Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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Jesus said, “Pray then like this, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

I. 1st 3 Petitions

A. Here on earth as it is in heaven.
In these first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, our Lord tells us that there should be no limits on what we are to ask for when we pray to ‘Our Father in heaven.’
 We should ask God that His Name, would be kept as holy and sacred, here on earth as it is in heaven. Can you imagine what that would be like?
 We should ask God that His Kingdom would come, here on earth as it does in heaven. Can you imagine what that would be like?
 We should ask God that His will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Can you imagine what that would be like?

B. Asking for heaven on earth.
So, in these first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says that we should ask for heaven on earth. That’s a lot to ask for. And it may strike us as being a bit presumptuous to ask God for something so grand and glorious as this. It’s like when someone takes you out to a real nice restaurant and says ‘order what you want.’ You just don’t feel right ordering the ‘surf and turf.’

But when it comes to ‘Our Father in heaven,’ just the opposite is true. This is Jesus Christ the Son of God telling us to ask for heaven on earth. To ask for anything less would be incredibly rude.

In his Large Catechism, Luther creates a little story to make his point. “Suppose that the richest and mightiest emperor on earth were to order a poor beggar to ask for whatever his heart might desire and was prepared to give him great imperial gifts. And suppose that the fool of a beggar would ask for no more than a ladle of beggar’s soup. For having treated his imperial majesty’s command with mockery and contempt, he would rightly be regarded as a rogue and a scoundrel and as one who was not worthy ever again to come into the emperor’s presence.”
“It similarly exposes God to great shame and disgrace if we to whom He offers and assures so many inexpressible riches, despise them or do not confidently expect to receive them, but instead are scarcely able to bring ourselves to ask for a piece of bread.”

II. The 4th Petition
A. Incredible heights and depths
But now this morning, we turn out attention to the 4th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, in which Jesus tells us that we should pray like this, “Our Father in heaven… give us this day our daily bread.” And so it seems as though Luther’s little story is turned against him. For here, our Lord is telling us that we should indeed ask our Father for the lowest and most basic earthly need, even that ‘piece of bread.’

And so maybe we can begin to appreciate the incredible heights and depths that the Lord’s Prayer covers. Continue reading →

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You would think, wouldn’t you, that the almighty God,
• who “laid the foundations of the earth and determined its measurements… when the morning stars sang together and the Sons of God shouted for joy;”
• who “shut in the sea with doors when it burst from its womb… and said, ‘thus far you shall come and no further and here shall your proud waves be stayed;”
• who “commands the morning…and causes the dawn to know its place;”
• who “puts the stars in their place in the sky;”
• who “commands the clouds,”
• who “sends forth lightnings,”
• who “draws out Leviathan with a fishhook; and plays with him as with a bird, and puts him on a leash for your girls…” (Job 38)

You would think, that this God, could get you to do His will too, wouldn’t you? You would think, wouldn’t you, that if God can impose His will upon the sea and the stars and the clouds and Leviathan, He could impose His good and gracious will upon His two-legged humanoids just as easily? Wouldn’t you?

Or, maybe you think that He does.
• Maybe you think that the murders at Sandy Hook;
• and the bombing in Boston;
• and the unborn children who never see the outside of their mother’s womb;
• and the children who are sold for sex;
• and the drugs that are sold for money;
• and the marriages that are ruined for lust…
Maybe you think that this is GOD’S WILL being done. Because after all, God is almighty and can do what ever He wants to do. Right? Therefore His Will must always be done. Right?

Why is it that we look at what man does and what we do and assume that whatever we do, whatever is done to us, it must be GOD’S WILL? Continue reading →

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I. Triune Nature of Christian Prayer

“Hear us Father, when we pray, through Your Son and in Your Spirit. By Your Spirit’s Word convey, all that we through Christ inherit, that as baptized heirs, we may truly pray.” (LSB 773:1)

As you well know, Christians are not the only ones who pray. Jews pray, Muslims pray. Hindus pray. Even those who check the “none” box under ‘religious preference,’ pray. The real difference between the Christian’s prayer and that of all the others is that the Christian prays to a different God than the others do. “Hear us FATHER, when we pray, through Your SON and in Your SPIRIT.” The Christian prays to the TRIUNE GOD; whom we believe to be the only true God.

