Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
July 27, 2025
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Pentecost 7C
On Prayer
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place and when He had finished one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord teach us to pray even as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When your pray say, Father! Your name be sanctified! Your kingdom come! Give us tomorrow’s bread each day! and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation.”
Holy Christian prayer does not stand on its own but is directly connected to the entire Christian faith: whose perfect expression is the Holy Communion we are celebrating at this time.
Indeed we should call Holy Communion the foundation of Christian prayer. We learn this in Philippians 4:6 where Saint Paul writes that we should offer our prayers and supplications “with Thanksgiving;” or in the original Biblical Greek: with Eucharist.
And so while the church offers many and varied prayers in Divine Service her most perfect and powerful prayer is the one she prays in connection with Holy Communion. At Christ Lutheran Church it is the litany where we pray for “all sorts and conditions of men,” (Thomas Cranmer). We supplicate for the good estate of the church and the world. We do all this in the midst of rehearsing the gospel of God in its purest form: which is “the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.” While offering our Lord our heartfelt thanksgiving, endless praise and pledging ourselves to be faithful to Him at all times, and in all places.
As stated above this prayer that we offer in faith, hope and love at each Holy Communion in the form of an antiphonal litany, is the most perfect and powerful prayer of all. You do not need to be a “prayer warrior” or learn any secret formulas. But hear Jesus who says, “My Father’s House will be called a House of Prayer for all nations.” This is the House. We are the people.
As regards this “Eucharstic Prayer” or “Consecration Prayer” as it is called, every Lutheran should be aware that Luther and his fellow Reformers had a serious objection to the Eucharstic Prayer as it was prayed in the middle ages. There were portions that contradicted Scripture’s chief teaching, namely this: that sinners are justified before God by grace alone, through faith alone, which means by Christ and His cross alone – which is also our “victory by which we overcome the world.” (1 John 5:4)
The Reformers were so intent regarding this outrage against the Christian Religion that Luther took a scalpel to the Eucharstic Prayer, and replaced it with the Lord’s prayer. The result? The latter was as brilliant as the former was hasty. But Lutheran Liturgy as we have it today is the Divine Service which has sustained us from our mother’s womb. (Ps. 22:9)
In it we follow the teaching of Saint Paul where he says that: all things are made holy by the Word of God and prayer. (1 Tim. 4:5). And so to this day we offer ordinary bread and wine to our God in faith, praise and thanksgiving; which He sanctifies and returns to us! not as bread and wine, but as the Flesh and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven’s very Bread of which our Lord says in John 6:51 “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Now as regards today’s gospel you may have noticed that the Lord’s Prayer we hear in Saint Luke, and the one we hear in St. Matthew (which is the more common) are noticeably different. Without going into any detail let us just say at this point that: it matters not at all. It is the same prayer, used for the same purpose in Luke as in Matthew.
But in any case note how perfectly the Lord’s Prayer expresses the church’s most ardent desire. In this prayer which is the source and fountainhead of all other prayers be they liturgical, personal, devotional or desperate.
First we call on God as “Father!” He is God; He is our Father; with whom nothing shall be impossible – even changing normal bread and wine into the Life-giving Flesh and Blood of Jesus “for us Christians” to receive into our dead flesh, so that we might be made alive forever. And what can be better than that?
Few people know what the word ‘hallowed” means. It means to be SANCTIFIED. Now God’s name is Holy in and of itself. But in this prayer the church sanctifies it as she recognizes, believes, confesses and proclaims it aloud. How holy is His name? So holy that when we hear it, or utter it with faith it sanctifies all that it touches. “It delivers from death and the devil and gives eternal life to all who believe.” What could be better than that. This is why we must always be most careful not to use it in any way that is less than reverent.
When we pray that God’s kingdom should come we are asking that the “administration” of our God should come to this sin-dead world: and the sooner the better. It is a prayer that the King who is Ruler over all kings should come and deliver us from their hands. Not only at the end of the age, but here and now in this Holy House, on this altar as a: foretaste of the feast to come.
When we pray for daily bread – we are actually asking that our God would give us tomorrow’s bread today. We are, as it were, anticipating the Sacrament we are about to receive; and the wedding feast of the Lamb that has no end, in which we will fully partake one day soon.
When we pray: “Forgive us our debts for we forgive our debtors,” we ask for divine strength to give up our sneering anger and arrogant hatred of others. Of all men to be sure but especially those who are closest to us: our fellow communicants. So that we can receive God’s gifts with a good conscience for our blessing and not “ for judgment or condemnation.”
When we pray: “Lead us not into temptation,” we ask our Omnipotent Father to use His supreme power to keep us safe from the devil the culture and the flesh’s addiction to sin, so that we might make a “pure offering” to our God free from the stain of sin. (Mal. 1:11)
And so today let us praise God “with one voice” for teaching us to pray, for giving us the very words to speak and for His Blessed Sacrament, the “medicine of immortality.” Amen.