The Lord's Prayer - 7th Petition

But deliver us from evil.

What does this mean? We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.

In this last petition we pray that the Lord would deliver us from evil.  According to Greek grammar, this phrase could also be understood to say “Deliver us from the evil one.”  The Large Catechism emphasizes this understanding of the text.  After all, there are many evils present in this world, but there is one that stands behind it all, one primary enemy who knowingly and willingly stirs up evil, and that is the Devil.  The Small Catechism is offering a brief summary and so it goes with a more general treatment; “all manner of evil” it says.  Evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation.  But there is one who stands behind this evil and who initiates this evil, and that is the Devil.

You and I live in a very secularized society, one that places a high priority on reason and rationality.  People will say, “I'll believe it when I see it.”  “I’ll believe it when you can prove it.”  This makes it very easy for the devil to hide from us. Our world is full of very outspoken atheists and agnostics and skeptics who doubt that there is a spiritual realm, who believe the world is only material.  As far as Satan is concerned, that is just fine.  It fits into his game plan.  He doesn’t want to give people a reason to believe in God so he stays behind the scenes.  But he is still there and he is only all too real.

We know this because the Scriptures tell us.  The Lord records for us in Genesis the first appearance of the Devil in the Garden of Eden when he tempted Adam and Eve to sin.  We also see him battling Jesus with temptations in the Wilderness.  The Gospel of Mark tells of a boy who was possessed by a devil and this devil tried to destroy him.  It would throw him into the fire to burn him and it would throw him into the water to drown him. (Mark 9:22) We see terrible things like this that happen in our day and age; drownings and murders, insanity and suicide.   Our news media loves to report these sorts of things and so we hear about them often.  We look for material explanations.  Drugs, Despair, Greed, Coincidence.  Luther finds evidence of the work of the Devil. [LC III p. 115] 

The devil works on us too. His tools are lies and deceit. His goal is to destroy us.  His strategy is much like that of a lion hunting its prey.  When a lion goes hunting it will look for one who is vulnerable in some way, weak or injured.  He will separate that one from the rest of the herd and give chase.  Wear it down until its tired and then pounce.  Satan does the same with us.  When we are weak or injured, when our defenses are down.  When we are tired, stressed, grief stricken or angry,  Satan will come to attack us.  If he can he will try to separate us from Christ and His body the Church and he will try to wear us down through repeated attacks.  He will get us to blame God, to blame other Christians for our suffering.  He will push us to sin.  And he will try to destroy our faith. 

The battle ground for this attack is always the conscience.  Satan wants to destroy your conscience.  Your conscience is a gift from God.  It lets you know when you have broken God’s Law and it lets you know when you need to confess your sin and receive forgiveness.  When it is functioning properly it points you to Christ.  Christ wants you to have a good conscience, a clear conscience.  He wants you to be sure and confident of your forgiveness and salvation.  That is why he died for you; to set you free from sin and free from the accusations of the Devil.  (1 John 1:7-9; Hebrews 9:14) How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14 ESV) You can face your sin with confidence because of Jesus.  Satan knows that the Forgiveness of Christ undoes all his work and so Satan attacks you to and tries to pull you away from God’s forgiveness. 

Satan attacks your conscience first with temptation.  He entices you to violate God’s law.  Since we are sinful and weak, we are only all too happy to give in.  And then, once we have given in, once we have broken the commandments he sets to work on the conscience.  When your conscience is working correctly it tells that you are guilty when you are guilty and it tells you that you are innocent when your are innocent.  A broken conscience works just the opposite – it tells you your are innocent when you are guilty or it tells you that you are guilty when you are innocent.  Either one is  bad.  A presenter at the conference I attended this past week compared it to a broken gas gauge.  If your gas gauge tells you your tank is full when it’s empty that’s bad.  If it tells you you are empty when you are full, either one is bad and either one can get you stuck on the side of the road. 

So here’s what Satan does.  God’s law says you should not slander.  God’s law says that you are guilty when you say things about another person to destroy their reputation.  Satan questions that Word of God.  He gets you to doubt whether or not that is true.  “Yes, gossip and slander is wrong, but it’s okay in certain situations.  It’s even necessary.  It would be wrong not to tell what I know.” And so we give in.  And once we have given in, Satan now has what he needs to work on conscience.  He tells you that you are innocent.  That you haven’t  done anything wrong.  That you did what was right.  Others might say it was wrong but what do they know.  This compounds the sin.  It pushes you do it again and again and again.  And that sin has consequences.  It causes offense.  It alienates you from other people, from other Christians, from your church.  It’s dangerous.

