Listen here.
Welcome to Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the
appointed Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday. Thank you for being with
me today.
I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in
Hudson, OH.
On Saturdays we explore some devotional thoughts, habits,
and practices, by looking at what others have written on devotion. We’ve kicked
off this series by looking at a great document written by Martin Luther called A Simple Way to Pray. I’m going to be
reading from the American Edition of Luther’s
Works, vol. 43. This version of A
Simple Way to Pray was translated by Carl Schindler, and the copyright
belongs to Fortress Press.
Luther taught his friend, Peter, (and by extension, us) to
use the Lord’s Prayer as an outline or pattern to guide him and to help him
delve more deeply into the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Last week we read
Luther’s prayer based on the First Petition – Hallowed be thy name. Today we
look at the Second Petition – Thy kingdom come.
A Simple Way to Pray – paragraph 11 – I did not ask for
permission to print A Simple Way to Pray,
but there are many versions available on line. Here is a link to one of them. A Simple Way to Pray.
Do you remember last week’s prayer on the first petition and
the desire for God to convert those who do not keep God’s name holy? We have
the same kind of thing going on here. We pray that those who would resist,
hinder, or usurp God’s kingdom would not just be stopped, but that God’s Holy
Spirit would convert them; create faith, draw them to repentance, and guide
them into true belief and right actions.
The evangelical aspect of the Lord’s Prayer is sometimes
lost on us – which is one of the reasons it is helpful to listen to the saints
who have gone before us and learn from them to pray! Often when we think of
God’s kingdom we think of heaven or the world after the judgement when God
raises the living and the dead and we live with him in a glorious new creation.
But Jesus’ preached that the kingdom of God was among us. The kingdom of God –
or perhaps it might be better to say God’s reign – is the Holy Spirit works
through the Word and Sacraments to create and sustain faith. We want people to
enter into God’s reign as they hear about Jesus and come to faith in him.
At the same time we are praying that we ourselves would be
kept in God’s kingdom. This means that we pray for God to defend and protect us.
We are blessed to have faith, but even as Christians we rely on God the Holy
Spirit to do his work to keep us in God’s reign – to keep us as citizens of his
kingdom – where he works through the Word and Sacrament to sustain our faith,
confronting our sin and comforting us with Jesus’ forgiveness until this life
ends and we begin to live where sin can no longer touch us and we await the
resurrection of our bodies.
It strikes me that it would be very worth our time to find a
copy of Luther’s Small Catechism and his Large Catechism as well to help us
think more deeply about what we mean when we say that short phrase, “Thy
kingdom come.” As Luther draws from the Scriptures to expand upon the theme of
the prayer, we also have a very helpful tool in the catechisms to help us do
the same when we pray.
Concordia Publishing House has an on-line version of the
Small Catechism at http://catechism.cph.org/,
and the Large Catechism is available as a PDF through the Lutheran Church –
Missouri Synod’s web site, and I’ve put a link in the blog notes. https://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=950
. There are also, of course, book forms available for sale, and I believe there
is a free app for the Small Catechism.
Prayers –
O God, we thank you for your Word and for the gift of
prayer. We pray that you would help us grow in our devotion to meditating on
your Word and responding to you in prayer, and we ask that our devotion would
be rooted in your love for us and our love for you. We put ourselves, our
friends, our loved ones, and our enemies into your hands. Let your kingdom
come, Lord. Reign among us through your word and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Create and sustain faith in us. Convert the hearts of all who deny you and draw
them to faith so that they may have the salvation and forgiveness Jesus won for
us. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.
Memory Verse: Psalm 25:5 - Lead me in your truth and teach
me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. (Ps.
25:5 ESV)
Hey, remember that if you want to help those who have been
hurt by Hurricane Harvey a great place to do so is LCMS World Relief and Human
Care. If you go to www.lcms.org/disaster
you can donate.
Thank you so much for using Devotions for Worship, I pray
that our time together has blessed you and given you something to meditate on –
some reminder of God’s grace to rattle around in your brain – for the rest of
the day.
Would you do me a favor? If you got something out of this
devotional time, would you like and/or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or
wherever you do social media? That would help me get the word out, and
hopefully help these devotions be a blessing to others.
God bless you!
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