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.
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