Prayer is nothing other than talking to the Lord. But why pray? And what should we say? The Catechism teaches us that we pray for two reasons. First of all, because of God's command. He tells us to pray, not giving us an option but teaching us to glorify Him by calling upon His name. The second reason is His promise. The Lord promises to hear our prayers and to provide and take care of us, as the Catechism teaches, just like (and even better than) our earthly Fathers. Here's how it works in my house, for example. If I'm sitting in my big comfy chair engrossed in some movie on TV and my kids come and start begging for something--”Dad, can we go to the park? Can we? Will you take us to the park?” In order to make them go away, I mumble, “Yeah, sure, later. Now let me watch my movie.” Well then they ask me later, “Dad, can we go to the park now?” I say, “No, we're not going to the park.” What do my kids say? What do YOUR kids say? “But Dad, you said so!” And then what? I have to take them to the park. I'm trapped by my own words! This is prayer, brothers and sisters in Christ, speaking back to the Lord HIS OWN Words and promises by which He is “trapped” and cannot treat us as anything other than His beloved children in Christ. And this is what the Lord's Prayer is all about. Read the Words of Jesus by which He teaches us to pray. Learn and believe that before these words are a prayer on OUR lips, they are promises on Christ's lips. Then, open your Catechism and read and learn what each petition of the Lord's Prayer means and see how these petitions are nothing else than asking God to give us all these blessings that He promises to shower upon us!
There is a great call to repentance when it comes to prayer. For one thing, we have not obeyed God's command to call upon Him in every trouble and to give thanks. The Lord commands us to pray and we take it as only a suggestion. If you are like me, you don't pray as often as you should. If you are like me, you don't honor God by thinking His name is something great enough to call upon in EVERY circumstance. If you are like me, you don't love and serve your neighbor by remembering them in your prayers and calling upon the Lord to bless and care for them. And when you do pray, if you are like me, then you babble vainly, hoping that lots of talking is somehow going to get the Lord's attention. Not only that, but there is much repentance in not believing the Lord's promise that He shall hear and answer our prayer. We pray but it seems as if the Lord is paying no attention and has nothing good to give us in answer to our prayers. Repent, brothers and sisters in Christ, of not obeying the Lord's command to pray and not believing His promise to hear your prayers and so, ultimately, of misusing God' name by not using it rightly or at all to pray! Repent of such praying and such unbelief and hear the gracious words of Jesus which teach us to pray by putting His own words and promises on our lips as our prayer.
The Lord's Prayer is the prayer above all prayers. For it is Jesus' own words as the Son of God which are given us to pray. Don't fall for the old trick of thinking that praying the Lord's prayer often is “babbling like the Gentiles.” Notice that Jesus says that INSTEAD of babbling like the Gentiles, pray “this way” and He gives us the words. The words of the Lord's Prayer teach us the Gospel. They teach us to call upon the Father who answers these very petitions by giving us His own Son. We call God Father because He is the Father of Jesus and it is in Jesus that He is OUR Father. His name is hallowed when Jesus calls upon Him and trusts Him for all things. His kingdom comes when our Lord has a crown of thorns put upon Him and He sits on the throne of the cross ruling the kingdom of the forgiveness of sins. The Father's will is done when Jesus does not what He wants but what the Father wants, namely, suffering and dying in our place, the place of sinners. The Father answers this prayer for daily bread by sending His Son who gives His flesh for the life of the world, the Bread of Life. All of this is for the forgiveness of sins, the letting go of our debts, our trespasses against God. It is the Lord Jesus who is led into temptation to overcome for us all the power of the devil and it is Jesus who is delivered from evil when He overcomes sin on the cross, destroys the power of the devil and hell and rises again. Then our Lord ascends to the right hand of the Father whose kingdom and glory are for all eternity. Do you see, dear Christians, that in the life and work of Jesus, we see the fulfillment and answer to all the petitions of the Lord's prayer and the reason and the basis for our daring to ask such things of the Father?
And that prayer, made up of those promises, is put upon our lips so that we can call upon our Father as His dear children. Made His children by our Baptism into Christ, we call upon the Father to hear our prayer and answer according to His good and gracious will. His name is kept holy when He gives that very name to call upon in our prayers, asking Him boldly for all the things for which we pray in the Lord's prayer. His kingdom comes and His will is done because He promises to send His Holy Spirit to bring us to faith in the means of grace and to preserve us in the holy Christian faith until death. His will is that you be saved by Jesus and so He baptizes you and absolves you and feeds you with the body and blood of His Son. What important daily bread is there than that which you receive at this altar, the flesh of Christ, the Bread of Life, given for the life of the world, given to give you life. But not just that daily bread, ALL that we need for our body and life is promised us and so we boldly give thanks for all that the Lord provides us. The prayer for the forgiveness of our trespasses is answered when your pastor absolves you of your sins and when the Lord gives you the fruits of the Spirit so that you learn to put away the sins of your neighbor and not hold them against him. Finally, hear the Lord's promise to keep you from temptation and deliver you from evil: how? By giving you Christ. By continuing to bring to you the gifts of your Baptism, the forgiveness of sins and the Word and the Holy Supper. Living in these things, you have all that you need. You are a child of your heavenly Father in Christ and you are a citizen of this powerful and eternal kingdom which belongs to the Lord. Do you see then, how the Lord's Prayer both teaches us the promises of God and teaches us to call upon our Father to hold true to those promises. The Lord's Prayer, then, is the great “Because you said so!” that we shout in the ears of our Father in heaven.
Jesus teaches us that the heavenly Father knows what we need even before we ask! And yet He goes on to teach the Lord's Prayer, in which we ask for these very things. Why then do we pray if the Lord already knows what we need? Because the devil, the world and your sinful flesh are working hard day and night to convince you otherwise: to convince you that your Father is NOT your Father, that He doesn't hear and answer your prayers and that He really doesn't care about you at all. This is why you must learn the Lord's Prayer! This is why you must learn what each petition means and is asking for and why you must not pray without faith but firmly believing your prayers are pleasing to God, for Jesus' sake. In short, you must pray not because God doesn't know, but because by prayer, you learn what the Lord has for you, since your prayer, the Lord's Prayer is full of HIS Words. Luther puts it this way in the Larger Catechism: “God requires that you weep and ask for such needs and wants, not because He does not know about them, but so that you may kindle your heart to stronger and greater desires and make wide and open your cloak to receive much!” (Large Catechism, Concordia, 411.27) Do you see what He means? Praying is not so much about trying to persuade God that you need something, it's about you learning more and more just how much your gracious Lord and Father has for you!
So, pray, dear Christians! Cry out to the Lord! Pray because He has commanded you to do it. As a Christian you have no choice; it is not optional. Even more, pray also because He has promised to hear you! Pray because in Christ you are a child of God and therefore Christ's Father is YOUR Father now. Pray because the devil and the world and the flesh are out to get you and the words of the Lord's Prayer will keep you safe in God's promises away from their evil clutches. Pray the Lord's Prayer because it's the Lords' Words and promises, the great “because you said so” that the true Son, Jesus, has taught us, His brothers and sisters to pray. Learn the Lord's Prayer, brothers and sisters, for in it you learn what a heavenly Father you have, who is rich to you in grace and mercy and salvation and all heavenly and earthly gifts. Learn and believe that you have such a Father and do not fear to cry out to Him in every need for He hears you and He, with the Son and Spirit, is eternally yours. Amen.