A Lenten Journey; The Direction We Take 3/1/42
Scripture: Matthew 6: 5-15 (Including the Lord’s Prayer)
On this “Lenten Journey” (as we have called this series of sermons leading to Easter) we considered last Sunday, “Where We Start.” We start with the realization that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, now, here, ready to become definite reality if we will implement it with our lives. The beginning of such a spiritual journey, in the light of being always so close to so great a possibility, is repentance - the sincere desire to clear away that which, so far as we are concerned, stands in the way of the coming of God’s kingdom.
Having made a start, then, what is “the direction we take?” This is the theme of our meditation this morning - the direction of our journey. Which way does our Lord want us to go? For answer, let us take the best known passage in the Bible (it was a part of this morning’s scripture lesson.) We call it “The Lord’s Prayer.” It is not something that belongs peculiarly to him, but something that he gave to us. It binds people together in their corporate worship better than anything else. Known by Christians of every denomination, of every race and nation, we can all lift our hearts together in worship by repeating its familiar lines.
I think Dr. Albert Palmer has a sermon in which he calls the Lord’s Prayer “The Shortest, Wisest Creed.” The purpose of a creed was originally, I take it, to formulate a statement of faith upon which all Christians could agree and around which they would become unified. Actually, it seems that some Christians have agreed upon some certain creed, and others have disagreed and formulated another. So that the very use of a creed has often been divisive in its attempts to unite. There have been many creeds which have been great statements of the faith of their times. Three of the greatest are the “Athanasian Creed,” the “Nicene Creed,” and the more familiar, shorter, “Apostle’s Creed.” Many churches still use them, particularly the Apostle’s Creed, as a rallying expression of their faith. But many do not. Most of the Congregational churches, for instance, formulate their own statement of faith which they incorporate into their church constitutions.
The Lord’s Prayer is an active expression of faith that is used by all Christian people, from the Salvation Army to the Anglican “high churches.” Think of it now as “The Lord’s Program.” It sums up his ideal of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus talked of the Kingdom of God more than of anything else. In those three little books we call the Synoptic Gospels, the first three books of our New Testament, Jesus uses that expression more than 125 times. What did he mean by the Kingdom of God? Probably no one phrase could summarize his meaning, but Dr. William Pierson Merrill suggests that he means, above all, “human life organized and lived on a family basis.” God the Father, mankind, brothers, and so on.
This well-known prayer is an outline of Jesus’ ideal. Perhaps we think of prayer too often as asking things of God - like a market list of things we think we need. Well, asking things of God has its place in prayer. We are sometimes too timid in what we ask of Him; our faith is not big enough to ask for the great things, the right things. We don’t really care or dare to pray that God will convert Hitler and Mussolini and transform the hearts of the Japanese militarists. We don’t dare to pray that we ourselves may be so truly and completely Christian that we will do anything that God wants us to do.
More than asking for things, true prayer is reminding ourselves of what God wants of us, and asking Him to help us to do and be that.
The lovely Shepherd’s Psalm, which is a source of personal comfort and strength to so many of us, uses the first person singular all the way through. “The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. He leadeth me....”
Jesus began with a broader outlook when he taught us to pray using the plural - “Our Father.” Not “my” Father but our Father. Jesus taught us to take in all humanity when we pray. “Our Father” is not alone my God, but God the Father also of the man in India, who, as Vere Abbey said last night, laughs just as I do, who weeps just as I do, who gets hungry just as I do, (and who stays hungry a lot more than I do.) All people become members of God’s family to us when we say “Our” Father. Some do not pay much attention to the Father. Some quarrel among themselves. And there is killing of one another, from the time of Cain and Abel down through time to 1942. But brothers ought to learn to get along with each other in generous understanding and loyalty. There is still hope for that family relationship of the Kingdom of God as long as Christian people continue to pray “Our Father.”
“Hallowed be Thy name” - that name of the Father. Someone has said that our word “hallow” comes from the same root as the German word “heil.” What a change in the family of men and nations it could mean, if all Christians should set over against “heil Hitler” the prayer, “Father, hallowed be Thy name?”
If we should thus set Him first in honor, we should earnestly desire the coming of His Kingdom above the rule of any power on earth. But that can come only as we so discipline our will as to allow His will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
To some, it seems a drop from the sublime to the commonplace to follow the aspirations, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done,” with the request, “Give us this day our daily bread.” But, when you think of the Kingdom of God in family terms, what is more natural than a homely concern for the provision of bread? What is a more truly necessary part of family life than the provision and receiving of food; the common table? God’s will can never be done aright until all His children everywhere share in the satisfaction that comes from good food, shelter and comfort.
And that can never come until forgiveness is the spirit ruling the life of the world - God forgiving us our wrongs; we forgiving one another; the spirit of good will all through the life of the world.
With this, and to achieve this, must come real concern and hard effort to remove the evil facts and influences from our world’s life. We have to root out with energy and determination the vicious and degrading forces, not only across the seas but close to our own homes as well. Setting life everywhere on a high plane of honor and justice involves vigorous opposition to evil as well as positive promotions of righteousness.
To that end, the kingdom, the power and the glory must be seen as God’s prerogatives, not ours. These are the very things that men and nations fight for - domination, might, prestige. But even when won, they turn, sooner or later, to ashes in the grasping hands of mere men or transient governments; - because in the eternal order of things they do not belong to men! They belong to God. “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and glory - forever.” We are not ready to take our place in the Kingdom of God until we are humble enough to ascribe dominion, power, and glory to God alone.
Are we proud to be Americans? Are we grateful for the liberty we have enjoyed? Are we glad to struggle in its defense? Let our pride be not arrogant, but humble in the recognition that true liberty is a gift only to those who strive for God’s righteousness. There is no true freedom anywhere else. Liberty may be saved or lost on the ground of ascribing unto God his due, and taking our place in the proper perspective.
Let this congregation, and this nation, remember in this hour to seek first “the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Let us pray that we and our nation may know, beyond a doubt, what is right and be willing to do it. Let us hold ourselves and our country in our hearts before God in daily prayer. (“America’s prayer minute” at six o’clock is a good time to do it.) Let us resolve to know what is right, as far as it is given us to know, and to do it, leaving all thought of glory and might to God alone.
Let our sacrifices be the genuine giving of ourselves, not just a “deal” with the Almighty. Let us be generous in meeting the appalling needs of people who are victims of the awful sin of our world, for that is a fair and practical test of our religious life.
What a program there is in Jesus’ prayer - our prayer! Study it; catch its sweep; search its deep meanings every time you repeat it. Then let us live by it; and do our best to make it the law of the common life.
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dates and places delivered:
Wisconsin Rapids, March 1, 1942
W.F.H.R., Wisconsin Rapids, March 23, 1942