Our Father

We're going to be primarily looking at this reading and at the Galatians chapter 4 reading today.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

You may have seen the movie Gravity. It stars Sandra Bullock who plays a character named Dr. Stone.

And there's one point in the movie where Dr. Stone is isolated and alone and she is facing the likelihood of her own death.

And she's coming to grips with her own mortality.

And she says, she's all alone and she says, I'm going to die, aren't I God?

I know we're all going to die, but I'm going to die today.

And then she says, I'd pray for myself, but I've never prayed in my life.

Nobody ever taught me how.

And I know this is a fictional story. It's a great movie, but it's a fictional story.

But I think that this part of the movie is very real.

I think it's very human.

In other words, prayer seems to be instinctive in times of crisis, regardless of whether or not we consider ourselves to be religious people.

There have been many efforts to try to find cultures or societies, even primitive or isolated ones,

that don't have some kind of prayer or religion in them.

And those efforts have largely failed.

It seems as though prayer is a kind of universal phenomenon.

Now, I'm not suggesting that every single person prays.

I know that many of you may not pray.

Maybe you've never prayed.

But I suspect that there are a lot of people around the world who maybe have never thought about God.

They've never prayed.

They've never cared about any of this stuff.

Who nevertheless are now beginning to be open to the possibility.

They may be feeling this desire to reach out because there's a kind of existential dread in the air right now.

A pall has been cast over life as a result of this pandemic.

And I think that there's something in many of us that instinctively wants to reach out to know if there is some ultimate being out there or if we're alone in the universe.

So what I want to do over the next few minutes and actually few weeks is to look at the topic of prayer together.

And to do that, we're going to be looking at the Lord's Prayer,

which is not just a formula to memorize and recite as many of us grew up thinking it was.

But each phrase of the Lord's Prayer is actually a kind of theological concentrate.

It is densely packed with rich biblical theology spanning the Old and New Testaments.

So everything that you need to know about having a relationship with God is found in the Lord's Prayer.

So if you don't understand prayer, if you don't understand this prayer, and you don't know what this prayer means,

then you're not going to know how to have a relationship with God.

And you're not going to know how to pray.

And of course those things go together.

If you don't know how to pray, then you won't really be able to have a relationship with God.

Because the essence of any relationship is communication.

And that's what prayer really is.

So this is what we're going to be looking at.

And this week we're going to start with just the first phrase of the Lord's Prayer.

As Jesus says it,

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

And we're going to be drawing from Matthew chapter 6, where Jesus teaches his disciples this prayer.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

And we're also going to be looking at Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

And these are going to show us three things about prayer.

We're going to look at first the object of our prayer.

The object of prayer.

And then we're going to be looking at the problem with prayer.

The problem with prayer.

And then lastly, we're going to be looking at the answer to that problem.

So the object of prayer, the problem with prayer, and then the answer to the problem.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we open your word and seek to know what it means to pray to you and to have a relationship with you,

we know that this all depends on you.

That we need you to open your word to us, to enable us to see it clearly, to understand it.

And then through it, to see your Son clearly, Lord, the living word.

And it's in his name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So the very first thing that Jesus shows us when he begins to teach his disciples how to pray

is that the object of our prayer matters a great deal.

The one to whom we pray matters a great deal.

Jesus says, pray like this.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

And what this shows us is that prayer is inherently relational.

It's about a relationship with a being outside of ourselves.

I know some of us pray as a way to relax, a kind of form of meditation.

Some of us pray in the hopes that we might transcend our state of consciousness or have a kind of mystical experience.

And I wouldn't say that these are altogether wrong, but they're not what Jesus means when he talks about prayer.

Jesus means having a relationship with a being outside of ourselves.

And it's a very specific kind of relationship with a very specific kind of being.

In other words, praying like Jesus means being able to come to the God of the universe and call him Father.

Call him Father.

Now, that doesn't strike us because we're so familiar with this prayer.

