April 20, 2016

“Our Father who art in heaven.”

What does this mean?–Answer.
God would thereby [with this little introduction] tenderly urge us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that we may ask Him confidently with all assurance, as dear children ask their dear father.” (Martin Luther’s explanation of The Lord’s Prayer – Small Catechism)

Let this be the first and most important point, that all our prayers must be based and rest upon obedience to God, irrespective of our person, whether we be sinners or saints, worthy or unworthy. And we must know that God will not have it treated as a jest, but be angry, and punish all who do not pray, as surely as He punishes all other disobedience; next, that He will not suffer our prayers to be in vain or lost. For if He did not intend to answer your prayer, He would not bid you pray and add such a severe commandment to it.

In the second place, we should be the more urged and incited to pray because God has also added a promise, and declared that it shall surely be done to us as we pray, as He says Ps. 50:15: Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee. And Christ in the Gospel of St.Matthew 7:7: Ask, and it shall be given you. For every one that asketh receiveth. Such promises ought certainly to encourage and kindle our hearts to pray with pleasure and delight, since He testifies with His [own] word that our prayer is heartily pleasing to Him, moreover, that it shall assuredly be heard and granted, in order that we may not despise it or think lightly of it, and pray at a venture.” (Martin Luther’s explanation of The Lord’s Prayer – Large Catechism)

Here, in the beginning of the prayer, we lay out identity and location. We pray to a G-d we call our “Father” – and this is good and this is difficult. It is good because our G-d wants to be in relationship with us as a father to their child. It is bad because many have a negative or absent image of a father figure in their lives. So, how do we bridge this difficulty with the experiences we have today? I would say that along with the term “Father” we need to embrace the image of one who was exactly what a father figure should be in our lives – the one who was care taker, role model, mentor, and compassionate guardian.

Where is this person we call “Father”? Well, in heaven. Where is that? Good question, for there are all kinds of responses for us to consider. There is the answer that says heaven is “up there”. That could be, but we also can say that heaven is “all around us”. Heaven, in the truest sense, is everywhere that we can not access in this dimension. It could be above, to the right, to the left, in front or behind us. This is the realm that G-d possesses. G-d, in essence, is everywhere. G-d, who is in heaven, exists where we place our hope for an eternal existence – but also exists wherever G-d wishes to exist – which is everywhere. Think about that…..

Pastor Dave

April 19, 2016

On a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth was asked by his disciples for instructions on “how to pray”. In response, Jesus recited a short prayer. This prayer is recorded in the Gospel of Luke (Ch. 11:2-4), and the Gospel of Matthew (Ch. 6:9-13) and possibly both the version from Matthew and Luke were in circulation among the early Christians.

The longer version of this prayer from the Book of Matthew has become the standard in our liturgy and should be a part of everyone’s daily prayers. Most Christians are taught the “Lord’s Prayer” at a very early age, either through attendance in the church or they will learn it in confirmation. And a lot of people will continue to recite it throughout their lives either privately, at churches, schools, or social events. The recital is automatic and flows from the mind and tongue with robotic familiarity. But that is part of the problem, it becomes too robotic and automatic that we forget what we are saying.

The authors of Luke and Matthew were writing over a half century after the prayer was composed and delivered by Jesus. What was their source other than it was spoken by Jesus? Possibly the whole was taken over from the “Didache”, which in its original Jewish form may have contained the prayer exactly as “the disciples of John” were wont to recite it. From the Talmudic parallels (The Talmud is a huge collection of doctrines and laws compiled and written before the 8th Century, A.D., by ancient Jewish teachers. The Talmud, which often cites the Old Testament, is the basic book of Jewish law. There are two versions, The Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds. One was composed by Babylonian Jews and one by Jews who lived in ancient Jerusalem. Generally a citation from the Talmud refers to the Babylonian version, which is considered authoritative. The Jerusalem Talmud is not generally taught in even the most Orthodox Jewish schools today, though advanced Talmud scholars sometimes study it.) we can discern that it was customary for prominent masters to recite brief prayers of their own in addition to the regular prayers; and there is indeed a certain similarity noticeable between these prayers and that of Jesus.

So, even though many may say this prayer should be called “The Disciple’s Prayer”, and John 17 should be called “The Lord’s Prayer” (look it up and read it), we will look at this prayer more closely, and see what Martin Luther had to say about each petition.

Pastor Dave