Luke 11:1-13; Genesis
32:22-30
The Petitions of
the Great Litany: “Hear us, Good Lord”
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
We repent because there is someone to repent
to who is gracious and merciful and ready to forgive us. We return home because
there is someone to return home to, waiting with open arms to receive us.
Likewise, we pray, because there is someone who has promised to hear us and to
answer our prayer. This is to say that prayer is an act of faith. We pray
because we believe that God will hear our prayer and will answer. Therefore
prayer is beneficial, in and of itself, not because of the pious words we may
speak or the acts of piety we may perform when we pray, but prayer is
beneficial because it is the very fruit of faith itself. Prayer is an exercise
in faith, and, by doing it, our faith is strengthened and renewed. And, as
there is little reason to confess your sins if you do not anticipate an
absolution, likewise, there is little reason to pray if you do not anticipate
that God will hear your prayer and answer, just as He has promised. No, that is
precisely why we pray: God does hear, and God does answer those who pray to Him
in faith and trust in His Word, and in Jesus, His Word made flesh.
Faith and trust – these are at the root
of our Old Testament reading this evening. Jacob wrestled with a man, with God,
all night long and, though the man put Jacob’s hip out of socket, Jacob refused
to let him go without a blessing. Jacob is an example demonstrating that, even
when God seems to not hear and answer, in fact, even when God seems to be
actively working against you, wrestling with you, and permitting you to suffer,
the faithful continue to hold on, all the stronger, and to insist that God keep
His Word and His promises.
Prayer is like that, because the power
of prayer is faith. Too often, Christians become confused about prayer. I think,
however, that they are truly confused about faith. Faith is not a work. Faith
is not something that you do. Rather, faith is a quality that you have, or that
you do not have. Faith is trust. Good Biblical examples of faith are infant
children, even without rational understanding and knowledge, and adults who
have been so rocked by trial and tribulation that they depend upon nothing and
no one but God alone. The Scriptures are replete with such examples,
particularly the Gospels and the parables and teachings of Jesus. In fact, the
Gospel you will hear this coming Sunday is such a teaching – the account of a
Canaanite woman who plead with Jesus to help her demon-possessed daughter. She
had no other hope than Jesus, therefore she trusted in Him and clung to Him alone
even when He at first rejected her and insulted her (kind of like God putting
Jacob’s hip out of socket). She would not let Him go without His blessing. She
received it along with Jesus’ praise, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done
for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.
This evening’s Gospel reading begins
with Jesus praying. Perhaps you’ve never thought about it, but it might be
helpful to ask, “Why on earth would Jesus pray?” What has Jesus to gain by
praying? What does Jesus need? What does Jesus hope to receive in prayer? Well,
while it is true that Jesus does not require absolution, as He is without sin,
He was indeed a human being, a man, and He needed comfort and hope just like we
do. Jesus prayed in faith and trust, just like we do, knowing that His Father
would both hear and answer. In fact, Jesus prayed not only for Himself, but
also for us; that is to say, Jesus prayed in our place for our failure to pray.
Jesus was faithful for us. Jesus prayed for us. As Jesus’ faith was
strengthened through prayer, so is our faith strengthened through prayer that
we might persevere through all, trusting in God in strength and hope.
Jesus’ disciples understood that prayer
was important. Still, they didn’t know how to pray, or what to pray for.
Therefore, Jesus taught them how to pray. He taught them the Lord’s Prayer, a
prayer constructed around the Lord’s own Words and promises. All the things we
pray for in the Lord’s Prayer are gifts that the Lord has promised to give to
us: His Name, His kingdom, His will as our will, daily bread, forgiveness, and
deliverance from the evil one. We can pray in faith and trust in these Words,
for the Lord has already promised to hear and to answer, giving us all these
gifts. This is why, in the Small Catechism, Luther explains in each petition of
the Lord’s Prayer that the Lord is already doing and giving these gifts even
without our prayer. What we are praying for is that we would receive them and
permit them to grow and to work in us – that we would have faith to believe and
to receive what the Lord has promised to do, and is in fact doing for us.
I like to think of prayer as restoring a
right relationship with God. Now, I don’t mean in terms of justification, making
us right with God by means of the forgiveness of our sins – that is what Jesus
has accomplished for us by means of His life, death, resurrection, and
ascension. What I mean is this: When we pray, we acknowledge God to be God, and
we to be His creatures. We acknowledge Him to be good, merciful, gracious,
constant, and loving. And, in this way we restore, or are restored to, a right
relationship with God. The right relationship is receiving from Him. It is good
to ask, especially when we ask believing in Him that He is good, that He will
hear, and that He will answer in accordance with His righteous will and wisdom.
“Hear us, good Lord,” we pray in the
Litany. “We implore you to hear us,” we pray. Is there any doubt that our Lord
hears? No, there is not. Thus, such we pray in faith, in trust, in confidence
that we are heard and that the Lord will answer in accordance with His good and
gracious wisdom and will. If a friend will help you when you ask because you
are insistent and ask repeatedly…. If a good friend will help you immediately
when you ask…. If a father will give good things to his son who asks…. How much
more will your heavenly Father and loving God give you what is good and right
for you and for those for whom you pray?
In the Litany, we call upon the God who
is, we call upon who He is, and we call upon what He has promised and what He
has done. This is the foundation upon which we depend, in which we believe and
trust, and the reason for our confidence and hope in prayer. We pray by all the
things God is, has said, and has done for us and for all His people in Jesus
Christ. In Him, through Him, and with Him we have all things needful and more.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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