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"Our Father, Who Art in Heaven"

Sermon by Dr. Greg Knox Jones
on Matthew 6:7-13
given February 25, 2007

Today is the first Sunday of Lent, so pack your heart, mind and soul to embark on a journey.

Our journey leads to Holy Week and culminates with Easter, and along the way prods us to focus on our relationship with God and how we can mature in our faith. Prayer is one of the essential spiritual practices that will support us on this journey, because prayer draws us closer to God, expands our view of the world and helps us to discover meaning and direction for our lives. For the next few weeks, we will pay close attention to the ancient prayer that Christians have found relevant to their moment in history, no matter when they have lived in the past 20 centuries.

The Lord’s Prayer, as it has come to be known, is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and their different forms of the prayer help us to understand why all Christians do not say it exactly alike. Matthew’s version of the prayer is longer and is the one we Presbyterians are accustomed to; yet as we heard it read, you probably detected slight differences. That’s because we say the Lord’s Prayer as it appears in the King James Version of the Bible.

If you have worshiped in Episcopal or Methodist churches, you have likely hit the famous stumbling place in the prayer where they say "Forgive us our trespasses" as we are saying "forgive us our debts." You know the reason for this difference, don’t you? Frugal-minded Scot Presbyterians would much rather have their debts forgiven than their trespasses!

Actually, it’s because the Anglican Prayer Book adopted the prayer as it is found in the Wycliffe translation of the Bible.

Most of us say the Lord’s Prayer without even thinking about it, and therein lies the danger. Often we zip through the prayer, mindlessly mouthing words that make little impression on us. Sometimes we recite it as casually as we rattle off a list of items to pick up at the grocery; but if we take these words to heart and genuinely consider their meaning for our lives, we discover that this is a compact prayer that packs a wallop. It sums up in a condensed fashion, the mission and ministry of Jesus; the same mission and ministry that we are invited to share.

Matthew places the Lord’s Prayer smack in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches his followers how to pray. However, before he tells them the correct way to pray, he informs his disciples how not to pray. First, Jesus says, "Don’t be like the hypocrites who like to turn prayer into an impressive performance where they cast themselves as the featured star. They are neither honest nor sincere when they pray to God; they are simply reaching for recognition."

Second, Jesus says, "Do not be like the Gentiles, who think their prayers are heard because of their many words." We have a translation problem here because of an obscure Greek word: "battalogeo." The NRSV translates it "many words" but the meaning is uncertain. It may "refer to invoking the names of many different gods or to the ritual repetition of prayer formulas." (1) I like the way the version of the Bible known as The Message translates this verse. It reads: "The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God." The sense of this verse may be that Jesus was telling his followers, "Don’t think of prayer as some kind of magical incantation where if you just say the right words in the right order you will get God to do what you want."

Sadly, many people’s notion of prayer is limited to pleading to God to get them out of a jam. Their prayer rarely goes beyond "Help me, help me." Worse, there are those who think prayer is a device to ask God for financial success or for our team to win the big game. Their prayers rarely go beyond, "Give me, give me." However, Jesus says, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask, so pray like this:" and then he sets out for his followers a brief, yet powerful; simple, yet profound prayer that we need to allow to seep into our souls as we pray it over and over again.

The prayer begins with the well-known line: "Our Father, who art in heaven." A few days ago I read a sermon on the Lord’s Prayer that was preached at a commencement ceremony in the 1950s. It was preached by Dr. Walter Pope Binns, who was the president of William Jewell College, and the father of our own Westminster member, Em Bercaw. Dr. Binns pointed out that the first word of the prayer -- "Our" -- sets the condition for the entire prayer. We pray not as separate individuals, but as a community of faith. We pray "OUR Father," not "MY Father." We pray "Give US this day OUR daily bread," not "Give ME MY bread!" The plural pronouns in the prayer prevent us from taking a narrow, individualistic view that ignores our ties to one another. The prayer reminds us that it is not all about me. We are connected to our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ and the well-being of the whole is our ultimate objective.

Growing up today, in a culture vastly different than first century Palestine, and possessing a different understanding of God than ancient Jews, we fail to appreciate how the first line of this prayer jolted Jesus’ followers. In ancient Israel, God was so majestic, mysterious, awesome and threatening that Jews did not use the personal name for God. They were hesitant to get too close to God. Then, Jesus entered the scene and told his followers to address God with the most intimate language. He used the Aramaic word, "Abba" which most English Bibles translate "Father." However, the word is the one that children would use to address their Father. A contemporary equivalent would be closer to "Dad or Papa." To those who first heard it, it must have sounded like blasphemy.

Jesus was reshaping the prevailing image of God. He wanted his followers to understand that God was not a harsh judge eager to punish, but more like a loving parent who had warm and compassionate feelings for each of his children. By this familiarity, Jesus was not "removing the majesty and power of God. Rather, he was making the majesty and power of God more approachable." (2)

A full understanding of God is beyond human comprehension. Our thoughts, concepts and descriptions of God always fall short. Whenever we set out to describe the essence of God, we do it with great humility, knowing that we finite human beings are attempting to describe the infinite Creator of the cosmos. Our words are never grand enough, and our thoughts never ambitious enough. Yet, we do have a few footholds, and so we are not only bold enough to talk about God, we also to talk to God.

