Matthew 6:9- “Pray, then, in this way: Our Father in heaven, may your name be revered as holy.”
While the Bible doesn’t tell us how the people who were listening to the Sermon on the Mount reacted when Jesus got to the part about prayer, I have a pretty good clue as to what some of the people in the crowd might have been thinking as Jesus instructed them how to pray.
“Our Father? Come again? Who do you mean by ‘our’?”
“Jesus is just talking about us, right? The Jewish people? Not the Romans or the Samaritans?”
“What about the tax collectors? I know that they’re technically God’s children, but really, Jesus? Them?”
These responses are predictable because if we’re honest with ourselves, these are the same sorts of thoughts that pop into our heads—two thousand years later—when we read this passage. Yeah, Jesus makes a point to say “our Father”, but does “our” really encompass all people? Surely Jesus doesn’t mean that the people who we’d rather not associate with—the addicted, the poor, the homeless, the selfish, the dirty-stinking-rich, the proud, the person who insists on driving 35 miles per hour on 68—are our siblings? God loves everyone, but Jesus can’t possibly be putting us all on the same playing field, right?
The inconvenient truth is that when Jesus addresses God as “our Father” in this prayer, that He really means that. God really is the Father of all. All human beings are our siblings—including the ones whom we are frightened of, the ones whom we dislike, and the ones whom we can’t even stand to make eye contact with. God’s love is equal, and it is for all who have ever been, all who are, and all who will ever be. As my mom used to say to me and my siblings when we were little, and we were arguing or otherwise not getting along—we’re all stuck with each other. Like it or not, the entirety of Creation is all in the same family, and we have to get used to it. We have to figure out how to live together as God’s children in God’s world.
There are a lot of ways in which to do that, and Jesus even gets to some of those as He continues with His prayer. Where I think that it is wise for us stay focused today, though, is on the discomfort that the idea of God’s love being indiscriminate and unearned brings. We can’t obtain answers if we are afraid of asking the necessary questions.
So, who is it that you have a hard time imagining God loving? Why does the idea that God loves that person as much He loves you bother you? What is it that makes you reluctant to call that person your sibling? What—if anything—could get you past the point of disgust or contempt and get you thinking of that person as an equal, and as a beloved child of God? Why would that thing make a difference? Is your opposition to “our Father” really about that other person, or is it about you?
As prayers start with short salutations, the Kingdom of God starts with small steps. Transformation begins with surrender, curiosity, trust, and above all else, love. May we know how very much God loves us as we go about our day-to-day lives and may that love spill out into our relationships with one another. May God help us to see others as He sees them, and to cherish them in the same way. May we someday come to truly mean it when we pray, “Our Father, who art in Heaven.”
Hannah Lutz is the pastor of Ada Chapel Friends Meeting in Wilmington.
