advent: week 1

Monday, November 30

The season of Advent began on Sunday. It will continue during the next three weeks leading up to Christmas Eve. Advent simply means arrival. Historically and liturgically, it is a time for the church to prepare for the arrival of Jesus. In his first Advent, Jesus arrives as a baby who will eventually die as God’s appointed man for the sins of the world. 

The season of Advent is also about the second coming of Jesus. At that future time, Jesus will return as the liberating King! In the way, his second coming will finish what he started in his first coming. 

Advent, then, is a sacred season of longing, hope, and preparation. Before his death, Jesus instructed us to prepare for his return in the way we are present with one another. When we are graciously and humbly present with one another, we are pointing each other toward Jesus’s first and second coming. In his first coming, Jesus took care of the penalty of our sin through his death on the cross. In his second coming, Jesus will rid creation of the presence of sin. This is our salvation! Freed of the penalty of sin and hoping for the day when sin will be no more, we are prepared to be present with one another with hope and mercy.

To be present with one another includes identifying with and serving one another’s needs. This is exemplified in the life of Jesus. John says of his first arrival, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth,” (Jn 1:14). 

Even in his departure from this earth, Jesus didn’t leave his disciples alone in the world. He continues to be present with us and among us through the Holy Spirit. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you,” (John 16:13-15).

Filled with the Holy Spirit, then, we are enabled with the fruit of the Spirit to be present with one another. During these weeks of Advent, instead of focusing solely on what presents to give one another, let’s be give the gift of our presence, which is filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Paul calls this life between the two Advents of Jesus “life in the Spirit.” It is a fruitful life, not a frugal life. It is a life based upon the grace and mercy of God; not on the riches or gifts of man. Paul says this life isn’t governed by the law (Galatians 5:23), by the joy of giving and loving others as we have been loved. 

We often underestimate the power of our presence in each other’s lives. During this first week of Advent, look for ways to give the gift of your time to someone. Be still and be engaged with someone so that the fruit of Holy Spirit will be a blessing to them. 

Be present with them in the same way God is with you: Jesus, Immanuel!

Our Father...

In the beginning, Adam talked with God. Adam’s ability for verbal communication was given to him so that he could speak with God — pray. That holy and sacred gift of speech, then, was shared with Eve. His talk with God led to a desire to communication with others. 

We learn to talk at an early age. We learn to communicate our whole lives. It’s quite possible to talk and never connect with people. It’s also possible to pray for reasons that have nothing to do with God — so said Jesus in Matthew 6:5-8.

None of us are experts in prayer. I guess I should speak for myself — I’m not! I’m still learning. It seems that new phases in life and new experiences require me to learn something new about prayer and I discover new reasons to pray. I get frustrated with myself and feel guilty because I don’t pray enough. In fact, guilt oftentimes grows as I lose sight of why I pray and to whom I’m praying.

I come back to Jesus’s prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. From the outset to this prayer, it is simple and intimate: Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

First thing I notice in Jesus’s prayer is that I’m not an only child! This is OUR Father. 

While it is a personal relationship, it is not a private relationship with God. When we bow our heads in prayer, we join the chorus of God’s children the world over! We enter into a conversation that started before us and we are at the table because of the gracious work of Jesus. All of God’s children pray! And, together, we cry out to God our Father.

This is precisely what Paul says in Romans 8:14-16 —
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” 

Each of us prays to the Father knowing that none of us prays alone!

Second, we are not approaching a distant and uninterested deity, but our FATHER.  

In my last post, I stated that our view of God impacts how we pray. Right from the top, Jesus wants us to know just how deep and intimate our communion with God is. Father. Abba. Daddy! 

Immediately, we are reminded of the person on earth we call dad, or father… or as my friend in high school called him, “Ron”! The fact is, there’s a lot of baggage with this word father — some good, some not so much. This may be a stumbling block for you; you can’t utter the words, “Father” when addressing God because of the memories you have of your father. There’s a lot to say about this, more than I can do in this one post. Suffice to say, Jesus’s prayer is part of the healing you need — we all need. Some of us had to grow up so quickly that we never learned to be a child. Jesus’s prayer puts us back into that place of a child before a loving and caring parent.

Think about this: God is the original father! He is the perfect and ideal Father. All other fathers are created in His fatherly image. Just as sin has vandalized our gender, so it has vandalized what it means to be a father. When we begin our prayers by calling out to God as our father, we are declaring that He is our true and perfect Father. He is the one from whom we have our life and are secured in this life through His love!

Moreover, He is far from passive or uninvolved. His involvement in our life is always perfect and is always seeking our very best for His glory! Praying to God the Father prepares us for this fatherly intrusion into our life. He corrects us; He is good to us; He has compassion on us; and by His love we are transformed! When we pray, “Our Father,” we are like a child with open arms!

“My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” (Prov 3:11-12) 

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (Jam 1:17 ESV) 

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Ps 103:13-14)

“But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Is 64:8)

Instead of being haunted by a abusive, permissive, or overbearing father, in prayer we are yielding ourselves to God the Father. And so, as C.S. Lewis says, we are free to, “Lay before God what is in us, not what ought to be in us.”

Next, it is noteworthy that in this opening line of Jesus’s prayer God is identified in a paradoxical way: FATHER, who is in HEAVEN. He is near to us like a father; yet far removed from us in heaven. He is imminent and transcendent. Paradox doesn’t mean that God is  an inherent contradiction; it means that from our limited perspective it appears contradictory. That’s the effect the mystery of God has on us. Scripture reminds us of this truth about God often:

God “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.” (1 Tim 6:16)

“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?” (Ps 24:3)

Take time to read Isaiah 55:6-9 for another example of this paradox.

