Address Him Properly

Do you remember when Jesus was on trial illegally?  During that time he was standing before the high priest, and he spoke in a way that one of the guards did not think was proper. The guard struck him for not addressing the high priest as he should. The same thing happened to Paul! Whenever we address God, too often it seems like we are ready to be struck by an angel or another believer for not addressing him properly.

It’s almost like we can ask the wrong kind of question. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that we should come before God with great reference. However, we also need to make sure that we understand what’s going on here in this prayer that Jesus offers up. Let’s start from the end and work to the beginning…

Of course, I’m not gonna go all the way to the end of the Lord’s prayer. Instead, today, I only want to deal with the part where we are addressing God… For who He is. Because of course, the entire prayer is an address to God. If you look at Matthew 6:9–10, what you find is that this portion of the Amidah or the Lord‘s prayer, is intended to help focus our minds on who God is. These two verses say, “Our Father, in heaven, holy, is your name. Your kingdom come. You will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.”

Let’s not race past any of this… But again let’s start from the end and work to the beginning. There are three things that we really need to deal with in this. God’s will be done, His holy name, and who He is. As we begin at the end, if we think about the fact that Jesus taught us that following God‘s will is necessary and good, but also that God recognizes we are dust, we find that there is mercy for our mistakes and grace to bring us into His presence… Not a cheap Grace, but a Grace that was extended through Jesus suffering and death on the cross. Jesus Himself, from the garden, prayed not My will, but your will be done.  All who are followers of Jesus should pray the exact same. Too often we live, though, as if it’s my will not Thy will be done.  If we are to follow God’s will, we need to know what He expects of us.  Are we to go to the cross for the sins of mankind?  NO!!  Jesus is the only one who could do that.  We hear what God expects of us in the book of Micah 6:8.  “What does the Lord require of you, O man?  To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the LORD your God.”  Jesus offers the commandments summed in the following: Love the Lord with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Interesting enough, these two things are the same, just reversed.  Have you ever thought that you really cannot do one without the other?  You cannot love man completely without loving God first.  You cannot love God without loving man.  Why?  Man is the physical representation of God, not because we are God, but because we are made in His image.  The problem is that when we begin doing things that we feel are right, moving away from the word of God, we begin making God in our image rather than the reverse.  I would bet that the Jews during the time of the Judges would have thought they were following the will of God when it says that everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  It is necessary for us to consider what God has told us through His word, rather than just attempting to evaluate what feels right to each of us.  If we are to revere God’s will above our own, that means that He must be held in high esteem.  It is interesting in that we often do not get God’s will right for our own lives, yet He does not quickly correct us.  Instead, He is patient.

As we step back one phrase, we hear, “hallowed be thy name,” or in a modern sense, “your name is holy.”  It is interesting to think upon this one.  We hear in the 10 commandments, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”  Yet, how often do we hear someone in the church casually throw out exclamations using, “God,” “Jesus Christ,” or “Christ.”  Some might be saying, “Well, Jesus is not God.”  If you are thinking that, you have already begun running down the wrong road.  Jesus, when engaged in His earthly ministry angered the Pharisees.  He asked, “For which of my good works are you going to stone me.”  They responded, “Not for a good work, but for making yourself God.”  Jesus, in claiming to be the Son of God, during those days, was making himself equal with the Father.  So, such exclamations are at best improper uses of God’s name. 

However, it goes deeper than just speaking God’s name incorrectly or casually.  Instead, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, as people who carry the name of Jesus… those who follow God… being set apart for His purposes, taking His name means the way we carry it wherever we go.  Proverbs 30:7-9 reveal that our actions can either honor or cast aspersion on the name of God.  If His name is to be hallowed, or held as holy, how are we helping the world to see that we consider His name to be holy?  How are we showing that we consider Him worthy of doing as He commands?  The way we follow His will above our own can actually reveal that we hold Him in highest regards and reveal Him as holy.

What is God’s name?  Your first answer would probably be, “God.”  However, if you are really looking for the theological gold star, you are going to go with “Yahweh.”  Yet, what is the name you know Him by?  What name does Jesus want us to know Him by?  What name did He offer by teaching the Amidah in this abbreviated version? “Father.”  “Father” is not just a position.  It is a name that children know the male who sired them… at least children who have a relationship with that male figure.  Sometimes, that relationship is not a great relationship.  Yet, when Jesus was admonishing those who were listening to Him to call God “Father,” His proclamation would not have been a stuffy, distant, or angry father.  Instead, He would have been encouraging them to see God as one who is approachable.  Think for a moment.  In His parables later in His ministry… as far as I can recall, Jesus only told one parable which talked about the parent/child relationship.  In doing so, the father was awaiting the return of his son.  When his son was a long way off, the father ran to him.  This was not expected of the father during their days.  It was not about decorum.  It was about the relationship with his child.

So now, with the thought of God as a loving, benevolent Father who should be worshiped, honored, set apart as holy, and followed, I wonder if we can change the way we think about Him.  Over the last few days, I considered a drop of dew on a blade of grass, a spider web illuminated by the presence of water, the sound of a church singing, the sound of laughter from loved ones enjoying time together, the feeling of a hug from someone special.  Not just those, but even the correction of one who cares about another.  Pain which results in future protection.  Loss only to find greater joy because of the loss.  Each of these are gifts which God as a wonderful Father gives.  Even in His wrath, causing Israel’s enemies to overrun them, this was a gift to cause them to turn back to Him… the only one whom they, and we, were made for.  Can we see His benevolence in all that takes place in our lives and then address Him properly?  In glad adoration say, “Father, help me to keep your name holy on my lips and in my life, and may your will be done in my life, in the lives of my friends and family, in my community, in my state, and on this earth as it is in heaven, because You are truly whom we were made for.”