The Ten Commandments are our mirror to show us our sin and to teach us what gifts the Lord gives to us and protects. The Creed lays out for us who God is and what He has done for us. Tonight we consider the Lord's Prayer. There's a lot of confusion out there about how Christians should pray and why we should pray. Too many people learn to pray from TV or movies or babbling preachers who repeat the same words over and over and never seem to say much of anything. When we pray, we struggle to find the words. We might just talk “naturally” except that our minds wander and we never seem to cover everything we need to. But our example for prayer isn't the little girl on a TV show who says “Dear Lord, I know you're busy” or the rambling preacher who says, “Father God” fifty times. Jesus, recognizing that we really have no idea what to ask God for or how to ask for it, teaches us the short and simple words of the Lord's Prayer. There is nothing you can ask for that we don't ask for in the Lord's Prayer. Let me say that again. There is nothing you can pray for that is not prayed for or about in the Lord's Prayer. And before the Lord's Prayer is words on our lips, it's promises that Jesus makes about the Father. To put it another way: He wouldn't tell us to ask for those things if the Father wasn't going to give them to us!
Remember that woman in our Gospel reading this week. She cries out to Jesus as the Son of David to have mercy on her. She KNOWS He's the One to take away the devil's power over her daughter. But if Jesus wants to ignore her and call her a dog, then she'll take that and then demand the crumbs! In other words, she prays and asks Jesus based not on HERSELF but based upon HIS PROMISES and HIS WORD and the kind of Savior He is. And that's what the Lord's Prayer and all prayer are about. Prayer isn't the way that we shift God to think like us and do what we want. It's the way that we are shifted to think like the Lord and receive from Him what He wants us to have. Let me say THAT again too: Prayer isn't getting God over to your way of thinking. It's the Lord's way of bringing us over to HIS way of thinking. Prayer is given to us so that we can learn God's Promises and then learn to live by them. What do I mean? Consider this particular petition of the Lord's Prayer: Deliver us from evil. When we pray that petition we learn to believe that the Lord is the One who delivers us from evil. But how and in what way is up to Him. Take for example our dear Mary Mydler. We prayed fervently that the Lord would deliver her from sickness. Many times He gave her health and strength and she improved and we gave thanks for that. But then she died. Does that mean that the Lord doesn't answer prayer or stopped listening? No, because as we prayed for her we learned to pray that God's will be done, that she be kept in the holy faith of Christ and pass from this life in Jesus, which she did. So either way, we learned that it is the Lord that we call upon in every need. In this way, prayer teaches us that we aren't just focusing on one particular need but that in EVERYTHING, we cry out to the Father to care for us and deliver us.
Consider Jesus' own prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prays that the Father take the cup of suffering from Him. He doesn't want to go to the cross. But He prays, “Not my will but Yours be done.” Did the Father not answer Jesus' prayer? Jesus, by praying that way, shows us that it isn't the THING we pray for that is most important but learning to believe and trust in the Lord and that His will is done for us. So Jesus went and suffered and died and rose from the dead and ascended and is crowned with all power and authority. But more than that. His death isn't for His own sake. Because He suffered and took away our sins and because He's raised to life and the right hand of the Father, we know God's promises are true. Just imagine if Jesus said, “Pray all these words that I am teaching you,” and then He died and stayed dead! His Words would be pretty worthless. But since He conquered sin and rose from the dead, we can be certain that the words of the Lord's Prayer that He taught us are true promises that we can rub in the Lord's ear just as this dog woman clung to Him by His Word!
The fact is, prayer does NOT come naturally. We want it to be like chatting with God at a coffee shop or something and that's just not how it works. Sinful by nature, we don't even know what to pray for or how to pray. Now I'm NOT saying it's wrong to use your own words when you pray. But if you're anything like me, your words either ramble and repeat or wander off or just never come to the point. Then prayer isn't about God's promises, it's about me and my wandering heart. That's why when you pray the BETTER prayers are the ones that say simply and clearly what we need based on the simple and clear promises of God. And the BEST prayer we could ever offer is the one that Jesus taught us. Remember, Jesus says NOT to babble like the heathen but RATHER to SAY, the Lord's Prayer! It doesn't matter what is going on in your life or in someone else's or around the world, the words and promises Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer will cover it. Consider the horrible tsunami. So we pray the Lord's Prayer and remember the Lord's promise to provide daily bread and deliver from evil. We or someone we love is sick. We pray for the Lord's will to be done and that means not only the daily bread of good health but also the Lord working through His Word to keep us from despair and unbelief while we suffer. Or consider our children. Surrounded by so many dangers we pray that simple promise that the Lord preserve them from the temptations of the Evil One. And so it goes. Whatever we have going on or need to pray about or for, the Lord's Prayer, above all other prayers, gets our thinking in line with the sure and certain promises of Jesus.
So grab hold of those words of the Lord's Prayer and take a hold of the Lord with those words just like Jacob grabbed the Lord and wouldn't let go until He blessed him and the dog lady wouldn't let go of Jesus until He helped her daughter. The death and resurrection of Jesus, your adoption by grace in Holy Baptism, the declaration that your sins are forgiven, and the Body and Blood of Jesus by which He lives in you all testify that the promises He teaches you to cling to in the Lord's Prayer are true and certain and the will of God. So above all other prayers, pray the Lord's Prayer. Learn what its petitions are all about. Pray these Words, as the Catechism teaches, when you get up and before you go to sleep (along with the Creed!) When you pray and you don't know anything else to say, let those words of the Lord's Prayer be your words to grab a hold of the Lord and cry out for mercy. The Lord's Prayer is the way in which we do battle as Christians. It is the way in which we who have learned how to live from the Ten Commandments and what to believe in the Creed call upon the Lord to give us His grace and Spirit so that we will live as we ought and believe as we should and in all things find our help and comfort in His Word and promises. So take hold of the Lord through prayer! He Himself has given you the words to use! What better way to call upon Him than with His own words which He has given you to do exactly that! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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