Sermon - Advent Midweek 3 - 2018

Do you believe that prayer works or that it does anything? I will admit that I’ve had my fair share of doubts about whether prayer works or not. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t pray as much as I should. I should be spending far more time in prayer than what I currently do. 

But I don’t think I’d be alone in saying this: it’s hard to pray. It’s so much more tempting to spend time doing the things I’d be praying about than it is to take time out of my day and pray to God about them. It’s tempting to follow the old untrue phrase which says: “God helps those who help themselves.” No, actually God helps those who can’t help themselves, try as they might.

The reason prayer is so difficult for us is that when we pray, we are admitting that we’re too weak on our own, we’re not capable of accomplishing everything. We need help because we can’t do it. That’s hard for us to admit. But because it’s true, God commands us to pray. God promises to hear our prayers because He is our dear Father and He has adopted us to be His beloved children by placing His name upon us.

That’s why and how we pray. We pray because we are God’s Children and we have His name placed upon us. Like the prophet Daniel said when He prayed to God: “ O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” God hears our prayers because His name is upon us. 

This is no little thing either. Think about it, this is how the world works; if they share our name, then they take precedence. This is how countries work, if you’re a citizen of a country, if the name of that country is upon you, then you’re privileged above outsiders. If you’re a citizen of a state, if you’re an Iowan, you get privileges not given to out of state people. If you’re in a family, just because the name is given to you makes you special from others. 

Because God’s name is placed upon us, we have a special privilege given to us in that we can speak to our heavenly Father and He promises to hear us. We “have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” It matters that we are God’s children. It’s not like it is in the movies where an unbeliever decides to pray to God even though they don’t have faith, and yet God listens to them and answers their prayers. God doesn’t hear the prayers of unbelievers. “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, God listens to Him.” “The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.” God only hears our prayers because He has placed His name upon us and adopted us as His beloved children.

This name placing and adopting happened at your baptism. When God the Father washed you with water and placed His name on you, He adopted you to be His own beloved child. Traditionally a person’s first name was known as their Christian name or their Baptismal name, given to them not when they were born but when they were baptized. Symbolizing that God calls each person by name. 

But more significantly than that, God gives His name to those whom He baptizes. This is why Jesus teaches us to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Because in Baptism we receive a name far more important than our first name, we receive God’s name. In the Old Testament, God chose His people from among the world by declaring that the Israelites were His people. This is why Daniel calls upon the Lord by focusing on God’s name which is upon the Israelites. God hears the Israelites because they are His people. Today, in the New Testament era of the church, God chooses His people by placing His name upon them in baptism. This is why when we pray, we focus on God’s name which is upon us.

As such, this is why the Divine Service on Sunday begins with the invocation of God’s triune name. We aren’t gathering together on our own volition, by our own rights and authority. Instead, God gathers us together in the name of Jesus because His name allows us to be heard. When we pray, we should always pray in the name of Jesus, as He instructs us: “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.” In the small catechism in the section of daily prayers, we’re instructed to make the sign of the holy cross and speak God’s name. The reason God hears our prayers is because His name is upon us and we are His people. 

For this reason, our prayers are valuable and important, they’re heard by God the Father because He is also our Father. So when Jesus teaches us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, He begins it by identifying our relationship with God by addressing God as “Our Father.” God is our dear heavenly Father who hears us and answers our prayers. Jesus doesn’t lie; He told you the truth when He said “Ask, and it will be given to you.”

Again, consider how the world works. “Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?” Jesus knows that an earthly father loves his son, and when the son prays to the father, the father in turn gives good gifts to the son. When a son is hungry, a loving earthly father provides food for the boy. Fathers are hardwired to desire to provide for the family; this is why it’s such a wicked tragedy when a husband and father desserts his family and refuses to provide for them. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

So let’s ask again the question from the beginning: Do you believe that prayer works or that it does anything? I know it may be difficult to believe, but if we believe that God is our heavenly Father, which He is; and if we believe that God loves us and desires our good, which He does; then we should answer this question without hesitation: yes, prayer works and God hears me.

So don’t hesitate to pray. Be quick to remind yourself that you’re God’s child and He’s your Father. Be quick to cry out to God in prayer when you rejoice and when you mourn; in the big things and the little things. God hears you. Open your mouth and pray to Him in the morning and the evening and every hour in-between. So let us pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Our Father, who art in heaven...