03082017 Wednesday of Lent 1 - “Hallowed be Thy Name”

March 8, 2017
“Hallowed be Thy Name”

It is very clear during our Lenten Journey through the Lord’s Prayer that we learn something new each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer.  As we pray if we focus only on ourselves, we close our collective eyes to what God clearly has done and continues to do for us each and every day.  From providing us with loving family that forgives when we don’t deserve it, to God’s giving and providing us the shelter of our homes and jobs that we have to provide for our family.  The food we enjoy like the soup we enjoyed only a short time ago, before our worship.  These are clearly daily manifestations of God’s abundant love for us.

And what do we do?  Better asked, what should we do?  The First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer answers this query and gives us the perfect response we should have towards God.  It is our opportunity to pray, “Hallowed be Thy Name”.  Not the names of people we know, but “Hallowed be Thy Name” God’s Name.  It is God Who not only created each of us in our mother’s womb, but God, Whose Name we make “Hallowed” is the Holy Name that we can lift up and have on our lips and in our hearts daily, not just when we are in a crisis.

Some ascetics, or monks who live alone and live lives of constant prayer, daily, hourly, minute by minute, saying the simple “Jesus Prayer”, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner” clearly honor God.  First by lifting up God’s Name and secondly by constantly honoring and hallowing God’s Name in their daily lives.  They pray and live this petition “Hallowed be Thy Name” constantly.

Martin Luther in his catechism explains about this petition, “Hallowed be Thy Name”, that we who pray this petition and prayer, do so, “that it [God’s Name] may be holy among us also”.  For this is why we gather as God’s Children here in worship, give God praise, sing songs of praise and imploring for God to help us in our lives to live lives that are Holy and Honorable to God and His Name that we bear, not only on our lips, over our foreheads with the sign of the Cross, but especially in our hearts that God keeps beating daily.

This is why we gather as God’s children, worship Him and teach our children God’s Word and this prayer in its truth and purity and lead holy lives that are well pleasing to God in order that we can pray, “Hallowed be Thy Name”.

One example of this is the Prophet Elijah from the Old Testament.  Elijah in his life gave God the greatest praise.  So clear was the Spirit of God upon Elijah and his life that he was given the gifts of prophecy, healing and the ability to multiply food for the sustenance of people.  Even Elijah’s clothes that he wore were given a holy and precious blessing that was passed down to his disciple Elisha.  For Elijah unlike most people did not die, but in the sight of Elisha was taken up by a chariot into heaven, because Elijah “Hallowed” God’s name.

We though not Elijah’s of our time can be like him and pray and live lives that emulate the prayer Jesus taught that said, “Hallowed be Thy Name”.  We through the power of the Holy Spirit given unto us by God Himself can live lives that are well pleasing to God.  We can daily as Koehler in his catechism says, “ask God to help us that by pure teaching and a godly life His [God’s] name be hallowed among us.” (p. 235)

For we as God’s children baptized through Water and Word, sealed by the Blood of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ that takes away the sin of the world, are empowered and blessed by God to daily call upon His Name and make it Holy among us.  This is why during this Lenten season, we gather and pray the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught, but especially tonight we hallow God when we pray this petition “Hallowed be Thy Name”.  AMEN.

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03052017 - First Sunday in Lent - "We are sent into the world to be one with God and Jesus and honor His Name as Holy"!

March 5, 2017
"We are sent into the world to be one with God and Jesus and honor His Name as Holy"!

In March 1999, I stood on Mount Carmel, where Elijah had stood against those who worshiped Baal.  The story has of that day has not only been passed down for generations, been used in Sunday School classes, Confirmation, Bible Studies, but I have personally used it while teaching about World Religions.  Each time I use the story I am reminded of one truth that we as Christians need to remember and hold onto clearly and without fail lay claim to daily and emulate with our prayer Jesus taught the disciples.

“We [Christians] are sent into the world to be one with God and Jesus and honor His Name as Holy”.  This is our calling and during this season of Lent this is our opportunity.  You see on Ash Wednesday, the Sign of the Cross was clearly placed on our foreheads, reminding us we are dust and to dust we shall return.  The connection we have is that we who claim to be Christian need to call upon God’s Name and honor Him and daily make His Name Holy among us.  This is why during Lent on Wednesday nights, we will be probing the depths of the Lord’s Prayer.

On Wednesday we began with the “Our Father” and today we bridge the gap of “Our Father Who art in heaven” with the responsibility, dare I say the ‘joy’ and ‘opportunity’ we have to go into the world and honor God our Father’s name.  For when we honor God and His Name as Holy and lift up and hold up and honor, Jesus, we then not only show respect for God, but Satan who lurks among us to influence us then has no power over us.

We all know of someone who when they smash their thumb while driving a nail home or when a tool slips from their grip or when something happens that twists them, they fly off by taking God’s name in vain.  For some the reaction to this is clear.  Children at times cower in the corner, because when the profanity flies, the next thing will be a hand lifted against them, not for what they have done, but just general principle.  There are some people whose stomachs get tied in knots, their blood pressure rises just a little or our faces flush red, because we know we shouldn’t do this since we are Christians.  But this isn’t a result of a personal or moral failure on our part, this is simply our humanity, the failure that began in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, eating the forbidden fruit and sins entrance into the world.

