Midweek in Lent2
February 24, 2016
As we contemplate the Gospel during Lent we see
that our Lord blesses us in a simple way. It is the Gospel. The Gospel is
simple, as we have seen. We saw our need for the Gospel in the Law, which
condemns us of our sinfulness. And we saw the salvation our Lord gives in the
Gospel. Jesus died on the cross for the sin of the world and that saves us from
the condemnation of the Law. It is so simple that it might seem there’s not
much to it.
There is, in fact, a lot to it. Even as the Gospel
is simple it is also profound. The Law, which condemns us, also is used by God
to guide us in the new life we have in Christ. The Law is more profound than in
simply condemning us. The Gospel, even as it is simple, is profound in that we
can never exhaust the glory of it. The more you look at who God is and what He
has done in His Son, the more you see the mystery of grace and mercy to human
beings who don’t deserve it. The Gospel is beyond compare and truly profound.
One aspect of its profoundness is the life we live
in Christ. When we are saved by our Lord we are given new life. The new life we
live is in response to the grace God gives us. Prayer is the natural response
of the Christian to God’s grace. When someone loves us, we respond. When they
help us we thank them. Relationships mean communication. We talk with those we
love and know. With God, we talk to Him, we thank Him, we praise Him. Prayer
really is that simple. The new life we have in Christ is marked by prayer.
And our Lord even helps us out here. He gives us
words to say. “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by
Thy name…’” The words of the Lord’s Prayer are some of the most well-known and
well-loved words among Christians. There are few words from Scripture people
know by heart, but these are ones that Christians from young to old know well.
They are simple words given to His people for the simple act of praying. God
loves us and so we pray to Him according to His will.
It’s amazing, though, how difficult we often make
prayer. Sometimes we think we have to pray from the heart. Sometimes we think
that we need to leave it up to the pastor. Sometimes we think that our prayers
need to be about high and holy things and not ordinary things. Sometimes we
think that prayer is only prayer if you are speaking the words. Of if you’re
folding your hands and closing your eyes. Prayer is as simple as talking to
God. Even if you can’t think of a whole lot of words to say, you can still
speak to Him. and you can do so whether you are speaking the words out loud or
in your mind. You can speak what is on your mind and you can use a prayer book.
Prayer is simple. Too often we make it difficult.
Prayer is a blessing from God. As we have seen with
God’s love, His blessings not only are simple, they are also profound. This is
with prayer as well. Prayer is profound, beyond what we could ever capture in
simply speaking some words to God. If we struggle with prayer or it seems difficult,
the problem is not with prayer and not with its being profound. It is because
by nature we don’t pray to Him. It is because our sinful nature does not pray
to God according to His will but according to the sinful will.
If you have difficulty praying, pray as the man did
in the first reading this evening: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” Pray in
the humility of knowing that you don’t know the words to pray for on your own.
Pray in the humility of seeing that in the words of the Lord’s Prayer are not
just a few things to pray for but a gold mine of petitions for every need you
have. Even as the prayer our Lord has taught us is simple to pray, we can never
master it. There is so much more there than the asking of God for a few things.
In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus has shown us that we are
invited to know who God is and that He desires nothing else than to give us
everything that is for our good. We are invited to see and to know that in
telling us that God is our Father then that means we are His children and
children are bold to go to their father for all of their needs. We see that His
name is holy and therefore He will give us what is good and perfect through His
holy Son. We see that His Kingdom comes and that we ought to seek that it come
among us, that we receive every blessing of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
We see that His good and gracious will not only is always done but that we are
exhorted to pray that it would be done among us so that we may know that
whatever happens to us, God will work through it for our ultimate good.
We see in the Lord’s Prayer that God blesses us in
body soul. Jesus might have listed many things to pray for that we need in this
earthily life but He used one thing to show us that God gives us is what we
need: bread. And we are invited to pray that we receive it daily, not worrying
about tomorrow, but entrusting each day to God to give us what we need.
What makes prayer so profound is that our
communication with God flows from His communication with us. We are worthy to
pray because we are forgiven. So we pray that God would continue to forgive us
and that we would rejoice in forgiving others. We pray that God would defend us
from temptation and deliver us from evil.
What Jesus invites us to pray to our Father in
heaven for is beyond what we would think to pray for on our own, except for the
things we need in this life. The abundant blessings of the other petitions are
eternal. We need them all the time and He gives them to us all the time.
Some people may wonder why prayer is all that
necessary, then. The answer to that is given by the apostle Paul who says in
1Thessalonians 5 to pray constantly. How do you pray constantly? You are called
by God to serve Him and others in many ways, how do you pray when you are doing
that? How do you pray when you’re asleep and your conscious mind is not in control?
You live the new life God has given you in Christ.
Praying without ceasing is living as God has called you to live. In everything
you do, your life is a prayer offered up to God because of His Son who offered
up Himself as the sacrifice for all of your sins. In Romans 12 we are exhorted
to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which
is our spiritual worship.” If you think of prayer as simply the words you say
to God then you are not seeing prayer fully for what it is. The prayer our Lord
has given us does not just tell us the words to say but also the life to live.
We live under our Father’s grace. We live according to His will. We entrust
ourselves to His care in body and soul. We live because we are forgiven and
therefore freed up to forgive others. We live in the sound confidence that our
Father will deliver us from evil.
In the Lord’s Prayer we see that we’re not just
praying for certain things that we need. The Lord’s Prayer encompasses all of
our needs in this life and eternally. That is why prayer, even though it is so simple,
is so profound. When you have new life in Christ your whole life is a prayer.
Certainly that means we ask our Father for help in time of need. It also means
giving thanks to Him for all His blessings. And it means as well that everything
we do is in loving service to Him. We do not live to ourselves but to Him. We
are His children, He is our Heavenly Father. He loves us, His dear children,
and we, His dear children, respond in love to Him. Amen.
SDG
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