But then there is the other side, the other strategy.  Let’s say you slandered another person – shared some piece of information and caused offense.  But you knew it was wrong, you went to that other person, those you sinned against and confessed that sin to them.  They forgave you.  You confessed that sin to God.  You received absolution.  You are forgiven.    God’s Word says you are forgiven.  But Satan says you are not.  He brings this sin up again and again.  How could you have done that?  You hurt that person.  You destroyed their reputation.  You know how gossip is, once it goes out you can’t ever get it back.  Who knows that gossip is probably still going around and it’s all your fault.  And so your sin comes up again and again and again.  God has said you are forgiven.  Satan says you are not.  You believe the devil. 

All of this is really no different from Satan’s usual tricks.  He attack the Word of God.  God has two Words, words of law that condemn you and words of Gospel that save you.  He attacks both, he gets you to doubt both.  His ultimate goal is to destroy your conscience so he can destroy your faith. 

Our prayer in this petition is that God would deliver us from the Devil, that he would deliver us from these tricks that the devil plays against us and that we would not be overcome by them.  Luther says “There is nothing for us to do but pray against this arch enemy.  For unless God preserved us, we would not be safe from this enemy even for an hour.” [LC III p.116]  On our own we have no hope of defeating the Devil and standing against his attacks so we must pray that God will deliver us.

Luther says, “If we are to be preserved and delivered from all evil, the name of God must first be hallowed in us, His kingdom must be with us, and His will be done. After that He will finally preserve us from sin and shame, and, besides, from everything that may hurt or injure us.” [LC III p 118]  You see, God has already delivered us from this evil.  God has already delivered us from Satan.  This is the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer.  Luther says the name of God must first be hallowed.  It has been. 

God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!  God does this for you.  He gives you His Word and Spirit to bring you to faith and keep you firm in that faith.  He provides for you teaching and instruction in the Word.  That’s what we are doing now!

God delivers us when his kingdom comes.  It has come.  God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.  That has been done!  You have received the Spirit.  It was given in your baptism, when you also received the Name.  The Spirit gives you faith so that you turn away from sin and to the Cross!  You see there the life of Jesus given for you.  Your sin is forgiven!

God delivers us from the devil when His Holy Divine Will is done.  God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.

God’s Will has been done for you.  It is being done for you.  That, again, is why we are here this morning.  To receive the forgiveness of sin in the absolution.  To hear the word of God preached and the forgiveness of sins declared to you as if by God himself.  To receive the forgiveness of sins and strengthening of faith in the Lords Supper where you receive the body and blood of Jesus given for us Christians to eat and to drink.  The work of Satan is being undone right here and right now.  God’s name is here right now!  God’s Kingdom comes, right now!  God’s will is done! Right Now!  We have prayed to the Lord the prayer he gave us to pray and he is answering that prayer with a resounding YES! Right Now!

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus gives to us everything that we need.  He invites us to pray for those things that are most necessary for us.  God’s name, his Kingdom, His Will, daily bread, forgiveness, deliverance from temptation and finally deliverance from evil.  When we have prayed these things, when we have believed them and received them in faith, there is only one thing left for us do.  Only one response left for a Christian and that is to say Amen. Yes it is so.  I do believe it. 

I have challenged you to pray this prayer.  I offer that again.  Pray this prayer in faith.  Believe and do not doubt.  Receive the gifts God has given.  As we make our way through this 2012 calendar year, let us carry this prayer with us in faith know that God will do what he has promised this year and every year.

Amen.

Lord's Prayer - 5th and 6th Petitions

The city of Bombay in India is a city with a population of greater than 12 million people.  There are nearly 60,000 people per square mile.  And they don’t all live in high rises like we might expect.  Instead they live on the street.  Or next to it, to be more precise; in little villages pieced together from pieces of scrap metal and wood.  Entire towns made from discarded construction materials.  The well off live in homes and apartments the way we would be accustomed to.  The poor live in shacks and shanty towns along the road ways.

