C, Midweek Lent 1 - The Lord's Prayer #2 - Matthew 6:9, 1 Chronicles 29:10b-13, Psalm 145:10-13 "We join with Jesus in his Prayer"

Our Father in Heaven… for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours now and forever.  Amen. 

Last week at the Ash Wednesday service, we began learning about Prayer.  Throughout this Lenten Season and on Maundy Thursday we look at the Lord’s Prayer and its petitions.

While Jesus was on earth, he spent much of his private time in prayer.  Full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led out to quite places to pray.  When we peruse the Gospels, we hear that he prayed.  Sometimes, he prayed in public, to demonstrate it was not his power healing the person, but rather he was submitting to the power of God.

We too can submit to the power of God in prayer.  And when we do, we judge correctly the three realities of prayer…

1) We were originally created to be in fellowship with God.

2) Since the fall we are weak and helpless.  But, because of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father, we are now “blessedly helpless”.  

3) All our right prayers are Holy Spirited prayers. 

Although Jesus was the Son of God, he gave up his authority as the Son and took on the weakness of humanity.  In doing so, he became the archetypal Son of all humanity, the Son of Man.

Jesus glorified God in his fellowship with God the Father in prayer.  In his healings, those around him also glorified the Heavenly Father.  And, when others sought to glorify him, he avoided the opportunity for them to do so, not letting it happen.

But Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit throughout his ministry.  He joyfully praises God when the seventy-two disciples returned praying, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.  (Luke 10:21ESV)

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10: 22 ESV)

Hear how this prayer of praise becomes teaching.  A little later on he teaches about the Holy Spirit and how he teaches, saying, “And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say,  for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”(Luke 12:11–12 ESV)

The Holy Spirit teaches us what to say and what to pray.  Jesus full of the Holy Spirit taught the disciples what to pray.  Through his word to the Apostles, in the Written Word of God, he teaches us who have been filled with the Holy Spirit what to pray.  In our weakness we need the Holy Spirit to lead us in what to say and what to pray.

Today, we focus on the first thing and the last things the Holy Spirit teaches us and leads us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in Heaven… for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours now and forever.  Amen. 

The introduction comes straight to us from Matthew 6:9.  The Lukan equivalent begins simply with, “Father”, in Luke 11:2.  However, the doxology of the prayer is nowhere to be seen in the prayer that Jesus gives. 

Before we go discarding it from the prayer, we need to realise, what this doxology is, and from where it comes.  We must first return to Jesus’ prayers and ponder the heart of Jesus.  It has long been held that the Lord’s Prayer summarises the entire Psalter of the one-hundred and fifty Psalms.  The psalms that were written down by Kings David and Solomon, other temple authors, and the prophets, are the prayers of Jesus inspired in these men and written down long before Jesus was incarnate in flesh.  But once in the flesh he prayed the very prayers he inspired them to write.

Prayer fulfills God’s desire to be in fellowship with humanity, and we glorify him in that fellowship.  The Holy Spirit leads us in glorifying the fellowship of Trinitarian love with us, and within us.  We glorify God with praise and thanksgiving. 

We find this language of glorification right the way through the Psalms, and we find it in the words that come from Jesus’ lips.  We also hear it come from the lips of those who praise God, when they witness the acts of Jesus, while he moves amongst the people of Judea, Samaria, Galilee, as well as the gentile surrounds, he visited.

To narrow the doxology to one place in the Psalms, we hear the Lord’s Prayer doxology, most clearly in Psalm 145:10-13…

All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!  They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power,  to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendour of your kingdom.  Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.  The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.  (Psalm 145:10–13 ESV)

Outside of the Psalms we also hear a similar doxology recorded in First Chronicles chapter twenty-nine.  First and Second Chronicles are the historical record of worship events including the building of the Temple, so it is no surprise to see a similar doxology here.   King David prays these similar words, when he charges the assembly prior, to Solomon’s anointing as king, and his death.

“Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our Father, forever and ever.  Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.  Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.  Both riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.  And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.” (1 Chronicles 29:10b–13 ESV)

These words of glorification are prayed by an assembly.  Even if Jesus is to pray by himself it is within the assembly of the Triune God.  He prays in a Trinity of Love, together with angels and archangels.  But even on earth King David leads the congregation before God and calls on his name in prayer.

So we come the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer.  We pray “our” Father not “my” Father.  Why?

Firstly, because Jesus teaches us to do so.  But he does so because of the greater reality of what we are called into.  This greater reality is not just the hidden reality of the Trinity, the angels ands archangels, but also the whole company of heaven. 

Secondly, this reality is a catholic reality.  Lutherans tend to recoil when we hear the word catholic, thinking we mean Roman Catholic.  But believing Romans like us who believe in the Lutheran Church are all a part of the catholic church.  As we confess in our creeds, we are apostolic and catholic in faith.

Thirdly, we adhere to the words of the apostles, and therefore we are gathered by the Holy Spirit into one holy congregation around Jesus Christ. 

This includes those who have gone before us, and now worship in the company of heaven. 

And it includes all who worship in the realm of time on earth, in our congregation, parish, denomination with others around the world. 

It also includes those still yet to be born, baptised, and abide in the faith given to them.  These are our unborn children, and the generations to come.  All these are the catholic church gathered by the Holy Spirit before Jesus, inside and outside of time.

When we say, “Our Father”, we pray as the body of Christ, and we join in the fellowship of God’s kingdom, glorifying him for his power and his kingdom, which is a kingdom of love that extends to us here on earth through forgiveness.

This introduction can be prayed as a perfectly succinct prayer in itself, “Our Father, the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours now and forever.  Amen.”  This prayer stands on its own and honours God in his eternal realm. 

But we are given petitions to pray here on earth by Jesus.  And these petitions teach us how the Holy Spirit moves us from evil to holiness.  The Holy Spirit does this so we might join Jesus, our ascended Great High Priest, in his petitioning the Father of love in heaven.

Next week, we continue on our journey of joyful discovery, examining the Lord’s Prayer and its petitions as prayer worked in us by the Holy Spirit.  But also, as a teaching or doctrine of the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit practically bridges the divide between evil and holiness.  Amen.