Abba
Notes
Transcript
When we pray, do we know who we are talking to? We speak to the Creator God whose very name is pure, sacred, hallowed. He is in the heavens: the spiritual country, the stars above, and the air against our skin all at once. And yet we are invited to call him “Dad.” This is the great invitation of Jesus - intimate ongoing relationship with the King of the Universe.
Transition to Communion: that invitation to intimate relationship with Jesus is free to us, but it isn’t free. Jesus built that bridge with his body and blood.
Who Are You Talking To?
Who Are You Talking To?
I texted a friend the other day.
I was so ticked. They didn’t text me back. Like a long time.
So, turns out I was the idiot. I texted an old number so, of course, they never got my message.
Texting the wrong number. I have old numbers on my phone. Have to do a little juggle, search each number to see what number I have gotten texts back from.
Recap
Recap
Jesus is teaching us what life with God is like. Leading us through spiritual disciplines to live in the fullness, the righteousness He has created and given us.
And, in rejection of every fake just-for-show prayer, he teaches us simple and private and deeply personal prayer.
And it all starts like this: who are we praying to?
Who are we talking to?
Pray Like This
Pray Like This
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Simple words. Profound revelation.
Let’s go backwards through it, shall we?
Hallowed Be Your Name
Hallowed Be Your Name
Matthew 6:9 (ESV)
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
The “name” is more than the syllables of address. It stands for the whole person, more than titles… it is all that He is — his character, his plan, his will.
We capture this idea still today.
“Dragging his name through the mud” or “your name is mud” means to demean or dishonor someone’s character.
If you “have your name in lights” that’s indicative of your fame and glory.
You think of noble houses protecting the honor, the legacy of their name. For Mackintosh and Freedom!!! (Or something)
God’s name… is holy. Hallowed. Made holy, made sacred.
Holy is to be set apart, sacred, fundamentally other. It is the holiness of God that makes Him unapproachable in light and splendor. It is the Holiest of Holies that the high priest only enters once a year.
It is the Holiness of God, the sacred otherness, that lit up Moses’ face for weeks after beholding just the edge of it.
Holiness is not something we know and apply to God as “one of those.” We know it only in the context of who He has revealed himself to be. He has placed a sense of the “holy”, the “sacred” within our soul, made in His image… and then taught His creation the “holiness” of His name.
His holiness is dangerous, to touch even the symbols of His holiness like the Ark of the Covenant is insta-death. It is unapproachable and other, it is mysterious and terrifying, it is dangerous and terrible, awful and awesome.
He is “separate” from all creation, pure and utterly incorruptible.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
How holy is he? 3 times holy. All the way holy.
Sing: Faith and Wonder
The one in the heavens
The one in the heavens
Matthew 6:9 (ESV)
Pray then like this: “Our Father, the one in the heavens, hallowed be your name.
The word there is plural. The heavens.
Hebrew and Aramaic has “shamayim” and it has three meanings.
It is the place where God dwells. The hosts of heaven, hordes of spiritual creatures of all kinds of levels. Extra-terrestrial life beyond our knowledge, beyond our understanding. What would surely be seen as gods to us, and all in heaven submitting to their King, the one on the throne, the God of gods, the King of kings, the Highest, the First, the Creator even of the heavens.
Like we saw a bit there in Isaiah with the Seraphim, when the prophets glimpse that realm they paint us crazy pictures using the best analogies they have, wings and eyes everywhere, symbolic aspects of animals, gold and precious jewels… but it’s all a shadow to what I think is blowing their actual minds.
Yes, our Father is there, in the heavens.
But Shamayim also means the firmament, the place where the planets dwell, the place where the stars hang. The uncounted stars. In a world before artificial light the stars were so much more visible, looking out over the night sky, over the Mediterranean sea or Lake Galilee, the heavens revealing themselves.
And they could only see a fraction of a fraction. As we learn and discover the Universe God has created, we can’t comprehend the size of it, the expanding glory of it, and it all declares His glory.
Science doesn’t diminish it, it deepens our understanding of it, and underlines again and again how far above and beyond He was and is and will always be.
Yes, our Father is there, the one in the heavens.
It is no accident that the related word, ruach, is breath and spirit. Ruach, breath and spirit. Shamayim: heavens (where spirit dwells) and air in our lungs.
It is no accident that the related word, ruach, is breath and spirit. Ruach, breath and spirit. Samayim: heavens (where spirit dwells) and air all around us.
Yes, God in the heavens, He dwells in Spirit in infinite glory amongst all the heavenly hosts.
Yes, God in the heavens, He inhabits the Universe, across galaxies and beyond, spinning black holes and birthing stars, in majestic splendor.
Yes, God in the heavens, as close as your next breath, inhabiting the space you walk through and the very breath you draw into your lungs.
Our Father, the one in the heavens, hallowed be your name.
Sing: God of Wonders
Abba
Abba
Matthew 6:9 (ESV)
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
The Greek word here is “pater” (from which we get “paternal”), but Jesus is likely speaking Aramaic, and many times the gospels transliterate what he actually calls his father.
Abba.
Paul even puts these words together in
This is a new thing Jesus is teaching. I don’t think I knew that before, that God never called himself
Closest I could find was by analogy, God is kind of like a father, and only in the Psalm:
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
(The 2nd verse, not as friendly as the first).
So the Bible calls Him father-like...
Or God himself calls His people sons and daughter:
“You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead.
(Good rule that, don’t make any baldness on your foreheads!)
God calls us sons… but I couldn’t find any verse where a human had the courage to call Him Father!
Jesus is teaching a new thing here. Not just that he can call God “Father”… showing himself to be the Son of God.
He says “pray this way” and then says “Father. Abba.”
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Paul equates these two words. And again:
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Hear the similarity there? A “liturgical reminiscence...” likely picking up from the Lord’s Prayer.
It denotes childlike intimacy and trust, not disrespect.
Matthew 6:9 (ESV)
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
And so people translate this with more intimate language, and each one carries some baggage with it.
Dad. Daddy. Pappy. Pa pa!
If one gives you the heeby jeebies, skip it. Jesus wasn’t trying to be weird or to show off.
He was inviting us into a whole new level of intimacy, of connection, of relationship. Still with the Holiest of Holies, Hallowed be His Name.
Still in the heavens, both as far away from us as possible… and as close as our next breath.
And… Dad. That’s my favorite. I’m not being cute, or smarmy, I’m not trying to signal spiritual closeness to others (remember this in private and secret prayer).
Dad.
Now, depending on your relationship with your Dad, that brings some associations. Our heavenly Father is the perfect Father… Ideal Fatherhood is a reflection of who He is, not a convenient metaphor for God that he picked up.
Sadly, our fathers aren’t perfect. Mine is close, but there’s some sin in there, some mistakes.
I bet there is some hard in your history, your relationship with your Dad, or father figures in your life… or some holes there where that was just missing.
I pray for healing in you, healing over those wounds… that isn’t God. That isn’t your heavenly Father. Your heavenly Dad.
He has been a Father since before time. He is always loving and always good. He is always there. He is always “for” you, not against you.
He is, and was, and will always be.
And He now calls you: Son. Daughter. Beloved.
Sing: Forever (I’ll worship at your throne)
Communion
Communion
Why can we have this incredibly intimate conversation with our Father?
Why can we enter into His unapproachable holiness?
It is free to us… but it isn’t free.
Jesus, the Son of God, lived a perfect and holy life. And then he laid it down for you and me.
We remember his death… until He comes again and we join Him in eternal resurrected life.
Prayer
Prayer
Invitation to congregational prayer. Close with:
With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.