I had the opportunity to visit this bustling and crowded city a number of years ago.  I was a senior in high school, spent my life up to that point enjoying the Modern comforts of Western living – had never experienced hunger or poverty.  I was in shock at the things I saw.  Hundreds and thousands of people living in shacks made from scraps.  Built on every available empty piece of land.  Crowded and (to me) it seemed careless. I could not believe it.  What about sanitation?  What about safety?  Little children went running and playing through these little towns.  I wouldn’t have thought one of these homes enough shelter to store my bicycle, and this was their entire living.

You see, you and I don’t know what it means to be poor.  We don’t know what it means to have nothing or to go hungry.  We think poverty means you have a standard definition tv set with no cable.  We think poverty means you don’t get to go to Disney world for your vacation.  We think poverty means you have to shop at a thrift store.  Our standards are way too high compared to some.

And because we don’t understand what it means to be poor, we also don’t understand what it means to be a beggar. To truly have nothing.  The shack dwellers in Bombay were not rich but they at least had work.  There were plenty who did not – cripples, disabled people who were not able to hold the job of a day laborer.  They sat on the side of the road, dirty, bedraggled, hands out, eyes down, faces forlorn.  Begging for anything you would give.

We haven’t ever seen this or experienced this, and so when we read in the Large Catechism that the prayer for forgiveness as we forgive applies to our “poor miserable life” we have little context for understanding what it means.  We think we are pretty well off.  We think we are doing okay.  We think we have our lives together.  The reality is that we do not.  Before God we are beggars.  Poor.  Having nothing.  Not like the shack dwellers who at least have a roof over their heads and a job and a salary.  We are like the lame, the cripple, those too weak to work, to earn, to pay.  We can only come before God with eyes down cast and empty hands extended upward.  Forgives our sins.  Forgive us our trespasses.

Remarkably, He does.  If I would have filled every open hand and every hungry mouth I saw in Bombay, I quickly would have exhausted all my resources.  I could help one, maybe two, perhaps a handful if I felt generous.  Jesus helps us all.  He fills every open hand, he feeds every hungry soul as he gives to us His all.  Even his life in exchange for ours.  He trades places with us, he becomes the beggar so that we could be the king.  Is that something you would do?  Trade your middle class American lifestyle for that of a beggar in India?  Not likely, but Jesus did that and more for you.  Traded heaven for earth.  Traded abundance for poverty.  Traded power for weakness. Traded love for scorn.  He did all of that for you.  To purchase for you forgiveness.  To be able to wash you and cleanse you and clothe you, to take you off the street and clean you up and make something of you.  You were nothing.  You were nobody.  Now you are God’s own child. 

Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Do you see how petty we are?  When we begin to realize how greatly we have been loved and how greatly we have been forgiven; to consider that we won’t forgive even the smallest of sins that have been committed against us?  The way we keep track, the way we keep score, the way we tally up the offenses that someone else has committed.  “I have a right to retribution.  I want justice.  I want satisfaction.  I want my pound of flesh. You won’t take advantage of me!” How quickly we forget. 

Jesus is the Son of God.  He is great.  He is powerful.  He is sinless.  He is righteous.  He has the right to demand from you retribution.  He has the right to demand satisfaction for the sins you have committed against him.  And heaven help us if he did. 

There is a plight worse than that of a beggar and that is the plight of a prisoner.  We don’t have the context for understanding that either.  For us prison means bars and a striped suit.  Sure that’s bad, but it comes with 3 square meals a day and a college education courtesy of the tax payers.   That’s not what all prisons are like – Prisons are hell holes, a place where you go to die.  This is the place reserved for sinners.  Beggars on earth become hell bound prisoners in eternity.  Prisoners in hell would long for the good ol’ days spent begging on earth.

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.  Forgive us Lord even for our refusal to forgive.

In the end, our forgiveness really isn’t worth all that much anyways.  Luther says that our forgiveness is a sign of the forgiveness that God gives.  He says that Jesus adds our forgiveness to this petition “so that he may establish forgiveness as our confirmation and assurance, as a sign alongside the promise, which agrees with the prayer.” (LC III p 96)  It is a reminder, evidence, proof positive.  Our sins are gone because of what Jesus has done.  Our forgiveness that we give to each other is an every day reminder that this forgiveness is real.  When you forgive me because of what I have done against you, you become a reminder for me of Jesus.  Isn’t it beautiful that we can do that for each other?

