rhythm of breathing to focus on nothing other than simply being in God’s presence and allowing God to nurture the love and trust of your relationship. Many times my mind struggles to simply stay focused on God; my mind wanders away to thoughts of the coming day, thoughts of my needs or the needs of others, and yet I’ve found that simply beginning the day, and beginning a time of prayer and devotions with awareness of my relationship to God and my place in God’s family, has made a difference.
Jesus guides us, in this prayer for disciples to pray, to start by recognizing who we belong to, which serves as a reminder of all that goes with it. Jesus has told his disciples that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mt.12:50) We come to prayer, calling God “Papa, Father”, knowing Jesus is our brother, reminded of the love which invites us into a comfortable intimacy in which we can talk to God about anything and ask God for anything.
We come to prayer, saying “Papa, Father,” reminded of our inclusion in all that being God’s child brings with it. In Romans 8, Paul goes on to say, “Now if we are children of God, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, …sharing in his glory” (Rom.8:17) In another letter, Paul reminded believers that God is able to do immeasurably more than we can even ask or imagine, through his power working within us! That puts each one of us in an amazingly privileged position as we come to God in prayer! “Papa, Father…”
Holy Are You
Then Jesus teaches us to follow that with the words, “Hallowed be your name.” ‘Hallowed’, means to be holy or to make holy. And phrase ‘your name’, meaning God’s name, represents God (just as the name ‘Betsy’ represents me, and your name represents you). So what we are saying is, “Father, Holy are you!”
In the Wednesday morning Bible study this past week, we were reminded by John’s gospel that Jesus knows human nature through and through. He knows all our weaknesses and fickle tendencies. One of the things I believe Jesus knows about us is how easily we move from an awareness of privilege to an attitude of presumption (presumptuousness?). We do it even without meaning to; we do it without even recognizing it. I’m sure you have seen examples of it – the kid who thinks he can get away with anything because his dad is the principal or the police chief. The girl who thinks she can goof off back stage during rehearsal and get away with it because her mother just brought the treats for everyone.
As Rev. Greene reflects on the opening line of the Lord’s Prayer, “Father, hallowed be your name”, she writes the “opening address acknowledges both our closeness to God and our separateness from God. We are empowered as the beloved children of God, yet we must bow down to give God the glory that God deserves from all of creation. We must acknowledge both of these contrasting levels of our relationship with God first thing when we pray, lest we forget who we are and to whom we are speaking.” (The Revolutionary Power of the Lord’s Prayer, pg.40)
Job learned that lesson. Job had his whole world come crashing down around him with calamity after calamity. I love the way Max Lucado describes it: “Job hadn’t even had time to call Allstate before he saw the leprosy on his hands and the boils on his skin. His wife, compassionate soul that she was, told him to ‘curse God and die.’ His four friends came with the bedside manner of drill sergeants, telling him that God is fair and pain is the result of evil, and as sure as two-plus-two equals four, Job must have some criminal record in his past to suffer so.” (The Great House of God, pg.51)
They debate it back and forth between them, till finally Job has had just about enough of the discussion group chit-chat and figures it’s time for the keynote address. “He grips the microphone with one hand and the pulpit with the other and launches forth. For six chapters Job gives his opinions on God… The chapters [each start], ‘And Job continued,’ ‘and Job continued,’ ‘and Job continued.’… and finally, thirty-seven chapters into the book … God clears his throat to speak. Chapter thirty-eight begins with [the] words ‘Then the LORD answered Job.”
God answers with questions. A stream of questions, starting with “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:2,4, NLT) God goes on to ask: Have you ever commanded the morning to appear?… Where does light come from and where does darkness go?… Who sends the rain?… Who gives birth to the dew?… Do you know when the wild goats give birth?… Have you given the horse its strength or clothed its neck with a flowing mane?… question after question, till God finally asks, “You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” (Job 40:2, NLT)
Then Job answered the Lord, “I am not worthy, I can’t answer you, so I will put my hand over my mouth.” (Job 40:4) Job had paused long enough, to listen to God and recognized the Holiness of God. The vastness of God, and his smallness. The mighty strength of God and his weakness. The great wisdom of God and his uncertainty. Job was filled with reverence, and the only proper response was silence. We can learn this lesson from Job, and from Jesus. Before we launch into prayer, we pause and say, “Hallowed be Thy name.” We take time to acknowledge God’s greatness, God’s faithfulness, God’s power and might, God’s wisdom and God’s superiority over all things, even over me. We set our sights first on God, like the captain of a ship sets his sights on an object that will be unaffected by the storms and the tides. The captain sets his sights on the light of the lighthouse that is firm and unmoved. “Be still,” the Word advises, “and know that I am God.” (Ps.46:10) Father, hallowed be Thy name!”
Calling God both Papa and Most Holy prepares us not only to enter into prayer, but also to enter into the world in Jesus’ name to do God’s will. Assured that we are loved, remembering who we serve.
Closing Song: “Our Father” # 626
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