God is handling the details. . .

Details. Details.
Ever have those days when it seems like you aren't sure which way to go next, there are so many things to accomplish.  It's not even as if they are huge things but details that have to get done:  bills to be paid, errands to run, housework to do, maintenance to be performed. . .  things that need to get done and hopefully in a timely manner, in order to maintain a household and life in general.  And yet, what if they didn't get done?  (Other than the bill collectors might start calling. . .)  They will be there tomorrow, right?  No one will die if the laundry isn't folded.  No one will pass out if all of the chores aren't finished.  Some details aren't worth stressing over.

The good news we hear today from St. Paul (Ephesians 3) is that God has the details covered.  Not the snow shoveling or the dinner cooking, but the important details.  The eternal details!  The gospel message that God loves us so much that he sent Jesus, his Son, to save us from the power of sin, death and details!  Why?  So we might live a new and transformed life!

"This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details." 

What a relief!!  
You know sometimes we have to share the back-breaking, heavy burden details with our friends or loved ones so God can work through them to bring us what we need.  Allow me this little analogy about life's desires to illustrate the point of not keeping everything to yourself:
My beautiful, talented niece's birthday is coming up.  She will be 11 in February.  Ashley is just now really discovering her God-given artistic ability and she is thrilled about it.  When she spent the night with us over Christmas break her favorite thing to do was to paint.  She had paints and brushes and slates and papers all over the kitchen table, moving from one painting the next.  Sometimes she will catch me on Facebook and chat with me and one day she said, "Aunt Amy, I have been praying to God that he would give me paints and paper and brushes, etc. for my birthday."  I chuckled to myself and typed back, "I'm not sure that God shops at the Art Store so you might want to make your wish list known to your family."  I wasn't indicating that God didn't want her to have her art supplies, on the contrary I think our creative Creator would love that!   I was simply urging her to share her desire with others so they might participate in what God is doing in her life.  


I believe that God uses each of us to help one another on the journey, but oftentimes we have to open up to others.  They aren't mind readers!  So Ashley told her Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents what she wanted and, well I don't want to give it away because her birthday hasn't arrived yet, but let's just say I think she will be very pleased!


We never fully know how God will act or what God is actually up to in our lives (we may get a glimpse of that from time to time). . .  but we can take comfort in the fact that God is taking care of all the details- -- of life, of salvation, and yes, EVEN of art supplies!  


Photo source:  http://67pics.com

Our Tap Root: Jesus Christ

As a congregation we have been discerning and acting upon what we hear from God in terms of our discipleship journey.  This logo created by our friend and fellow disciple, Missy Kluding, has been an evolution of sorts.  As we have "gone deeper" in Christ we have studied (and continue to study) the scriptures, walking daily in the Word.  That has made a tremendous impact on each of us and on our community as a whole.  We have been drawn closer to Christ and to one another!  We worship our Lord each week which strengthens us for the journey.  That includes Holy Communion where Christ is fully present to us, loving us, feeding us, accompanying us along the way.  We began our first small groups last year so that we would experience deeper spiritual friendships.  We are trying to be very intentional about each aspect of our rootedness.  Christ continues to form us into true community that has him at its center- he is our tap root- the source of our life and our strength and our growth.  We encourage one another to pray and pray for each other.  Even our youngest children are developing their prayer lives, offering prayers out loud during Sunday School and in bigger groups.  We left some of the roots unlabeled because there are so many ways to grow in Christ, we didn't want to limit our imaginations to what else might happen to us as we seek to live obediently to our Lord.  We simply pray that the Holy Spirit may continue to help us grow deeper and send our roots out wider  as we share the Good News of Christ with our neighbors, friends, and loved ones-- and anyone else God sends us to meet!  

We have found that a clear image of the journey helps us put handles on where we are going because this faith journey can be sort of abstract at times.  Our hope is that by showing you this graphic, it might help you to understand a little better one version of the "path to spiritual maturity."  God's  peace!

Third Article: The Holy Spirit

Third Article: The Holy Spirit

The way that Luther ordered his Small Catechism was an ordering that went from Law to Gospel to how to live as he moved from the Ten Commandments to the Creed and on to the Lord’s Prayer.  The Creed is the part of the catechism that tells believers what they ought to believe and believing begins with the Holy Spirit.  Luther makes this crystal clear:

I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth. . . 

The Holy Spirit is what calls believers to faith.  The fact that we have any faith whatsoever is not because of our own desire or will but is a gift of the Holy Spirit within us.  Thus faith can never be a good work that we perform or perfect.  It is given to us, stirred within us through the Word and Spirit of God.  Not only that, but also through the Holy Spirit we are given daily the forgiveness of our sin and eternal life.

This journey of being made holy before God is the Spirit’s work.  It begins at our baptism (or perhaps even before our baptism if we are adults who by the Spirit’s gracious work has led us to the local parish) and it is a life long path that we travel.  Luther describes the process of the Spirit’s work in our lives, “He first leads us into his holy community, placing us in the church’s lap, where he preaches to us and brings us to Christ.”