But Satan would have none of it!  Neither would his allies in this life, the world and the flesh.  All this forgiveness and love and mercy – all this freedom and release!  That can’t happen.  There must be death and to get to death there must be justice!  There must be retribution!  There must be satisfaction!  To have all of these things there must be sin.  So that there can be sin, the Devil the world and our flesh throw us into temptation.

“Lead us not into temptation.” The Lord commands us to pray. 

What does this mean?

God, indeed, tempts no one; but we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice; and though we be assailed by them, that still we may finally overcome and gain the victory.

In the Large Catechism Luther tells us that there are three different kinds of temptations; those from the Devil, those from the world and those from the flesh. 

Our flesh tempts us because it delights in sin.  There are all different sins that entice us and appeal to us.  Unchastity, laziness, gluttony, drunkenness, greed, deception, theft.  The flesh, our flesh is eager for opportunities to participate in any one of these sins.  And if you think you don’t, then watch out for the sin of pride.  I don’t do that!  I don’t think that!  All a false sense of security when it comes to the flesh!

And then there are the temptations that world lays upon us.  Living in the world means that we live with other sinful people.  They all carry that same flesh that plagues you.  And the one thing the world can’t abide is someone who doesn’t conform.  Someone who isn’t like all the rest.  And so we normalize the worst in us and marginalize the best. We love it when the mighty fall.  We love it when the pure in heart are not so pure as they once seemed.  We love it when we can say “see I told you so.”  And so the world drives us to anger.  We drive each other to anger, not to mention hatred, envy, hostility violence, wrong, unfaithfulness, vengeance, pride slander, haughtiness.  In our pride we look to the world for useless finery, honor fame and power.

And then there is the devil, the master-mind behind it all.  Who wants nothing more than for you to stumble and fall so that he can throw the whole thing in your face and tear you apart with fear and despair.  Sometimes he pushes you to pride and self justification.  Sometimes to weakness, sometimes to despair, always away from God.

If we were to face these enemies on our own we would surely be overcome.  And so we pray that God would preserve us from these temptation and keep us from being destroyed by them.

So there is no help of comfort except to run here, take hold of the Lord’s Prayer, and thus speak to God from the heart: Dear Father, You have asked me to pray; Don’t let me fall because of temptations. Then you will see that the temptations must stop, and finally acknowledge themselves conquered. If you try to help yourself by your own thoughts and counsel, you will only make the matter worse and give the devil more space. For he has a serpent's head, which if it gain an opening into which he can slip, the whole body will follow without check. But prayer can prevent him and drive him back.  [LC III p 110-111]

Amen.

The Lord's Prayer in the New Year - Petitions 3 & 4

“Here we now consider the poor bread basket, the necessaries of our body and of the temporal life.”  [LC III p 72]

Today in our ongoing series on the Lord’s Prayer we consider the 3^rd Petition as well as the 4^th.  Thy Will be done and Give us this day our daily bread.  We have begun with the bread.  We have begun with the 4^th.

In the 4^th Petition we pray for bread, but this prayer is for much more than simply just bread.  Bread is only the finished product.  Bread is that thing that we need so that we can eat and live.  But bread doesn’t appear all by itself.  Before there can be bread there must be someone to bake it, there must be flour and grain and eggs and sugar, there must be a farmer to grow and to harvest the grain, cattle and chickens for milk and eggs, land to plant the seed, sunshine and rain to make it grow.  Daily bread is much more than just a prayer for bread.  It is a prayer for everything that goes in to making and preparing that bread.  It involves all of commerce and all of life.  This simple prayer is a prayer that God would provide all of those things as much as we need them.  We pray that God would support us in our earthly and bodily life.

Last week we mentioned that the prayer that God’s Kingdom come was not a prayer for our election cycle – God’s Kingdom is not of this earth, so a prayer for God’s Kingdom has nothing to do with who is president in Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Baghdad or Tehran.  But, here in the 4^th Petition good government is included (we can’t after all make a living and eat our bread in peace unless there is a government to help us protect it).  God provides this.  God takes care of us, of his world and his whole creation by creating our various stations in life: bakers and farmers and presidents and autoworkers and soldiers and teachers and mothers & fathers.  He gives each station, each office for our good and then he calls every one of us to fill those stations.  Tom, you bake bread; Marsha, you be a nurse to bandage and heal; Al, you go farm – plant and harvest; Jill, go paint and draw – and since you’re so good at it teach others to do it! 

