Do People Still Pray This Way?

Yesterday was the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. Below are the Collect of the Day and the first of the two prayers for praying after the distribution of the Holy Communion.

The Collect of the Day -- pg. 19 (TLH)

Almighty and merciful God, of whose only gift it comes that Thy faithful people do unto Thee true and laudable service, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may so faithfully serve Thee in this life that we fail not finally to attain Thy heavenly promises; through Jesus Thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

The Prayer Following the Distribution:

We give thanks to Thee, Almighty God, that Thou hast refreshed us through this salutary gift; and we beseech Thee that of Thy mercy Thou wouldst strengthen us through the same in faith toward Thee and in fervent love toward one another; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

How many congregations even use these prayers anymore? Of those who do, how many worshipers actually ponder the words that they are praying? Do people today realize the depth of these prayers? Do people understand the fullness of what is being taught by God through these prayers? Do people realize what is being confessed and embraced as true and holy and good?

In the Collect we prayed in acknowledgment that true and laudable service to God is a gift that He alone works in us. We confess that true worship is not something that we produce by our own wills or reason. We confess that the only reason that we dare even to pray and the only reason that we dare to believe that God hears us graciously and the only reason that we have hope of everlasting life and salvation is because of the promises that God Himself makes in connection with the merits of Jesus, His Son, our Lord.

In the post distribution prayer, one of two marvelous prayers that are provided, we prayed in acknowledgment of the fact that the Holy Communion is the reason for the divine service and that through this salutary (healthful) gift of God we have been refreshed in the blessings of God’s Holy Communion. Moreover, we prayed that this gift would continue to work in us what God promises, namely, that in His mercy He would strengthen us in faith toward Him and in fervent love toward one another.

This is truly an amazing prayer. Do people pay any attention to these magnificent words? As I reflect upon the years of my growing up, I remember this prayer being prayed many times. Yet I cannot remember a single time that the pastors actually taught this in the sermons. Not once! Their sermons taught the exact opposite. Their sermons taught how we must strive to be more faithful and how we must learn to be more loving to one another. But this magnificent prayer teaches us that this is what God works for us through this blessed Sacrament!

Is this not cause for true thanksgiving? Does this not cause us to understand why this is called the Holy Eucharist, that is, the Holy Thanksgiving?

God promises that we do not have to strive to be faithful, because He works this strengthening of faith for us in this blessed gift from heaven. God promises that we do not have to work to become more loving toward one another because this is what He works for us in this meal of unity and true faith. As He pours out to us His forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, we are united in the faith that He works in us and renews in us. As we hear Him calling us to eat that which makes us one with Him and therefore with one another and to drink that which is given for the remission of our sins, we are refreshed and renewed and strengthened in the faith by which salvation and everlasting life are bestowed to us and we are united in the love that is poured out to us with the Holy Spirit in Baptism and in the gracious giving of this heavenly banquet.

The following distribution hymn, the last two stanzas being translated from Luther, teach and confess this yet again:

“O Lord, We Praise Thee”

1. O Lord, we praise Thee, bless Thee, and adore Thee,
In thanksgiving bow before Thee.
Thou with Thy body and Thy blood didst nourish
Our weak souls that they may flouish:
O Lord, have mercy!
May Thy body, Lord, born of Mary,
That our sins and sorrows did carry,
And Thy blood for us plead
In all trial, fear, and need:
O Lord, have mercy!

2. Thy holy body into death was given,
Life to win for us in heaven.
No greater love than this to Thee could bind us;
May this feast thereof remind us!
O Lord, have mercy!
Lord, Thy kindness did so constrain Thee
That Thy blood should bless and sustain me.
All our debt Thou hast paid;
Peace with God once more is made:
O Lord, have mercy.

3. May God bestow on us His grace and favor
To please Him with our behavior
And live as brethren here in love and union
Nor repent this blest Communion!
O Lord, have mercy!
Let not Thy good Spirit forsake us;
Grant that heavenly-minded He make us;
Give Thy Church, Lord, to see
Days of peace and unity:
O Lord, have mercy!

† † †

Tough Life Reality

Life in this old world can be tough. This week has been a tough week for me. It has been a week filled with unexpected and difficult circumstances. Every week is tough for an arborist. Climbing trees, hauling heavy tree debris, grinding stumps, repairing equipment, all takes a toll on the body and often the bank account.

But this week the Lord seems to have thought that I needed some special tests to remind me of my dependency upon Him in all things. That is my guess anyway. He often does not provide any explanation for the things that He sends into my life, but I do know that in all things He works good toward me and that He uses all of the trying experiences in my life to call me to continual turning of my heart, mind, spirit, and life (often also called: repentance).

I have been working very hard the last few weeks, doing some very strenuous work, with many little challenges. Monday I completed an emergency tree removal for a lady who was concerned about the potential for property damage. It was a very large Bradford pear that was located between two houses. She also needed the stump and roots to be ground. It seems that the industry standard now is to grind a stump to 6-8 inches, but I grind much deeper in attempt to remove all of the primary stump and roots. Having finished grinding and cleaning the job site and loading a trailer load of logs, I set off to examine some trees and prepare some bids along the way home. I planned to finish cutting the logs to firewood size for a neighbor who needs the firewood to help her and her children save some heating expenses this winter.

