Foundations for Our Future (90)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Hallowed

After the invocation (the calling upon God as “Our Father”) we enter into a series of petitions, or requests. There are seven in all, three of which are focused on God, and four that focus on ourselves. This is revealing a principle of true Christian prayer, it always begins with God. Not our distress, not our need, but with the awesome reality that we are entering into the presence of the Holy One. God the Almighty One, Creator of heaven and earth.

The very first of these petitions, taught to us by Jesus, is that God’s name might be “hallowed.” (Matthew 6:9) What does that mean? If we hallow something, we make it holy. It is special beyond all else. It is set apart from all other things. Human beings do this all the time with objects that are not eternal, even without realizing it. We set apart a set of clubs for only certain courses. We have clothes for certain occasions. We make time for only certain activities. We do not think we are hallowing them, but we are.

But the truest and deepest meaning of the word is related to the awesome wonder and glory of God almighty. He is the only one worthy of praise. He is the only one to be in awe of and to be worshipped. To hallow his name is to honor him with the honor due only to God.

And we pray that such honor might be given to him “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Foundations for Our Future (91) 

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Your Name

Names matter to most of the people of the world. What we call a thing gives it significance for us, and in the case of our children, for them. One of the most beloved traditions in Southern culture is the giving of family names to girls. I will never forget the confusion this caused me when I met a woman whose given name was George.

In the culture of the church the naming of a child at baptism was, and is, a time of great importance. Usually members of the family of the child attend because this naming is so note worthy. In baptism, of course, we get a given name, but we are also named as Christ’s own, forever.” That is the name above all names.

In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray that God’s name will be hallowed by all people on the earth. (Matthew 6:9) It is assumed that we pray this because he is hallowed in our lives. We are among those who know the wonder of it all. God who made us and loves us, sent his only beloved Son to save us and restore us to his first intention. We are among those who recognize the inexpressible majesty and grace of such a holy God.

That his name is to be hallowed means that the one and only true God is known and worshipped. That the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only God, worthy of all praise, honor, and glory. That no man or woman would fail to give him “the honor due his name.” Including us.

Foundations for Our Future (92)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Your Kingdom

When I was training for ordination in England, on the first day of classes, we were sent to the cathedral organist to learn how to sing the services of the church. That was then still the norm in the Church of England. He began with the Lord’s Prayer, and as we made our first attempt he stopped us mid note. “No, No, No,” he cried out. Place the emphasis on “Your” not “kingdom!” He was telling us to sing our prayer: “Hallowed be YOUR name, YOUR kingdom come, YOUR will be done.” I have never forgotten that day or that insight. We are praying for something that only God can do, and our focus is to be upon him

What we all need to grasp and hold onto is this. God’s name is only hallowed where his kingdom is present. That kingdom is only present when his name is truly hallowed. The two are inextricable. How does that come about? Jesus clearly is teaching us that it begins when we pray for it to happen. “Your kingdom come…as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

In truth it begins in my life or yours only when we begin to ask God that it be so, with a heart that truly means what we say. If we pray this prayer daily, and mean it, we are asking for God to take full control of our lives. To be in his kingdom means I am faithful to the King.

Foundations for Our Future (93)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Your Will Be Done

I have suggested previously that the hallowing of God’s name is a predicate for the kingdom of God to come, and that wherever his kingdom is present his name is faithfully being hallowed. Today we must expand that a bit to add that when those two things are present it is also true that his will is being done. (Matthew 6:10) It is a grave error to imagine, or to teach, that God’s kingdom can be present when his will is disobeyed. It cannot be so.

The Lord Jesus described his life’s calling as “to do the will of him who sent me.” (John 4:34) It is this example that is before us in his life, that we would follow it, and in the Lord’s Prayer that we would pray for it to be so for us. To will one thing, God’s will for our lives, is to long to dwell in his kingdom.

The consequences of praying this prayer, with heart conviction, are described within the pages of the New Testament. A woman or man who prays this prayer without reservation will be changed. As the Apostle says, it will not be instantaneous, but it will be “from one degree of glory to another.” (II Corinthians 3:18)

Foundations for Our Future (94)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Come on Earth

When we are saying our prayers, especially those we read or know by heart, we need to be careful that we are paying attention to the words we are saying. Words matter. In the heart of the opening section of the Lord’s Prayer, is the petition that God’s kingdom would “come on earth.” (Matthew 6:10)

It is a common misunderstanding that Christians are simply waiting for heaven, or hiding out until the Lord comes again. But that is not the implication of what he tells us to pray. The implication is that we are to want his kingdom to come among us here. We are to pray for it to be so. When God’s name is hallowed, when God’s kingdom comes, and when his will is being done, something is happening on earth that replicates heaven. Something that will one day be true for all eternity, is to be known on earth. Isn’t that astonishing?

One of the greatest of all biblical truths is this: the church of the Lord Jesus is to be a place where we get a foretaste of heaven. It is to be a community where faith, hope and love - the three things that are eternal - are experienced in real measure. There is to be harmony in the truth. There is to be sacrificial love lived out. There is to be joy inexpressible. There is to be worship and praise unquenchable.

Foundations for Our Future (95)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Heaven

What do you imagine when you pray: “as it is in heaven?” (Matthew 6:10) Do you see a place of beauty and order? Do you hear celestial music? Do you anticipate the faces of those you have loved who have gone before you? Do you anticipate the welcome of Peter at the gate? Do you look forward to all tears being wiped away, all brokenness restored, all sickness healed? Have you ever really thought about it? Jesus says to pray for it to come on earth.