So, since Christian prayer is the only prayer that is directed to the only TRUE GOD, Christian prayer is the only TRUE PRAYER. All prayer to a god that doesn’t exist… is, well, just talk. It’s talk to no one or nothing.

Truth is, all prayer that is not directed by the HOLY SPIRIT Who leads us to the FATHER in the name of the SON, is downright dangerous, because it’s never safe to come before the FATHER apart from the JUSTIFYING, RECONCILING, CLEANSING work of the SON.

In our Old Testament reading we heard the prophet Elijah pray to the “LORD MY GOD” for the widow’s son. Elijah prayed in the Spirit to the Father with all boldness and confidence, through faith in the promise of a Messiah who would cleanse him of all of his unrighteousness, and wash his prayer with forgiveness, so that the Father would hear it and answer it.

This is how we are to pray. And we are able to pray with even more confidence and boldness than the great prophet Elijah. And that is because the Father has sent His Messiah into the world and the Christ has atoned for all of our sins by His crucifixion and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit has united us to the Son through Holy Baptism, and our prayers are washed with the forgiveness that HAS BEEN won for us by the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for you.

We pray because we can. We pray because we know that our prayers are heard and warmly received by almighty God. We pray with boldness and confidence as dear children ask their dear Father “for you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” (Rom. 8:15-17)

“Hear us Father, when we pray, through Your Son and in Your Spirit. By Your Spirit’s Word convey, all that we through Christ inherit, that as baptized heirs, we may truly pray.” Continue reading →

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The text for our consideration this morning is the same as it was last Sunday and will be for much of the summer. From Matthew 6:5-13: “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

I said it before and I’ll say it again, three times Jesus says, “when you pray…” “When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites…” “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door….” When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do…” “When you pray…” “When you pray…” “When you pray…” Jesus assumes that you pray. Luther once said that “a Christian without prayer is as just as impossible as a living person without a pulse.”

But the assumption does not stop there. Jesus goes on to say, “Pray then like this…” He assumes that we need to be taught how to pray. Without His instruction, we do what everyone does who seeks God apart from His Word.
 We imagine God in our image.
 We will fail to comprehend God as OUR FATHER and ourselves as HIS CHILDREN.
 And we will ask God for precisely those things which we do not need and fail to ask God for precisely those things that we do need.
Because His ways are not our ways and vice-a-versa. Continue reading →

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The text for our attention this morning and throughout much of this summer is Matthew 6:7-13 which reads as follows: “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

If I counted correctly, Jesus repeated Himself three times saying, “when you pray…” “When you pray you must not be like the hypocrites…” “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door…” “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases…” Jesus is assuming that you pray.

After all, the hypocrites pray. The Gentiles who are unbelievers pray. Certainly, you pray. But, Jesus says, “when you pray…” don’t pray like they do. They pray to be seen and heard by other people. You pray to be seen and heard by God. “Pray to your Father who is in secret…” “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven…” Continue reading →

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Confirmation of Daniel Morren
1 Timothy 6:12

The text for this morning’s sermon is 1 Timothy 6:12 and it is directed to everyone here present but especially to you, Daniel Matthew Morren. “Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

It’s not every day that your pastor tells you to ‘fight,’ and from the pulpit no less. Your parents may not like me saying this because how often have they told you and your brothers, “quit fighting.” But pastor Paul tells his catechumen whose name is Timothy, to “fight.” What do you think about that? Maybe Christianity isn’t the religion of ‘peace’ we thought it was.

James the brother of Jesus says that fighting is bad. “What causes quarrels and what causes FIGHTS among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you FIGHT and quarrel.” (James 4:1-2) James says, “quit fighting!”

When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was ready to fight. He drew his sword and started swinging, but all he hit was the ear of the High Priest’s servant. (Which tells you why fishermen shouldn’t carry weapons.) Jesus reprimanded him for ‘fighting’ saying, “Enough. For whoever takes the sword dies by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) Jesus says, “quit fighting!”

Pontius Pilate wondered why Jesus didn’t fight back against His attackers and Jesus said, “He could call down a legion of angels from heaven to fight for Him,” but He wouldn’t do it. “No fighting!”

And He says, the same goes for you. “But I say to YOU, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39).

So what’s going on here? How can Jesus say “don’t fight,” and James say, “what He said,” and yet Paul says, “fight”?

