Loving God, you teach us to pray and invite us into a relationship with you as your children.  Empower us this day by your Holy Spirit, that all we say and do might be to your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Just how do you address the Creator of the Universe?  Do you say, “Excuse me, your Holiness”?  Do you get really bold and call God by name, like you’re on a first name basis?  Do you use lots of elaborate titles like Holy One, Righteous One, Almighty One, Eternal One, and Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier?  Or do you simply say, Father? – and not even Father, but Abba - Daddy.

    Out of all of the options, this is the one that Jesus chooses, inviting all of us into a relationship with his Daddy.  Jesus invites us to approach God as children, just as children look to their parents to provide for their needs.  We are invited to trust God as children trust their parents, believing that God provides for us in goodness and in love.  We are also invited to come to God, knowing that it is God who has given us life.

    It is truly amazing when you think about it.  We learn through Jesus that the Creator of the Universe wants to be in a life-giving relationship with each one of us!  Over the years, however, many have asked why God has to be Abba and not Imma?  Why Daddy, and not Mommy?  This question has arisen for a number of different reasons.

    In some cases, people have not experienced a loving father in their own family, and so they find it extremely difficult to relate to a God who invites us to call him Father.  In other cases, people have paid attention to Genesis, where both male and female are created in the image of God, and they’ve asked why all of our names for God need to be male.  In still other cases, people have noticed how God is described in both masculine and feminine ways in the Scriptures, and they’ve wondered if we are placing limits on who God is by only using masculine terms.  And for some people, to be able to call God Father is the richest and most meaningful relationship that they can think of.

    Ultimately, our language is never going to be adequate to describe the fullness of who God is.  And so, some pray using the language of Jesus - Abba - Daddy, and some pray using the language that is most meaningful to them - like Abba/Imma, or Imma, or Mommy.  Whichever language it is that speaks most authentically to you, it really doesn’t change the intent of the prayer if you’re saying one thing and the person beside you is saying something else.  We are all praying to the same God, as God’s children.

    At the same time, have you ever noticed that the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that we are all related to one another as brothers and sisters?... Even if you’re saying it by yourself, everything is plural.  It’s “Our Father,” not “My Father.”  It’s our daily bread, and forgive us our sins.  When we say this prayer, we stand in relationship not only to God, but to all others who join us in prayer and in faith.  We are all children of God, and the Lord’s Prayer invites us right into the core of Jesus’ teaching: Love for God and love for one another.

    Today we are focusing not only on how we address God, but on the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “hallowed be your name” (Lk. 11:2).  The first question would be if you all know what hallowed means....  If something is hallowed, it is holy.  So we’re asking that God’s name would be kept holy.  As Martin Luther teaches, God’s name is already holy without us asking, but in this prayer we’re asking that it might become holy in and among us (Luther’s Small Catechism).

    Of course, you might also ask, what is God’s name?  How would you answer that?  What is God’s name?...  In the Old Testament, there’s the whole story with Moses and the burning bush where Moses asks what God’s name is.  There are two different versions of God’s name on the screen today, as it was revealed in Exodus. [יהוה  / YHWH] The first is the Hebrew letters, and the second is using our alphabet.  It is difficult to translate and is closely related to the verb “to be”.  And so it’s I Am Who I Am, or I Am What I Am, or I Will Be What I Will Be, or simply I Am (Ex. 3:14).

    However, for Jewish people the name of God is considered too holy ever to actually say it, and so they replace God’s name with Adonai, or “The Lord” whenever they come to it in the Hebrew Scriptures.  And so, in most Bibles, wherever you see the LORD, all in capital letters, it is replacing the name of God.  Thus, in both the Old and the New Testament, the name of God is always mentioned without actually speaking it.  An example would be in our Psalm for today that says, “bless God’s holy name” (103:1).

    So how do we keep God’s name holy in and among us, as Luther suggests?  The short answer would be: by the power of the Holy Spirit!  God’s name is honoured, and God’s reputation is upheld when those who bear the name of God live and speak and act as followers of Christ.  God’s name is kept holy in and among us when the power of the Holy Spirit is allowed to be at work, empowering us to live as children of God and followers of Jesus Christ.  And so, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are actually asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit, which God is more than happy to give us, according to the gospel (Lk. 11:13).

    Today we are only beginning our reflection on the Lord’s Prayer that will continue over the next few weeks.  And so, for today we pray, “Father - Abba - Imma, may your holy name be honoured and blessed in and among us, by the power of your Holy Spirit.”  Amen.

Pentecost 13 (NL summer)                        Luke 11:2-4
August 14, 2016                                Psalm 103:1-5
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison
© 2016 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved