Living in the Spirit
May 29, 2015

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:12-17

When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. –Romans 8:15b-17

My Sunday School class does not follow a particular curriculum but routinely assesses the needs of the members and formulates our studies based on those expressed needs. It perhaps could result in our being stunted only picking the things we already agree with, but most often it leads us into areas we probably would never have explored. Recently one of our members said she would like to know more about the Lord’s Prayer. What we found was that there is not many stand-alone studies on just the Lord’s Prayer. We did find a wonderful small book by Joachim Jeremias, Jesus and the Message of the New Testament, which included a well-developed chapter on the Lord’s Prayer.

Jeremias notes that the identification of gods as a father images occurred in other Middle Eastern religions by the third and second centuries before Christ. While God is rarely spoken of as father in the Old Testament it does occur 14 times*. Most often these references are found among the prophets who are describing God’s mercy beyond understanding.

The unique characteristic of the Lord’s Prayer is Jesus’ use of the word Abba. It is translated Father in most of our Bibles but it is the more intimate word a child uses. Our word for this might be Dad or Daddy or Pop. What is even more incredible is that Jesus gives all his disciples permission to address the almighty God as Abba.

Paul is recognizing that distinction in our scripture today, not in the sense of lowering the status of God, but in a way that makes even more holy the intensity of God’s love. Love we are called to emulate with all people everywhere as Jesus Christ did even in the face of adversity.

Prayer: Abba, thank you for your unconditional love. Thank you for your constant presence giving us the will and the energy to love like Jesus Christ loves. Amen.

*See Isaiah 63:15-16, 64:7-8; and Jeremiah 3:4

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.