  This comment shows just how important the community of faith is in bringing people into a life of discipleship.  The Spirit works through the community, through the preacher and the sermon, and through the fellowship and constant care and attention that believers offer to one another via the Holy Spirit.  Without the Spirit’s work we could never know anything about Jesus, salvation, or this new life that is offered to us through the Gospel.  Through this process, which is an ongoing series of events, we are made holy and we come to a deeper understanding of what God is doing in, with and among us.  

This does not mean that we will never experience conflict or pain within the community of believers.  On the contrary, we will at some point or other have a difficult experience with our fellow Christians.  Those difficulties, conflicts or arguments do not in any way negate what God is doing!  It is simply that sin enters in and distorts communal life, therefore we have to learn to be understanding and forgiving of one another recognizing that we are all in the process of becoming holy in Christ.  But it all starts in that wonderful, Spirit filled place called the local congregation!  Each week we are brought closer to Christ as we hear the Spirit’s preaching and respond to the grace that is showered upon through Word and Sacrament.  Each day the community grows in faith and demonstrates the fruits of the Spirit in the wider community.  Luther would go so far as to say that outside of this Holy Spirit-created-community there is no holiness or forgiveness.

  What is important for us to remember as we work at being community is that we are called to be together; and that is by no mere accident!  The Holy Spirit has a plan for us and paying attention to the Spirit’s moving in our collective life can help us as we are drawn into a deeper relationship with God.  We do it together, never alone, because God created us for community and desires that we would use our Spirit-donned-gifts to share the good news of Christ with everyone we meet so that they might experience faith and a transformed life.

Second Article

Second Article: Jesus, the Son of God

In the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed we learn about what God has done for humanity in regard to salvation.  This is above and beyond all the material and bodily blessings we have received.  Through Christ, Luther explains, God has “given himself completely to us, withholding nothing.”

  From the Small Catechism he makes clear  what the Second Article confesses:

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father in eternity, and also a true human being, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.

For some Christians today this title, “Lord,” seems to be scandalous.  Perhaps it is scandalous but not for the reasons that might be cited which include that it connotes hierarchical systems that keep people oppressed.  To call Jesus “Lord,” in the Greek, kyrie, is to totally and utterly make him the ruler of your life.  It is to confess allegiance to the One who came and lived among us, who died for a sinful humanity, and who rose from the grave on the third day as proof of his lordship.  It is not about keeping a person down or controlled, but is about what is central to our life of faith.  What Jesus did for humanity is evidence of his power in our lives. Luther goes on:

"He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned human being. He has purchased and freed me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death."

Imagine that your life and salvation cost more than you could ever make in a lifetime and that without earning the purchase price you will never be free.  Then this most holy and generous God/man, Jesus, comes along and gives the exact amount needed to buy your freedom so that you might have a new life, no chains, no more captors, no debts hanging over your head, nothing to stop you from really living!  This is what Luther is saying Christ has done for all believers.  His death was the ransom money given to the kidnapper that held us captive.

  No longer are we “condemned to death” or “entangled in sin and blindness.”

  With Christ, we are now free; free from sin, free from the evil one and all the forces that keep us bound, and free from that ultimate enemy, death.  What then will we do with this newfound freedom?  Will we soak in the wonder of it all?  Are we even aware that we were captive and dying?  Luther explains to his readers why Christ did this:

"He has done all this in order that I may belong to him, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in eternal righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally.  This is most certainly true."

We belong to Christ!  As human beings we have an innate need to belong to something.  We look around our communities for something to belong to, we yearn for it within our own families if we get a sense that somehow we do not belong there, even in our churches where we are supposed to feel like we belong, sometimes we do not.  We are created to be in community and community means belonging.  Therefore, this article gives us very good news indeed: we belong, and not just a general belonging to something greater than ourselves, we belong to Christ!  We belong to the One who crashed the gates of hell and rescued us from death and sin.  Because we belong to him, He calls us to live under him in his glorious in-breaking, life changing kingdom.  We get to be a part of what Christ is up to in the world because we belong to him.  Nothing else that we belong to is more important than this belonging.  

Luther explains how we got into this predicament, whereby we needed to be redeemed from our captivity.  He reiterates that we were created by God and given all kinds of wonderful gifts and blessings but then the devil came after us and “led us into disobedience, sin, death and all misfortune.”

  Because of our disobedience we were condemned to receiving God’s wrath.  We deserved God’s displeasure and we were given an eternal sentence of damnation.  To put it plainly, we were lost and wicked and there was no hope for us.  That is until the Son of God, Jesus, our Lord, came down from heaven with “his unfathomable goodness.”

  Now because of what Christ has done for all believers, 

"Those tyrants and jailers have now been routed, and their place has been taken by Jesus Christ, the Lord of life, righteousness, and every good and blessing.  He has snatched us, poor lost creatures, from the jaws of hell, won us, made us free, and restored us to the Father’s favor and grace."

In a word, we are extremely fortunate to belong to him who did all of this for us!  Now as his precious “possessions” we are free to live with him. He watches over us and rules us in wisdom and righteousness.