It’s God’s world, God’s creation.  He makes it.  He keeps it running.  He enlists us and calls us to participate in this work together with him.

When you, the Christian pray this prayer you do not simply pray it for yourself – Lord I want my pantry full.  You pray this prayer for all people, for your neighbor.  Notice that the prayer is not singular.  Give me this day my daily bread.  It is profoundly plural.  Us and Our!  We pray not just for ourselves but for each other.  “Lord you have blessed me with more than I need,  but I have noticed that my neighbor has a need.”  You pray for your neighbor and for that need.  And if you are going to pray for it, you also should help to fill it.

James says in chapter 2 of his epistle. “What good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace be warm and well fed.’ without giving  them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  So also faith, if it does not have works is dead.” (James 2:14-17)

Remember the preaching of John the Baptist?  “Whoever has two coats is to share with him who has none.  Whoever has food is to do likewise.”

Even as we pray that God would fill us it is our duty to fill others.

So we pray this prayer on behalf of our neighbor.  But we also pray this prayer against Satan.  Luther says that “(Satan’s) thought and desire is to deprive us of all that we have from God and to hinder it.  He is not satisfied to obstruct and destroy spiritual government by leading souls astray with his lies and power.  He also prevents and hinders the stability of all government and honorable, peaceable relations on the earth.”  [LC III p 80]

 Wherever there is dissention and disagreement know that the devil is at work.  Wherever there is want and poverty and need, know that the devil is at work.

“If it were in his power, and our prayer (next to God) did not prevent him, we would not keep a straw in the field a penny in the house, yes even our life for an hour.” [LC III p 81]

In the 3^rd Petition our Lord teaches us to pray, “Thy will be done.”

I will warn you dear Christians, think twice before you pray this prayer.

This first petition that we have covered is one that we can readily agree to pray and eagerly get behind.  Lord give me bread, preserve my wealth and health and stability.  While you’re at it do the same for my neighbor.  We like that prayer, but this next one – the one that comes directly before it – Thy will be done – that is a terrifying prayer.

It’s terrifying because it means you have to die. 

The Small Catechism tells us that the devil, the world and our sinful flesh get in the way of God’s will.  They do not want God’s Kingdom to come or his name to be kept holy and so they fight against it.  You are on the devils side in this fight.  You might not agree.  You might not care to hear that.  But it is true.  The Catechism says that it is. St Paul says it is.  “For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)

The Apostle John says the same thing.  “Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.  For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”  (1 John 2:15-17)

In order for God’s will truly to be done.  In order for God to really and completely and totally have his way with you, it is necessary that you die.  It is necessary that your will, your priorities, your aspirations, your pursuits, your pleasures, your achievements all come to nothing.  And there are many of them.  Some of them are temporal – careers, personal achievements, family goals, financial goals.  These become gods that take the place of the One God. 

Some of these goal might even be spiritual goals – your commitment to God, your good works, your prayer life!  The Christian does not look at himself and say, “I need to be a better Christian, I need to be a more devout Christian.  I need to pray more, be more sincere, be more faithful, be a better husband or wife or sister of brother.”  “The good we want to do we cannot do. But the evil we don’t want to do, that is what we keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19)  So the Christian looks to Jesus and simply prays, Lord may your will be done with me and then in faith submits to that will.  And then, if you are to win the fight against the Devil God will do it.  If you are to overcome the sin in your heart, God will do it.  If you are stand against the world, God will do it.  Pray!  Go with your Bible and pray.  Pray that God’s will be done in you and then submit to that Holy will. God will make sure that it happen.

God’s Kingdom first came to you when He first gave you His Name.  Our Lord fulfilled the first two petitions – His Name was Hallowed and His Kingdom came to you when you were baptized.  He gave you his Name through His Word and according to Faith he made you an heir of His Kingdom.  The Gospel has come to you and made you a Christian.  And that’s just it.  That’s where your death began – you died to yourself and to your sinful flesh and to your own quest for wealth and power and glory – you died to your own will on the day that you were baptized.

