Introduction
The passage is part of the Sermon on
the Mount. Having already told the crowd how not to pray “Don't be
like the hypocrites” in verse 5, and where to pray in verse 6 “go
into your room and close the door”, he then moves on to tell them
not to babble like the pagans in verse 7. He reminds them that God
already knows their needs in verse 8 and them starts a template for
prayer in verse 9.
Template for Prayer
That's right it's a template, it just
provides a form, it wasn't meant to be recited every week, or every
night, its a format for private prayer – not a corporate recital to
be said together in church, or with the family at bed time. It's
supposed to be “Subject headings”, if you like.
Commentaries will tell you that the Lord's Prayer has six petitions – 3 about God and 3 about us. We will be looking at the first of these today.
“Our father in heaven, hallowed be
your name” or as the Amplified version says:
“Our Father Who is in heaven,
hallowed (kept holy) be Your name.”
Translations
We should remember that we are
reading English translations of a Greek document that is almost
certainly written from hearing words spoken in Aramaic. Getting to
the real meaning may not be that easy.
I'm going to look at the two phrases
separately, almost word by word, so that we can see the ideas that
Jesus is trying to communicate.
Our father in heaven
Our father in Heaven
We start by acknowledging who God is.
When we pray, how often do we get straight into the list of wants
and needs and forget to acknowledge God.
Our
Although the Greek word could be just as easily translated “My”, it never is. So I cannot suggest that God is in any way exclusive to me. And “our” in this sense does not imply that we can own God. It would imply ownership if I said “our house”, or “our car”, or even “our children” - depending on the context. Here though it's meaning is more like “our town”, or “our church”, or “our family” - it implies our belonging, rather than our possession.
Father
It's easy to say “God is my
father”, but the experience we have of what a father is like, may
not be that good. Many people will have had experiences of absentee
fathers, angry or violent fathers, or just dis-engaged, uncaring
fathers, or perhaps no experience of a father at all.
What ever your experience of your
father as you were growing up, no-one's experience of their own
father can match up to the perfect role that God takes on when He
accepts us into His family.
Once we accept Jesus we become
adopted children of God and are granted the privilege of calling him
father. It shows us the type of relationship God wants with each of
us.
This is what God says about his role
as Father:
Psalm 103:13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord
has compassion on those who fear him;
Is 63:16 But you are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, Lord,
are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.
To us Father is a formal word, I don't expect my children to call me “father” (unless they're annoyed with me!), I expect them to call me “dad”. In Mark 14:36 Jesus addresses God as “Abba”, and the text tells us it means father. Father in that verse is the same word used in our passage today. 'Abba' is Aramaic and means dad, that would have been a revolutionary way of speaking to God. If I were to say “Our dad in heaven” you might not think of the Lords Prayer immediately, but you should. This is the way we should address God – using the familiar term, not the formal term father. We can see from both Romans (8:15) and Galatians (4:6) that early Christians used this form of address.
in heaven
In the same phrase we move from the
Immanent – the God who lives with us – to the transcendent –
God outside the universe – in heaven. Heaven simply means where
God is, or sometimes is is shorthand for God. Heaven is clearly not
on Earth, it's 'out there' somewhere, but there are places and people
that can help connect us to heaven.
For us the difficulty is to hold both
ideas together and bring some meaning to the phrase “Father in
heaven” - it's not easy, and each of us will make sense of it our
own way.
Once we have achieved that, there are
further challenges in this passage.
Hallowed be your Name
Hallowed
So what does hallowed mean? Its a word we rarely hear outside of church. Perhaps you've heard people speak of the 'hallowed turf (or ground)' when talking about a football or cricket pitch. It means that the place is set aside and treated with special respect.
In religious terms Hollowed means
'made holy' – set aside for God – and therefore it will be
treated with special respect – we call that reverence.
How can God's name be made holy?
Well, obviously it can't – it is
already holy, so why is this line right at the start of the Lords
Prayer?
We are simply asking that God's name
is treated with the respect and reverence it deserves. Even a glance
at popular culture will tell you that God is treated as an after
thought. God's name is treated as an exclamation of surprise - “Oh,
my God!”, or disappointment, or disapproval - “God!” or
sometimes “good God!”, or “Jesus Christ”.
How do you react when you hear these phrases. When someone says “Oh my God!” I always want to reply “So long as it's your God and not mine.” - but I haven't yet. And for “Jesus Christ” I've occasionally said the persons name with the same inflexion – which usually gets a reaction.
We are to participate in the job of
making God's name holy. Something that God is passionate about.
Here's one place where we can live our lives distinctively, so it may not be said of us as it was said of the Romans “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Romans 2:24.
Name
God's name is important because it
speaks of His Character. What do you call God? Yahweh, God, Jesus,
Lord, Father, Creator, Lord Almighty, Good Lord – there are many
more descriptive titles in the Old Testament. God told Moses to tell
the Egyptians that “I AM” had sent him. Its that question “Who
sent you?” and the response of the name that shows what the prayer
is trying to get at.
If God is properly respected his
message will be properly respected (and by extension his messenger,
although that is less important). It means our job of telling others
about Him and His love for us becomes easier too.
Conclusion
Our dad in heaven, hallowed be your
name.
So teaching the Lord's prayer is like teaching the A, B, C. It is a fundamental part of understanding the language that you are going to use, but it is not the language itself.
Today we have looked at the first
phrase of the prayer – the “A” of the A, B, C.
When you go into your room and shut
the door, so that you are alone with God, how will you start your
prayer? What will go in the template where it says “Our father in
heaven, hallowed be your name”?
How will you tell God what He means
to you?
How will you express yourself and
make use of the privilege of being allowed to call God dad?
Saying the prayer as we do in church
and at bedtime with the children is good teaching, but it is not good
praying. To pray properly we must first have a personal relationship
with our dad in heaven, then we can talk with Him in our own language
in our own way, not by reciting a formula.
Go on, give it a try. Trying things
out is after all the way children learn.