Prayer, in other words, engages the mystery of God’s character. He is accessible to us, yet shrouded in mystery. Sometimes our prayers may seem to us going nowhere and heard by no one. Jesus prayed that God would “let this cup pass from” him in the garden. Scripture doesn’t say that God answered him. Yet, Jesus was faithful to God, even when the mystery was painful and perplexing. He was sweating blood! 

For those who can’t believe that God is near, they can only see God in heaven, they usually stop praying. For those who have stripped away the mystery and see God as, say, their co-pilot, they wrongfully assume that God is their errand boy. For them, prayer is about getting something from God instead of engaging God and worshipping God.

Is heaven far removed from us? Heaven isn’t a place we are simply trying to find or waiting to die so that we can enter. Heaven is where God dwells and with God all of our hopes and fulfillment. Heaven is our deepest desires at the feet of God. Heaven is coming toward us and will eventually encapsulate all of the earth, renewing it and once and for all redeeming it! 

Finally, what do we do with the mystery of God, who is our father and who dwells in heaven: HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME. Literally, the phrase could be translated: Let your name be kept holy.

As God’s adopted children, we take the name of our Father. Our prayers are declarations that His name would be made holy in our life and on this earth. In other words, that our lives would be dedicated to “glorifying God and enjoying God in all that we do.”

“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving,” (Ps 69:3). By communing with God in prayer, we are yielding to the work of the Holy Spirit to equip us to be vessels for God’s glory. As this happens, God’s glory can be found in the most gritty and grimy places of our life! God’s glory in our grit! 

Hallowed be your name in… [insert the place you think is least holy]! God is glorified there!

This part of Jesus’s prayer reminds me of Paul’s prayer in Romans 11:33-36 —
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.(Romans 11:33-36 ESV)

When you pray...

For Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, his prayers for the Pepsi, Pizza Hut, and Power Aid were inspired by the baby Jesus. His son envisioned Ninja Jesus when he said his prayers. His best friend confesses that he is caught up in a raptured vision of Jesus playing lead guitar for Lynyrd Skynyrd with angel’s wings!

There’s a truth coming out of this absurdity! Our view of God has a profound impact on how our praying life. Before asking how to pray or how often, ask yourself: To whom am I praying?

In his book, Why We Pray, William Philip goes back to Genesis to answer this question. “Prayer derives from who and what God is, and the great feature of the God of the Bible , the God of the Christian faith, is he is a speaking God. That is evident from the very first chapter of the Bible,” (Why We Pray, 22). 

Just as our communication with each other is the essential for a thriving relationship, so prayer is an essential part of a thriving relationship with God. In Matthew 6 Jesus doesn’t say, “If you are comfortable with prayer,” or “If you are in trouble.” He simply says “And when you pray…,” (Matthew 6:5). 

Again, William Philip shows how communication between God and Adam was part of the original design. Having created man in the image of the Holy Trinity (Genesis 1:26-27), God endowed man and woman with the capacity for speech. Speaking with God, in other words, was the first and most important reason for our ability to speak and communicate at all! We are made to pray! It wasn’t until Adam and Eve disobeyed God that the lines of communication were severed. As a result, Adam and Eve’s communication with each other was severed and they hid from each other and God. As Philip says, “Man stopped answering God.” 

“But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)  

Prayer began with God as we bear the image of a speaking and relating God. Since the fall of man in Genesis 3, prayer has been initiated and maintained by God’s gracious call to us in Jesus, “Where are you?”

Convinced that we are on our own in this world and are capable of surviving as such, communication with God and others becomes a burden. Yet, the only man who was born without sin and was perfect in every way prayed. The gospels tell stories of Jesus’s active prayer life and communication with God: 

Luke 6:12 - Jesus went to the mountain to pray all night.
Mark 1:35 - Jesus rose early and went to a desolate place and prayed.
Luke 5:16 - Jesus withdrew from the crowds to pray.

In Matthew 6 Jesus graciously takes time to teach his disciples how to pray. His model prayer is what we call the Lord’s Prayer. 

“Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name. 
Your kingdom come, 
your will be done, 
on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread, 
and forgive us our debts, 
as we also have forgiven our debtors. 
And lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9-13) 

Upon closer inspection, it is clear that the prayer is in response to the person and work of God: Father, King, Giver, Savior, Guide, and Protector. Each of these facts of God’s character and activity shape our prayers.

When we pray to the Father…we are childlike.
When we pray to the King…we submit.
When we pray to the Giver…we are needy.
When we pray to the Savior…we confess.
When we pray to the Guide… we need guidance. 
When we pray to the Protector…we are vulnerable.

Prayers require and result in an accurate picture of God revealed in Scripture. Prayers also open our eyes to see ourselves in light of the truth. If we hiding from God, others or ourselves, praying will be avoided at all costs. 

To be sure, then, prayer is an act of faith that reaches for the grace of God. This is why Jesus warns against praying like hypocrites. Instead of prayer being an act of faith, it is a performance and a chance to promote self. Properly understood, however, prayer is the opportunity to be with God and be seen by God. 

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him,” (Matthew 6:6-8).

Again, prayer is based upon the person and work of God the Father: He “knows what you need before you ask him.” Therefore, as Paul says, we cry out “Abba!” (Romans 8:15). We aren’t orphans, but adopted sons and daughters of God. The Father always knows what you need and how to fill your deepest desires.

Prayer, then, is “an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies” (Westminster Shorter Catechism).

“Where are you?”