A+ is the school of prayer “AWE” #2
Reinbeck UMC
6/14/15
I stand, I stand in awe of you
I stand, I stand in awe of you
Holy God to whom all praise is due
I stand in awe of you
I stand, I stand in awe of you
I stand, I stand in awe of you
Holy God to whom all praise is due
I stand in awe of you
There is nothing in the world as
selfish as a baby. When humans are born, they are the self-declared center of
the universe. It’s all about MY diaper, MY bottle, MY toy, MY demands on MY
schedule. You know how it is! There is no more self-centered creature on the
face of the earth than a baby. Childhood is supposed to be a process of
learning that the world doesn’t revolve around my belly button. We are supposed
to learn how to get along with others, share, compromise, empathize, and
perhaps most of all love.
For some reason that doesn’t always
work. In the 1970’s Tom Wolfe wrote about the “Me generation,” and from there
we went into talk about self- fulfillment, self-realization- self-help. The problem there is it is all about the
self--- the ME.
We started giving every kid a
participation trophy, and now we have a generation of workers who believes it
deserves to be promoted and receive raises regardless of performance.
The Me Generation has raised up what
Joel Stein of Time magazine calls the “Me, Me, Me” generation.
Today’s lesson in “Jesus’ school of
prayer” is going to squarely attack that and put us in our place in this
universe.
But first, let’s step back two weeks to the
first lesson. Does anyone remember what it was? The key word was ABBA, and we
talked about how prayer is first grounded on an intimate relationship with God.
The homework was simple. I said
intimacy only comes with time, “Pray until you are intimately connected to God;
and then because you are intimately connected, you will want to pray.”
Therefore, I asked you to spend more time in prayer this week than last.
• How
many of you tried that?
• How
many of you succeeded in actually spending more time with God in the last two
weeks than the preceding two weeks?
The problem with that lesson is that it
is only half a lesson. If we stop at ability to connect intimately with God,
then prayer is all about ME, ME, ME.
You have heard people pray- “Lord I
just want, …I just need, …I just hope, …I …,I,… I,… ME,… ME,… ME …”
insufferably. Prayer is not all about
me! And it is not all about you!
Today’s’ passage is “Who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.” Lest we think that prayer is all about us, Jesus quickly
moves to teach that anything that is only about ME.ME.ME, is not really prayer.
Prayer is made possible because we can intimately reach out to our ABBA, but
prayer that stops there, has no power.
Prayer may start with us approaching God, but
we have to remember that when we pray we plug into a power much great than ME.
ME. ME, When we pray we approach the
• ONE
AND ONLY
• HOLY,
• ETERNAL,
• ALL
POWERFUL,
• ALL
KNOWING,
• ALL
PRESENT,
• IMMORTAL,
• INVISIBLE
• GOD
ONLY WISE.
• IN
LIGHT
• INACCESSIBLE
• HID
FROM OUR EYES
• INDESCRIBABLE,
• UNCONTAINABLE,
A
• LL-POWERFUL,
• UNTAMABLE
• CREATOR
• AND
GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.
Theologically speaking this is the
paradox of the God who is both immanent and transcendent. It is the crux of the
incongruity of the incarnation that the infinite God put on finite skin; the
creator became one of the creatures.
The psalmist struggled with this
paradox
• We
have to ask ourselves, if the intimate ABBA God is really powerful enough to
answer our prayers?
• We
also have to ask if the all-powerful God really cares about out little
problems?
The answer to both is absolutely yes!
There is a delicate balancing act here.
If we believe God to be ONLY TRANSCENDENT, then there is no relationship, no
intimacy, and no way of communicating; and prayer is just talking to ourselves.
On the other hand, if we believe that God ONLY IMMANENT, then we are
left with a buddy, buddy, Jesus who can listen, but has no power to help and is
indeed stuck in the same muck and mire in which we find ourselves.
• If
God is not imminent, we do not have the power to pray.
• If
God is not transcendent, then prayer has no power.
So today, while we hold the immanent
and intimate God in our hearts we read Jesus’ words, “Our Father “Which art in
heaven.”