But truly thanks be to God, we have, believe and know the cure to this problem.  The cure is our Savior, Jesus Christ and His death on Calvary for all of mankind, including each and every one of us.  And we as Christians, marked by the seal of the promised Holy Spirit in our Baptism and reminded this last Ash Wednesday are changed, maybe not in each other’s eyes, but truly in the eyes of God.  For in our Holy Baptism into the life, death and especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are made heirs of eternal life and made Christians Who can show our family, friends and even and especially others the love of God in our fallen world as Christians who believe in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This is why “We are sent into the world to be one with God and Jesus and honor His Name as Holy”.  You see God feeds us today not only with His Holy Word read from both the lectern and pulpit, but God especially feeds us with His Precious Body and Blood from the Altar and ‘sends us into the world’.  We are sent into the world to honor God by how we live, how we love one another, but also how we make His name Holy.  Yes, we will fail daily by at times taking God’s name in vain, but we shouldn’t apologize for it, thinking its ok if we apologize, even at times apologizing to the pastor for our language.  What we need to change is ourselves.  And this only happens when God changes us from the inside.

The best biblical example of change from the inside is none other than a man named Saul, who we know today as Paul.  Prior to his Damascus road experience and encounter with Jesus, Saul persecuted and helped to kill the followers of Jesus Christ.  After his personal encounter with Jesus Christ, Paul and his commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, sending out others into the world and honoring God and His Name and His Son, Jesus Christ became his passion.  For Paul was changed from the inside out.

We who gather here today have this same opportunity to be changed from the inside out.  It is our choice.  Just as Cain chose not to listen to God and killed his brother Abel, by choice.  We to have the opportunity to choose to honor God and His name today.  We have only to ask ourselves, will we continue on the road that does not honor God?  Or will we embrace God’s calling on our lives and the Gospel message of God’s Son, Jesus Christ?  For each of us who claim to be Christians need to understand and believe, we are called not only to a greater purpose of ‘honoring God’ and His Name.  “We are sent into the world to be one with God and Jesus and honor His Name as Holy”!  AMEN.

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03012017 - Ash Wednesday - "Our Father Who Art in Heaven"

March 1, 2017
“Our Father Who Art in Heaven”

Tonight we gather as the body of Christ with Ashes about to be placed on our foreheads.  We remind ourselves that from dust we came and to dust we shall return.  Yet, we are not just dust, within us resides the most powerful force in the universe.  This ‘force’ is none other than the breath of God “Our Father”.

During our Lenten season we will be delving into the perfect prayer that Jesus taught His disciples.  So it is very appropriate we begin focused upon “Our Father Who Art in Heaven”.  We find our connection and God’s Fingerprints in the “Our Father” the prayer Jesus taught, but also our confession of faith in Apostle’s, Nicene and Athanasian Creed.  Clearly the role of “Our Father” is not only to orient us to God “Our Father”, but for us to engage and understand we are not alone in this world no matter our location, position or experience.  “Our Father” began by putting His breath in our first parents, Adam and Eve and in each of us gathered here and all people.  For the ‘breath of God’ “Our Father” is Who gives us life.

Hence why tonight is so significant.  The breath we have from God “Our Father” is the same that we begin the Lord’s Prayer in saying, “Our Father Who art in heaven”.  For God Who resides in heaven gives us all things, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the clothes we wear, the jobs we have, the houses we live in, the food on our tables and even the life that courses through our veins.  All that we have is His.

But, why is this so significant for us today as we begin Lent?  Why should this give us pause?  Why should we consider how we live today?  Simply tonight as we respond to the fact of our mortality with the ash upon our forehead, we begin to understand that it is God’s Breath in us, and laying claim to God as “Our Father” in the prayer Jesus taught that we connect ourselves to God, not only as “Our Father”, but as our redeemer and especially our Savior.  For Jesus Christ Who taught this prayer, also taught us how He and we are fully dependent upon God “Our Father” for all things.

“Our Father” Who created not only the heavens and the earth, but all things, and Who gives us life, the Breath of Life is the same God “Our Father” Who gives us life eternal, through His Son, Jesus Christ.  For this season of Lent we enter tonight is as Martin Luther would say, is a time of introspection, but also thanks that “Our Father” didn’t just care for us to bring us into this world, but “Our Father” loves each and every one of us clearly and cares for us daily and looks forward to our being with Him in His Kingdom for eternity.  And this comes, only through the Cross of Calvary that we journey towards beginning tonight that bore the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

As Paul Gerhardt penned in the hymn we are about to sing, “This lamb is Christ, our greatest friend”, He comes to “free my [that is God’s] children” and we are not only the sheep of His pasture, but God’s precious gem.  Jesus Christ willingly went to Calvary and paid the price of His death for each and every one of us and this is why we have the breath of life from God “Our Father” in each and every one of us. 

May we as we contemplate the coming weeks of our exploration of the Lord’s Prayer, begin to understand the faith of the centurion and the grace offered each of us from “Our Father” in heaven.  For we are loved by God “Our Father” and we are His children through the sacrifice of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

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