Back to Sermon Index The Great house of God...The Foundation February 17, 2008 One of the television shows I like to watch are those home fixer upper shows....where the person buys some old run down home and then tries to turn it into something to be proud of (and sell for a profit...it is, after all, America!). The one thing I have learned from these shows it that when you buy a home you should get inspections. Time and again, the show tells the story of someone who was in too big a hurry or who did not want to spend the $300 on an inspection...only to rue the day later when they discover all that is wrong with the house! But a house is more than just a building. It becomes a home as you live and love and work in it. And it comes to hold a unique place in your heart. There are some places that we always think of as more than just a shelter...but as home. And so it is with the Lord's prayer. It is so much more than just a prayer that we are supposed to memorize and say each week. It is a prayer that we can live and grow in and it becomes for us an outline for our relationship with God. Max Lucado wrote a book on the Lord's prayer, one of many that are out there, that uses the image of the home as an analogy for our life of prayer. And it makes sense. So many times people do not feel at home in prayer. They feel like visitors, like someone who can't put their feet up on the coffee table and who is afraid of leaving a ring on the coffee table...or disturbing something important or precious. Prayer should not feel like that. It should feel as comfortable as an old sweater and as lived in as our home. A place where we feel comfortable enough to talk to God...really talk to Him, being honest and real. A place where your are known and loved anyway and where you can rest and find strength for your life. Jesus gives us some general instruction about prayer that are an important beginning place for us. Jesus assumes that we will be people of prayer. He does not instruct us to pray, but merely says "When you pray"! for the Christian, prayer should be like breathing...a natural and necessary part of our life. Something that we often do without even being aware of it. Jesus said that we were to make time for devoted prayer...to go away from the distractions and demands of life...to go into your room and close the door. The room may have four wheels, or be your back yard patio...somewhere where you can be alone with God. And when you pray, relax! Don't worry about what to say or how your prayers sound...listen, God knows what you need and what you want to say before you do! And God is not impressed by either the eloquence of your words or their number. Just talk to Him! When you pray, pray like this. The Lord's prayer is not something that we are supposed to repeat without thinking about it. Jesus had just warned us not to pray with mindless repetition. This prayer can be said by itself, and we make it our own by being purposeful as we pray it. but it can also be seen as an outline for the life of prayer...for the great house of God into which we are invited to come and live. And when you do, begin at the beginning. The foundation of the life of prayer is knowing who God is. This may seem like something that we can take for granted, but just like in the building trade...as the foundation goes, so goes the building. You can't build a life of prayer on a false or vague few of God. How can you communicate deeply without really knowing who you are talking to? The prayer begins with an important view of God. Until this time, the Jewish people did not think of God in this term. God was high and lifted up, way above the heavens. God could rarely be bothered to consider the life of an individual person. God was too big for that. Jesus brings us to a new place, a new understanding of God. And who better to give us this view that Jesus. Jesus was from God, and he made clear in his actions and his words that he had a unique relationship with God. That he came from the father and was going back to the father...and even further, that he and the father were one in the same. He said that if you had seen him, you had seen the father. This truth is repeated again and again in Jesus words and actions, and then in the teaching of the early church recorded for us in the rest of the New Testament. John writes that no one has seen God, but Jesus, the one and only, has shown us God. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, the one in whom the fullness of deity dwells in human form. There are many different view or guesses at the nature of God. Some religions teach that God is our judge, who keeps track of our sinful acts and there awaits for us judgment and punishment when we die. Others teach that God is some great amorphous spirit that is everything and nothing at the same time...and that we are too unimportant and insiginificant for God to even notice, much less really care about or be involved with. This is set against Jesus teaching here in the prayer that God is more than a supreme being of great power and wisdom, but that we should address God as our father. Jesus has several choices when he gives us this title; he could have used some formal term or some legal description, but he chooses a word that is VERY significant. He uses the word ABBA. This is not a Swedish singing group, but the Hebrew word of Daddy. It can also be translated Dad or Pops. The word picture is of a father who tenderly cares for his children, who call out in excitement when he comes home. Abba! Daddy! Jesus reminds us that God cares for us and wants to provide for us. He said which of us, as parents, would give our child a rock to chew on if they asked for a piece of bread? Who among us would give our child something dangerous and painful if they merely ask for something that they need...then Jesus draws the comparison; if you, being human and sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children...how much more then will God..who is perfect in love and grace, give to those who ask him? God is not too busy to listen. God desires to give to us, to help us, to heal us, to make us whole and set us on the right path. God wants us to pray, and desires to answer us with more than we can ask or even imagine possible. This is the foundation of the house of prayer. Who God is, who are you talking to...This is the foundation of prayer. God desires to be to us as close as a father and as tender as a mother. God knows who you are, God knows more about you than you know of yourself. The very number of hairs on your head are known to God...your rising up and your laying down and everything in between. He knows your hurts and your fears and your hopes and dreams...and he loves you. He loves you enough to send him Jesus to be the means by which our sins are forgiven. Forgiveness that comes not by word only, but is demonstrated in Jesus life and more importantly, in his death on the cross. The Church is clear when they speak of it, that he died for our sins. Not for some political cause or reason, not a miscalculation or mistake...but a purposeful act of love and sacrifice. For you and for me. The other part of this beginning of prayer that we must take a moment to lift up is the OUR. OUR Father, who art in heaven...holy is your name. Jesus invites us to begin the pray by remembering that we are part of a faith community. That God is not just my ABBA, but our ABBA. That we are in this life together, and when we pray we bring our own needs and desires to God, but we must also remember that we are part of a people who are redeemed. Prayer reminds us that we are not alone and that we walk the path of faith with friends to hold our hand and help us over the rough spots. In God, we have brothers and sisters who encourage us and pray for us and with us. As much as God loves me, he loves you. This is the beginning of prayer...that God is like our loving Mom and caring Dad. This is the foundation upon which the whole house rests. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever....AMEN. Back to Sermon Index