Getting to Know Our Father
Matt 6, June 19, 2011
Intro:
The way we imagine has an incredibly powerful impact on how we experience life. If we hear that a certain movie is the absolute best movie a friend has ever seen, they tell us we must see it as soon as possible, we start to imagine it in moving, lofty heights, we imagine it will be amazing and will impact us and make us feel deeply and inspire us. Have you had this happen? Then you go see it, and it is pretty good but you leave disappointed because you imagined it as so much more. Or maybe the first time you went camping and it was rainy and cold and you sat in a leaky tent eating dry buns and cold hotdogs because you couldn’t even light a fire to cook them – that will form the way you imagine what camping is like.
Those two examples may not be all that important but they demonstrate the point: the way we imagine has an incredibly powerful impact on how we experience life. My third example is extremely important. How do you imagine father?
Our Past:
It is an important question, because throughout Scripture we are encouraged and instructed to relate to God as Father. Our experiences in this area have a huge impact on how we are able to relate to God.
Some of those experiences are incredibly good. Some of us had fathers in our lives who, while certainly not perfect, did their best to love us. They were part of our lives, coming to soccer games and taking us on vacation and setting wise limits and enforcing those with loving discipline. They were there, they listened, they offered advice, they gave us the car keys, they wrestled and hugged, and they loved our moms as great role models. Some of you here today are those kinds of dads, and we thank God for you.
Those are good and helpful because then when Scripture talks about relating to God as Father, we imagine that relationship in a very positive light, we feel good about it, we warm to it.
But not all of us had or have those good relationships. Others of us had fathers who were cold, or were distant, perhaps abusive, or in my case just completely absent. In our cases, when Scripture talks about God as Father, the negative way we experienced this idea of father creates an image that is not helpful or positive. It creates a barrier we need to overcome.
So where are we going with this today? First I’m going to create some space for us to recognize what images of father our experiences have left us with, and then we are going to go to Scripture and see what Jesus meant when He described God as Our Father.
Accepting Our Experiences:
Here’s what I want you to do now. Take a few moments in quiet to remember and confront your experiences of an earthly father. If they are/were good, remember those things fondly and with thanksgiving. If they were hard, allow yourself to feel those and maybe begin to release any places where they still have a hold on you. For many there will be some of both, thank God for the good and release the bad. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will lead us in this time of reflection and contemplation. (silence)
Now I’m not going to focus on the negative, that is not my way. However, I do want to say a few things to those of us for whom that time of silence was hard because of our hurtful experiences with the earthly idea of father: I am sorry. That is not how it was supposed to be. You didn’t deserve that. That was not what God wanted for you. So now what? Maybe you’ve accepted, released, forgiven, and moved on – praise God. But if you haven’t, can I gently yet strongly encourage you to take those pains in your hands, pull them into the light where you can see them, and then open those tightly clenched fists and let them go. They aren’t helping you. They don’t make your life any better, the sins of others that hurt you aren’t worth holding on to any longer. Sometimes we bury them away out of sight but that doesn’t set us free – we are set free when we pull them out into the light, see them for what they are, accept that they happened and were painful, recognize that justice would be inflicting the same hurt back, but then choosing instead to open our fists and let go. When we don’t, we just keep hurting ourselves; when we do we find healing and freedom.
Imagining Father:
My main reason for creating that space of reflection is so that we might all begin to recognize how powerfully our experience of father here on earth shapes our understanding of God as Father. If yours was great and close and warm, then when Jesus tells us to pray to Our Father, who art in heaven, you’ll feel warm and comfortable, maybe even eager, glad to pray that because that word father deeply and positively resonates within you. And, as a sideline to those of us who are fathers, notice carefully this awesome responsibility: the way we interact with our children profoundly and deeply and emotionally shapes the way they will interact with God. That is a little bit terrifying, but true.
Can you see how it works for you? For me, when Jesus tells us to pray Our Father, there is a blank canvas. I don’t really know what that means – my parents divorced when I was three and my earthly father was not a part of my life. So there is a hole there, and I choose to see that in a largely positive light because I don’t have much of an earthly example that shapes how I can experience God as Father, instead I look to Scripture and my experiences with God to try and understand what that means. This is a pretty deep question for us, because I think it largely goes un-recognized – our imagination of father is shaped by our experience of father in subtle, often un-examined ways. We just expect that for God to be Father will be similar to what we experienced.
The Good News:
Now, here is the good news: it isn’t. God as Our Father is not the same as our earthly experience of father, even if yours was good and especially if it was bad. God is perfect, where none of our earthly fathers are/were. God always does what is best, none of our fathers could. God knows perfectly what we need, none of our fathers did. God is not wrapped up in this role in our lives or struggling with His needs or His past experiences or His struggles and stresses, like our earthly fathers all did. Because God is God, and as such becomes the perfect Father.
