Lenten Midweek Preaching Theme, Gospels for LSB C: “Pray to your Father” (Matthew 6:6)
Ash Wednesday (2/13) Our Father, Who Art in Heaven (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) Wed Lent 1 (2/20) Hallowed by Thy Name (Luke 4:1-13) Wed Lent 2 (2/27) Thy Kingdom Come (Luke 13:31-35) Wed Lent 3 (3/6) Thy Will Be Done (Luke 13:1-9) Wed Lent 4 (3/13) Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) Wed Lent 5 (3/20) Forgive Us Our Trespasses… (Luke 20:9-20) Maundy Thursday (3/28) Lead Us Not Into Temptation (Luke 22:7-10 [11-32]) Good Friday (3/29) Deliver Us From Evil (John 18:1-19:42) Ash Wednesday Our Father, Who Art in Heaven Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! Jesus says many things in tonight’s Gospel. He talks about prayer, works of charity, and fasting. He also talks about your public appearance, your hope and confidence, and even the most private places of your home and heart. Underneath all these things, Jesus in tonight’s Gospel is telling you about your relationship to God. Jesus wants you to know that God is “your Father.” Six times in twelve verses Jesus tells you that God is “your Father.” Dear Christian friends, The problem with fathers is that we all have one. Even if your father is no longer present in your daily life, you still have a father. Your father’s absence only helps to prove my point: the problem with fathers is that we all have one. Your relationship with your father is usually more about him than it is about you. If you… • have no father, it is probably because he left you—either by death or by some less noble escape route. Departing fathers leave dad-shaped holes behind. • resent your father, it is probably because his sins and weaknesses have set the course for your relationship together. Maybe too heavy with the hand; maybe not heavy enough with the hugs. • feel disappointed by your father, he might have earned it. • must accommodate your father, forgive your father, forget things about your father, tolerate him and sometimes look the other way, then you already know how completely human—how full of sin and death—your father is (or was). Perhaps we could even say that, for the most part, our fathers might be more responsible for our relationships to them than we are. Our wrongdoing certainly places us at odds with our fathers, but their wrongdoing makes the situation worse! Their sin adds to ours, and the gulf deepens. That is the problem with fathers: not that we all are one, but that we all have one. To a man, not one single father—not your father, not my father, not my sons’ father—not one single father comes anywhere near “your Father who is in heaven.” Yet our fathers here on earth are probably the first people who come to mind when we hear the word “father”—even when God says that Word in His Scriptures. Tragically, our earthly fathers can easily shape and mold the view of we have of “our Father who art in heaven.” All earthly experiences must be set aside when reading and hearing God’s Word. Stated another way, we must each ignore and forget everything about our earthly fathers when Jesus speaks to us about our heavenly Father. In the same way that you… • believe in the resurrection of the body, even though you have never seen anybody rise from the dead; • believe in the creation, even though you were not present at the creation; • believe you are filled with God’s Holy Spirit, even though you cannot feel Him kicking around inside you like a squirrel in a sack; in the same way, you must also believe that your heavenly Father… • feels no anger toward you, even though your dad has a quick temper; • keeps you ever-present in His eye and upon His mind, even though your earthly father is a scatterbrain; • will do only the best for you and for your eternal life, even though dad acts selfishly now and then; • speaks His Words exclusively for your sake and for your hearing, even though your earthly father mutters and talks to himself while at his desk; • shall never hold anything against you, no matter what you have done, even though your dad might struggle to trust you or forgive you. Simply stated, there may be superdads and there may be deadbeats and there are countless men in between those two extremes. “Your Father who is in heaven” FAR EXCEEDS THEM ALL! That is good news for you, because your heavenly Father wants you to talk to Him. As you heard Jesus say to you, smack-dab in the middle of tonight’s Gospel, “Pray to your Father.” When Jesus says to you, “Pray to your Father,” He wants you to know that… • you never need to wait for a better time to talk to Him. You do not need to wait until your heavenly Father is in a better mood, or home from work, or sober. • your relationship to your heavenly Father is a lot like your relationship to your earthly father in this sense: YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS MORE ABOUT HIM THAN IT IS ABOUT YOU. Stated another way, o your heavenly Father is kindly disposed toward you (Romans 2:4), overflowing with compassion and mercy (Psalm 145:8), o your heavenly Father keeps no record of the wrong you have done (1 Corinthians 13:5) because Jesus bore all your wrong to death on the cross. o your heavenly Father is never unwilling to hear your prayers because He is delighted with you. You have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30) and your God likes what He hears from you! If we dare to say that, for the most part, our earthly fathers might be more responsible for our relationships to them than we are, how much more can we say the same thing—with thankfulness and joy—concerning our “Father who is in heaven”! God your Father has made Himself fully responsible for your relationship to Him: He has saved you, He has gathered you in; He has cleansed and forgiven you; He has sworn on an oath to be your God forever; He has opened His ear, that He might hear every word you say and pray to Him. Jesus says to you tonight, “Pray to your Father.” Tonight is the first of many Lenten Wednesdays. Each Wednesday in Lent we will add more explanation to, and gain further nourishment from, these Words, “Pray to your Father.” _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