It's probably one of the most familiar prayers in the world.

But it should be earth-shattering if we understood it correctly.

And here's how J.I. Packer puts it.

He says,

And listen to this.

He says,

Father is the Christian name for God.

Father is the Christian name for God.

Now, before Jesus came, the Jews referred to God as Father.

And in a sense, what they meant was that God is the origin.

He's the maker.

He's the one who created all of this and all of us.

He's the Father of the world.

But Jesus takes it much further than that.

When Jesus prays to the Father, he regularly calls him Abba, which is a very intimate term.

Some people refer to this as a very childish term, and that's not entirely true.

But it is a term of intimacy.

It would be like calling someone Dad.

It's a familial term.

Now, you know, we have a bunch of neighborhood kids on our street,

and they love to come over and play with our kids.

And in a sense, I love all of those kids, and I want the best for all of those kids.

But I'm not their dad.

I'm not their dad.

And only my kids get to call me Dad.

Only my kids get to wake me up in the middle of the night when they're scared.

Even if it's 3 o'clock in the morning, they know I'm going to get up.

Only my kids know that when they get sick, I'm going to clean everything up.

And I'll tell you right now, if one of these other kids gets sick around me,

I'm calling their parents because I'm not their dad.

But my kids know that I'm their dad.

And if you could see more of my office, you would know that my office is filled with pictures of my kids.

And it's filled with all kinds of little drawings that my kids have done and cards that they've given me.

And just the other day, I got this, and I don't think that you can see it very clearly,

but it's a little picture of a bird.

And when you roll this flap of paper up and down, it makes it look as though the bird is flapping its wings and tweeting.

And it's just a little thing.

It probably took about five minutes to make.

And if another kid had made this and given it to me, I would have said,

Oh, that's really nice.

And honestly, I probably would have tossed it.

But my son made this for me.

And because he made it and because he gave it to me, I'm keeping it forever.

I think it's an invaluable treasure.

And so it's got a place of honor right here in my office.

And the thing that we need to understand is that this is the kind of relationship that Jesus talks about having with God.

God is our dad.

You know, for me, that has deep meaning.

If I could be totally honest, I probably wouldn't be willing to die for most of my friends.

But when it comes to one of my kids, no hesitation.

I would lay down in traffic for them in a minute because I'm their dad.

And Jesus says this is the kind of relationship that God wants to have with his children.

So this is a pretty amazing thing that Jesus shows us.

And it has some implications, you know.

You should spend some time thinking about if and when you pray, what is the object of your prayer?

To whom are you praying when you pray?

Maybe you're sending positive energy or positive thoughts out into the universe,

hoping that this kind of impersonal universal force responds with something good in your life.

There are a lot of New Age philosophies and some Eastern religions operate that way.

Or maybe you are trying to gain the favor of a being who is more like a king to you or more like a master to you.

And maybe you're trying to get that being to whom you pray to bless you by showing how devoted you are.

And that's very common among many of the religions of the world.

But what Jesus is saying is radically different.

Jesus makes it possible for prayer to be a way for us to climb into the arms of our dad.

A dad who loves us.

A dad who is crazy about us.

A dad who hangs our picture on the wall because he delights in nothing more than looking at our faces.

So the first point is this.

Not all prayer is the same.

It's not interchangeable.

The object of your prayer matters a great deal.

But there's a problem with this that we need to resolve.

The problem with prayer is this.

It's not as simple as using the word father when you pray.

God created everyone.

And so in a sense, God is the father and the origin and the maker of everyone.

But not everyone gets to call him dad.

Just like not every kid on the street gets to call you or I mom or dad.

There's a particular relationship that Jesus has in mind.

And not everyone has it automatically.

The Bible says that our core problem, the core problem in the world,

the problem under all of the problems and all of the social ills

and all of the challenges that we face in society,

the core problem is that all human beings start out life as spiritual orphans.