In both the Jewish and Christian traditions, we speak about God in terms of immanence and transcendence. That is, God is within the world as well as beyond the world. God is as near to us as a loving parent and yet God is also the "wholly other." Jesus ties these two together in the first line of the Lord’s Prayer. He addresses God as one who is as near to us as "Dad" and yet as distant from us as heaven. Another way of putting it is that Jesus tells us that to address the Creator of heaven and earth we are not required to go through intermediaries. God is as near to us as a parent.

When Jesus first spoke this prayer, he startled his followers by addressing God as "Father" or "Dad." It’s interesting that in our lifetime, this has also become one of the most disconcerting parts of the prayer for some people. First century followers were rattled by the use of a term that denoted such intimacy, some 21st century followers are disturbed by the use of a term that denotes such masculinity.

The Christian fundamentalist movement of the past century has had a profound impact on how people read the Bible. Many people tend to read it quite literally. Yet, language for God is always figurative. When Jesus called God "Father," his point was not that God had the body parts of a man rather than a woman. And yet, the image of God that many people carry in their minds is of an old man with a long beard. The identity of God as a man is so prevalent, that to address God as both Father and Mother is unsettling to many people.

When Jesus used father language for God, he was using it as an analogy of his human experience. "Fathers in ancient Mediterranean cultures were heads of households with powerful legal prerogatives over everyone in the family. Thus, when Jesus called God ‘Father’ or ‘Dad,’ he was expressing not only a loving, intimate familiarity, but at the same time he was acknowledging God’s absolute dominance over his life." (3)

Ancient cultures were patriarchal; women had inferior status. In ancient Israel, where women possessed limited rights and were considered unworthy to be taught, Jesus surprised everyone when he took the time to teach women. However, in that culture where women had such limited power, it would have been confusing for him to speak directly of God as a woman. And yet, he does provide some indirect feminine images of God when he tells the parable of the woman who sweeps the house diligently until she finds the lost coin and when he weeps over Jerusalem and says he wants to gather the people together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.

There are passages in the Old Testament that are even more direct. Both the Book of Job (38:8) and the Book of Isaiah (49:14) speak of God possessing a womb. And the first creation story says that God created both male and female in God’s image (1:27), indicating that God was not a man as opposed to a woman.

I have had the good fortune in life of having a wonderful father who has always been loving, kind, supportive and there to pick me up when I have stumbled. And so, growing up with an image of God as Father, gave me a positive image of God.

However, not everyone has that kind of father. About a decade ago I heard about a psychiatric unit of a hospital with interesting intake interviews. At one point, they ask patients to describe their father and at another point in the interview they ask them to describe God. And they have discovered that in nearly every case when patients have a positive view of their father, they have a positive view of God and when they have a negative view of their father, they have a negative view of God.

Bill Carl is a Presbyterian pastor in Dallas, and a few years ago his wife was helping a woman who had come to a shelter for battered women and children. One day his wife was babysitting the battered woman’s four year-old daughter and decided to bring her home so she could swing on their swing set. Bill came home, saw them in the backyard and went out to speak to them. When he tried to say "hello" to the little girl, she clutched his wife’s leg and stared at the ground. He had seen plenty of shy children before, but never one as reticent as this. He tried clowning around and making funny faces, but nothing worked. Later his wife told him about the disgusting things that this child’s father had done to her. This little girl had no concept of a kind man. Bill says, "Imagine this little girl going to church and praying "Our Father who art in heaven." What would she think of God? For some, God as Dad is not a very nice image. (4) For that little girl, I suspect thinking of God as a loving, protective mother is a much better image.

Thinking of God as a loving Father is helpful if you possess a strong, favorable image of a Father who loves you, who has your best interest at heart, who teaches you valuable lessons in life and who shows you how to be courageous, kind, forgiving and fair. However, the image of God as a Father can distort your understanding of God if your model is abusive.

We need to keep in mind what Jesus was saying when he spoke of God as "Dad." It certainly was not that God was a male as opposed to a female. Rather, he was breaking down the distance between God and us. He was telling us that we can carry on intimate conversations with God. He was telling us that God cares deeply for us and wants the best for us as a perfect parent who wants the best for his/her children. And so he invites us to use the intimate language of this extraordinary prayer – be it Father, Mother, Grandmother, whatever works best – so that we can draw closer to God and closer to the rich life God wants us to live.

NOTES

1. M. Eugene Boring, The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), p.201.

2. William J. Carl, The Lord’s Prayer for Today, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), p.11.

3. Carolyn Osiek, "Images of God: Breaking Boundaries," Spirituality Today, Winter 1988, Vol.40 No. 4, pp. 333-344.

4. William J. Carl, The Lord’s Prayer for Today, p.12.

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