LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 356

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356

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
in Christ, is given to all who believe in Him, so the concern of such Christian
prayer is never for self alone. None who prays in Christ can pray without
concern for the whole Body of Christ (Luke 9:28; Matt. 19:13; Col. 4:2-3;
1 Thess. 5:25; James 5:16; Acts 12:5).
While Jesus invites us into an intensely personal manner of prayer, He
never encourages a self-absorbed preoccupation with “my desires”—something so evident in sinful humanity.99 It is therefore inherent to baptismal life
that Christians not only pray alone, but also gather with other believers at set
times and places for prayer. In corporate settings, the prayers may be somewhat different in that one person speaks for many, emphasizing the concerns
of the assembly and the church as a whole more than private or individual
worries. Yet, the essential manner of such prayers will not differ from the most
private prayers of individuals, for the church’s corporate prayers also address
our Father in heaven with earnest confidence as those who come to Him in
Jesus’ name.

The words or content of Christian prayer
To pray is to speak to God, so it becomes important to ask about the actual
words we might use. We might answer, “It doesn’t matter! Say anything you
want.” And, certainly, we are not restricted in what God allows us to say to
Him. Consequently, daily life often “sets the agenda” for our prayers. One
who is suffering cries out to God for relief—little else can even enter his mind.
The terrified person can pray for nothing but rescue. The Christian alienated
from his or her spouse or loved ones can think and pray about nothing else.
Such prayers, although exclusively personal and concerned only with the very
moment, are godly, Christian prayers. Our Lord’s prayers in the garden were
such (Luke 22:41–45), and the Word of God never discourages such prayers:
“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify
me.” (Ps. 50:15; cp. Ps. 86:7). Such prayers come almost “automatically” for we
know we have a gracious God who has revealed His love in Christ Jesus, His
Son. Given His Holy Spirit in Baptism, we are freed for such prayers, knowing
that nothing that concerns His children is trivial to our Father, who is always
ready to listen.
Yet, if all we think and pray about is personal and individualistic—“what
occurs to me and what I desire”—our prayers are impoverished. Jesus does
not leave us without guidance for a richer life of prayer. He leads us away
from empty selfishness in our prayers. Nowhere is this more evident than
in the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:7–15; Luke 11:1–13). He gives us
specific words to pray. Even as He assures us that we can boldly pray about all

99
Timothy J. Wengert notes that Martin Luther’s focus on the Lord’s Prayer kept him from
such solipsism; “Luther on Prayer in the Large Catechism” in The Pastoral Luther: Essays on
Martin Luther’s Practical Theology, Timothy J. Wengert, ed. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2009), 181.

our concerns, He also shows us vital things for which to ask Him in prayer and
does not leave us to try to discover our Father’s prayer priorities.
It is also important to know from the example of Christ that He also
prayed the psalms and knew them from memory (e.g., Matt. 27:46 [Ps. 22];
Luke 23:46 [Ps. 31]; Matt. 21:16 [Ps. 8:2]; Matt. 22:44 [Ps. 110]; John 10 [Ps. 23,
Ps. 95]). The “hymn” that Jesus and his disciples sang at the conclusion of the
Passover before going to the Mount of Olives (Matt. 26:30) was quite likely
Psalms 115–118.100 Therefore from its beginning, the church followed this pattern of praying the psalms (e.g., Acts 4:23–31 where the church prays Psalm
2). Paul describes the worship life of the early church as involving “singing
psalms” (Col. 3:16) for in the Psalter we also have divine content for our
prayers.101
What a gift! Little children cannot mature if they speak only about their
own concerns. Interactions with adults gradually stretch and expand their
hearts and minds. The same is true for the children of God. “By means of
the Father in heaven his children learn to speak with him. Repeating God’s
own words after him, we begin to pray to him.”102 We grow and mature as
we begin to think and pray about God’s purposes and not only our own. For
this reason, throughout the history of God’s people believers have not only
prayed in their own words, but also in the words of others. They have prayed
in the words of the Psalms and canticles of Scripture and the hymns of other
composers.103 They have prayed in the words of written prayers from service
books and other resources. They have prayed with pastors who speak in and
for an assembly of believers, even when the only word the assembly speaks
is “Amen.” Such praying is every bit as important as the personal prayers
we speak privately to God, for in this way our hearts are open to the whole
of God’s people and their needs and to the concerns that God Himself places
into our prayers.

100
The “Great Hallel,” which includes: “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become
my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: `The right hand of the
Lord does valiantly; the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.’
I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me
severely, but he has not given me over to death,” Ps. 118:14-18). See Michael Green, The Message
of Matthew (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000, 277; W.F. Albright and C.S. Mann,
Matthew: Introduction, Translation, and Notes (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company,
Inc., 1971), 326.
101
“Properly to pray the psalms is to pray them in Jesus’ name, because the voice in the Psalter
is Christ’s own voice. Christ is the referential center of the Book of Psalms.” Patrick Henry
Reardon, Christ in the Psalms (Ben Lomond, CA: Conciliar Press, 2000), xvii. Reardon’s book is a
helpful tool, designed to aid in a prayerful use of the psalter which recognizes Christ’s presence
there (Luke 24:44).
102

Bonhoeffer, Psalms, 11.