We are orphans, spiritually speaking.

And what I mean by that is that we start out living life in the world that God made

without really knowing that God,

without having any kind of relationship with that God.

And this is not because God ever abandoned us.

It's because our first parents made the decision to abandon God.

And as a result of that, we come into the world as spiritual orphans.

And I want to make it clear that being a spiritual orphan has nothing to do with whether or not you are a religious or irreligious person.

Because there are a lot of people that grow up going to church all their lives.

They're very pious people, very devoted people,

who nevertheless don't really know what it means to have God as a father,

as a dad, as someone into whose arms they can crawl in the middle of the night.

They've never had that kind of relationship with God.

And so they're living like spiritual orphans.

The clearest evidence that you're a spiritual orphan,

if you want to take a look and think about your own life,

the clearest evidence that someone is a spiritual orphan

is that they are regularly looking for sources.

They're looking to other sources to find things that only their heavenly father can give them.

They're going elsewhere and trying to find, in a sense, substitute dads.

And what are the things that we look to our heavenly father to give us?

Well, things like a sense of worth or value,

a sense that we are ultimately loved,

a sense that we are safe and that things will ultimately turn out okay one day,

are these deep existential longings.

And so there are many people who are spiritual orphans

who go about trying to find a sense of worth by looking to their jobs.

or by looking to their accomplishments.

Or by looking to their looks.

Or by looking to their children and their ability as parents.

And that's their source of worth in the world.

There are people who are desperately longing to feel loved.

And so they look to the attention or approval of the people that they respect

so that they can feel loved.

There are people who desperately desire to feel safe.

And so they try to meet that need by trying to control every aspect of their lives that they can.

And the problem with all of these things,

the problem with going to these other sources to try to get these needs met,

is what Paul says in Galatians 4, verse 8.

Galatians 4:8

He says,

So he's talking about these other sources.

And he's saying,

you're enslaved to these sources.

Whatever you look to to give you things only your Heavenly Father can give you

will end up being your God.

And it will end up enslaving you.

And so to paraphrase David Foster Wallace,

if success is your God,

then you're always going to feel like a failure.

It's never going to be enough.

If being beautiful and attractive,

if that's your God,

if that's the substitute that you go to to get that need met,

then you're always going to feel ugly.

And you're always going to worry that other people are more attractive than you.

If being a perfect parent is your God,

if you say,

the one thing that makes me get up and go in the morning

is that I'm going to be a perfect parent,

if that's your God,

then you're always going to feel like a failure.

You're always going to notice the ways that you're falling short.

These things cannot meet these needs in us

because, as Paul says,

by nature,

they are not gods.

By design,

they cannot meet these needs.

Only our Heavenly Father can meet these needs.

There was an NPR interview with Paul McCartney

that I saved some years ago.

Paul McCartney, of course,

is one of the great musicians of our era,

one of the greatest of our era.

And he admits in this interview

that he feels threatened

when some other young musician comes out with a hit,

that he gets threatened by other musicians' success.

And the interviewer is utterly incredulous.

He said,

how could the great Paul McCartney

with just accolades and awards,

just stacks of awards in his house?

How could you ever be threatened by anybody?

And McCartney replies,

he says,

unfortunately, yeah.

I should be able to look at my accolades and go,

come on, Paul, that's enough.

But there's still this little voice

in the back of my brain that goes,

no, no, no.

You could do better.

This person over here is excelling.

You need to try harder.

And that little voice,

that little voice that I know some of us have heard

in our own lives,

that is the voice of slavery.

That's the voice of slavery.

It's never enough.

So to tie all this back to the Lord's Prayer,

Jesus prays,

our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

And to hallow something,

to hallow our Heavenly Father's name,

means we make that the reason for our life.

That's the thing that we live for.

That's the source of our worth and our love

and our safety

and all of these things that we need.

That's what it means to hallow God's name.

But here's the point I want you to see.

