Chip Shots

The first request in the prayer Jesus taught us to pray is this: “Hallowed by thy name.” Hallow, an old English word, is rarely used today. What does it mean to “hallow” God’s name?  You may recall that it was used in the Gettysburg address, when President Lincoln said,  “… we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot  hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” What Lincoln meant was this: Although it is right for us to “hallow” this battlefield, it was actually the men who gave their lives in this place who have already consecrated it, who have “hallowed” it, before us. He was right. The ground in Gettysburg is sacred to us, not so much because of the words that were said there, but because of the men who died there. This gives us an important clue as to the meaning of the word. To “hallow” something is to treat it as holy. To mark it out as sacred, to set it apart. ...

"Our Father." This is the first thing Jesus teaches us about prayer: Call God "Our Father."  It might seem a minor point, but it certainly is not. In fact, it might be the most important thing you learn about prayer as we begin our Lenten journey of praying The Lord's Prayer three times daily. The question is this: Do you approach God as if he is your Father and you are his child? Or do you approach God as if he is your Landlord and you are his tenant? Think about the difference between these two. If you are a tenant, you have a business relationship with your landlord. Your responsibility is to pay the rent and respect the property. His responsibility is to maintain the house in good working order. If something breaks, you have a right to ask him to fix it. As long as both of you fulfill your duties, you get along just fine. In fact, you might even become friends of a sort. But the relationship is always one of a landlord and a tenant. Many of us instinctively ...

Lord, Teach us to Pray:  A Lenten Journey with Jesus One day Jesus’ disciples found him “praying in a certain place.” “Lord, teach us to pray,” they asked. Their request surprises us. After all, they knew how to pray -- they’d been doing it their whole lives. But something about Jesus' prayer life was qualitatively different than their own. His disciples could sense it, so they asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In response to their question, Jesus said, “When you pray say, 'Our Father which art in heaven….' ” Could he have been any more direct? Clearly, Jesus expected his followers to pray what we now call “The Lord’s Prayer.” And they did: from that day forward, millions of Jesus’ disciples have prayed the Lord's Prayer on a daily basis. I wonder: How often do you pray the Lord’s Prayer? Tomorrow (Wednesday, February 22) is the first day of Lent, an ancient tradition of the church as it anticipates Jesus’ death on Good Friday.  Lent is ... A focused time of repentan...