God the Father in Scripture:
So what is God as Father really like? If we recognize and accept that our image of God is Father is deeply shaped by our earthly experiences, and can identify that and perhaps set it off to the side just a little bit, we can then go to Scripture and allow Scripture to create an image of God as Father.
Now, the possibilities are virtually endless. We could go to Genesis and see God the Father shaping humanity out of dirt: careful creative hands with dirty fingernails sculpting and then breathing His Spirit. We could go to Moses and the Exodus and see God the Father liberating His people in power from out of Egypt. We could go to the Psalms and see God the Father knitting us together in our mother’s womb. We could go to the prophets and see God the Father weeping over the repeated rejection of His children, and weeping over the discipline He must measure out, yet continuing to love with a covenant love. We could go to the parables of Jesus and see God the Father watching and waiting for the first prodigal to return home and then go running to meet him and embrace him and welcome him home. We could go to Revelation and see God the Father, all-powerful on His heavenly throne, releasing the forces of heaven to finally measure out final justice and crush all the evil with terrifying finality. Those would be good.
But instead I want to go to what for me is an unlikely source, the sermon on the mount, in Matthew 6. Now I’ve always studied this from the perspective of Jesus introducing His Kingdom, laying out for all people the primary importance of the internal motivations rather than merely the external actions. It has always for me been vital, important teaching about how to live. But I read it differently this week. I saw a new theme repeated through all the moral teachings. Today I see it as revealing the heart of God the Father for us, and as ways to live as His children. Let’s take a look together, and as I read pay special attention to the presence of our Father.
Matt 6 (NLT)
Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. 2 When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. 3 But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 4 Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
5 When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
7 When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! 9 Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
10 May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today the food we need,
12 and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.
14 If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
16 And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. 17 But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. 18 Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
19 Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
22 Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
24 No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
25 That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
28 And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
31 So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34 So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
God the Father:
Did you see how prevalent the picture is of God the Father in this chapter? The time is getting on so I won’t go as deeply as I’d like to, but I do want to summarize it briefly and then reflect on what this means for God as our Father.
1. Good deeds are done for others but not for recognition by people but for reward from your Father in heaven;
2. So also for giving to help others which should be done in privat”, and here the idea of reward is expanded with the recognition that God our Father sees everything.
3. Our Father wants to talk with us. Personally, intimately, privately. Prayer isn’t a performance for other people, it is a conversation between Father and child.
4. We don’t have to manipulate or perform or beg, Our Father knows what we need before we ask.
5. There is tons in the Lord’s Prayer that shows us an image of God as Father – He is King, He meets us our daily needs, He forgives, He protects.
6. God forgives, but does so justly: we can’t just keep running to Him to forgive us if we aren’t living the way He has commanded us to live as His children.
7. Fasting repeats the earlier theme – we do these things for God, not others, and God delights and rewards.
8. The last section is all about trust. It speaks of money, of treasures, of worry, and the point is that God cares so wonderfully for us, He knows all our needs, and when we seek first His Kingdom and live righteously, He will give you everything you need.
Conclusion:
I know there is too much there to digest quickly, so I leave you with the challenge to not allow yourself to only imagine God as Father through the filters of your earthly experience of father, but to allow Scripture to show you what it really means to have God as Father and to be His child. Here is one attempt by me to do that, and one of the ways I try to imagine God as Father.
The Door is open. I could walk by, go on with my day, but why would I want to? Sure there is lots to do, but nothing as important and nothing that can’t wait. I know who is inside, in fact I hear the happy whistling and the sounds of pots and pans, I smell the aroma of fresh baked bread, and I know I am not only welcome and expected but eagerly and delightedly awaited.
I step inside. It is bright and full of life, the very walls seem alive with warmth, and God my Father sees me and His face floods with joy and He throws everything aside to come running and wrap me in His arms. He takes my dirty coat and my heavy bag and throws them back outside the door. He sits me down on a chair by the door and sees the garbage and the feces I had walked in and grabs a basin and a towel and washes me clean, a tear in His eye for the pain I experienced, and caused, by going where I should not have. There is no condemnation.
The joy returns to His face as the last bits are washed and I am clean, and He leads me to the table, just around the corner from the entry and the kitchen. It is a King’s table, all laid out, with incredible wholesome goodness. And God, the almighty King of the Universe, invites me to sit with Him, to eat with Him, to talk with Him, and to listen to Him. He wants to delight in me as a Father, I want to delight in Him as a child.
So can you.
