Matthew 6: 9-13 “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name”

For the next few weeks we are going to be having a different type of sermon series. We are going to be reading the same scripture passage week after week, with the exception of next week, and  working our way through it in order to grow in our prayer life by discussing the Lord’s Prayer. Its a prayer that some of us learned as children and that we pray corporately every week, but how many of us have slowly and consider what exactly we are praying as we join with the saints through the ages praying this prayer of the first disciples?

For some of you it may seem to go too slow, dragging on week after week. In this fast paced world where information can travel, seemingly at an instantaneous speed, it can be hard to concentrate on one topic. I invite you to let go and sink into the holy word of God. Soaking in this prayer. Letting God know if you are feeling frustrated by intentionally slowing down. For others of you, this will give you the pace that you have been craving. The ability to just be in the word of God. Claim and relish that. Lean into the word of God and see how you it effects your prayer life and our life together.

This sermon series is based off a book by Pastor Max Lucado entitled The Great House of God. Lucado has the premise that the Lord’s Prayer should be seen as a house. A Home for your heart. A place to dwell and grow with God. This may seem like an odd way to think of prayer, but for a moment think about your home. Perhaps its the house your grew up in. Maybe it was your first home when you left your parents. Maybe its the house you are living in now. Think about a house that special to you. A house that you consider your home. There is truly a difference between a house - something that provides us shelter, but perhaps not safety and comfort, and a home - that place where we can be fully ourselves, fully alive. 

Just as we have a place that we consider to be our physical home, so do we have a spiritual home. St Theresa of Avila, a spiritual writer, describes this home as the interior castle. The place that is built upon the foundation of our spiritual lives and where we dwell with God. Where we can just be ourselves, filled by the Holy Spirit and fully alive in the presence of God. But a house doesn’t become a home overnight. And it needs to be tended to with extra care because it is home to your soul.

Some of you know that every year a group of people from the church are needed to walk through the parsonage and look things over. To make lists of things that need to be immediately taken care of. Things that will need to be taken care of in the next year, the next five years, and maybe even a wish list of things to add to the living space for the pastor and his or her family. You probably have had such lists for your own home. Upkeep lists. Dream lists. Things that you need to take care of so the house can be maintained instead of falling apart. So does our spiritual home need maintenance, yet far too few of us think of caring for our spiritual lives in such a way. This is especially important because we are not only invited to dwell with God in this spiritual home, but to dwell in God. What a radical thought expressed by the Apostle Paul when he says, “in God we live and move and have our being”. (Acts 17:28)

Do you know God with this level of familiarity? What amazes you about it? What concerns you? God is our home where we can find comfort, peace, refreshment, solitude, guidance. Maybe this idea of being that intimate with God excites you, energizes you, rejuvenates you. Maybe you need time to consider it because it is so new. You’ve only heard God discussed as a distant deity instead of a loving parent, a home. Maybe you don’t want to be that close to God because you are afraid that God won’t love you, won’t want you. Whatever you may be feeling and thinking friends, let us dive into exploring this spiritual house together. Live into it. Taking time to use the Lord’s prayer to examine ourselves the next several weeks and continuing the build upon that foundation for our spiritual home. 

Christ our Lord and Savior invites us into this house of God by telling his disciples to pray saying, “Our Father”. For some of us the image of Father brings up problems. It drags up painful memories of our own Father’s who may have hurt us physically or emotionally. Or abandoned us. For others it is a beautiful reflection of our own Father’s love for us. But how many of us when we hear the words “Our Father” think first to the story Jesus tells of the prodigal son. The son who disowned his father, squandered his inheritance, and then returned thinking he would work for his father as a hired hand, only to find out that he celebrated, love, reinstated. We were once far from our Heavenly Father, separated by sin. But now we are welcomed into the Kingdom in loving arms. This is the Father we pray to. The one who loves us unconditional, with an eternal forgiveness. The one who reminds us that while we may want to stop being God’s child, disowning Him, he will never stop being our Father.

The word used in scripture is even more intimate. Abba. Our Daddy. The one that we run to as children when we have a scraped knee, a bruised heart, or have accomplished something wonderful during the day. A family relationship that we are welcomed in to through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

In Bible Study this past Monday we were discussing one of the Biblical billboards in the area that in King James verse instructs people to fear the Lord. The fear that is being illustrated in more akin to respect. The respect that you have for a parent who loves you. Who discipline you. Who has hopes and dreams for you. This is our Daddy. The one to whom we pray. The one who wants a relationship with us. 

Many of us have a difficult time with this concept of God as our daddy, not because of how we view our earthly father, but because of the next line in the prayer - who is in Heaven. We think of God as someone who is remotely out there instead of intimately with us. But we dismiss what that powerful statement is actually communicating. We have a Heavenly Parent who is. Not who was. Not who will be. But is, The God who is strong. Who is powerful. Who is compassionate. Who is loving. Who is more then we can ever imagine. The God who is. 

Our God is Lord of Heaven and Earth. Our Daddy rules the universe. Sometimes its easy to forget this, but our God in Heaven is not stated to make us think that distant but to remind us how ever present and ever close God really is. What God created. That God is the master of all. That God is higher then us.

Our God’s name is Hallowed. Holy. To be worshiped. Sacred. Revered. But this Holy God, creator and master of all, is still our loving Father. Who tells us that we don’t need to pray a certain way or have the exact words, but simply invites us to come. To come and sit with him. To be still and silent and listen for his loving voice. 

One of my favorite praise songs isn’t sung very often. Maybe because its not upbeat. Maybe because it just isn’t known very well. But its entitled ‘If I Could Just Sit With You Awhile’. “If I could just sit with you a while. If you could just hold me. Nothing could touch me though I’m wounded, though I die. If I could just sit you a while, I need you to hold me, moment by moment until forever passes by.” Friends, we have a holy, loving, Father who invites us to just come and sit with him in prayer. To cry. To be silent. To express our heart’s joy. To tell Him about our day. And to be loved. When is the last time you have ran to be with this God? When is the last time you just sat in God’s presence, listening for the voice of holy love instead of talking? When is the last time who praised our God who is the rock of our faith and the cornerstone of our spiritual home? And how can looking to God our Father, who is in heaven, and proclaiming that his name is hallowed effect your prayer life this week? Amen.