Our Father

Sermon preached Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Year 2, Proper 6, Wednesday, Mass: Psalm 31:19-24, 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Today is the first day of summer! Do you feel different? Its kind of like asking someone on their birthday: Do you feel older? Sometimes new things don't feel new, we have to grow into them. As the summer wears on we will leave behind our cold weather clothes knowing that its unlikely to dip back to the 50s in July or August. Likewise as the year rolls on after a birthday I always get used to the fact that I am however old I am and leave behind more and more things of my youth.

As we continue reading from the Sermon on the Mount today, Jesus reminds us that life as children of our Father in heaven may not always seem so different than life in the world. We encounter the same temptations as everyone else: to be popular, to be praised, to be important in other people's eyes.

Jesus reminds us that the relationship we have with each other is founded not on a superior relationship with God - prayer and fasting are means of growing closer to God, not of growing farther away from each other - but rather our relationship with each other is built on the fact that through Christ we have become children of God, children who can truly cry out to our Father. This means that although we may not always feel that it is the case, those we might try to impress are actually our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called not to feel superior, but to grow closer to them in the same we we grow closer to God every time we pray.

When you pray the words of the Lord's Prayer, meditate for a moment on the first words: Our Father. Through Christ God is Father of all of us and we are all not just children of God, we are not only heirs of the kingdom, we are brothers and sisters to each other in Christ.