  

Luther reminds us that the “entire gospel” depends on our understanding of this second article.  Our redemption had great cost for Christ.  Now we fully belong to him and he has promised to never leave us (Matthew 28: 20).  What is our natural response to such grace?  When someone gives us such a wondrous gift, what is our reaction?  The gift is given freely with no strings attached and yet such a wonderful present as new life really should not be taken for granted, should it?  As the church, as God’s children, Christ’s brothers and sisters, what does this gift compel us to do?  

Apostles' Creed: First Article

Apostles’ Creed: The First Article

What has God given to you?  Perhaps that is an easy question for you to answer.  But then again, maybe not.  Maybe it is a question whose answer you have been discerning for many years.  The First Article of the Apostles’ Creed may be of some help in this regard, especially Martin Luther’s explanation of it in the Small and Large Catechisms.  As you read it, notice that it is nothing less than a confession of faith.  

I believe in God, the Father almighty, CREATOR of heaven and earth.  

What is this?  Answer:

I believe that God has created me together with all that exists.  God has given me and still preserves my body and    soul: eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses; reason and all mental faculties.  In addition, God daily and abundantly provides shoes and clothing, food and drink, house and farm, spouse and children, fields, livestock, and all property--along with all the necessities and nourishment for this body and life. . . 

Why would God do such a thing for you and me?  Simple, he loves us and wants to provide for our every need!  What is our response to such generosity?  According to Luther the proper response to our indebtedness toward God for all he has done for us and given us is “to thank and praise, serve and obey him.”

Back to that word “obey,” again?  Maybe you are saying to yourself, “Thanks and praise I can manage . . . but obey?  What am I, a little child?”  Yes.  And yes.  Yes we are back to that word that calls us to obedience.  Even though we are not too keen on it in our day and age when individualism reigns, and autonomy is coveted, we are called as followers of Christ to a radical obedience to the will of God.  And yes on the second question, you are like a little child.  You are God’s child!  God, your holy and heavenly Father knows what is best for you because he sees a bigger picture than you could ever see.  For those of us who are parents, remember when you were a teenager and you thought you knew everything?  I sure do!  I could not figure out where my parents were coming from or how my mother seemed to have premonitory abilities.  It was like she could see the consequences of what my stupid and shortsighted actions would bring.  It was not until I was an adult and a parent myself that I finally realized that experience had a lot to do with it.  Mother could see what was going to happen because she had lived a lot longer than I had; she had seen people make poor decisions that would cause pain and heartache.  She knew the signs to look for and she knew which way would lead to life.  God, our divine parent, has an even bigger picture of life than my mother and the call to obedience is not about oppression, it is about true freedom!  

I believe that as human beings who are desperately searching for meaning in our lives, if we are totally honest with ourselves, we want to know God.  I mean really KNOW God.  Not just information about God, as if we could even pin down any pertinent information anyway.  (Where were you born God?  What is your occupation, sir?  Where did you study and what degree was conferred upon you?)  We cannot ask the usual questions that we ask one another upon introduction.  But “knowing” God is a life long journey.  As we continue on that journey of faith, as we worship and praise, pray to and are obedient to God, we grow in our maturity and “knowing” God.  But that knowing is always incomplete.  It is always insufficient.  Partly because knowing the fullness of God will not happen in this life but only in eternity; the human mind and heart cannot handle the full knowing of God and his magnificence.  But also, because of human sin, we are unable to fully know God as our ability to obey is sorely lacking; our ability to give everything over to the One who created us is faulty.  And yet, there is still a deep yearning to be closer to God, to know him in the fullest sense of the word, whatever we can know about the Creator of heaven and earth.  

If we could know God perfectly, Luther asserts that the Creed is the way we would be taught to do that.

  The First Article of the creed is the “shortest possible way of describing and illustrating the nature, will, acts, and work of God the Father.”  It gives us answers to the questions we have about who God is, what God is like, and what God does.  It points believers to a deeper life in God by encouraging us to see more clearly that all we have comes from God’s gracious hands, including and beginning with our very existence.  

The First Article of the Creed calls us back to obeying the most important commandment-- the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.  This is our root problem as human beings; we tend to worship the wrong things.  We put our faith in the wrong people and the wrong possessions and the wrong dreams for our future.  We like to do it our way!  It takes us a long time to recognize that “our way” will only lead us to heartache, pain, loss, shame, guilt- you name it!  But God has a better way!  He urges us to put our complete trust in Him alone because He is faithful and true; God is responsible for the fact that we have our body and mind, our family and friends, our jobs and our savings accounts, and even our churches.  

What would the church, and the world for that matter, look like if humanity understood a little better that it is God alone who creates and sustains life?  What would it be like on earth if we took to heart that everything we order online, everything we accomplish in life, everyone we call friend or loved one or neighbor, is a blessed gift from God?  I am convinced that things would be different, radically different!  It can be and is different for each believer who embraces the fullness of this article.  Devotion to God becomes a way of life, not just something we do for an hour or two on Sunday mornings.  Obedience to God becomes an imperative in the believer’s life, not looking to the culture for our cue, but the Creator of all that is and ever shall be.  

In Luther’s day people were reading this article, and perhaps like the 21st century church, they were reciting it in worship with little thought to what they were actually saying.  “We all pass over it; we hear it and recite it, but we neither see nor think about what the words command us to do.”

