LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 357

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
How is this prayer answered? Psalm 29 commands the angels 113 to
“ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name”—that is, to worship Him or “to
praise His glorious name.”114 On earth (unlike heaven) our only hope for the
name to be hallowed is, as Gibbs notes, God’s determination to sanctify His
own name: “I will hallow my great name, which has been profaned. . . .” (Ezek.
36:23).115 He does this through His Word. We therefore ask that His sanctifying Word be proclaimed purely, “on earth.” We pray for preachers, teachers,
missionaries, and all who tell of Christ. We pray for a faithful, daily witness in
the lives of God’s people so that a renewed humanity may hallow the divine
name.
To hallow the name is also to use His name rightly in prayer and worship. In obedience to the second command we are not to “misuse the name
of the Lord your God”—but to call on Him in prayer and thanksgiving.116
Throughout the Psalter the Holy Spirit guides the prayers of God’s people in
hallowing the divine name. Prayer and praise are twin elements of “hallowing the Name,” so that many psalms—Psalm 18 for example—move back and
forth between speaking to God (prayer) and speaking about God (praise).117
Above all else, then, God’s name is hallowed when Jesus is confessed as
Lord and His grace is proclaimed. To know God’s name is to know the Gospel, centered in God’s very identity—who He really is, what He has done.118
So Basil rightly says “that when we remember His mighty works, we find the
proper means of praise.”119

113
The Hebrew is difficult here, but most recent translations take this to be a reference to the
angels or heavenly beings, while earlier commentators (e.g., Augustine or Basil), using either
the LXX or Vulgate which parallel “sons of God” with “sons of rams,” took the first verse as a
command to the church. See Craig A. Blaising and Carmen S. Hardin, eds., Ancient Christian
Commentary on Scripture: Psalms 1–50, vol. 7 (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 214–215.
114
Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, vol. 1, in Biblical Commentary on the Old
Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949), 368.
115

Gibbs, 327, author’s translation.

116
Luther notes that this is the opposite of the sin forbidden by the second commandment: LC
3, 5–6, KW, 441 and LC 3, 45, KW, 446. See also Wengert, 185.
117
Psalm 34 is a paradigm for this sanctifying of God’s Name. Sixteen times David repeats
the name of “the Lord.” As Paul boasted in the Lord about his own weakness (2 Cor 10:17;
11:30; 12:9; cp. Rom 3:27; Gal 6:14), David’s soul also boasts in the Lord (Ps 34:2), exalting the
name of the Lord who saved the poor and troubled, the fearful and hungry, the broken-hearted
and crushed in spirit. “The Lord,” therefore, is the name of the true God who “redeems his
servants” who take “refuge in him” (v. 22).

Note Tertullian (cited in Simpson, 44) who says the Lord’s Prayer is “an epitome of the
gospel.” Cp. above p. 8.

The Second Petition: “Thy kingdom come”
It is true to say that “The Lord’s Prayer is the gospel turned into prayer.”120
The Lord’s Prayer begins with the Gospel—even the Gospel in the sense of
justification by grace through faith—in that our Lord’s first teaching on prayer
is that we can do nothing unless God is our God by hallowing His name in the
Word made flesh. By such revelation He draws us into His kingdom by His
Spirit through faith. So the first petition leads directly to the second where
“We pray for the coming of that kingdom, which has been promised to us by
God, and was gained by the Blood and passion of Christ.”121 Luther notes that
the second petition is that God’s kingdom “may come to us also” by the Holy
Spirit’s work of instilling faith in “His holy Word” and godly obedience to our
King.122
God makes Himself known in order to rule us—to be our Lord and King.
“Rule” may sound oppressive and harsh to our ears, but it is nothing less than
a gracious, saving work. Only in God’s rule and kingdom can we be truly free.
During World War II Helmut Thielicke preached on the second petition in the
ruins of a recently-bombed church:
In these fearful, fateful weeks many people appear to have
become alienated from their faith in God; they begin to ask
how he can “permit” such things to happen. It would be better,
however, if they were alienated from their faith in men.123
The rule of sinful men (under the evil one) continually challenges the rule
of God.124 The sinner in us rebels against God, preferring another lord or ruler
(Is. 26:13). We fail to see the oppressive results when we substitute an alien
power/authority for the triune God. Political, economic, and social movements lead us to seek yet another kingdom/authority and its “righteousness.”
How content should we be with such human kingdoms over the past century?
Even more, how content could we be when we realize that the ultimate alternative to the kingdom of God is not mere earthly rule and authority, but the rule
of Satan?125
Our Lord invites us to echo His wise petition: “Thy kingdom come.”
God’s rule will not, for now, simply replace any earthly kingdom. God gives
Caesar his say (Matt. 22:21). But only God’s rule will protect us from the
120
Simon Chan, Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshiping Community (Downers Grove, Ill.:
InterVarsity Press, 2006), 114.
121

Cyprian, The Lord’s Prayer, §8, 183.

122

Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, 183–184.

123

Our Heavenly Father: Sermons on the Lord's Prayer (New York: Harper & Row, 1960), 58.

118

On the Holy Spirit, 8.17 (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1980), 35. Basil goes
on to reflect on how the many names or titles given to God in Scripture illumine His majesty
and nature.
119

This does not deny that, as the doctrine of “two kingdoms” teaches, God also rules through
sinful men in earthly institutions like government (Rom 13:3–4), maintaining some level of
order despite the chaos of sin and Satan.
124

125

Cf. AE 42:38.

