9 “This, then, is how you should pray:” ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed
be your name,...
- Matthew 6:9, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
It was the summer of 1982, the same year the Milwaukee Brewers went to the World Series. The one and only bank in Johnson Creek was sponsoring a fundraiser so that the village could purchase a Jaws of Life. The guest speaker for the event was Brewer pitcher and future hall-of-famer Don Sutton, a pretty big name for such a small town.
The day of the fundraiser my parents surprised me and my brother with tickets. Since I was a huge Brewers fan and could probably tell you any statistic you wanted to know about any player on the team, I was more than a little excited to go. But the day was about to get even better.
As people arrived, the hostess asked everyone write their name on a piece of paper and drop it into a fish bowl for a drawing to give away autographed balls and pictures. But before the meal there was one special drawing to determine which lucky guest would get to sit at Don’s Sutton’s table.
My body went numb when I heard my name. And I don’t think I was able to talk for about fifteen minutes after I sat down. For a ten-year old Brewers fan, there weren’t many things in the world that could have topped that honor. I was awe-struck because I was sitting next to a major league ballplayer.
Maybe you have had a similar experience. Perhaps a brush with fame left you almost breathless. Perhaps an encounter with greatness made you so nervous that you were hardly able to speak. But have you ever felt like that or do you ever have these same feelings when you pray?
When you think about it, prayer is no small matter. When we pray, we are in direct communication with God himself. He is far greater than any professional athlete. He is far superior to any movie star or celebrity. He is more powerful than any world leader. He is the all-knowing, all-seeing, almighty Lord of heaven and earth.
So when you talk to God, the proper attitude is one of admiration and awe. When you bring your requests to God, you are standing in the presence of royalty. When you come before the Lord in prayer...
YOU HAVE AN AUDIENCE WITH THE KING
I. He is the powerful ruler of all
II. He is your Father through faith in Jesus
What does God look like? If you asked one-hundred people that question, a good percentage would probably describe him as a king sitting on a throne among the clouds. This isn’t a bad description. In fact, the Bible uses the same picture when it calls God “the One enthroned in heaven” (Ps 2:4) and “the King of all the earth” (Ps. 47:7).
As a King, God rules in the heavens over his creation. He made all things in six days. And he made everything from nothing. I can say as many times as I want, “Let there be a tree,” and I know that nothing will happen. But if God says “Let there be a tree,” it will immediately exist.
The same King who demonstrated his divine power in the beginning continues to keep all things under his control. And in his Word he allows us to catch glimpses of his guiding hand in the history of his people.
The Lord parted the
The many examples in the Bible are matched by the evidence of God’s control over our world. He sets the planets in motion. He changes the seasons. He feeds and clothes the world. But the Lord’s work isn’t limited to large scale projects. God is also involved in the details of our lives. God makes a baby’s heart beat. God makes a paper cut heal. God makes everything work, whether it is big or small, to serve his purposes.
Our heavenly King is the Creator of all things. Our heavenly King is the controller of all things. There is something else that the Lord does, something that we must not forget. He carries out justice in his divine courtroom.
Because God is a just and fair ruler, he will not tolerate
disobedience. When he sees wrongdoing,
he takes action to stop it. The Lord
brought about a world-wide flood to put an end to the world-wide wickedness at
the time of Noah. Fire and brimstone
were God’s agents of his wrath against the sinful cities of
When we examine his track record, who can really argue with
Jeremiah’s assessment: “The Lord is the
true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the
nations cannot endure his wrath” (Jeremiah
There aren’t many countries in the world today that still have a king. And if they do, the king is usually figure heads with little real ruling power. But some nations are still governed by a strong leader, a single person whose power is undeniable, a solitary figure whose authority goes unquestioned.
In this type of governmental system, the subjects understand the rules because the ruler makes them very clear. “I am in control. I make the laws. I establish policy. You are to obey me. You exist to serve me. And if you disobey me, the consequences will be severe.”
But what if there was among the people someone who didn’t heed what the ruler said? What if that person didn’t respect the leader’s authority? What if that person went out and broke every law possible just to spite him? What if that person ignored the powerful ruler’s demand of total obedience and rebelled against him instead?
You might want to know why anyone would act so recklessly. You might conclude that this person was signing his own death warrant. You might even be tempted to think that this rebel was nothing more than a fool. But we should be careful about what we think or who we call foolish because this situation is not hypothetical. It is very real. It happens every day. And a just and angry God is pointing his accusing finger at us.
We know that God is powerful. We know what God’s law demands. We are well aware of the consequences of disobedience. But it doesn’t seem to matter because we keep on sinning. There isn’t a single commandment we are able to keep. Because we are steeped in sin, there isn’t a single commandment that we want to keep. We defy God’s decrees. We smash God’s statutes. We lie. We lust. We cheat. We hate. We are the fools. We are the ones who have rebelled against our King.
Because the Lord is just, he has every right to condemn us. As judge, jury, and executioner, God would be well within his rights to condemn us to hell. But this is where our King is different. Where earthly rulers are motivated by revenge or greed or a lust for power, our heavenly King is filled with compassion. Moses called him “the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Ex. 34:6,7).
Moses’ description of God doesn’t really fit description of a powerful ruler. It sounds more like a person who knows us personally, someone who cares about us deeply, someone like a loving father. And that is exactly what God is. He is your Father through faith in Jesus.
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he first told them where they were to direct their prayers: “Our Father in heaven.” Martin Luther explained the address of the Lord’s Prayer in this way: “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are his true children, so that we may pray to him as boldly and confidently as dear children ask their dear father.”
God invites us to believe that he is our true Father. That means you don’t need to do a paternity test to determine if God is your Father. And you don’t have to check the DNA to prove that you are his child. We have the ability to approach the throne of God, we have the privilege to pray the Lord’s Prayer, we have the right to call ourselves children of God through Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul summarized this glorious truth better than I ever could in the second lesson for today. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28).
Your relationship with God doesn’t depend on bloodlines or gender or social standing. Your status before God doesn’t depend on you at all. Through the blood of Jesus, God has forgiven all your sins. In baptism, God clothes you with the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Through faith, God has adopted you into his holy family.
Because God is our true Father, he also encourages us to pray to him as a dear child asks a dearfather. Why did Luther consider it necessary to attach the word “dear” to Father in his explanation? Maybe it was because he believed that simply calling God “Father” didn’t go far enough.
There are lots of fathers in the world, but there are not nearly as many dear fathers. Fathers aren’t perfect. If they were, there would have been no need to coin the phrase “deadbeat dads.” Fathers make mistakes. Fathers lose their tempers. Fathers don’t always carry out their responsibilities. Fathers sin.
But this is not new to our generation. In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus noted how fathers
give good gifts to their children “though
you are evil” (Matthew
Herein lies the fundamental difference between human fathers and our heavenly Father. Parents love their children...but they don’t always show it. Parents want what is best for their children...but they don’t always exercise the best judgment.
Our heavenly Father loves us perfectly. Our heavenly Father knows us completely. And he invites us to come to him in prayer. We can pray to our dear Father in heaven with boldness because he will always hear and answer us. We can pray to our dear Father in heaven with confidence because he will always do what is best for us.
When you sit down to write a letter, the address probably receives little attention. Addressing the envelope might even be the last thing you do. While that may be only one small step in the letter writing process, it is absolutely essential because without the correct address the letter will never reach its destination.
It is the same with prayer. And it is the same with the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. The seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are equally important, but our prayers and petitions will only be heard if they is headed in the right direction. At the very beginning of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus makes it clear to his followers that we are to address our prayers to God. He is the powerful ruler of all. And he is our dear Father through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.