“Praying To God, Our Father”

Matthew 6:5-13

Margaret I. Manning

Preaching Series: How do we talk to God?

Today, we will begin a series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer. Now, I know that some of you might be like me in that you primarily associate the Lord’s Prayer as something reserved for worship – a ritual prayer, as it were. I’ve discovered, however that the Lord’s Prayer is so much more than just a worship ritual. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us a manner in prayer, and not just a ritual or mantra for prayer. Let me explain the difference. A mantra is a verbal formula, repeated over and over again, kind of like a ‘magic formula’ a magician would use when performing a magic trick or spell, or kind of like the worship ritual we’ve made it where we simply recite the words but have very little understanding of their meaning or why Jesus taught us to pray in this way. Jesus understood our tendency to make prayer a meaningless ritual, so he begins his remarks about prayer in Matthew’s gospel, by telling his disciples not to pray like the Gentiles. They would “babble on” and use meaningless repetition in their prayers, just like saying a mantra. Let’s be sure about one thing: Jesus isn’t teaching a new mantra. What Jesus is teaching is a prayer manner – a way of life, as it were, when it comes to praying! And Matthew underscores this point by placing the Lord’s Prayer right in the middle of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount which spells out all the ways we are to live as Christians. The Lord’s Prayer is a way of life – a way of understanding how we relate to God through prayer.

So over the next three weeks, we’re going to examine this prayer manner. Today, we’ll begin at the beginning of the prayer; ‘our Father, who art in heaven.’ What is Jesus trying to teach us about our prayer manner in beginning his prayer this way? Our Father, who art in heaven? Well, let’s look at this first part, our Father. I suspect that most of us in this room, at one time or another have had children who have come to us asking for something or another. In the middle of the night, you’ve felt the terrified tap on your shoulder from a son or a daughter in the throes of a nightmare wanting to get into bed with you. Or, when your child fell and hurt herself she came running for comfort, a kiss for her boo-boo and a band-aid. Many times, children come to us with their needs and wants…dad; can I borrow the keys to the car? Mom, can I have money to go shopping? Just as our children would come to us with their questions, their requests, and when they had hurts and fears, we come to God for many of the same reasons. And while there is nothing wrong with coming to God for these reasons, Jesus begins his instruction about the Lord’s Prayer manner or how we are to pray, by helping us to focus not on what God can give us, but on who God is. Our Father, who art in heaven. The prayer does not begin with a request, but with identifying who God is and how God wants to relate to us through prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven.

As the first words off Jesus’ lips “Our Father, who art in heaven” Jesus wants to highlight several important ideas to help us in our prayer manner. Most important, Jesus wants our focus in prayer to begin with God – to begin with acknowledging who God is and how God wants us to relate in prayer. First, Jesus calls God Father. By calling God, father, Jesus wants us to know that we have an intimate God who relates to us as a parent and who knows what is best for his or her children. So often, we think of God as distant and removed. Jesus’ prayer helps us to see that God is near us when we call out to God, just as our parents’ answered when they heard us call. Now it goes without saying that some of us may have hurtful memories from fathers and mothers who let us down, and some of us have a hard time with parental images for God. But, Jesus calls God, father to show God as the perfect parental model. The bible tells us that God is a father to the fatherless and that God takes us up and cares for us, even when our fathers and mothers forsake us.[1] Many of us have lived lives without parents – either physically or emotionally. In calling God, Father, Jesus wants all of us to know that we have a Father in heaven who longs to be the parent to us we’ve never had or experienced.

In addition, it should be mentioned that Jesus doesn’t call God ‘father’ to indicate a gender about God. God is Spirit and as such, God has no gender. The Scripture presents both feminine and masculine images for God, not to indicate gender, but to highlight how God relates to us, and how we are to understand God. In addition to ‘father’, there are many maternal images in Scripture for God. For example, God is compared to a ‘hen’ who longs to gather Israel like her chicks about her.[2] So, in calling God, ‘Father,’ Jesus indicates who God is as our intimate father and how God longs to relate to us as a loving, wonderful parent. Jesus calls God, ‘father’ to remind us that God loves us and longs to be in a relationship with us as our loving father.