However, my poor old pickup truck began to overheat and pump radiator fluid into the reservoir and then the street. I stopped, let it cool enough to open the radiator cap, and added water. But it was acting very strange. It kept over heating and it seemed that either the thermostat was stuck or that the water pump had quit. I ended up stranded in traffic hour one car length from a busy intersection. So I called the tow company. My cell phone kept cutting out, so the dispatcher misunderstood and sent the wrong truck, but we towed the pickup and trailer out of the way of the traffic into a parking lot. Then the driver called another driver with another truck. . . the process extended into the late evening.

I need my pickup, so I focused on getting it repaired. It took a couple of days to get it back from the shop and last night and today I am working to replace the hoses, since they are old.

But the next day, I cut the logs. I always wear my hard hat, with the face screen and hearing protectors. Yet somehow a small piece of wood became lodged in my right eye. I worked at flushing it with water for much of that evening, but it kept hurting and feeling like the debris was still in my eye. In the morning I went to the eye doctor. The good news was that I had managed to flush the debris from my eye. The bad news was that it did scratch the cornea. To prevent infection the doctor prescribed an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drop for 7 days.

This picture gives perspective to the size of the prescription. $ 62.62 !!! And that is for the generic brand. I’ve heard of medications that cost more than imagination allows, yet even this is outrageous.

The following pictures serve as a reminder of how difficult it is for a person to attempt to deal with issues affecting one’s own eyes.

Even taking these pictures was a challenge. Attempting to see debris in the eye was far more challenging.

I’ve had some other challenges this week as well, but the matter with the eye was by far the greatest. It brings to mind the admonition of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 7:3-5:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

As I mentioned above, in all things, and especially in the challenges and trials of this life, a continual call to be turned again to the Lord sounds forth. The Lord is continually calling to us to be turned again unto Him and His mercy and love and providence. If we are listening, we recognize His calling to us and we are turned again and again throughout our earthly lives. Then, we learn to give thanks in all things, even in the trials and tribulations, even giving thanks for these gifts from God, as we learn in the General Prayer of the Church (TLH pgs. 23-24). Every Sunday I marvel at this prayer. I find myself reflecting upon it throughout each week. It is truly a marvelous prayer.

So today I give thanks for the life that the Lord has given to me and for all the blessings that He brings into my life, including these many struggles that cause me to be turned again to Him, even sometimes with the simple question of “Why Lord?” That simple prayer is truly a wonderful prayer, if it leads one back to the Scriptures to hear the answers that God has provided even before we ask. The answers are recorded for us, if we are willing to hear them and receive them. Ultimately, they all lead back to the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that is the one answer that we most need to hear.

Striving for Goodness

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to try to be good? Have you noticed how hard it is to try to be faithful? Have you noticed how hard it is to try to believe?

There is a reason that striving for these things is so hard.

Luther’s explanation to the Introduction to the “Our Father” is truly a delightful help in this matter.

Our Father who art in heaven.

What does this mean?

God would by these words tenderly invite us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that we may with all boldness and confidence ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.


This explanation is truly in keeping with what our Lord Jesus wants us to learn as we pray this prayer. This explanation brings true delight to the person who hears what the Spirit says in this prayer.

God wants us to know ourselves as He knows us. He wants us to know ourselves as His dear children.

If this is how we know ourselves, what will we expect from our dear Father? What will our lives demonstrate in this relationship that our Father has brought into being for us?

When Daddy gives instructions to His dear little children, does He give them instructions that are difficult to understand and difficult to perform?

Even with our earthly fathers we do not experience this. Certainly some of us have had unloving and tyrannical fathers. Yet even such a father does not ask a little toddler to climb up a ladder to repair the roof on the house.

Particularly where the father is a loving and caring father, the children know themselves as beloved children. They look to Daddy for their every need in life, especially in times of trouble. For example, if a little child is being chased by a stray dog, the child does not have to strive to know what to do. The child simply takes off running towards Daddy, screaming for help. No child in such a situation would first wonder what must be done to win Daddy’s favor. Such a reaction is only the response held toward a stranger.

The Lord our God is perfect in every way and He loves us with the perfect love of our Father who art in heaven. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever present. There is nothing that He cannot do for us, nothing that we need that He does not know, and noplace where He is not present for us. His mercy and goodness toward us are without limit.

Even our unwillingness to trust Him is something that He has taken care of for us. Trusting Him is not something that we must strive to do. Such striving is the opposite of faith. Faith is trusting Him, and this He brings to life in us by the power of the Gospel.

When He says “I love you,” He makes this what we know by washing us with water that is filled with His Word and completely wraps us in the person of Jesus. With the white robe of Jesus covering us, we know that God looks upon us with favor. For Jesus is His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. When He says that He is with us always, He calls us home to be gathered with Him in His family, to hear His gracious promises and to share in His Holy Communion and to eat and drink at His Supper of forgiveness and life, where He is truly present for us in His body and blood.

Yet even hearing and receiving all this, still we imagine that we must strive to be good and to find a way to be the children that He has already declared us to be. Of course, this is the way of the older children, who think too much about their own abilities. The little ones do not worry about such things, but simply hear the voice of their loving God and take comfort in knowing that His voice is the voice of Love itself.

This is why Jesus tells us that if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven that we must do so as little children, converted again, turned from our own thoughts and efforts, to the blessed Word through which God comes to us and makes Himself truly known to us.

The sum of faith is in realizing that faith is not about us and what we do as God’s children. Faith is about God and what He does for us as His children. When this is what we hear from God, the obedience of faith is the easiest thing in the world. When this is what we hear from God, what can possibly prevent the faith that causes us to trust Him and to follow Him?