"The Liturgy: the Sinner’s Prayer" Eleventh Sunday after Trinity August 31, 2014 Luke 18:9–14
One offered up his prayer, a sacrifice of something he owned. But his sacrifice was not accepted by God. His prayer was lifted up in vain. The other prayed his prayer as well, a sacrifice of what was dear to him. His sacrifice was accepted by God. He lifted up his prayer in faith. Both Cain and Abel prayed. It wasn’t that one did and the other didn’t. They both offered up their sacrifices. It wasn’t that Cain didn’t take part in the act of worship at all while Abel did. It was that Abel’s prayer was genuine prayer and that Cain’s was faithless prayer. In the Gospel reading Jesus speaks of two men who go to the temple to pray. The Pharisee is like Cain, offering up prayer that is all about himself. The tax collector is like Abel, praying his prayer in humility. Jesus points out how vastly different the two men are, just as we see the same with Cain and Abel. What should not be missed, though, is how they are exactly the same. Abel was a sinner just as Cain was. Likewise, both the Pharisee and the tax collector were sinners. Why did God have regard for Abel’s sacrifice and not Cain’s? Why did the tax collector return to his home justified and not the Pharisee? The answer is that God responds to the prayer of the sinner but not to the prayer of the self-righteous. The one who cries out for mercy receives it. The one who has more regard for himself than for God is condemned by God. The one who thinks he has anything of himself to offer God offers Him only filthy rags. The one who believes he has nothing of himself of righteousness to offer God sees that rather than God delighting in us offering something to Him He delights in us receiving from Him. In the Epistle reading Paul says, “I would remind you, brothers, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received.” There was nothing we offered to God in order to receive the Gospel. There was nothing we did in order to be justified, declared holy and blameless; forgiven of our sins. It was purely something we received. It was given to us. This is what Abel knew. It’s what the tax collector knew. Abel saw that without God he had nothing. He would offer the very best of what he owned as a way of giving thanks to the God who had blessed him abundantly. The tax collector saw that he couldn’t even stand before God he was so utterly unworthy. So he simply asked for mercy. What we need to learn is to pray the sinner’s prayer. The title of the sermon shows that what I mean by that is that we need to learn to pray the liturgy. The Scripture readings today have in common the liturgy. In the Old Testament reading we see Cain and Abel engaged in liturgy. They were participating in worship, offering sacrifice. In the Gospel reading the Pharisee and the tax collector go to the temple for the same purpose, to pray to God; engaging in worship. In the Epistle reading Paul speaks of what the people have received as what has been delivered to him. This is what happens in liturgy, the faith is delivered on to succeeding generations as they gather for worship. It has been delivered to them through preaching. Preaching is at the heart of the liturgy, the Gospel being proclaimed and delivered throughout the worship service. Unfortunately, there are people who worship but don’t believe it. They offer their sacrifices, they lift up their prayers, they participate in the liturgy, they listen to the sermon, they receive the Lord’s Supper… but they believe they are justified because of who they are and what they have done. They believe that God loves them because they don’t engage in horrendous sins like other people do. They believe they’re going to heaven because they’ve lived a good life or because they’ve come to church their whole life. They are here but they don’t believe that they are utterly sinful. But those who are like Abel and like the tax collector learn that what we need to pray is the prayer of sinners. We need to pray for mercy as the tax collector did: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. This is what the liturgy does for us. It helps us to pray. It starts us right off with who we are in Christ. With the Invocation—In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—we enter here mindful that we were drowned in the waters of Baptism. We were born utterly corrupt and it was only because the Holy Spirit put to death our sinful nature in Baptism that we are raised to new life. Because of this new life we are free in Christ. We are forgiven, saved, justified. And yet, where does the liturgy take us? To confession. We stand here before God and confess our sins. We are by nature sinful and unclean. We sin against God in thought, word, and deed. This is what the sinner prays. He confesses his sin. He prays for forgiveness from God and that is what he receives. In the Introit the people of God pray prayers that have been prayed by God’s people for 3000 years. The Introit is from a Psalm and there is no better source for the sinner for what to pray. The liturgy teaches us to