Praying to Our Father in Heaven (1)

For me, writing for the Enterprise brings me back to my school days.  Like then, the most difficult part of the assignment for me is choosing a topic on which to write.

That’s why I find it helpful to write in series.  First 1 Corinthians, chapter by chapter.  Then areas of Christian discipline.  What now?  Our pastor is preaching through the part of the Heidelberg Catechism that expounds the Lord’s Prayer.  Perhaps I could do the same, I thought.  Then I ran across a rather satirical comment about the two “necessary” topics for every Christian writer: marriage and the Lord’s Prayer.  I’ve written about marriage, but not the Lord’s Prayer.  Guess it’s time.

I’ve heard preaching on the Lord’s Prayer yearly since I was born.  Consequently, many of the ideas that I’ll include in the weeks ahead are not originally my own, but I would be hard-pressed to cite the original source. 

I write under the assumption that you understand that, to quote the Heidelberg Catechism, “prayer is necessary for Christians.”  “Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High: and call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:14-15).

The disciples of Jesus observed that He was a man of prayer.  “And it came to pass, that as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).  Jesus responded with the prayer we know as "The Lord's Prayer."  The same prayer is recorded in Matthew 6:9ff, right in the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  This suggests that our Lord presented this particular prayer on multiple occasions, intending that it be recited and used as a model prayer.

Martin Luther called the Lord’s Prayer the “greatest martyr on Earth.”  It is repeated, said he, “So frequently without thought or feeling and without reverence or faith.”

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He taught them to address God as “Our Father.”  God is referred to as “Father” only 15 times in the Old Testament.  In contrast, Jesus refers to God as “Father” more than 165 times in the gospels.  To be told to address God in such a personal way was likely shocking to Jesus’ disciples.  After all, the High Priest insisted that Jesus’ claim to be God’s Son rendered Him worthy of death (Mark 14:61-65).

                We are taught to pray “Our Father.”  God is not the Father of all men.  He is the Creator of all men (Acts 17:28), but He is the Father only of those who “believe on His name” (John 1:12).  “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”  (Rom. 8:14-15).  Jesus is God’s only begotten Son; that is, He is by nature divine, and God’s Son.   Through His death and resurrection He has given God's elect the privileges of childhood that belonged only to Him.  There is, therefore, no universal brotherhood of men.  Universal neighborhood, yes, but our brothers and sisters are only those who believe in Christ, who are members of His Church.  We pray to God mindful that we are a part of His family, and mindful of not only our own needs, but those of our brothers and sisters as well.