One of the most beloved verses in the Hebrew scriptures is
Deuteronomy 29:29. There we are told that “the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us….” All that heaven is, is known only to God. But what has been revealed? In fact a great deal.

The original word for heaven, or words related to it, is used 285 times in the Holy Scriptures. Jesus is recorded as using this word 70 times in Matthew’s gospel alone. An attentive reader can not miss it. Almost always, our Lord is calling for, or pointing out, how the behavior of his people either does or does not reflect what is true in heaven. In other words, almost always the Lord is making clear that the life we live here and now is the gateway to heaven. We do not exist for something coming, we exist for something already present, to all who are in Christ Jesus.

Foundations for Our Future (96)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Give Us

My own life has taught me that the most immediate way a sinful man prays, is for something he wants or needs. His whole focus is on himself. Today we turn in the Lord’s Prayer to the second half of the model prayer Jesus has given us. And we see there is nothing contrary to asking for what we need. But what does he show us we need? He tells us we need four things: food, forgiveness, protection, and deliverance.

Today let us focus on the first of these.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11) Can anyone deny that one of the most commonly thought about and discussed things in our daily lives is the subject of our next meal? Food dominates our thinking and our behavior. It fills the pages of magazines and newspapers. It is the subject of countless videos and blogs. And Jesus tells us that we should pray for enough for one day at a time. And further he tells us that it is God who provides it to all living creatures. (We will see this later, in Matthew 6:26)

What is the theology (God knowledge) undergirding this teaching of our Lord? Surely it is this: “All things come from you O Lord,” as King David prayed so long ago. ( I Chronicles 29:14) Everything needful for life has been given to us by God. (II Peter 1:3) He will provide daily bread for those who turn to him in prayer. Always.

Foundations for Our Future (97)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Needs and Wants

Let us pause for a day in our journey through the Lord’s Prayer, to distinguish between needs and wants. Our Lord, it seems to me, is distinguishing here, as he does elsewhere, between what we need and and what we might want. I have prayed often in my lifetime for what I want, but gradually I have come to see things differently.

When I was a new believer I noted all the teachings of Holy Scripture that spoke of asking for things. I think that instinct began when my mother spoke of “the faith of a grain of mustard” being all that was necessary for a mountain to be thrown into the sea. (Matthew 17:20) Or maybe it was the very first sermon I can remember, when I was 6 years old? The priest spoke of “praying for a solid gold Cadillac” and I heard him suggest that you better be careful about what you ask for, because it might be given to you by God.

My early understanding was distorted, I can see now, but it set me on a path that I took in to my early journey as a sincere believer. I prayed prayers large and small that I now see were very selfish. Big? Lord don’t let this plane fall out of the sky. Small? Lord don’t let that trooper give me a ticket (as I whizzed by him). These past prayers, I now see, as sins. Thankfully I have asked for and received God’s forgiveness.

What Jesus teaches me to pray is that God’s “will be done.”

Foundations for Our Future (98)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Forgive Us

We are coming now to one of the most challenging parts of the Lord’s Prayer for many of us, as we pray to be forgiven. (Matthew 6:12) Few actually stop their prayer, here, long enough to honestly face what needs to be forgiven since yesterday. Memorizing the prayer does not mean we have learned what the prayer teaches. It teaches us to flee to God for the forgiveness of our sins. It teaches us that we almost certainly have done things we should not have done, or left undone things we should have done, since yesterday. Anyone who understands this is coming closer to an awareness of that which the Beatitudes were showing us. (Matthew 5:2-12) We have much to mourn over. We have much that deflates our pride, if we are honest with ourselves and God.

Still, we are not rejected. We are invited to be forgiven. We are to ask for the grace of God to cover our sins, day by day, and he hears our prayers. He wants us to turn to Jesus, whose life blood was shed that we might be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

But it is an ever present reality that we need to ask for that daily. Who wants to face that? Most of us do not.

Perhaps the most difficult of truths to receive is that we are sinners, and remain sinners, even though we have turned our lives toward God in Christ. The Lord seems clearly to show us that it is so, but he teaches us what to do. Ask for forgiveness.

Foundations for Our Future (99)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

As We Forgive

Have you ever made a list of those you have not forgiven? It is a good discipline in Lent, and it will help to develop a pattern that is meant to be central for the Lord’s people. We are not to be storing up unforgiveness. We are to be quick to forgive those who have hurt us. But it is one of the Christian life’s most difficult challenges. It is far easier to make the list than to forgive those on the list. Here today Jesus is showing us that there is a connection between my need for forgiveness, and my readiness to forgive. (Matthew 6:12)

No one grows up without being hurt. Sometimes those earliest wounds become an underground part of our whole life, so much so that they cripple us in the journey of faith. We may have been made fun of in a way that leaves us always trying to avoid any mistakes that will bring ridicule. We may be afraid to ever risk, even when God calls us to do so. Or we may have been made to feel stupid, and we grow up to lack the confidence to step forward in public. The list of such pains and slights is long for many, and the memory can be long as well. Frequently there is a name or face attached to the memory. Someone we may never have forgiven, or may not want to forgive.

Our Lord Jesus knows that unforgiveness wounds the one who carries it in their heart. He teaches us to let it go. We are to forgive them.