Father

How do you talk to God?  When you talk to God, what do you say?  The creator of the universe, of you?  Is there anything adequate to say to such a being?  I grew up as a wrestling fanatic — not the theatrical kind that you see on television from the likes of the WWE — but real, bonafide wrestling.  In the late 80’s the king of the wrestling world was a man by the name of Bruce baumgartner.  He had won the olympics wrestling in the heavyweight division.  I remember the day that I had the opportunity to meet him, my wrestling hero.  I can still remember what I said when he shook my hand — or swallowed it up in his mighty paw — “WOW”.  That was it, these were the genius words that protruded out of my mouth, “WOW”.  In the face of greatness, it is often hard to form good thoughts, to respond adequately.  So, again I ask, what do you say when you are speaking to the beginning and the end, the “I Am”?  

Jesus understood our need for instruction at this point.  As he taught on the mount in Matthew 5-7, look where he began, “Our Father”.  Of course, he begins where God always begins, with the intimacy of a good father.  Believe it or not, this intimate language has strong Old Testament representation.  

In fact, if you read the Old Testament right, you might find that such language is the aim of the entire Hebrew Bible.  It seems that many of the contemporaries of Jesus did not read it correctly.  Their prayers were full of language that suggested that God was far away, higher up, and further back.  

Did they forget God’s desire for intimacy with us in the garden, and his walks with Adam and Eve?  Did they not recognize how God drew Abraham, and then Jacob, and finally Joseph to himself?  Did they not understand that the purpose of the Exodus from Egypt was never about getting across the Red sea and out of slavery, but getting to Mt. Sinai and into the presence of God?  

Addressing YHWH as “Father” was a scandal.  God was holy, so holy that a Hebrew was not even permitted to say his personal name (Yahwah).  Jesus goes beyond a personal name, to a personal relationship.  In our day, we make a great deal of the “personal relationship” language, as we should.  However, this is more than a “Jesus and Me” thing, this is a “redemption of God’s creative purposes” thing.  We were created to love God and to be loved by God.  God wants to be as close as a whisper, to know Him and be known by Him.  Calling God father marks out how God intends to set things right again.  Thus Jesus says, “call Him Father”.