Paul writes in Romans 6:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:3-11 ESV)

In the Large Catechism Luther writes, “In God’s Kingdom, although we have prayed for the greatest need – for the Gospel, faith, and the Holy Spirit, that He may govern us and redeem us from the devil’s power – we must also pray that God’s will be done.  For there will be strange events if we are to abide God’s will.  We shall have to suffer many thrusts and blows on that account from everything that seeks to oppose and prevent the fulfillment of the first two petitions.” [LC III p 61]

So your death and the overcoming of your will began at your baptism.  It is God’s Will that the overcoming of your will be accompanied by trials, by struggles, by temptations, by suffering.  God gives you your own cross to carry. 

If you are like me, you hate to suffer.  I hate to suffer.  I hate it when God allows people and events and situations to come up that cause me discomfort or grief or hardship.  In fact, I even tell myself that if God really loved me he wouldn’t make me have to deal with all of this.  But that is my sinful flesh talking.  Yours probably says the same thing.  Our sinful flesh, that doesn’t want God’s name hallowed or his kingdom to come, wants to set aside the heavenly kingdom in the interest of the earthly kingdom.  We want peace and prosperity and stability.  We want to be happy.  And we want it now. 

But remember the 4^th Petition?  Give us this day our daily bread?  Notice what we prayed for.  Bread.  Not a feast.  Not a lavish and succulent banquet.  Bread.  The basics.  And not an overflowing cupboard of bread.  Bread for each day. 

”Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”  (Proverbs 30:7-9 ESV)

Our sinful flesh wants to be rich.  Our sinful flesh wants success and fame and glory and honor and we want those things now.  God hasn’t promised to give them to you now.  God has promised to give you bread.  Bread for today – to feed you, to give you what you need, to support this body and this life. 

The suffering that God sends your way, the cross that you will carry, this is God’s gift to you.  Remember the apostles who rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer?  (Acts 5:41)  God’s promise is that whatever suffering you incur it will be for your good.  God’s promise is that through your suffering he will teach you greater faith and through suffering he will overcome sin in you. 

We often pray Thy will be done but we often mean it only in terms of external situations.  Things outside me.  My job, my taxes, the weather. My family.  Pray that God’s will be done inside you.  In your heart.  To overcome sin and to teach you to humbly and meekly carry your cross.

And you will carry a cross because Jesus has called you to die.  But so has he.  Jesus carried his cross.  Jesus died on that cross.  But Jesus has been raised.  And just as he was raised, you will be too. And on the day that you will be raised he will give you all those things your heart desires.  Daily bread will be replaced with an eternal feast.  Suffering will be replaced with joy.  Crosses will be replaced with crowns.  Death will be gone forever and replaced with life. 

The Christian faith is a faith that is lived in the present with an eye to future.  We live today, but in the hope of tomorrow.  We pray that the Lord would give us what we need to keep  going for today, but we know his greatest gifts are reserved for tomorrow!  The devil, the world and our sinful flesh want us to worry about bread.  Get what you can, early and often.  But its just bread.  It gets stale and moldy.  We are in line for a seat at the table for Heaven’s feast that will come on the last day!  Lord get us to that day.  Give us bread for today.  But as far as tomorrow, as far as forever is concerned – Lord, may Your will be done.

Amen

The Lord's Prayer in the New Year: Petitions 1 & 2

Luther's Small Catechism: The Lord's Prayer

Luther's Large Catechism: The Lord's Prayer

Happy New Year!  Today is a new day and the first day of the New Year and with this new year perhaps some of you have made a New Year’s resolution, a commitment for some new thing that you are going to do or to change for this next year.  Perhaps you are already planning how you will go about making sure this year, this resolution is one you don’t break.  That’s usually how they go, isn’t it?  For my part, I hope you are successful with this one. 

Whether you have or have not made a resolution, I would like to propose a resolution for you, a resolution that we all could make together.  And this resolution is a resolution to prayer.  I would like to propose that we all commit ourselves to praying during this 2012 calendar year.  And specifically that we commit ourselves to the Lord’s Prayer. 