46

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deceits of earthly rule (Rom. 8:38–39). God’s kingdom is never far because of
Christ’s presence among those with faith in Him (Luke 10:9, 11; 17:21; 21:31;
Col. 1:13–14), even as it will come in all its visible power in the day of Christ’s
return (Mark 9:1; cp. 1 Cor. 15:24). His kingdom means safety in His presence
and promises. His kingdom and rule are above all other rulers and authorities
(1 Tim. 6:15, cf. Dan. 2:37). No wonder our Lord teaches us to plead for our
place under Him.

of God? Answer: Simply what we heard above in the Creed, namely, that God
sent his Son, Christ our LORD, into the world to redeem and deliver us . . . .”131

Yet, in a sinful, rebellious world, God’s rule often seems alien and repressive. To “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33) is
no onerous bid for dictatorial oppression. In Christ we know the goodness
of the Kingdom. In Him, despite the dangerous rulers and authorities of the
present age, we know the salutary goodness of this “pearl,” this “treasure,”
this “seed”126 (cf. Matt. 13:44–46; Matt. 13:31; Mark 4:26–29) for which we long
and pray.127
The second petition teaches us to pray that Christ’s kingdom would grow
and expand, like a widening net (Matt. 13:47–48). We pray for open hearts and
doors to the Gospel (Col. 4:2–4) and for its rapid spread (2 Thess. 3:1). This
disallows a narrow view of the kingdom coming to a favored few of “us.”
We pray for the “us” of the whole (catholic) people of God, to all whom the
Lord our God will call (Acts 2:39). “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers
are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers
into his harvest” (Luke 10:2, emphasis added). “This Second Petition is therefore our missionary prayer.”128 With this petition “we desire that the whole
world, which so evidently lies in evil and longing, in fear and in striving,
would see and receive this light, which entered the world some two thousand
years ago, when on the outskirts of the Roman empire was heard that lonely,
yet still resounding voice: “‘Repent . . . for the kingdom of God is at hand’
(Matt. 3:2).”129
The second petition, like the first, sounds a clear note of Gospel—pure,
undeserved grace. “To emphasize more the free gift of God, we do not say that
we come to the kingdom of God, but rather pray that it may come to us.”130
The very content of the kingdom is the Gospel. Luther: “What is the kingdom
126
See Guardino, 38: “. . . we soon notice that the ‘kingdom of God’ cannot be reduced to a
single concept. It is something mighty, pervasive, penetrating, operative, multiform.”
127
The OT is rich with this emphasis: “Thy kingdom come” echoes songs like Psalm 2, where
we learn to pray for the rule of the Lord and His Anointed. To pray this is also to pray against
the raging nations and their kings (vv 1–4, 8). We seek Zion’s King in the Son the Lord has
begotten (v 7), “kissing the Son” in familiar homage rather than setting ourselves against Him
(v 12).
128
Theodore Graebner, The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1937), 17.

Alexander Schmemann, Our Father (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002),
40-41.
129

130

Martin Chemnitz, The Lord’s Prayer (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 48.

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357

This prayer is granted only as gift: “To this end he also gave his Holy Spirit
to deliver this to us through his holy Word and to enlighten and strengthen us
in faith by his power.”132 Since “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating
and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom.
14:17), Luther rightly emphasized that the second petition teaches us to pray
for the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit Christ cast out demons and brought those
He now possessed into His kingdom (Matt. 12:28). In the Holy Spirit and not
in the ruling human spirit the kingdom is given, and apart from the Spirit’s
washing none can enter the kingdom (John 3:5; cf. 1 Cor. 6:9–11; Titus 3:5). This
is, of course, because only the Spirit can work faith in a humanity ruled by sin
and death: “. . . no one can say that Jesus is Lord [or King], but by the Holy
Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). By the Holy Spirit sinners become sinner-saints who seek
to be obedient subjects of the kingdom, loving the rule of Christ and seeking
to honor Him with their lives.

The Third Petition: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
The third petition is challenging in two ways. First, there is a textual matter. Jesus teaches the “Lord’s Prayer” in both Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:1–4,
but in the briefer version of Luke 11, there is no “Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.” This led Luther to explain “Thy will be done” as a summary of the first two petitions in his reply to the question, “How is God’s will
done?” He explains that God’s will is for “us to hallow God’s name” and “let
His kingdom come.”133 The Large Catechism also explains that the third petition
shows our need “to keep firm hold on these two things,” namely, the holiness
of God’s name and the need for His kingly rule.134 This simple insight helps
us to recognize that the third petition is not primarily about what God causes
or permits to happen. Rather, Christ leads us to pray for God’s saving work of
redemption and sanctification to continue in us.
Second, Luther’s answer to the first catechism question on the third petition, “What does this mean?” helps us see an even greater challenge in this
petition—the meaning of “the will of God.” 135 That challenge is deepened
by the final clause, “on earth as it is in heaven.” If God is almighty, isn’t His
will an automatic? Cyprian had earlier asked: “For who resists God, so that

131

LC 3:51, KW, 446.

132
Ibid. Cf. also Bloesch: “We can approach the throne of God only on the basis of the
righteousness of Christ communicated to us by the Holy Spirit” (56).
133

Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, 186.

134

LC 3:61, KW, 448.

Often referred to as God’s “causative” or “permissive” will. Chemnitz has a helpful
discussion of various ways to think of God’s will in The Lord’s Prayer, 51–55.
135

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2013 Convention Workbook