We have to remember that to Jesus, heaven was
for real, but it was not the place that grandma goes when she dies. For Jesus,
there was the earth-- and the sky was a done on which was painted the stars,
and across which moved the sun and the moon.
Heaven was the real physical place above the sky dome. It is whatever
lies beyond the dome of the sky. Heaven is the far away, unseeable, and unknowable
dwelling place of God who is the author and creator of all that has ever been,
all that is, and all that will ever be.
It is hard to imagine that the ABBA,
who is small enough to live in our hearts, is at the same time big enough to
hold the whole universe on the tip of his finger.
That is a God who has power to answer
prayer. He not only cares enough to listen, he is powerful enough to answer.
This is a God is who is all-powerful and is not afraid to use it in our world
or in our lives.
Then Jesus continues, “Hallowed be thy
name.” There are two ways to understand this phrase. I choose to understand it
both ways.
• On
the one hand, it is a declaration that God is Holy. Holy is your name. To be
holy is to be set apart for special use. The Holy of Holies was the place in
the temple that was set apart for the priest to meet God. To say “hallowed be
thy name “is to acknowledge (as Martin Buber said) that God is THOU. To say, “Hallowed be thy name “is to say that
God is wholly other in kind and degree, and bow before his greatness.
• On
the other hand, and I had never thought about it this way until I was preparing
for this sermon, we can read, “Hallowed be thy name” as a request or petition.
Lord, help us to keep your name holy. Not to abuse it. Not to use it for our
own purposes, but to set it apart as God is set apart. Another way to put it
might be to pray, “God help us to honor your name, respect your name, revere
your name, and worship your name, to understand that there is a vast difference
between us and God.” It is to climb to a new level of respect for God and
reverence for his person. You are ascending to the very heart of God in order
to recognize the very essence of who he is and what he has done for us.
When we pray “Hallowed by thy name,” we
are placing God on the throne of our hearts. It is about putting God on the
throne of our lives on earth, as he sits upon his throne in heaven. It is to
approach prayer with AWE. That is the key word for today.
When we pray with awe, we do not to rush in to
God and slap our wish list on his lap as though God is not your personal genie.
But rather we approach with confidence
that the immanent God wants to be with us. However, we also approach with awe
at the privilege of approaching the throne of grace. We approach with awe and
offer our hearts, our tears, and our needs to the One Holy and Almighty
God.
This is what separates Prayer from
wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is trusting your faith for your desired
outcome. Prayer is trusting God regardless of the outcome.
You notice in that passage of scripture
from Revelation, the picture of God is not one of being buddy, buddy, but one
that elicits total awe in the presence of the one who sits upon the throne.
The message version of that passage is
full of awe.
AWE--
AWE--
You can’t read that without being
filled with AWE--
And that is the second lesson in Jesus
School of prayer.
Approach prayer with AWE--
Yes, God is with us. Yes, God is as
close as our heart beat. Yes, God is our intimate ABBA, who came to the earth
as one of us.
BUT God is also due all our AWE
Holy, holy, holy
Is God our Master, Sovereign-Strong,
The Was, The Is, The is to Come.
AWE--
AWE--
Therefore, your homework this week is
to be in awe. Spend time in Awe of God.
Yes, I want you to continue to spend
more time with God this week than last. Especially if you found that hard. But
don’t rush in to prayer with your shopping list like you are going to Wal-Mart.
STOP. Stop and be in Awe.
If you need help you might read some of
the Psalms.
If you are a visual person, you might
try to picture the awesomeness of the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean and know
that God is brighter than that... AWE
Picture the grandeur of the mountains
in Yellowstone park- and know that God is stronger than those mountains… AWE
Picture the grand canyon carved layer
by layer by the power of the Colorado River rushing through it - and know that
God’s love is deeper than that… AWE
Now I want us to sit silently for a few
moments and just be in awe. Place your hands on your lap, palms up as though
you are ready to receive something. Silently, with your hearts open and your
eyes shut let us be in Awe
I stand, I stand in awe of you
I stand, I stand in awe of you
Holy God to whom all praise is due
I stand in awe of you
No comments:
Post a Comment