pray that even as we are forgiven we continue to cry out to God for mercy. The Kyrie has us pray to our God with this cry, “Lord, have mercy.” As we saw with the tax collector, you pray for mercy from God and that is what you receive. In the Gloria in Excelsis we sing the praise of the angels at Jesus’ birth. The praise of the angels at His birth was that the Savior was born for the world. Glory to God in the highest is the prayer of the sinner, not ascribing any glory at all to himself. In the Collect, the prayers of the people of God are lifted up; sinners humbly coming before Him and yet in boldness and confidence that His mercy and grace will be the response. As we saw from the Epistle reading, what comes next even becomes our prayer as we pray the liturgy. The Scripture readings, from the Old Testament, the Epistles, and the Gospels, are what has been handed down from generation to generation, what has been delivered, and what subsequently has been received. In hearing God’s Word to us we are receiving from Him. Is there any better prayer than hearing it and believing it in faith? The response to the words of our Lord in the Gospel reading is the Creed. The Creed is a confession of faith, us declaring what we believe. Because we are doing so we are praying. Sinners praying that it is only by the Triune God coming to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to save us and forgive us that we may boldly confess such amazing things. The sermon, as we saw also from the Epistle reading, also is very much at the heart of the liturgy and also a prayer from us to God as we humbly receive His word proclaimed, as we thankfully hear the forgiveness of sins declared to us. The Offertory also comes from the Psalms and is a prayer which keeps us mindful that the offering we are about to give is just as Abel’s was, nothing from ourselves but only what we have first received from God. The Prayer of the Church of course is a prayer. As the Prayer of the Church, we ought to be mindful that we are the Church not because of anything of ourselves, as the Pharisee thought. But rather, our prayer is lifted up humbly. We pray in thanksgiving not that we are not like others who sin but rather we pray as sinners for others in their need. The liturgy of Holy Communion is full of prayers which center us in humility as we approach God. The Sanctus is the prayer of the angels when Isaiah saw his vision in the temple. The prayer of the sinner joins with the prayer of the angels that holy, holy, holy is our God and that blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; namely, His Son Jesus Christ who is about to come to us in the flesh, giving us His body to eat and His blood to drink; the very body given and the very blood shed for sinners such as we are. The Lord’s Prayer is the premiere prayer of sinners. There is no greater prayer and everything we need to pray for is comprehended in it. However, as sinners who need to learn to pray, we need to be aware that it is in the liturgy where we learn even more value of the Lord’s Prayer when we see that it is prayed as what happens right before the Words of Institution are spoken. Our praying of the Lord’s Prayer is not just a prayer we pray, it is the prayer we pray asking our Lord that His name would be hallowed among us, that His will would be done among us, and His Kingdom would come among us, that we would receive our daily bread and all His blessings, that He would forgive us our trespasses, and that He would lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, and that His answer to all of this is in His Son coming to us in bread and wine. The petitions we sinners lift up in the Lord’s Prayer are brought to fulfillment in the Lord’s Supper. The proclamation of John the Baptist becomes our prayer as we sing the Agnus Dei, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us and grant us peace. These are the very things our Lord, the Lamb of God, gives to us as we behold Him in His Holy Supper. The Lord’s Supper itself becomes a prayer as Paul says in 1Corinthians that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Even as we are receiving forgiveness and strength in this Sacrament, we are also praying, proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes. When we receive our Lord in His Meal, the prayer of Simeon becomes our prayer, as we pray to our Lord, Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace, Your word has been fulfilled. My eyes have seen Your salvation. The sinner’s prayer is the prayer that asks the Lord to take Him to heaven in His time, for now that we have seen the salvation of God and received His body and blood we go home, not only from here to our home in this life, but also to our eternal home when God calls us there, justified. This is shown by our Lord as He blesses us as we go, in the Benediction, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. The sinner prays for mercy, expecting to receive from God. Since He has given us His Son, we know that that is what we receive. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
