Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, 07/28/2019
Sermon on Lukas 11:1-13, by Carl Voges
The Passage
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is
indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him;’ and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything?’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” [English Standard Version]
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses…God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses…” [Colossians 2.13]
In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord
Today’s Gospel is a heavy-duty passage. There are two sections to it; with a mild separation occurring between them at verses four and five. This morning we are concentrating on the first section (verses 1-4).
Regardless of where we live in this state, the attitudes and actions of human nature are strikingly consistent – the local news is highly familiar (just the names change with the mayhem that people inflict on others!); the incompetence and corruption among local leaders still surfaces (all that changes are the names of the individuals involved!).
Such attitudes and actions attempt (on their good days!) to rise above human nature, but, painfully and depressingly, those realities are not capable of rising. How come? Because these attitudes and actions are always turning people in on themselves, a turning that imbeds our lives even more into the ways of human nature.
In order to get some relief from such pain and depression, we may turn our attention to the political theater that exists in Washington, DC, to significant sports events, or to the political realities in other countries. Seriously, though, with all the heavy realities of human nature daily pressing in on our lives, we need to be rescued; we need another Life!
Thankfully that Life pours in on us through today’s Gospel! The first section opens with Luke relating that Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of the disciples asked if he would teach them to pray, just as John the Baptizer had taught his disciples.
In some ways the disciple’s request sounds strange – Had not Jesus already taken care of that as he unfolded his Life in their presence? Further, why would John the Baptizer be mentioned as a source for such teaching? Biblical studies in the last couple of generations have shown that the Gospel writers make considerable mention of Jesus’ praying. Those same studies have reminded us that the Lord’s faithful Old Testament people had set aside seven times in a day for prayer (three, six and nine am, noon, three, six and nine pm!).
It is not a stretch, then, to assume that our Lord was very aware of those hours and that these hours were anchored in the psalms of the Old Testament. When one works through Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels, it is striking to observe how the psalms keep surfacing in what he says. In addition, the request that Jesus teach his disciples to pray as the Baptizer taught his followers is intriguing.
Biblical studies have suggested that John the Baptizer may have been prepared for his work as Jesus’ announcer by the possibility of his parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, sending him as a young teenager to live and study with the monks of the Qumran community in the wilderness. This monastic-like community on the northwest side of the Dead Sea was discovered back in the 1950s when the Qumran Scrolls were found in a cave, scrolls that reflected both Old Testament and New Testament manuscripts.
From these writings it has been determined that members of this community were deeply immersed in anticipation of the coming Messiah along with the worship practices of the Lord’s Old Testament people. It is a possibility, then, that John learned of the psalms and of the hours in which they were sung and taught during the time he spent with this community. Admittedly, all of this is speculative because it is not anchored in New Testament, but it is intriguing and it does help to explain why Jesus’ disciples wanted to be taught in ways of the Baptizer!
Thankfully, our Lord does not launch off into such speculation, instead he responds to the disciple’s request by turning them into what we now call the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew’s version is longer, but today we are just concentrating on the five phrases written by Luke). In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther has some excellent thoughts about the Lord’s Prayer that I’m passing on to you this morning.
Prayer opens with the address, “Father”
Luther noted we have a Father and that he is in eternity. Believers yearn for him because they are alone and are miserable in this world’s life. The word, “Father,” reminds us we are one people, one family, in him; such oneness surrounds us in Baptism.
Prayer continues with the assertion, “hallowed be your name”
Our entire lives are in the Father’s hands. To make the Lord’s Name holy is to give it a power and place that far outstrips what we want for ourselves. His Name becomes holy as we live in it and teach it to others, a reality that begins to unfold from the day of our Baptism.
However, Luther reminds us that we deprive the Lord’s Name of its holiness when we distort his Life and ways (bending it into what we think and want). The Lord’s Word, through its breaking and restoring activity, makes his Name special; we no longer have to be bored with him or curse the darkness of the world’s life.
Second phrase, “Your kingdom come”
Luther commented that this phrase pushes the Lord’s Life against the world’s life. The latter, generated by Satan, offers false identities, deceptive securities and damnable meanings for life; offerings that all result in death. The Father’s Life, by contrast, offers genuine and real Life, one that spills out from the workings of his Word, a working that gathers his people together. Luther alerted us to the reality that the Lord’s Kingdom is not to be automatically equated with his churches in the world, but to remember that his Kingdom is always the dominant reality.
Third phrase, “Give us each day our daily bread”
Luther pointed out that real bread is the Lord and his Word, but that it also involves the needs of daily life. The Lord God wants us to recognize the origin of blessings we experience and the Father’s attitude toward us. Luther noted that this phrase is also for those people whose blessings have become curses because they have turned them into idols!
Fourth phrase, “Forgive us our sins for we forgive everyone who is indebted to
us”
Baptism draws us into genuine and eternal Life. The sin of this world, however, is always working to tear that Life apart. Forgiveness makes genuine Life possible again after it has been torn. The word for “sin” can be translated “debts” (a translation reminding us that sins are liabilities, they are not assets!). Luther reminds us that the Lord God continually meets our failed obligations with his forgiving love even when we are not aware of it (this is a necessity throughout life!) .
The Father does this openly so we become aware of his love (this also is necessary to confront the despair that spills out from our failures). This prayer grants forgiveness to those who have wronged us; the Lord God forgives our sin and he wants us to recognize it. Luther offered this advice, “Anyone who feels unable to forgive, let him ask for grace that he can forgive!”
Fifth phrase, “Lead us not into temptation”
Temptations are a product of sin, Satan and death working their life into our own. They are always attempting to persuade us to leave the Lord’s Life behind us. They stir us to return to the life they gave us at birth. Luther commented that this unholy trio comes at us from three sources: our own sinful desires, the world with its self-absorbed life and the devil with his lies.
There are two kinds of temptation: that which keeps us from living out our baptismal intentions and that which encourages us to pursue what we want. Luther also noted that temptation follows forgiveness and that it occurs because we carry burdens for others (we recognize that all people are trapped by self-centeredness). We battle temptation through the surrender of self, through the willingness to sacrifice self.
To sum these five phrases up, then – this prayer is a conversation with the Holy Trinity – it is a conversation to the Father, in the Son’s Name, through the Holy Spirit! Such conversation, originating in Baptism, becomes the dominant reality in our lives. Yes, we will stumble in our attempts to converse with the Lord God, but that does not prevent us from taking part in them!
With all the tearing apart generated by human nature’s attitudes and actions, it is our conversations with the Holy Trinity that become primary! May the Son’s Spirit power us to continually remember that these conversations begin, continue and conclude every time we step into the holy places of the Scriptures and Sacraments given us by the Lord God to his Church!
Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts
and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.