Second, we should note that Jesus prays “our Father.” Have you ever wondered why he didn’t pray ‘my Father?’ In Jesus’ day, Jews used corporate prayers that were recited by the whole community – in the temple, in the synagogues, and in the home. They understood that God’s work and purpose was for the whole people of Israel – to make them a great nation and a blessing to the nations of the world. So, their prayers were not primarily concerned with their own individual needs, but for the whole people of God. So, given his Jewish heritage, Jesus prays to ‘our Father’ to teach all of us that we are part of a body. We belong, one to another in our local church and to the worldwide fellowship of Christian believers! Given this understanding, Jesus gently reminds us that while we are individual sons and daughters of God by faith, we are also brothers and sisters with each other. We sometimes forget that we belong to the body of Christ, and we forget that God has plans and purposes for the body, the church.

Now we know that the individual details of our lives are important and we’ve already seen that God cares about us as a father would care for his children. But the individual details are all a smaller part of God’s overall concern to form a people for himself, and for those people to advance God’s kingdom in the world. Think of it this way; as Christians, we are teammates in a team sport! All of our individual actions contribute to the larger whole – the team works together to score. So in praying to God as “our father,” Jesus is teaching us a prayer manner that is holistic and global. He forces us to remember that we are a part of something much bigger than just ourselves – we are a part of a worldwide body of believers. As such, our prayer manner should include prayers for God’s church and God’s people. “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

This leads to the third part of this phrase and to the third manner of prayer Jesus wants to teach us; ‘Our Father, who art in heaven.’ The first part of our phrase highlights the intimate, parental relationship God longs to have with his people. But, you might be asking, how can we have an intimate relationship with a God who is way out there in the sky somewhere, distant and removed from my daily reality? God is in the heavens – and when I hear this phrase I think of God being “out there, somewhere” – but this is not what the word ‘heaven’ means in the original language. The sense is really that God is ever present and all around us – before us, behind us and beside us! Our concept of an atmosphere really gets at the original meaning of the word for heaven. So, God is as close to us as the air around us and when we call, God is right there to hear our prayer. When we pray, we must keep this in mind because our modern society tempts us into thinking that God is way out there somewhere, far, far away. But this is not true! Jesus is helping his disciples to pray to the God who is right there with them – a holy, and hallowed and transcendent God to be sure, but a God who is with them just as the air is all around us and ever with us.

So, what is the prayer manner Jesus is teaching with this very first phrase of our prayer? “Our Father, who art in the heavens.” Well, let remind you of a simple game to answer this question. When my nephews were really small, I would play a game with them. I'd take some coins in my fist. They'd sit on my lap and work to get my fingers open. According to the international rules of finger opening, once the finger was open, it couldn't be closed again. They would work at it, until they got the pennies in my hand. They would jump down and run away, filled with glee and delight.

Now here’s the answer. Sometimes when we come to God, we come for the pennies in his hand.

"Lord, I need a passing grade. Help me to study."

"Lord, I need a job." “Secure my future in comfort”

"Lord, my mother is ill." “Lord, I am sick, heal me”

We reach for the pennies and so often, once we have them, we push the hand away.

Jesus wants us to learn that more important than the pennies in God's hand is the hand of God himself. That's what prayer is about. When you go to God in prayer, the name that should come easily to your lips is Father. Jesus wants us to focus more on God, our intimate, loving, father who is always near us, ever present with us and wants to be in a relationship with us than on what we want from God. Jesus teaches us, through the Lord’s Prayer to adopt a prayer manner that yearns to seek God’s face, before we seek God’s hand.[3] “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Amen.

[3] Sources consulted and adapted for this sermon, The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide for the Perplexed. Gordon Hugenberger. Park Street Church: Boston, MA, 1999; Praying Jesus Way: A Guide for Beginners and Veterans. Brian J. Dodd. InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, 1997; The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God. Dallas Willard. Harper San Francisco: San Francisco, CA, 1998. Closing illustration adapted from Haddon Robinson, PreachingToday.com.