  His point is that if we really thought about this article, if we really dug deeper into it, we would put credit where credit is due: not with ourselves and our own brute strength, but with the One who is worthy of our praise and devotion.  “This is the way the wretched, perverse world acts, drowned in its blindness, misusing all the blessings and gifts of God solely for its own pride, greed, pleasure, and enjoyment, and never once turning to God to thank him or acknowledge him as Lord or Creator.”

This article works like the law but acts as gospel in our lives.  It convicts us of our selfish arrogance and pride, but frees us to see what God is really up to for our sake. “Therefore, if we believed it, this article should humble and terrify all of us.” 

 We are sinners indeed.  We should be scared out of our minds, that is IF we believed this article had any merit for us as human beings.  Knowing God and confessing and believing this article of faith urges us to submit to God’s will and rejoice in the blessed gifts that create and sustain our existence.  Without God we have no life whatsoever which is a very humbling confession to make if we are mired in self sufficiency and arrogance.  For this reason we “owe it to God to serve and obey him for all these things.”

Thanks be to God that he loves so much that he withholds nothing from us.  Let us be truly grateful for life, faith, the whole creation, our children, our communities, and for every wonderful thing that we have been given to enjoy.

Photo: Chapel Altar at Camp Mowana, Mansfield, Ohio by Amy Little

The Lord's Prayer: The Sixth and Final Petitions

The Sixth Petition: And Lead Us Not Into Temptation

The Christian life can be a difficult one as we have already discussed.  The devil will stop at nothing to get us off track, to separate us from Christ, and to abandon the mission we have been called to by God.  For Luther it was important for him to mention that God is not a tempting God, even so we ask “that God would preserve and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and all our flesh may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. . .”

  Our prayer is that we would survive the vicious attacks and “gain the victory.”

  

Temptations, according to Luther, come in three types: the flesh, as we “carry the old creature around our necks;”

 the world, which drives us “to anger and impatience;” and the devil, “who baits and badgers us on all sides” but is especially persistent when it comes to matters of the spirit. Our prayer is that we would be able to hold fast in the face of temptation, that we would not be crippled or captured by the attacks made upon us, nor would we fail to put our ultimate trust in our holy, heavenly Father.  

It is important to pray this petition, Luther instructs, because if we become fragile in our spiritual strength then we will be more susceptible to the temptations that are certainly going to come.  He reminds us that the attacks will not be removed by this prayer, rather they will endure as long as we have breath in our bodies.  We have to come to grips with the fact that the flesh, the world, and the devil seek to betray us and lure us off track of God’s will.  “For no one can escape temptations and allurements as long as we live in the flesh and have the devil prowling around us.  We cannot help but suffer attacks, and even be mired in them, but we pray here that we may not fall into them and be drowned by them.”

  

Just because we are attacked does not mean that we have to succumb to that spiritual assailing.  For some the pummeling is more severe than for others; we know that Luther himself had a very difficult time with the devil’s attacks.  The attacks are not always the same for each person either; for some it is more of a physical, bodily temptation and for others it is a spiritual assault.  Luther assures us though, that we are not to fear, “As long as it is contrary to our will and we would prefer to be rid of it” we will not be harmed. For guidance on this matter we can look to Ephesians, where St. Paul teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Chapter 6).  We can be bolstered by his instruction to put on the whole armor of God:  the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes for proclaiming the good news of Christ, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.(Ephesians 6:10-17) 

We approach God with this most heartfelt petition, “Lead us not into temptation” knowing that God alone can save us from these trials.  When we try to deal with them ourselves, we only make matters worse!  Luther’s words bring us back to reality, “prayer can resist him (the devil) and drive him back.” Our hope is that with our prayer the temptation will subside and we will be given comfort, relief and strength.  

The Last Petition: But Deliver Us From Evil.  Amen.

Expounding on that phrase, Luther asserts that in the Greek “evil” is actually “evil one” and that the “sum of all evil” is the devil. From all that seeks to destroy us, from the devil and his trickery, from the flesh that seeks to enslave us, from the world that vexes us constantly, we ask for deliverance.   At the final hour of life we pray for “a blessed end” that God would finally “take us by grace from this valley of tears to himself in heaven.” Furthermore, God wants us to pray and has promised to listen to our concerns.  The “Amen” at the end of the prayer means “Yes, yes, it is going to come about just like this.”

  

Without God’s love and support we would be completely lost.  God wants us to come to him with every deep felt need that is part of our awareness, and be open to God’s working in those areas of which we are not yet aware.  He wants to “preserve us from sin and disgrace and from everything else that harms or injures us.” We can be sure that because of God’s great love for us that he will indeed answer our prayer!  Amen.

The Lord's Prayer: The Fifth Petition

The Fifth Petition: And Remit Us Our Debt, As We Remit What Our Debtors Owe

Luther begins this section, “This petition has to do with our poor, miserable life.”