The Lord’s Prayer is more than merely a good example or a model prayer for us to follow.  This prayer is one that encompasses all of the Christian life.  Everything the Christian needs and everything we aught to be asking God to give us and to do for us is contained in this prayer.  It is God’s prayer, the prayer he prays for us and He invites us to pray it with him.  As such, it is only right and proper that this should be a prayer that we should pray.  And so that we do, so that you do, I propose you make this prayer your resolution.  Resolve to pray it.  But also resolve to pattern your life after it. 

So that we might make a good start to this New Year and to implementing our New resolution, it is my plan, my resolution if you will to preach on this prayer.  To teach on it so that we know it and understand it.  So that we are reminded of what it is we pray for when we say these words our Lord gave us. 

This is our Lord’s prayer after all.  He has commanded that we pray it.  When the disciples come to the Lord saying “Teach us to pray.” he did not say, “Pray like this” or “in this way” or “After this pattern”.  He said, “When you pray, say this.”  (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4)  God wants us to pray this prayer. He commands us to pray this prayer.  Luther says that we should form the habit of prayer from youth, that we should pray whenever we notice anything affecting our interests or that of other people among whom we live.  He says that we should pray to God His commands and lift them up before him and that because of indifference to prayer, every day people become for unfit and unworthy of prayer.  This is what the Devil desires because he knows the great harm that our prayers cause him. [LC III p. 28-29]   

All these things considered, prayer shouldn’t take a resolution.  It should be a natural habit, something we do automatically – like breathing.  Inhale God’s Word, exhale prayer.  Necessary and essential to life.

To pray is simply to acknowledge God as Lord.  It is to call upon him for every need.  Someone who thinks they have no need of prayer is someone who thinks they have no need of God.  They believe they have the strength and the will to go it alone.  Human pride is such that we would be easily duped into such a false belief so God doesn’t leave this up to us.  Instead he commands us.  Pray.  He doesn’t even leave it up to us as to what to pray for.  Certainly he wants to hear our hearts desires and to know those things that most trouble us.  But our prayers are often short sighted, we pray like a kid making out a Christmas list – things that we want or that we think we need.  God knows our needs and so he gives us those things we should pray for.  These 7 petitions from the Lord’s Prayer are those things that you most need.  Therefore God says  Pray this prayer.

Sometimes, when people do not pray, it is because we are a people prone to doubt.  Sometimes there are those who in despair believe that God would not or could not hear them, that he is too busy or that their concerns are too small or that our prayers would do no good.  God would also not leave us to this despair or hopelessness and so again he commands us.  We have the assurance that if this is God’s Word and Command then he will hear our prayer.  Luther says, “Therefore you should say: My prayer is as precious, holy, and pleasing to God as that of St. Paul or of the most holy saints.  This is the reason: For I will gladly grant that he is holier in his person, but not on account of the commandment; since God does not regard prayer on account of the person, but on account of His word and obedience thereto. For on the commandment on which all the saints rest their prayer I, too, rest mine. Moreover, I pray for the same thing for which they all pray and ever have prayed; besides, I have just as great a need of it as those great saints, yea, even a greater one than they.” 

In the First Petition God commands us to pray, “Hallowed be your name.” or “May your name be kept holy”.

What does this mean?--Answer.

God's name is indeed holy in itself; but we pray in this petition that it may become holy among us also.

How is this done?--Answer.

When the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we as the children of God also lead holy lives in accordance with it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven. But he that teaches and lives otherwise than God's Word teaches profanes the name of God among us. From this preserve us, Heavenly Father.

God’s name is holy by itself.  We cannot do anything that would make God and his name more holy.  Our prayer is that God’s name would be holy in the way that we use it. 

God’s name was given to us when we were baptized.  The pastor said to you, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  This means that you have God’s name.  An adopted child receives the name of his adopted parents.  When Mr. and Mrs. Smith go to adopt little David; he is no longer just David, he is David Smith and David has at his disposal everything that belongs to his new parents.  Likewise we have been given God’s name and are God’s children.  This name should be for us the greatest and best treasure.  The storehouses of our Heavenly Father should be a place that we visit often are regularly.  But we do not.

Our Catechism asks the question: how is God’s name kept holy among us?  When the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity and when we live holy lives in accordance with it.  In other words, when we believe God’s word and when we live our lives according to it.