If we don't hallow our Heavenly Father,

if we don't make that the thing that we live for

and the source of all of our worth and love and identity,

then we're going to end up hallowing something else.

And so the question is not,

what do you hallow?

What do you make holy in your life?

Or whether or not you do that with God.

The question is,

what are you doing it with?

Because everybody hallows something.

Everybody lives for something.

So what's the answer to this problem?

Right?

If Jesus teaches us that the object of our prayer

should be our Heavenly Father,

our Dad,

and yet the problem with that

is that we find ourselves in the world

as spiritual orphans.

We don't have that kind of relationship with Dad.

And as a result,

we've gone to all of these other substitutes,

these other sources

that can't ever live up

to the demands that we place on that,

that end up enslaving us.

How do we resolve all of this?

And of course,

the answer is,

we need a Father in Heaven.

And we need to hallow His name

above all others.

And this is, of course,

the entire point of the Gospel.

This is the entire reason

that Jesus came.

Here's what Paul says in Galatians 4,

beginning in verse 4,

he says,

But when the fullness of time had come,

God sent forth His Son,

born of a woman,

born under the law,

to redeem those who were under the law

so that we might receive adoption

as sons.

And because you're sons,

God has sent the Spirit of His Son

into our hearts,

crying,

Abba,

Father,

crying,

Dad.

So you're no longer a slave,

but a son.

And if a son,

then an heir

through God.

Now,

I know that there's a lot of

gender-specific language here

around fathers and sons,

and it may sound like

Paul is being very gender-specific,

but it's in fact the opposite.

I want you to understand

what Paul's actually saying here.

It's pretty radical.

In Rome,

adoption was very common.

It was very common

among the upper classes,

especially among senators.

Because in Roman society,

succession was very important.

Passing on your land

or your estate

and all of that

to an heir,

that was very important.

And so what did you do

if you didn't have

a firstborn male heir

who could be your successor?

Well, one of the easiest ways

to resolve that

was to adopt.

You would go out

and you would find

some young,

promising man of worth

and you would

legally adopt him,

make him your firstborn son,

and then make him

the heir of your estate.

And this happened

all of the time

among the upper classes.

But of course,

it only ever applied

largely to people

who were in the upper class

and it only ever applied

to men.

Rarely, if ever,

do we have accounts

of women being adopted.

And Paul is saying

precisely the opposite

when it comes to God.

What Paul says

is that God's desire

to adopt us

has nothing to do

with gender.

It has nothing to do

with race.

It has nothing to do

with our socioeconomic class.

It has nothing to do

with our worth.

It has nothing to do

with our moral excellence.

It has nothing to do

with any way

that we've proved ourselves.

It has nothing to do

with any of that.

God's desire to adopt you

as his child

is based purely

on the fact

that he loves you.

At some point,

when you had no idea

God was there,

God was looking at you

and he was saying,

I want to be your dad.

I want you to be my child.

That is the reason

that God sent Jesus Christ

into the world.

God sent us

and in order to make

our adoption possible,

God first has to redeem us

and to redeem someone

means to pay the price

in order to purchase

their freedom.

You would redeem slaves

by buying their freedom.

So God has to purchase

our freedom

and free us

from the things

that we've become

enslaved to,

these substitute gods,

these substitute heavenly fathers.

And so,

that's exactly why Jesus came.

Jesus is the only true son of God,

the only begotten son.

And of course,

the gospel tells us

that Jesus came

as God's one and only son,

the true heir

to everything,

and that Jesus took our place,

that he lived the life

that we should have lived

but have not.

And then he died the death

that we deserve to die.

And because Jesus did that,

he takes our place

so that we can take

his place as children.

And as Paul says,

sons,

firstborn sons,

and heirs in the kingdom.

This is the truth of the gospel.

And so,

the only way

to go from being an orphan

to being a slave

to these spiritual substitutes

that we have gone to,

the only way

to gain this new identity

is through faith

in Jesus Christ.