    Need we be reminded that we are sinners and that daily we fall short of pleasing God with our words and actions?  Even though we try to be faithful we still stumble and fall daily, not only that but, as Luther reminds us, the devil is always after us!  But let us not despair, we are taught that even before we ask for forgiveness God has given it to us through the gospel.  This is such good news for us who are in need of God’s mercy!  We are simultaneously saint AND sinner!  Wretched and beloved; horrible and redeemed; trapped and freed; filthy and made clean again.  

The good news is showered upon us so that we might not despair but coming to terms with this saving message can be one of the most difficult things for a believer to do.  “But the point here is for us to recognize and accept this forgiveness,” Luther says knowing that we are a troubled species, troubled by guilt, restlessness, and shame.  The problem is, that as human beings and that age old condition that holds us captive, namely original sin, we are unable on our own to trust God and believe that he desires to forgive us.  Rather than fearing the wrath of God, Luther instructs, “Therefore it is necessary constantly to run to this petition and get the comfort that will restore our conscience.”

  

The next part can be quite hard to take because of our sinful nature, our desire to put ourselves above others, but Luther holds nothing back:

"This should serve God’s purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. He has reserved to himself this prerogative: those who boast of their goodness and despise others should examine themselves and put this petition uppermost in their mind.  They will find that they are no more righteous than anyone else, that in the presence of God all people must fall on their knees and be glad that we can come to forgiveness.  Let none of us think they will ever in this life reach the point where they do not need this forgiveness. In short, unless God constantly forgives, we are lost."(Large Catechism)

We deserve nothing but wrath and punishment, but instead God grants us forgiveness.  Through Christ we are given a second chance, every day, whenever we ask (and even when we forget to ask.) What joy is ours over this daily renewal!  How will we show our gratitude?  How can we share this tremendous blessing with others?  Simple Luther says, we can forgive others as we have been forgiven.  This is actually a requirement and not an option; if we are to be forgiven then we must practice forgiveness.  What God gives to us as a pure gift of grace, we are to give to others.  We are forgiven, to be sure, but we must also forgive our neighbor!  If we fail to forgive others then we cannot expect to receive forgiveness.  When we do practice forgiveness we are given “comfort and assurance” of our own forgiveness. 

The Lord's Prayer: The Fourth Petition

The Fourth Petition: Give Us Today Our Daily Bread

Martin Luther had a wonderful way of expanding the understanding of each part of the Small Catechism.  This fourth petition of the Lord’s prayer is no exception.  He wants his readers to know what “daily bread” means; it is not just plain and simple bread but everything that is required for life “such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”

  All of this God gives to all people, even those that would be called “evil.”  

The focus of this petition is that believers would recognize all that God has given and receive it as a gift with thanks and praise.  Luther even goes one step further adding that this petition asks for relief from the things that keep us from enjoying all that we need and have.  We are asking that God would put an end to the barriers that prevent us from having what we need for today, whatever that might include.   

It is easy to see that Luther’s interpretation of this petition is exhaustive in its scope.  He does not stop at giving thanks for the bread but all that comes before the loaf is in our hands:  flour, wheat, the fields where the wheat grows.  God is involved in all aspects of life on earth, from the giving of food, drink, friendship and daily work, to the nurture of the land, as well as the blessing of a government that keeps order and provides stability for human community.

  We ask that God would be a part of all aspects of life when we ask for our daily bread.  Luther reminds us that when God is absent or “withdraws his hand” from human life, “nothing can prosper or last for any length of time.”

  When we fail to seek God in daily life and invite him into all aspects of our existence, he warns, “this petition of the Lord’s Prayer (may) be turned against (us).”

In order to survive we not only need daily sustenance, shelter, work and family, but we also require as much peace as is possible, for where conflict, strife and war exist “there daily bread is already taken away or at least reduced.”

  This state of concord in life concerns all aspects of our day to day living, moving and being from our activities to our associations.  Among those people with whom we live, work and interact there must be a certain level of peacefulness and harmony.  When conflict and discord arise among us, life is negatively affected.  This is why it becomes so difficult for a church in conflict to do mission in the community.  When people are stirred up emotionally, struggling to get along or move toward some semblance of agreement about issues before them, it is very hard to focus outwardly.  We end up spending a great deal of time trying to settle down, to find some level of stability so that we can be comfortable again.  Our emotional and spiritual needs may not be met as fussing and fighting take over relationships.  Until we can move past the hostility and enmity, our daily bread is diminished in many ways.  

It is our prayer then that as we ask for daily bread that we would receive with gratitude all the good things that God wants to give us, including a community of faith that is grounded in Christ, inspired by the Holy Spirit and working together for the sake of God’s mission in the world.  Our prayer includes a plea that God would put an end to strife and contention within the family of faith as well as in human families, communities and the world.  When we look around and see the wondrous gifts we have been given, we can rejoice saying, “Look, God did it again!  He granted me and you our daily bread!  He fulfilled his promise in the fourth petition again today!”  

Image credit:  transitionedinburghuni.org.uk

The Lord's Prayer: Third Petition

Third Petition: May Your Will Come About on Earth as in Heaven.

Just as God’s kingdom comes with or without our prayer, so too does his will.  However, our hope and prayer is that God’s will might come and include us in it.  Martin Luther makes clear what this will of God entails.  It is about being steadfast to God’s holy Word and having an abiding faith in the God who gives all good gifts and saves us from sin, death, and the devil.