As we reflect back on this past year, on 2011, we might ask ourselves when and where have we dishonored God’s name?  Where have we dishonored God in our faith or life during this past year (or years)?  Has the Word of God been our master and set for us the standard for our life and belief or have we made our own commitments or our own priorities of greater importance above God’s Word?  Have we used God’s name as a cloak for our sin?  Persisting in it but pretending to be right and righteous because after all, we are Christians, after all we go to church, we serve in the church.  God’s Word calls us to repent of this sin.  As we pray this prayer in the new year may it be our commitment to receive the Word of God and believe it, to allow it to be our master and our guide so that we believe rightly but also so that we live rightly, so that we put away all falsehood and sin and so that God’s name might be honored in our thinking and in our doing.

In the Second Petition God commands us to pray, “Thy Kingdom Come”. (See p.    in blue hymnal)

What does this mean?--Answer.

The kingdom of God comes indeed without our prayer, of itself; but we pray in this petition that it may come unto us also.

How is this done?--Answer.

When our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead a godly life here in time and yonder in eternity.

God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom that he commands us to pray for is that very thing that he sent when he came as a child at Christmas, when the Angels sang and the Shepherds worshipped, when the Magi presented him with gifts and then when John began teaching and baptizing and when Jesus began to teach and call his disciples.  The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  This is God’s kingdom of Grace and salvation.  God sent his son in to the world to redeem us from the devil’s power. (1 John 3:8).  Our prayer in this petition is that this Kingdom come to us. 

52] Therefore we pray here in the first place that this may become effective with us, and that His name be so praised through the holy Word of God and a Christian life that both we who have accepted it may abide and daily grow therein, and that it may gain approbation and adherence among other people and proceed with power throughout the world, (2 Thessalonians 3:1) that many may find entrance into the Kingdom of Grace (John 3:5), be made partakers of redemption (Colossians 1:12), being led thereto by the Holy Ghost (Romans 8:14), in order that thus we may all together remain forever in the one kingdom now begun. (LC p. 52)

As we look ahead into 2012 it should be our prayer that this Kingdom of God come here to be with us.  That God be among us with his Salvation, that he be rescuing us and delivering us from death and the devil, that he be overcoming sin within us, that he be moving us to greater faith and life in Him.

But the question is how does this happen and where should we look for this Kingdom to come?  How will we know when we have found it or know that it is here? 

Kingdom talk reminds us that 2012 is an election year.  Would be kings will be selling themselves to us all year long, asking us for to vote for them.  Christians often get distracted by these earthly kings and kingdoms and  sometimes we are  tempted to believe that God’s Kingdom will come, or that it comes in greater measure depending on who occupies the oval office – if we can get the right man (or woman) elected then maybe we can help to usher in God’s kingdom here on earth.

Instead of pointing us to politics to find God’s Kingdom, the catechism points us to God’s Word, to Scripture to find the answers for God’s Kingdom. 

[God’s Kingdom comes] when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead a godly life here in time and there in eternity

The Large Catechism instructs us that God’s kingdom comes to us in two ways; first here and now through God’s Word and faith.  [LC III p 53] That is to say that God’s Kingdom comes when God’s Word is active among us being preached and taught rightly and then that we believe it.  God’s Kingdom comes to us here at Church when His Word is proclaimed to you to forgive your sin and instruct you in holy living.  God’s Kingdom comes when you mark your day with prayer and reading God’s Word so that the Spirit of God speaks into your heart and encourages you to grow in faith, so that he overcomes sin in you, so that he teaches you to love him and to serve your neighbor with greater love and greater devotion.

God’s kingdom also comes through revelation, and that is to say that God’s Kingdom comes when it is revealed on the last day. (Luke 19:11ff)  [LC III p.54]  On the last day the Lord will return with power and glory to completely destroy the works of sin and Satan so that death and hell are destroyed and so that we live forever in perfect righteousness and blessedness.

What a wonderful prayer for this New Year.  Lord may you speed your coming.  May that last day when you come to completely eradicate sin and death and the power of the devil come quickly!  If it be your will may that day come this 2012.  Until that day, may your kingdom come to us.  May your Word be active among us and with us ever teaching us a directing us to love each other and to love you more.  Lord May your Kingdom Come.

Amen.