From the Pastor’s Desk: OUR PRAYER
The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer our Lord taught us to pray. Yet before it was ever our prayer, it was His prayer which He gave us to use. None of us can rightly call God our Father except in and through the very one who is the only begotten Son. Only because He has joined Himself to our flesh, reconciling sinful humanity to His Father, can we lost souls ever cry out, “Abba Father.” (Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6) This prayer is a gift for souls who do not know how to pray as they ought. The disciples said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this.” (Luke 11:1-2) There is no better prayer to pray. All of our praying can be encapsulated in the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer our Lord gave us the privilege of praying.
This prayer of Our Lord has seven petitions even as every week has seven days. The Lord’s Prayer is a weekly ladder by which we begin and end each week. Every day one petition serves as the center of the day’s meditation. As we begin our week each Sunday by saying the Lord’s Prayer as a congregation, so we start our journey with the first petition. Hallowed by thy name is where we begin. We wish God’s name to be kept holy in the preaching and teaching at church. We want to be taught rightly by a faithful pastor so we know what the truth is. We want the bible classes to be edifying so that we are enabled to lead holy lives. We want the pastor to chastise us, resurrect us and heal us in a strong and hard-hitting sermon. So, we begin our week with this petition. Hallowed be thy name. Our Sunday prayer is that God’s name be kept holy by the pure and true teaching of the Word and our living out of it in the week.
On Monday our workweek begins. What is our prayer? It may seem like a strange one. (The Lord’s Prayer does not teach us what we think we need, but what our Lord Jesus teaches us that we need.) Monday’s petition is, “Thy kingdom come.” In our quest for our kingdom—in our working and striving in the week to pay the mortgage, get our kids a good education—we work towards the building of our kingdoms. But these kingdoms fail, and we fall short and grow weary. Thy kingdom come is a prayer for what we need to get it done, the Holy Spirit. We need God’s Word and Holy Spirit to strengthen us this week for our callings and that we may be kept in the faith. It will be hard to do this this week and so we pray for the Holy Spirit.
Tuesday is a day where we are increasingly facing the troubles of life. On Tuesday we round the corner to petition #3, “Thy will be done.” Luther writes in the Small Catechism that, “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.” We are praying for God’s will to be done, not the devil’s, not the world’s, or our own. Your will prevail, O Lord, my will fail!
By Wednesday we are halfway through the week. Wednesday is the day where Judas agreed to betray Jesus. We know from the Bible that he stole from the moneybox that he was in charge of (John 12:6). Theft is to stop believing that God will give us what we need. That is why this day we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The prayer for bread is a prayer that we do not forget the Giver. God gives us food and drink and all we have, wife and home, friends and government, and every good thing. On this day we stop to pause to remember the God who gives these things. Wednesday reminds us not to lose the forest through the trees. God will give us what we need.
Thursday was the day Jesus invited His disciples to the Upper Room. He washed their feet with forgiveness and sent them out to wash other people’s feet. He was the servant who did the lowly task. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” we say on this fifth day of the week. We have the gift of a Savior who gave His life for us and on a Thursday spread this holy meal for us of His holy body and blood. Thursday is a special day to recognize that we deserve nothing, but God gives it to us anyway. Thursday is forgiveness day. Forgiveness is central to what we need to live and give out.
Every week on Friday we remember what Jesus did on a Friday on the cross. On Friday we pray the sixth petition. “Lead us not into temptation.” We are lead by our Shepherd but it is easy to wander off the path. Luther writes in the Small Catechism that we are tempted to despair, believe falsely, or to great shame and besetting vices that have their hold on us. On Friday we pray that we would walk behind our Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep and that we would overcome all temptation.
On Saturday, the last day of the week, Jesus rested in the tomb. When we pray “Deliver us from evil” we are really praying that we would make it to the finish line of our lives. Luther writes in the Small Catechism. “We pray…that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil… 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 short, we pray that we would die a Christian. As we remember Jesus rest in the tomb we pray for end to come, and our awakening to life eternal.
On Sunday we gather again. We have said the Lord’s prayer alone this week, but now we pray it together. We made it! As God brought Jesus back from the realm of death, so God has brought us through the week and to church again. The Lord’s Prayer is more than a prayer. Each petition is a promise. We are promised in this prayer life eternal and every good gift. Would Jesus give us petitions to pray that God was hesitant in granting? Not at all. Jesus’ disciples once said, Lord, teach us to pray! Really, we never stop learning how to pray this prayer. As long as we live, Jesus continues to teach us this prayer until our weekly life is over and our rest is won.
In Christ,
Pr. Seifferlein
