Matthew 6:5-14 (The Message, a Bible Paraphrase by Rev. Dr. Eugene Peterson)
INTRODUCTION [read by liturgist]: Our Scripture reading for this morning is from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 5-14. I will be reading from a paraphrase of the Bible written by Rev. Dr. Eugene Peterson, who writes in the language of contemporary culture. As we listen, Rev. Marlayna invites us to focus on how Jesus instructs us to speak to God.
JESUS SAID:
5 “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?
6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. 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.
14 “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others.
Here ends the reading. May God bless our hearing and acting on these words.
“God, Our Father”
There are a lot of little children in the neighborhood where I live, and I find it fun to watch the new dads interacting with their babies and toddlers. I especially like to watch the faces of these new fathers when their child starts calling them “Daddy”—actually, it’s more like “DaDa”-- for the first time. The faces of these new fathers just light up from the inside like someone turned on a floodlight inside of them—and they can’t stop beaming when they hear this little word formed on the lips of their child. It’s great! I’m not sure exactly why it’s so thrilling to hear that one little word, but if I were to hazard a guess, if I were to put myself in the place of a new father, I’ve got to think that it has something to do with feeling like, “Wow, this little being, this little miracle, has called me by a name which they will call no one else. This little child just acknowledged that they are connected to me in a deeply intimate way—that I am “DaDa”-- the one who loves them, provides for them, takes care of them, protects them and guides them. We have a bond like no other.”
As I thought about this phenomenon—of the attachment between father and child—of the thrill that the father feels when he hears his child speak a term of endearment, I couldn’t help but wonder if God feels the same thrill when we use a similar term in our prayers…
When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he began the prayer with the term, “Our Father.” Now, this is not an unusual way to start a prayer. In the first century A.D., both Jewish and Greek prayers commonly addressed God as “Father.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII, p. 203.) The twist that Jesus puts on the term is that he doesn’t use the formal term for “father” used in most prayers. Rather, Jesus uses the Aramaic term “Abba.” (Aramaic, as you may know, was the common language of the Jewish people that was spoken in the home, among families.) The Aramaic term “Abba” is more accurately translated, “Daddy” or “Papa”—or even “DaDa;” it is a term of endearment and “connotes intimate, personal relationship.” (NIB, Vol. VIII, p. 203.)
Often when we are taught the Lord’s prayer, we think of it as a model on which our prayers should be based. And, that it is. But the more I read and pray and study the Lord’s Prayer, the more I am convinced that Jesus was not as concerned with teaching us what to pray—that is, what words to say, as he was with teaching us how to relate to the God to whom we’re praying. It’s as if Jesus is saying to us, “The actual words you say to God aren’t what’s most important—the most important thing is to recognize your relationship with God.”
As I’ve pondered what it means to be in relationship with a God we are told to call “Daddy,” it occurs to me that the relationship means different things to us as we mature in life and faith.
When we’re are a kid, our earthly Daddy is the one who loves us, provides for us, takes care of us, protects us and guides us—at least, that’s whom most Daddies try to be, and hopefully have some success at being. And, when we’re a kid, that’s also the role God plays for us: God loves us, provides for us, takes care of us, protects us, guides us—and also forgives us when we mess up.
As we grow up and become more independent, our relationship with our earthly Daddy begins to change. We come to realize that our earthly father is a human being in his own right--separate from us but still connected. So, then our relationship with our human father becomes, hopefully, more of two-way street in which we learn to give as well as receive, offer love as well as accept it. In a word, as we mature, our relationship with our human father becomes more mutual.
Our relationship with God, our heavenly father, changes over time in a similar way. As we mature in faith, we come to realize that God isn’t just the anthropomorphic old man with a beard sitting on a throne in heaven looking out for us. We come to realize that God is a being in his/her own right-- not limited by our understanding. We realize that God is Spirit and Truth and Love. God can be called “Mother” as well as “Father.” We come to realize that our relationship with God is also a two-way street in which we learn to give as well as receive, offer love as well as accept it. In a word, as we mature, our relationship with God our heavenly father becomes more mutual.
I saw a comic strip once, years ago, where two people are sitting on a park bench, and one person is complaining about God, saying things like, “I can’t understand how God can allow war and injustice and poverty to continue to plague our world. If God is really ‘Love,’ then why doesn’t God do something about all this?!” In the next frame of the comic strip—it had three frames-- both people were just sitting on the bench in silence, pondering the question, “How can God allow all of these terrible things; why doesn’t God do something?” And, then, in the final frame, the other person finally speaks, saying, “I bet God is asking you the same question. [why don’t you do something.]” (Which reminds me of a line from the prayer I quoted last week, attributed to St. Teresa of Avila: Christ has…No hands, no feet on earth but yours..)
In other words, we are called as Christians not just to be loved, provided for, taken care of, protected, guided, and forgiven—but also we are called to offer love, provision, care, protection, guidance and forgiveness to our fellow human beings—because by doing so, that is the way we love God.
This concept is not new to us. It’s basic Christian ethics. In another context, in a verse we can all quote by heart, Jesus sums it up it this way: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 19:19) And, he sums it up in yet another way when he says elsewhere, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” (Matthew 7:12)
These verses express the way God expects God’s children to behave.
And this behavior--loving our neighbors-- is fairly easy to do, isn’t it? J --until it’s not.
Loving our neighbor is easy…
Until a family member, friend or colleague repeatedly leaves us to do more than our share.
Until we venture out to the grocery store, careful to wear our mask -- out of respect for others we might be breathing on-- only to have some stranger barrel past us in the aisle, going the wrong way, with their mask down, not respecting us enough to even consider what we might need.
Until we come to understand that the laws and systems of our beloved country contain within them bias against black and brown people.
When we find ourselves in situations--or systems-- when the two-way street of mutual love, provision, care, protection, guidance and forgiveness breaks down--it is frustrating and annoying at first--and then, if/when it goes on for days, weeks, years…centuries!, it becomes heart-breaking, infuriating and finally intolerable. So what do we do about it? What does God want us to do? The first thing is to keep praying to the God whom Jesus calls “Daddy,” and remember God loves all of his children equally. Keep praying that God will--in the words of today’s scripture--“reveal who [God] is and set the world right.” And then we need to remember we are God’s hands and feet. We need to act. We need to keep modeling the respect that we want others to show us. And we need to keep asking for the fair treatment that our Scriptures call for--for everyone--especially for the oppressed and those on the margins of society--and we need to keep explaining why it’s important. AND when others tell us that we are the ones who are not behaving fairly--then we need to respectfully listen to these our brothers and sisters and ask them--and God--to show us how we might need to change.
On this Father’s Day,
· let us re-commit ourselves to following the God whom Jesus calls “Daddy,”
· let us re-commit ourselves to seeing all of our fellow human beings as God’s precious children, and
· let us continue to do the sometimes very hard work of treating everyone the way we would like to be treated. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
June 21, 2020
Marlayna wrote the first version of this sermon for Father’s Day, 2008. She continued editing it, and preached it again in 2016, 2018, and 2020.