Asking God,

on the basis

of what Jesus has done for us,

to forgive us

and then to redeem us

and then to adopt us

and to make us

co-heirs with Christ.

We are the brothers

and sisters of Jesus

and we have all of the rights

and privileges in the kingdom

that he has.

And that is what gives us

the right to call God Father.

That's what gives us

the privilege

of climbing into the arms

of our dad

in the middle of the night

when we pray.

Now, to bring all this together,

why are we talking

about all of this

in the middle

of a global pandemic?

And I'll just give you

a couple of reasons

to close.

Number one is this.

Times of crisis

often reveal

the things

that we most hallow

in our lives,

our substitute gods.

Now, I'm not trying

to minimize

or make light

of suffering.

I know that there's

much real suffering

in the world.

I know that there are

people in our parish

who have tested positive

for coronavirus.

I know that people

are facing all kinds

of financial stress

and ruin

and businesses

are closing

and people are struggling

in their jobs.

And I know all of that

is going on

and some of you

are feeling isolated

and alone.

Some of you are

in households

where you're struggling

relationally with the people

that you're with.

You're struggling to love

and be patient

with your kids.

I know all of these

things are true.

And I know that there is

a kind of existential dread

all around us right now

and this is a test

of endurance

for many of us.

But listen,

it is often

in these times

of crisis

when we begin

to see clearly

the things

that we most hallow,

our idols,

our substitute gods,

because it's only

when these things

are taken away from us

that we realize

how much value

we put in them.

And so even in the midst

of this tragedy

and this crisis,

this is also an opportunity

to see our hearts

more clearly.

And if you see

substitute gods,

if you see things

that you're going to

for worth or identity

or meaning

or love or security

that are not God,

then understand this,

they can never deliver

on their promises.

They will only ever

enslave you

and let you down.

And this is an opportunity

for you to rid yourself

of these things

once and for all.

So times of crisis

reveal the things

we most hallow.

The second reason

I think this is relevant

right now

is because in times

of crisis,

we need to be able

to pray with assurance.

In other words,

we need to be able

to pray knowing

that there's someone

out there

who is listening to us,

who cares about us

and loves us.

And that's precisely

what this prayer

is meant to offer us.

If you know

that the God

of the universe,

the God of the heavens

and the earth

is your dad,

then you know

when you pray,

every time you pray,

then you're climbing

into his arms.

You know that your prayers

are like these drawings,

that he delights

when we come to him

in prayer.

So to speak,

he puts our prayers

in his office

because they're treasures

to him.

Then that's how he feels

about his children.

So you can have

the assurance of knowing

that when you pray,

that's how God responds.

And the times

where God doesn't

give you what you want,

the times that God

doesn't answer your prayer,

it doesn't mean

that he doesn't hear you.

It doesn't mean

that he doesn't love you.

It simply means

that he's your parent.

And there are times

when he has to say no.

There are times

when he has to

give us something

other than what

we've asked for,

but that that pains him.

And that God,

because he's your dad,

wants more than anything

for you to be flourishing.

But you have that

kind of assurance

of knowing no matter what,

God is there.

And so the invitation

is this,

this first week.

Come to Jesus Christ

and you will find

the assurance

that you need.

You'll find all the assurance

that you need

as you pray.

And then pray these words

and know the truth of them.

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you

for your word

and we thank you

for the words of this prayer.

And I pray that

as we pray them

over the course of this day

and this week,

that the truth of these words

would become more and more

embedded in our hearts.

Lord, that we would

begin to discover

the depth and the meaning

of what it is

to be your children.

And that each word

and each phrase

we would appreciate

the extent to which

the lengths that you went to

to make it possible

for us to call you Father.

That is no mere word

that you purchased that for us

at great cost to yourself.

And I pray that we would feel

the love in that, Lord.

And I pray this for our good

and for your glory

in your Son's name.

Amen.