Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRO - Lord’s prayer, how often think about the meaning, not just saying the words - words Jesus taught us to pray - model and general example of how to pray - God doesn’t want empty rituals, but rather longs to hear the desires of our hearts - whether we pray these exact words or follow this model of prayer is not what I think is important - I believe it is important that we are praying to our Father often, both individually and corporately - next six weeks digging into the richness and historical meaning behind these words that we so easily recite, but likely do not spend much time reflecting on.

Have you ever tried a “trust fall”?

It’s when a person will free-fall backward into the arms of someone or a group of people.

It is supposed to build trust and teamwork.

How easy is it to fall backwards and trust that the people behind you will catch you?

There’s all kinds of comical videos of setting up for a trust fall and the people are behind ready to catch the person on the chair who ends up falling forward instead!

In all seriousness, however, similar to a trust fall exercise we need to understand that we need each other in our faith.

Yes, we do need to have faith that God will be our comfort, peace, protector, and will catch us when we fall, there are so many scenarios that remind us that we need each other as we walk through this life.

Have you ever been struggling and just need encouragement?

The body of Christ should be that encouragement for you.

The body of Christ being together is such an important part of our faith - we were not created to do life alone.

We need each other.

This points directly to a word in the Lord’s prayer that I think we often overlook.

“Our.”

The “our” underscores the social nature of our faith.

Our is a first person plural possessive.

It is a word that draws us together as we pray to “our” father.

Even if we are praying alone physically, we need to remember that we are never alone in praying to “our” father.

Michael Lodahl writes in “Praying with Jesus,”

“John Wesley famously said, “There is no holiness but social holiness” because we are members of the body of Christ.

If Wesley was right about that, then in a very important sense there is also no prayer but social prayer.

Because we pray as a people, even when we pray alone, we are incorporated together as a people into the beauty of Jesus’s relationship to his Father.”

(p.

17)

In Matthew 11:25-30, we see Jesus instruct us to refer to God as our Father, which is the same way he addresses God.

This is very important for us not to miss.

Jesus’s intimacy with the Father is in verse 27.

The Son knows the Father and the Father the Son.

But did you catch the last part?

The Son chooses to reveal God to us.

WOW!

What a loving God we serve.

Jesus is inviting us into the same intimate communion with himself and with his Father.

This is a big deal.

It is what Jesus came to this earth to do.

He came to provide a way for us to be restored in the relationship that we were created for - intimate relationship with God.

Let’s take a close look at verse 28-30.

Jesus is offering us rest and asking us to take up his yoke, learning from him.

The rest Jesus is talking about is rest for our souls - the only true refreshing I have ever experienced in my own life.

To share in Jesus’s yoke is also part of sharing in the intimacy with God that Jesus is offering us.

Part of sharing in this social holiness is understanding that we become part of the common life of the body of Christ.

Part of that is to understand that our baptism has initiated us into this life.

We share in Christ’s baptism.

God’s announcement at Jesus’s baptism (“This is my Son . .

.”) is extended to us in our baptism.

We become God’s children, claimed by God. if we are truly to share in Christ’s baptism, we need to be truly dead to sin and alive in Jesus Christ.

Since we are claimed by God in baptism, Jesus also acknowledges us as his family of brothers, sisters, and mothers who have one Father (Matthew 12:46–50).

Jesus himself tells us that we are his family if we are his disciple.

If we are truly alive to God in Christ Jesus, we share the inheritance along with Jesus.

Amen?!?!

Life under God’s rule is a common life of mutual servanthood as we see in Matthew 23:1–12.

We are called to be servants of others with a heavenly father called to this life of mutual servanthood.

As we have talked a bit about this common life of mutual servanthood and how prayer is corporate and praying in community is important, we also need to remember that praying in community does not mean there is no room for individual prayers.

We see examples of such prayers throughout Scripture.

Psalm 139 is a great example: “Search me, O God, and know my heart.”

This is an individual prayer of David and one that would be wise for us to pray on a regular basis as well.

This particular prayer of David has become a hymn that has been used in corporate social gatherings of the body of Christ for many years.

Prayer is certainly individual in nature between us and God, in fact we are told to go into our room and close the door to pray to our Father who is unseen and not to be seen by others.

However, prayer is also a very important part of the social and communal gathering of the body of Christ.

Lastly, we must be careful to recognize that the word “father” is not a word of positive associations for many in our world today.

We live in a world that is broken, and there are many who have been hurt by an earthly father or abandoned by an earthly father.

This word can be a word of hurt and pain rather than a word of hope as those of us who know God as our father personally would understand it.

This is a reality we cannot ignore nor is it something we should just skip over.

Instead, we must learn of the ways that Jesus and God our Father redeem this world for us by their very goodness.

This is where discipleship is important.

We need to help people experience God and learn about his goodness and all the ways he cares for us.

Jesus often uses the word “Abba” when he speaks to the Father, indicating an intimate relationship of deep trust and connection.

We can understand the goodness of God the Father by using an idea adapted from the Catholic theologian Elizabeth Johnson: “The problem is not that God is called ‘Father’ but that more fathers are not like God.” (See Praying with Jesus p. 29.) Lodahl writes:

When we address God as father, we are confessing this particular rendering of God that Jesus has shared with us.

And what sort of Father is this?

Authoritarian?

Aloof?

Abusive?

Hardly!

Roman Catholic theologian Elizabeth Johnson writes that, in Jesus’ understanding, “Abba is the very opposite of a dominating patriarch.

Rather, this compassionate, intimate, and close Abba releases everyone from patterns of domination and calls for another kind of community.

Earthly fathers should certainly aspire to be more like God, but we must remember that earthly fathers are human and at times do not always portray the best image of God.

God is our heavenly father who is not human, he is Abba, loving, caring, deeply invested, and knowing our needs.

As we reflect on this opening phrase of the Lord’s prayer, may we be emboldened to approach the throne of grace with confidence that God is who he says he is and as God’s beloved children who are not averse to praying, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

The question for us to consider this morning is this.

Have we each found our God to be Abba?

Have we found that our God is loving, caring, deeply invested, and knowing our needs even if that is not the example of an earthly father we have in our lives?

I urge us this morning to seriously consider this question, especially when we pray the Lord’s prayer - there is powerful meaning and reverence behind this opening phrase “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

If you do not know our Abba in this type of intimate way, I invite you this morning to pray, as we sing our closing song, Open the Eyes of my Heart.

The altar is always open, but know that you can pray anywhere, even where you are seated.

Close with Lord’s prayer.

Benediction - “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.”