Nota Bene: This sermon concludes the catechetical sermons of Advent
this year at Trinity church. +ceadda
St. Luke 1:26-38
Dearly beloved,
The virgin concludes her visit with the Angel Gabriel with the words,
"Let it be to me according to your word." Therein lies the entire
substance of our Christian faith and the very yearning of our hope.
Today we continue our Advent meditations on the catechism, by looking
at God fulfilling prophecies in the lives of His people. The Lord's
Prayer has two petitions that come to mind this morning: "Hallowed be
Thy Name," and "Deliver us from Evil."
Prayer is the church's dialogue with her bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
Prayer is usually a searching of the innermost parts of the soul. We
try to verbalize to God what our needs are. The difficulty with
prayer is that sometimes we may not know what to say. At other times,
we may have plenty to say. We may have many things to ask for, but in
these instances we may become frustrated if we do not see God
answering our prayers.
This is when conversation with God may become a bit difficult.
Prayer can be many things. It can be your own heartfelt desires, it
may be the expression of your worries and concerns, and it may be
prayers of thanksgiving and praise. Today, I want to talk about why
Lutherans pray the way we do. We call this prayer liturgical prayer.
It is the prayer that is in our order of service. It is prayer that
is already written for us. It is in our hymnals and set to music.
Most people in our society do not understand this mode of prayer
because society views religion as always being spontaneous. They look
at Lutherans and they don't understand us. People falsely draw the
conclusion that prayer that isn't spontaneous cannot be genuine, but
this is untrue. The Lord's Prayer, after all, comes after the
disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. If Jesus thought that
prayer would have needed to always be spontaneous, then perhaps He
would have responded to the disciples differently.
Instead, being a good Rabbi, Jesus teaches them a form of prayer to
learn and pray. There is a reason. Prayer is meant to be a continual
dialogue between the Church and Jesus. We are supposed to be praying
even when we don't feel like praying. This is where liturgy comes in.
Lutherans understand the need for continual prayer. Its Biblical.
St. Paul says, "pray without ceasing." In addition to that, it is in
those times when we don't feel like praying or we don't know what to
pray that written prayer is helpful. The liturgy is actually your
helper and unifying.
We are drawn into prayer through the Lord's Prayer and the rest of
the liturgy. The beauty of Lutheran liturgical prayer, is that it
teaches you how to pray. This is exactly the method behind Christ's
giving the disciples the Lord's Prayer. "Teach us how to pray," says
the disciples. "Pray like this..." says Jesus. This is our end of
the conversation with God.
What is most interesting with liturgical prayer is that most of it is
made up of Scripture. So, while we are being taught how to pray, we
are also learning the Holy Scriptures. This brings us to those two
petitions in the Lord's Prayer, which I cited at the beginning.
"Hallowed be Thy name," and "deliver us from evil." Both of these
petitions are actually requests with some urgency. In the Greek text,
the verbs are imperatives. We need these things now.
"Hallowed be Thy name," isn't just an expression that God's name just
happens to be a holy name. Luther says it well, "God's name is
certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be
kept holy among us." This is our side of the dialogue. We are asking
God to strengthen us in the faith so that we do make God's name a holy
name in our lives. This involves how you live. The question often
posed in our minds, then, is does the way I live my life contradict
this very important petition?
Do my actions tear down what is holy? Do I live my life as if God
matters most or do I live my life as if I matter most? This is where
the "deliver us from evil" petition comes in. Actually, the Greek of
this petition says, "deliver us from the Evil one." It specifically
calls our attention to the dangers of Satan. Evil is not an
abstraction. It is not something that hovers aimlessly around. It is
not without a life of its own. It is not just some kind of evil
force. It is Satan and we are asking God to deliver us, keep us safe,
and grant us His undying protection.
These are just a couple of petitions that draw on spiritual needs.
So, the point at hand is this: we may pray liturgically, or we may
pray spontaneously. When we pray, we are speaking to God with the
belief that we are heard. We are told in the Bible that God hears our
prayers. How are they answered? This is a good question.
Interestingly enough, the answer to prayer and spiritual longing comes
in Mary's concluding words to the angel. "Let it be to me according
to your word."
This isn't just any old word that is spoken. The angel Gabriel comes
as God's messenger bearing God's word, a holy proclamation.
Creation's prayer was answered in the words of Gabriel. The earth
groaned throughout the centuries, awaiting the coming of the Savior.
God's word was fulfilled in Mary's life and this is the word that Mary
was receiving.
God's answer to your prayers is found by God's word being proclaimed
in your midst but not in the way that you may hope. If you look at
each petition of the Lord's Prayer, they are all spiritual. Jesus
even speaks about prayer in Matthew's gospel, chapter 6. Jesus says,
"seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day
is its own trouble."
This is of great import for your life. Your dialogue with God should
be about the holy things and the holy Lord being in your lives. When
this is the case, then God responds or answers our prayers through the
proclamation of His word and through the faithful reception of
Christ's body and blood. It often does happen, of course, that we
learn the Lord's will, we learn about life, how to handle things in
our lives, and courses of actions to things, through the wisdom that
comes through the holy scriptures and years of prayer and meditation
(of those scriptures).
This doesn't happen overnight, of course, so we must be diligent in
coming to the Divine Service in church, as well as studying the
scriptures and praying the psalms. Some answers to prayers and the
understanding of happenings in our lives takes much time and
scriptural pondering.
I want you to understand that Lutheran prayer, as such, is very
important because it is a substantial part of your holy journey with
Christ. He answers through Word and Sacrament, and its through the
continual walk on this journey, that we mature as Christians and begin
to understand God's will in our lives. By saying with Mary, "let it
be to me according to your word," we are acknowledging that God's word
makes us who we are and shapes our lives. And as to the intention of
God's word, no matter what the circumstance, you can be sure that it
is to bring to you everlasting life.
God's word in your midst, just as in Mary's life, in Paul's life, in
Peter's life, and John's life, is meant to proclaim to you forgiveness
for your sins. It is in effect, telling you that you are holy and you
are loved, and you will be at peace with Jesus someday in heaven.
This is the intended conclusion to the angel coming to Mary to tell
her that she would have God in her womb to save mankind. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
www.frchadius.blogspot.com
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
www.trinitylowell.org
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