What’s going on here is that Paul is talking about something much different that what I’ve led you to think he’s talking about. When James say, ‘quit your fighting,’ the word is “makomai.” That’s the word for hand to hand combat. Or as James puts it, ‘mouth to mouth’ combat. James says, “quit it,” especially when it goes on between brothers and sisters in Christ.

It’s the same for when Jesus tells Peter to ‘stand down’ and His angels to hold their fire, and you to turn the other cheek. He’s talking about ‘fighting’ that wants to overpower and subdue or hurt or even kill someone… especially not a brother or sister in Christ. That’s “makomai.” Continue reading →

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We call this Sunday, ‘the 6th Sunday of Easter.’ But that is a relatively modern name for the Sunday. For centuries, this Sunday has been known as “Rogate Sunday.” The name comes from the Latin word: “rogare,” which means “to ask.”

The name comes from Jesus’ words to His disciples which He speaks to them in the Upper Room either during the meal or after the Last Supper is concluded; “In that day you will ASK nothing of me. Truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ASK of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have ASKED nothing in my name. ASK, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

Ever since that day He had called them saying “come, follow Me…” He had become the center of their life. For over three years, the disciples have ate and drank, walked and talked, lived and breathed Jesus. Every new day was a new day with the Lord. He was their “all in all.” Sounds good doesn’t it?

But now the time had come for Jesus to be taken away from them. And He knows how hard this will be for them. “In that day…” they will be like sheep without a shepherd. “In that day…” they will not know where to find Him. “In that day…” they will think that they have been left all alone among wolves that want to devour them simply because they had been His followers. Just like you are.

“In that day…” they will wonder what it was all about, this LIFE He had called them into, this HOPE that He had implanted in their hearts, this LOVE that He had shown them, this JOY that they felt. At times they had thought that they would explode for JOY.

 As long as they had LIVED in this world they had never known LIFE like the LIFE that they LIVED in Jesus.

 This HOPE that He implanted in them was the HOPE that He was going to give His LIFE to the whole world that everyone might truly LIVE.

 This LOVE that He had shown them, was unconditional LOVE, not based on status or accomplishments or any sense of worthiness, but pure LOVE, LOVE just for the sake of LOVE, and therefore it was LOVE for everyone.

 And so their JOY was nothing at all like those fleeting moments of fun or happiness or escape that they had called JOY. This was a JOY in Jesus. A JOY that He had called them, out of their LIFELESS, LOVELESS, HOPELESS existences, and given them His LIFE and LOVE and HOPE.
Continue reading →

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“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again in a little while, you will see me.”

How long is ‘a little while?’ When the child is told that he must wait “a little while” after finishing his lunch before he can go into the swimming pool, ‘a little while’ can seem like ‘a long time.’ When a man is told that it will be “a little while” before he recovers from his illness, ‘a little while’ can seem like ‘a long time.’ When a woman is told that in ‘a little while’ she will need surgery followed by chemotherapy, ‘a little while’ goes by very quickly.

The setting for our gospel reading is the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Jesus has humbled Himself and become the servant, washing His disciple’s feet. He says, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

During the course of the Passover Meal, Jesus says, “one of you will betray me.” They don’t understand.

Repeated throughout the course of the evening, Jesus tells them that He is about to leave them. “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Where I am going you cannot come… Where I am going you cannot follow me, but you will follow me afterward.” They don’t understand. “Lord, why can I not follow you? I will lay down my life for you.” (Jn.13:33,36)

Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you. You know the way to where I am going.” They don’t understand. “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way.” (Jn. 14:2,5).

Jesus says, “I am going away and I will come to you. I am going to the Father… And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” (Jn.14:28-29). But they don’t understand.

Once again, Jesus said to them, “A little while, and you will see me no longer and again a little while and you will see me.”

Once again, they don’t understand. “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me’ and ‘because I am going to the Father’? So they were saying, ‘what does He mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.”

And the Shepherd sees His confused and frightened little sheep. He knows that this is the question that is eating away at them. “What is the definition of ‘a little while?’” “How long is ‘a little while?’”

If they knew how long ‘a little while’ is, then they could deal with it; they could manage it; they would know for how long they must be patient and wait. But patience and waiting is hard to do if you don’t know how long ‘a little while’ lasts. Continue reading →