"Our Father, hallowed be they name!"

The centrality of the Cross

Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus,

What is it that fills your heart Sunday mornings as you prepare to come to church?

What is it that fills your heart Sunday mornings as you prepare for church?

So, what is it that fills your heart and your emotions Sunday mornings?

And what about other days - at the start of each new day; and at the end of it?

And what about other days - at the start of each new day; and at the end of it?

What is it that will fill our lives to our joy and happiness, not only on Sunday mornings as we prepare for church, but all of our lives?

Allow me to proclaim, friends, that for Christians, what should be at the centre of our thoughts and indeed at the centre of our very existence - NO MATTER WHAT! - is … The Cross

Please hold on to that thought!

Imagine this: It is the start of a new day. You wake, rub, or wash, the sleep from your eyes, and as your thoughts gather momentum, you think what you might do next ...

You are 16. Your parents are awake - you know because you hear them talking at the breakfast table … and immediately your thoughts are turned to the bacon and eggs you know will be ready when you join your family (one younger brother, one older, 21- a severe epileptic).

And then! Just as you leave your room, there is a commotion. You hear a chair kicked out; your mother shrieks, calls to her husband - “Lovey, Help”!

And then you hear that by now familiar, near demonic sound of your brother in that absolute power of an epileptic fit, a grand mal seizure in all of its horror!

As he kicks around, foam around his mouth, eyes wide open in a siteless stare - all your father can do is hold him, so that he will not hurt himself, more!

And all your mother can do, is sob! Cry for a child she loves, but who confuses her with his outbreaks of angry violence. “Lord, teach me to pray ...”

And at once, the relative peace of that morning is shattered!

Welcome to the real world! This BROKEN world!

Welcome to the reason for - The Cross! brothers and sisters!

(But at such moments, of course, the cross - and even Jesus on it - is far from our thoughts - we are, each of us, to entangled in our own immediate experience of this chaos in our lives, you see!

And yet … If only we would see … the Cross - especially in those moments of chaos in our lives - then we would be healed! And our fears will subside; our pain would be dimmed - if only we would see, the Cross! again, at the centre of our lives, again, and with all it represents: sin, suffering death - resurrection!

I remember well those moments of chaos!

And I remember well how intensely aware I was of the contrast of such chaos - that “inner peace”!

… to the degree that I imagined a family of dwarfs who lived outside my bedroom window, among the flowers and the ferns ...

I swear to this day they were really there … !

Do you have an equivalent story, friend?

What constitutes your chaos?

What gives you the strength to counter the chaos, to continue on on this world’s chaotic journey?

Have you ever caught yourself saying … “all I can do now, is pray?”

Let’s join the disciples who have started following Jesus in His times on His own chaotic journey!

Matt 4: 23-25

Matthew 4:23–25 CSB

23 Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And he healed them. 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

See? There they are! - There “we” are!

- “all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics.” (Matt 4: 24).

Remember, Jesus is “resolutely” on His way to Jerusalem - and the Cross! He knows it! This is the journey about which he will soon plead with His father to “let this cup pass me by, Father”

Matthew 26: 39

Matthew 26:39 CSB

39 Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

But in the meantime, Jesus’ followers flock to Him!

They do not know yet what is about to happen!

They do not understand, yet, what is happening even as they turn to Jesus to heal them!

All they know is that here, at the feet of Jesus, there is healing for their immediate ails and pains!

Oh, if only they could see the Cross that Jesus was bearing EVEN THEN as he resolutely continues on the journey to Jerusalem, where He will be beaten, spat on, nailed to that damned Cross! … for the sake of His people, you, and I!

But Jesus knows! Jesus, the Christ, knows what lies ahead - The Cross! - and He knows that He has to die on that Cross, so that the chaos of this broken life will subside!

And so He starts to prepare His followers to get to understand this, too - so that they will forevermore fix their hope and consolation … on THE CROSS!

So He preaches the greatest sermon ever preached - Matthew 5! the Sermon on the mount - because, you see, “The sermon on the Mount” is all about the World once perfect and peaceful, then, now … filled with fear and confusion and anxiety, by mankind's own free willed rebellion against God, no less, and about the love that would rectify this chaos once and for all. It is, in a word, all about the Cross! The Love that would ave the world!

And as part of the sermon, When Jesus followers (His disciples) ask Him about a remedy they too may employ to stand strong against the Chaos, Jesus teaches them to pray.

Jesus teaches His followers to pray

So, picking up the story: In the days before Jesus final journey to Jerusalem, while He was preaching the Sermon on the Mount, at that time Jesus disciples ask: Teach us to pray”

They ask this even as they have started following Jesus, bringing to Him for His healing the lame, and even the dead!

They ask, because they have seen Jesus Himself pray!

And with His prayers have come the miracles of life!

And now they want in on that action!

And so they say, “Lord, teach us to pray, too.”