  

Luther, who was plagued by the devil in his life, reminds the church that to be a faithful disciple means that we will be subjected to suffering and attacks by the evil one.  So that we do not lose heart, he reminds us that there is hope against such treachery, “Against them a simple Christian or two, armed with this single petition, shall be our bulwark, against which they shall dash themselves (the devil, tyrants, heretics, and those who plot and scheme against God’s will) to pieces.”

  Luther was certain that God’s will would prevail against all powers that tried to thwart it, “For if their will were not broken and frustrated, the kingdom of God could not abide on earth nor his name be hallowed.”

When we continue growing deeper in our faith, for some reason we are astonished at the road blocks that seem to start popping up all around us.  It is the same for a congregation that sets its collective heart on discipleship and the mission of Christ.  Why should this surprise us?  Perhaps because we realize what a move that has been made in our lives toward Christ and we are so thrilled about it, so wrapped up in God’s grace that it never occurred to us that something might want to keep us from walking that glorious path with Jesus.  I have seen it repeatedly, in my own life and in the lives of those I serve as pastor.  The closer we get to Christ, the more severe the attacks become, and they come from the most unexpected places.

It is a true consolation to read these words of Martin Luther when we are in the throes of being spiritually attacked from all sides.  To know that someone else has been through this and can assist us and strengthen us with his encouragement, pointing us back to our great protector can be a tremendous relief.  Luther describes how the devil works to distract the faithful from God’s holy will:

For no one can believe how the devil opposes and obstructs their (the first two petitions of the Lord’s prayer) fulfillment.  He cannot bear to have anyone teach or believe rightly.  It pains him beyond measure when his lies and abominations, honored under the most specious pretexts of God’s name, are disclosed and exposed in all their shame, when they are driven out of people’s hearts and a breach is made in his kingdom.

It is as if we can hear Luther singing his most famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress if Our God, as we read and ponder his helpful words:  

And though this world, with devils filled, 

should threaten to undo us, 

we will not fear, for God hath willed 

his truth to triumph through us.  

The Prince of Darkness grim, 

we tremble not for him; 

his rage we can endure, 

for lo, his doom is sure; 

one little word shall fell him.

The devil is a master at stirring things up, in us personally and in our congregations.  He will stop at nothing to separate us from one another and from our holy Father.  It is his scheme to take us off track of our mission and ministry in Christ and if he can get folks fussing and fuming, fighting and bickering, grandstanding, holding hostage, throwing temper tantrums, and engaging in pot stirring, he will do it.  If the devil cannot get us off track through conflict and confusion he will resort to apathy, complacency, mediocrity, lethargy and passivity.  Luther reminds us that it is the devil’s sole purpose to get believers away from being concerned about God’s will and “he strives without rest day and night, using all the arts, tricks, methods, and approaches that he can devise.”

The community of faith serves to remind one another that this is bound to happen and that they are not alone.  Instead of giving up, worrying that God has abandoned us to the devil’s devices, we come to Him in prayer asking that His holy will be done in us just as it is done in heaven and on earth.  Following Luther’s advice we remain steadfast in the Word of God, digging deeper into the pure milk of the gospel even as we are fed the wine and driven to the cross of Christ.

  We pray that God’s will might include us, our lives, our work, our mission in Christ and with that that God would fill us up with Christ, replacing our fear, loneliness, and emptiness with Christ Jesus alone.  We pray this as a community faith as we are in this together; we are never alone as we seek to submit to God’s will and obediently follow Christ.  

Image is Wartburg Castle from:  guide-to-castles-of-europe.com

The Lord's Prayer: Second Petition

Second Petition: May Your Kingdom Come.

We hear in the Small Catechism, “In fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us.”

  This coming Kingdom is not something that is way out there, just beyond our reach at any moment.  God desires that we would be a part of it and we ask that it would break in upon us, among us, and around us, that we would not miss it but be included in it.  

It seems that no matter how often we teach that the Kingdom of God is in the here and now and also in eternity, many believers do not hear the first part of that sentence.  In my experience, speaking and teaching about the in-breaking Kingdom of God almost always draws a response about heaven.  While this is not a bad thing, it misses a very vital aspect of what God is doing in the present time.  For the local church to be in mission, we have to continue to articulate this concept so that eyes will be open to the Kingdom of God all around us!  

“What is the Kingdom of God?” Luther explains that it is summed up in the Apostles’ Creed that, “God sent his Son, Christ our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the power of the devil, to bring us to himself, and to rule us as a king of righteousness, life, and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience.”

  So that we might be a part of this Kingdom, God sent the Holy Spirit to open the Word of God for us for the sake of strengthening our faith.  As believers and followers of Christ we ask boldly through this petition that God’s kingdom would indeed come in eternity AND in our presence, and that we would have the privilege of participating in it.  

