Our Father

When we are outside, and are asked what is the most powerful thing that we have experienced there, we might well say “a storm”...which might lead a person to say that the god whom they see in nature is one of anger, violence, or destruction.

Lightning would be then the agent of this god's anger, and a meteor as a sign of this god's random fury.

In fact, many people over the centuries have said exactly that:

The Syrians had Hadad, the Greeks, Zeus; and the Scandinavians had Thor.

When we look at nature for God, what we see is capriciousness and violence; it is a fearsome thing.

But in the church, we have a different place to begin our reflection about God.

We do not wander around nature looking for him.

We listen to Jesus, who urges us to copy him, and to confidently call upon God, “Our Father....”

God is called Father because we have come to know Jesus the Son.

We cannot say Father without remembering the Son; we can never know the Father unless the Son reveals him to us.

Remember, too, how the Creed begins: I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth....

The naming of God as Father precedes acknowledgment of him as creator.

We may think that this is a minor point, but it is a crucial distinction.

God is not just warm, fuzzy thoughts, or the power behind bird-singing, or whatever mystery is left over after we have scientifically explained as much as we can.

God is the Father, the lover;

God is the Son, the beloved;

God is the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son.

It is all about relationships among the persons of the Trinity, and then with us.

So when Jesus invites us to pray “Our Father...”, he is inviting us into the central wonder of the Christian faith – that part of the decision of God to be God for us, including us, saving us, restoring us to community with himself, happens despite all of the things which we have said and done.

Let all who hear this with joy make bold to pray “Our Father....”

When we pray in this way, we are not using “our” as a possessive:

--God is not our property, not under our control.

God is not a cosmic Santa Claus, catering to our every whim.

Once again, the “our” in Our Father...” is referring to God's decision to be God “for us” and thus is “Our Father.”

Notice also that when Jesus asks us to shape our prayers in this way, the first word is plural.

It is not my own private thing; Christians call upon Our Father.

Jesus called disciples individually and put them into a group.

The Holy Spirit gathered a crowd on Pentecost and made a congregation.

We did not invent the Christian faith; it was passed to us from a number of persons who were already in the community – family, teachers, pastors, friends.

So that every time we begin to pray “Our Father”, we are naming the way that God saves us – as a group, praying together, correcting each other, forgiving one another, stumbling along after Jesus on the way, copying his words and actions until his way becomes our way.

Someone will likely raise the question: “But what about the Creed which begins 'I believe'?”

The Apostles' Creed grew up in the context of Holy Baptism, where God calls us one by one but says “I will be your God and you shall be my people”, not “You will be my person.”

Thus our first family is not the biological family, but the church, wherein we have been taught to pray Our Father.

We can travel far and walk in the door on Sunday morning and find those whom we can name brother and sister, just as we can right here in this place.

I remember entering the church on the island of Menorca on a Sunday morning and with my own book being able to figure out the parts of the service and what the lessons were, even though I knew very little of the language.

They were brothers and sisters in the faith, even though far away; we pray together “Our Father....”

The connection with each other through the Lord Jesus is strong and enduring, and it makes a difference.

We are somebody not because of our wisdom or strength; we are somebody because Jesus announces that we are his brothers and sisters, and he invites us to pray Our Father in heaven.

And it is such a great thing that we are asked to name God as Father in our prayers.

We do not call God Father because we have had certain positive experiences with our biological fathers and therefore project those experiences on God.

All human fathers are measured, judged, and fall short on the basis of our experiences of God as Father.

God the Father stands as judge against all human fatherhood, challenging its status quo.

This can be a great comfort to us.

There are times when we may not feel like a Christian, much less believe like a Christian, and certainly we do not always act like a Christian.

Our relationship as a member of the body of Christ is not based on what we feel, or think, or how we act at a given moment.

Rather, we are of his people, because God chose us and named us his in Holy Baptism.

And because of that objective truth about us, we can dare to pray “Our Father...” no matter what we are feeling at that moment.

We have those words memorized and can pull them out anytime, and know that as we use them we are engaging in the conversation the Jesus wishes us to have.

We can relax and continue in prayer, safe in the knowledge that this whole thing between God and us was God's idea before it was ours.

A man was walking in Hong Kong and passed a tattoo parlor where many patterns were displayed.

One pattern astounded the visitor.

It consisted of Three words: “Born to lose.”

The man asked the tattoo artist if anyone really had that permanently inscribed on their body.

“Yes, a few,” he replied.

“Who would do such a thing?”

The artist tapped his finger to his head and said, “Before tattoo on body, already tattooed on mind.”

Clearly such persons have not heard or understood their worth and value through Jesus' invitation.

What a joy it is when we know that we may make bold to pray “Our Father....” all the way to Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.