103
Note the example of Ezra, who prays by means of the Psalms in 9:6 (Ps. 38:4), 9:7 (Ps. 106:6),
and 9:8 (Ps. 13:3).

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Christians in every era have prayed the Lord’s Prayer in the simple faith
that, since Jesus gave it to teach us how to pray, we should use it. 104 No prayer
is better known, but its value is lost when we simply rattle it off thoughtlessly.
Luther recommends not only that we speak the prayer word for word, but also
that, in our daily prayers, we dwell on the prayer one petition at a time, praying about the area of Christian faith and life on which that petition focuses.105
The following pages therefore provide a meditative look at how our prayers
may be shaped by the priorities of the Lord’s Prayer.106

Regarding the first petition, Luther says, “In this petition God becomes
everything and man becomes nothing.”109 “Hallowed be thy name” echoes
throughout Scripture. The Old Testament’s ceaseless praise of “the Lord”
(Yahweh) hallows His name (e.g., Ps. 30:4; 97:12; 105:3; 106:47). In the ancient
world, where a pantheon of gods by various names were given worship, sacrifice, and prayers, one true God made Himself personally known, revealing
His name and His identity. The God who created heaven and earth “introduced” Himself personally to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as “Yahweh.”110 He
showed Himself in many ways—so that His name would mean something
real and wonderful. Those who heard in faith came to know that “the Lord,”
Yahweh, was the one true God of power and might, mercy and grace.

The First Petition: “Hallowed be thy name”
The first three petitions of the Our Father are inseparable, bound together
by the final clause of the third petition, “on earth as it is in heaven.”107 Luther’s
explanations of these petitions strike a repetitive note, emphasizing our need
for something God has promised. God’s name is holy, His kingdom comes,
His will is done—all regardless of our praying—yet, we pray that all of this
would be true among us. We pray precisely because “on earth,” unlike “in
heaven,” God’s name is regularly profaned, His kingdom faces constant rebellion, and His will is denied in favor of the sinfully bound will of humanity.
To pray these petitions is to beg God to be our God. God “desires all people
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), yet we
cannot save ourselves or reason our way to such truth. To pray as Christ
teaches is to know that nothing else is important, so we plead for God to stop
at nothing to make us His own. John Donne captured this desperate need in
stark verses, begging God to “batter my heart,” to overthrow the human will,
which is “betrothed” to Satan, and imprison him, for only one who is captive
to Christ is free. 108

The Old Testament also reveals that the Lord’s holy name is profaned, not
only by the Gentiles, but also by Israel. He warns anyone who would profane
His name: “I will set my face against that man. . . ” (Lev. 20:3). Israel profaned
Him by joining in the worship and sacrifices of pagans (Lev. 18:21), swearing
dishonestly in His name (Lev. 19:12), and violating His commands (Lev. 22:31–
32). Even those who brought sacrifices to “the Lord” were guilty of profaning
His name if they did not also listen to His words (Ezek. 20:39).
The One who said, “I am who I am” (Ex. 3:14), has revealed His identity
in Holy Scripture and, pre-eminently, in the person and work of Christ (Heb.
1:1-2). Our Lord both defines and hallows God’s name and reveals what
it means for our lives to hallow the divine Name.111 How little we reflect these
virtues and this name! The triune God’s name, given to us in Baptism, is
instead demeaned daily, so God must hallow His name ever anew. Only then
will we be enabled again to use it rightly in prayer and praise.112

104
“As He [Christ] has said, whatsoever we shall ask of the Father in His Name, He will give us, how
much more effectually do we obtain what we ask in Christ’s Name, if we ask for it in His own
words?” Cyprian, The Lord’s Prayer, §1 in The Treatises of S. Caecilius Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage,
and Martyr (Oxford: James Parker and Co. and Rivingtons, 1876), 178.
105

AE 42:194–195.

These remarks on the seven petitions offer nothing new or profound. They neither can
replace nor should they distract confessional Lutherans in particular from the far more
important comments of Luther (in the Large Catechism especially), to say nothing of countless
other commentators (e.g., Cyprian, whom Luther references).
106

107
On the structural and theological connections of the first three petitions and the prevalence
of this understanding, see Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 1:1–11:1 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 2006), 325–326.

BATTER my heart, three person’d God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow mee, and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely I love you, and would be loved faine,

108

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2013 Convention Workbook

But am betroth’d unto your enemie:
Divorce mee,’untie, or breake that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you’enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.
“Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God,” in Grierson, Herbert J.C., ed. Metaphysical Lyrics &
Poems of the 17th c. (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1947), 88.
109

AE 42:27.

110
Most English translations render the personal name of God, hwhy (Yahweh), as “the Lord,”
using small caps to distinguish it. See Gen 12:1-7; Gen 26:24; Gen 28:13 where the Lord reveals
Himself in turn by name and by deed to the patriarchs. See also Gibbs, 327.
111
Luther reminds us that our Lord’s virtues are aspects or “names” of the holy God. “Since
we are baptized into these names and are consecrated and hallowed by them, and since they
have thus become our names, it follows that God’s children should be called and also be gentle,
merciful, chaste, just, truthful, guileless, friendly, peaceful, and kindly disposed toward all,
even toward our enemies.” AE 42:28.
112

Note the meaning of the second commandment in Luther’s Small Catechism.

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