Luke 11:1-2

Luke 11:1–2 CSB

1 He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say, Father, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come.

Friends, and this is where I want us to pause for a moment - and then abruptly stop this morning!

Please pause here for a moment. Here beneath the Cross! In prayer, no less ...

See How the Lord teaches His disciples - you and me - to pray? Even as we focus this morning just on that first few sentences of the Lord’s prayer?

Jesus’ first instruction to His disciples, is that they should say, when they pray: “Father, hallowed be they name!”

Or in the very good translation of the CSB, “Father, your name be honoured as holy. Your Kingdom come!”

What does that even mean?

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Remember I asked that you hold on to a thought? Well, now, please let it come to the fore again ...

Remember, at the beginning of the sermon, we asked the question, “what is it that will fill our lives to our joy and happiness, not only on Sunday mornings as we prepare for church, but all of our lives?”

We could as easily have asked: “What constitutes our kingdom?”

And following on from that is the question, what do we bank on? When we are lonely, who - or what - do we turn to?

Where do we go to find happiness and meaning?

By now we have all probably lived long enough to realise that the kingdom we have made for ourselves and continue to redesign towards human satisfaction, looks quite different to the kingdom God gave us in the beginning. Our lives are not the lives of Adam and Eve before the fall!

And when we discover we have nowhere else to turn we might ask: OK Lord, teach us to pray Your way then ...

And then we hear Jesus say: You should fix your hearts and minds on a different Kingdom!

Pray that God’s kingdom will come!

His answer, is: “Say, Father, may your name be honoured as Holy. Your Kingdom come!”

Let’s break that up:

“Father” - That is, “Our Father! Creator of heaven and earth” You, who formed me in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:13

Psalm 139:13 HCSB

13 For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Father! Almighty God! Here our prayers!

And then:

“Your name be honoured as holy!”

Honoured, as in Psalm 19: 1

Psalm 19:1 CSB

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.

Honoured, as in “You are Holy, and we are unworthy even to come into your presence.”

Isaiah once had a glimpse of what this means: Isa. 6: 1-3

Isaiah 6:1–3 CSB

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.

Are you starting to see?

You see, when we pray, we are not to be deceitful, imagining we can fool God, like Adam and Eve once believed they could hide in the garden.

We should not be babblers, chanting rituals and sorcery, as if God is able to be manipulated by the slight of hand of a magician!

Matt 6: 5-8

Matthew 6:5–8 HCSB

5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! 6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 When you pray, don’t babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.

No! When we pray, let us pray like Jesus teaches us to pray, always and forever starting … well, as if at the foot of the Cross!

Because you see, that is where we become most aware of the sin and suffering that was beset on this world by mankind's foolhardiness!

It is at the foot of the Cross, as we look up, where we see what the cost is for the Holiness God demands.

Imagine you were Jesus mother, who stood there on the day of Jesus Crucifixion, looking up, and slowly the life and times that Jesus and His mother had had, starts making sense:

At age 12, the “why were you looking for me?” Luke 2: 49

Luke 2:49 HCSB

49 “Why were you searching for Me?” He asked them. “Didn’t you know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”

The changing of the water into wine ...

And Mary starts to realise … This Jesus, crucified, is God! He holds the whole world in His hands!

And He knows you by name!

Pray to Him: Our father, who is in heaven!

And there, at the Cross, moments before Jesus dies ...

John 19: 25-30

John 19:25–30 HCSB

25 Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple He loved standing there, He said to His mother, “Woman, here is your son.” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. 28 After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He said, “I’m thirsty!” 29 A jar full of sour wine was sitting there; so they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on hyssop and held it up to His mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” Then bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Can you see it? - The Cross is at the centre of the Universe!

It is to the Cross we should come, with our hopes, our fears, our cares and sorrows ...

NO MATTER WHAT! - … Let The Cross be at the centre of your existence!

In all of life - and especially as we pray!

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It was my broken, epileptic brother, who first taught me to pray the Lord’s prayer. Yes, even him!

On the afternoon that he taught me, we were in his room, and my parents and several of their friends were having a laugh and a chat in the lounge - the sound of their voices a bit of a disturbance in our room.

At one point, after teaching me the words of the Lords prayer for quite a while, and happy that I now knew it, my brother suggested I pray, for real this time, not in repetition, as we both bowed our heads before God:

At that moment, the noise from our sitting room died away!

Afterwards, I asked my brother: “How come it is so quiet all of a sudden?” and my brother replied:

“It is God who has made it quiet so that we could pray!” He believed it!

I believed! I still do! And it was gloriously quite while we prayed!

I still recall that moment as one of the great moments of peace that I had experienced throughout my life - and of coming to an understanding of a most awesome, gracious, holy God!

“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name! … //////

And the people of God said … AMEN!

Amen

Let’s pray the Lord’s prayer together!

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:20 PM March 30, 2019.