Recognizing and engaging in God’s Kingdom is a daily endeavor.  As we dwell in the Word and spend time with God in prayer, as we open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit working within us, we grow each day and are strengthened for the journey ahead.  As we are strengthened something amazing happens-we are more able to discern the in-breaking Kingdom of God.  We become more drawn to it as the Spirit leads us into situations where we can be of help to others, where we can share the Good News of Jesus Christ and his benefits.  Like the trunk of a tree as it grows bigger and stronger each year, which is evidenced by the rings you see in cross-section, we too as disciples of Christ grow in strength and Spirit as God calls us to be a part of his holy Kingdom.  All this is done by Christ alone, we can take no credit for it ourselves; we simply submit to God in obedience to his will and ask that would be a part of his divine work on earth.  

Since it is God’s command that we come to him in prayer, he wants us to ask for more than crumbs from the table.

  Luther likens this bold query to an emperor who was willing to give a poor beggar anything he wanted.  The emperor was ready to provide the poor man the most lavish gifts his heart could ever desire or dream about, but instead the “fool” only asked for a simple cup of broth.  For this meagre request Luther asserts that he would be “considered a rogue and a scoundrel, who had made a mockery of the imperial majesty’s command and was unworthy to come into his presence.”

  

Because God has commanded us to ask and promises to give us more than we could ever desire or comprehend, he is thus angered if we hold back on our prayer, asking only for the bare minimum.  To only ask for the least acceptable thing is to lack trust in the One who created everything out of nothing at all.  Is not the God who put the stars in the sky, who set the world in motion, who redeems the world through the cross of Christ capable of answering our heart’s desires and fulfilling our deepest needs?  “The fault lies wholly in that shameful unbelief that does not look to God even for enough to satisfy the belly, let alone expect, without doubting, eternal blessings from God.”

  We are commanded to ask for the best, without doubt, when we pray for God’s Kingdom to come.  We pray that prayer for ourselves, our neighbors and the world; holding nothing back, we ask God for those things we think we will never see in our lifetime: radical, worldwide peace, an end to all hunger, suitable employment for all, successful schools, an end to conflicts in families, churches, and communities.  Those things we thought we had no right to ask for, God is urging us to come to him in trust and faith so that his Kingdom will come, in eternity but also in the here and now.  

The Lord's Prayer: First Petition

The First Petition: May your name be hallowed.

  

Luther instructs his readers, “It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, but we ask in this prayer that it may also be holy in and among us.” Need we be reminded by the good Dr. Luther that our use of God’s name is often far from holy?  Is it used as slang more often than it is called upon in prayer, praise and thanksgiving?  Like the name of a lover on our lips, this name is precious and sacred; to say it with contempt or in anger is to reject the One who loves us most.  

Names are very sacred to human beings.  The ancient understanding of knowing a person’s name was to know something deeply intimate about them.  It is really no different for humanity today.  One of the most important things we can know about another person is their name.  I have often taught my children the importance of remembering the names of people they meet, especially classmates and neighborhood children.  Our daughter would often say as she met a new neighbor, “My friend wants me to come over to play this afternoon.”  I would respond, “What is your friend’s name?”  “I don’t know,” she would reply, “I forgot to ask her.”  How can two children really be friends if they do not know this most basic information about one another?  Friendship begins with introducing yourself to another, “My name is Amy.  What is your name?”  

When I was studying to be a pastor I had many situations when I had to work very hard to remember a whole host of new names, for example when I went on internship.  I took the church directory and studied it diligently until I learned every person’s name in that book.  Perhaps part of that endeavor was influenced by a story my mother would occasionally repeat about the pastor with which she grew up.  My mother, Janice, had a twin sister, Judith, and they spent the first twenty years of their lives in the same parish with the same pastor.  When my aunt married her high school sweetheart and they were sent to San Diego because he was in the Navy, my mother was the only Wilson twin left in worship on Sunday mornings.  She would continually be frustrated by the pastor’s inability to remember if she was Janice or Judith. 

Our name is a vital part of our identity.  If you do not think so then imagine another moniker for yourself!  Rather than the name you were given by your parents, can you see yourself as a “Susan” or a “Kimberly,” a “Michael” or a “Robert?”  At our baptism we are also given another name. . . God’s name. Luther reminds us that as Christians, as beloved children of God, through this naming (and the sacraments) we are incorporated into God himself.  Not only that, but “everything that is God’s must serve for our use.”  We are granted and gifted with all good things through the One whose name we share.

  

For Luther, the greatest treasure that we have is God’s holy name.  Because it is so sacred we are to see to it that it is kept holy on earth in the same way that it is holy in heaven.  How do we do this?  Do we have any control over how God’s name is used around us?  Does this mean that we are charged with the duty of policing and chastising those who break the Second Commandment, shaming them into submission all the while suggesting that they expand their meager, prosaic vocabulary?  I am not sure how successful we would be if we attempted such a feat.  Rather, the hallowing of God’s name happens in our words and actions, our teaching and modeling for others as we point to the one in whom we put our ultimate trust and fidelity.  

As ones who are called children of God, we have a duty to behave like good children so that our words and deeds are a positive reflection on our holy Parent.  We have all witnessed the toddler meltdown at the supermarket, where the mother (maybe we were that mother) threatens the unruly child, then bribes her, gives her “the look” and tries every other tactic to make the child settle down and behave.  Onlookers turn away from the scene in scorn.  The mother suffers certain embarrassment.  In the end the child is not blamed, but the mother who could not keep her child from being unruly and disobedient.  As children of God we do not want to reflect poorly on our heavenly Father.  We do not desire that others would see our actions and words and would therefore assume that our Father deserves reproach and dishonor because of his children’s shameful behavior.  Instead through our honorable, loving, merciful, kind words and deeds we point others to our loving Father.  

We know God’s name and thus we are intimately connected to him as he shares it with us giving us a new identity.  We have received such bountiful blessings from our Father that out of obedience and gratitude we hallow God’s name through the way we live our lives.  We use his name to praise and thank him; we speak about his kindness to us; we marvel out loud of his mercy and grace.  These are not empty words!  These are words of truth of which we are blessed to speak, and others are blessed to hear.  

The Lord's Prayer: Introduction

The Lord’s Prayer

A life of prayer is central to being a Christian.  Martin Luther reminds us of this fact in his Large Catechism saying, “It is our duty to pray because of God’s command.”

The Lord’s Prayer was the third section of his Small and Large Catechisms; teaching tools he created for the faithful in the 16th century which are still relevant for believers today!  This third section, which follows the Ten Commandments and the Apostles’ Creed, is the prescription for faith and life as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  The Ten Commandments, which represent the Law, show us our human sinfulness.  They convict us of all that is contrary to God’s holy will and they drive us to the foot of the cross of Christ.  The Apostles’ Creed, the second part of the catechisms, is the Gospel, the Word of grace, forgiveness and a transformed life in Christ.  For Luther and the Reformers, there was always a balance of Law and Gospel, never one without the other, so that believers would understand both sin and grace active in their lives.  This third part then, The Lord’s Prayer, is a guidebook for believers in their daily lives.  It instructs us how to approach God, reminding us that God commands us to come to Him daily with all our heartfelt needs because He wants to give us every good gift.  Luther sums up the three parts saying that the Ten Commandments are “what we are to do,” the Creed is “what we are to believe” and the Lord’s prayer is “how we are to pray.”

Luther reminds his readers that no one is able to uphold the Ten Commandments perfectly.  Furthermore, the devil who seeks to distract and derail the believer “resists” the commandments “with all his power.”

  Because of the devil’s constant attacks on believers, Luther urges Christians to continually call upon the Lord and “drum into his ears our prayer that he may give, preserve, and increase in us faith and the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments and remove all that stands in our way . . .”

  What an earthy, playful way to instruct believers to pray.  We are not to approach God with fear but with insistence and faith that He will do what we ask because He is our holy Father and wants to give us everything we need, including house or home, spouse, children, food, drink, suitable work, health, and every good treasure. 

Luther connects the Lord’s Prayer with the Second Commandment insisting that calling on God’s name in praise and thanksgiving is nothing less than prayer.  He insists that praying is not a choice to be made by the believer; it is our duty.  God requires it! “It is our duty and obligation to pray if we want to be Christians, just as it is our duty and obligation to obey our fathers, mothers, and the civil authorities.”

  To not approach God in prayer is a violation of our duty and obligation toward God. Luther reminds his readers that to neglect this duty will bring upon “pain of God’s wrath and displeasure.”

I cannot help but wonder how this news of our obligation toward God is received in our culture where it seems that many do not like to be told what to do, how to do it, or even that they have to be accountable for something so private as prayer.  Thus, I think accepting that prayer is a duty toward the One who loves us most, is a matter of a growing spiritual maturity.  To accept one’s duties and obligations with joy, rather than defensiveness, is a sign of a deeper life in Christ.  As we grow in faith and obedience to Christ, we come to realize that prayer is not a matter of personal choice. . . it is rather an integral facet of the life of faith.  It is striking how Luther phrases this, “If you want to be a Christian, then prayer is part of your obligation toward our heavenly Father!”  (Paraphrase mine.)

Prayer, furthermore, is the form of communication that God has created for us so that we may be in constant contact with Him.  It is certainly not the case that God does not know our hearts and minds, on the contrary!  “God takes initiative and puts into our mouths the very words and approach we are to use” in all matters of faith and life.

  Discernment of God’s will is part of our journey of faith and God uses prayer to communicate with us.  In prayer we also have the opportunity to search our hearts, reflect on situations around us and our part in all of those situations, we can better see the big picture as God reveals important insights to us.  Coming before God in prayer and humility is a vital part of figuring out who we are, what we are called to do and be, and which way we should go in difficult and easy situations alike.  We bring our joys to God as well as our laments, not because we need to inform God of what is happening to us, but because God desires for us to be aware of our deepest needs and come to Him for help.  

A church that is actively seeking to move toward greater health and mission will be a praying church.  In prayer we become more open to God’s call on our lives and the collective life of the congregation; we can slow down, calm down, and think more clearly about issues that we are facing as we listen for God’s voice in our midst; we are actively working at being obedient to God and we are waiting more patiently for clear instructions on what to say and the process by which to do what we are called to do.  

The Lord’s Prayer according to Martin Luther addresses all of the “needs that continually beset us, each one so great that it should impel us to keep praying for it all our lives.”