Teaching Prayer: A Sermon on Luke 11

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon today is entitled Teaching Prayer: From Childhood Faith to the Spirit’s Gift in Christ, and my focus is Luke 11:1-13. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are standing within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Today, we’ll explore how prayer shapes us—from childhood beginnings, through Christ’s instruction, to Luther’s enduring wisdom. If you have ever tried to teach a child how to pray, you know how tedious and joyful a task it is. Whether the child is your son or daughter, grandchild or a boy or girl in your Sunday school or Vacation Bible School class, teaching The Lord’s Prayer, Luther’s Morning Prayer or meal prayers can take some time, but after the child has learned the prayer by heart, you know that it will never be forgotten.

Case in point. When I visit people bound to hospital, nursing home or personal beds, when all senses have left them, I am always surprised that frail bodies and minds can still recite by heart prayers learned decades earlier. The Lord’s Prayer never leaves them. That said, let me say that the three points of today’s sermon are (1) teaching children to pray; (2) Jesus teaching his disciples to pray; and (3) what Luther teaches us to pray.

First, teaching children how to pray. Our granddaughter, Emma, stayed with us two weeks when she was younger. We chose to have her pray with us when we recited evening prayer and said meal prayers. With the latter, Emma did fine adding a person for whom we should pray. Reciting evening prayer was another matter. I noticed that she was not saying anything when we spoke the psalms and other Bible passages out loud. After a couple of days, it dawned upon me. Eight-year-olds cannot read aloud like adults can. It is a bit intimidating to read aloud if you cannot pronounce all the words. However, she did speak the Lord’s Prayer and the Glory Be. So that was a good sign.

My point in having her pray with us was to exercise some spiritual modeling. I learned this from my mother and father. When we were young boys, there were some Sundays my dad had to work at J&L. My parents owned one car, and we lived 8 miles from our church. Every once in a while, we rode to church with one of our neighbors, but occasionally we could not make it to church. On those Sundays, my mother had us recite prayers and Scripture passages with her. During Lent, she led Friday devotionals.

In addition to that, my parents alternated praying with us before we went to sleep. They would get down on their knees next to us and together we prayed aloud the prayers they taught us. There were times my dad would turn in before us, and I recall that he would be on his knees praying before retiring. As he got older, he would sit in the living room and read the Bible. After knee surgery, he did this religiously.

When we became teenagers, Dad took us to monthly devotions at church with the men’s group. It was a fantastic way to meet other men who prayed publicly. I was impressed that Monaca’s school superintendent and many other men who worked as electricians, managers, salesmen and so on gathered for prayer and fellowship. I can still picture those memories as everyone, including teenage boys, wore suits or sport coats with ties, praying aloud before worship began.

Did my parents know the impact of their spiritual modeling? Do you know the long-lasting impact that teaching your children or grandchildren how to pray privately and publicly will have on them? Generally, we do. Specifically, we do not. Teaching anything to anyone may have unexpected results. One being, that teaching someone to pray – or anything else for that matter – may humble the teacher.

Imagine being Henry Mancini’s piano teacher, Einstein’s physics professor, Pavarotti’s voice coach. Imagine being the voice coach who heard Pavarotti's first notes—and didn’t know he’d be Pavarotti! Imagine how humble Joseph and Mary must have felt at some point as they taught Jesus how to pray. Scripture offers insight after they found their son in the Jerusalem Temple. My point is: If your most successful student’s accomplishments do not humble you, take a lesson from Jesus. My guess is that in his humanity, Jesus must have felt humble that his followers were asking him to teach them how to pray. Just as prayer begins in childhood, so too did Jesus’ journey with prayer begin—and it deepened profoundly as He taught His disciples. We move to my second point, Jesus teaching his disciples to pray.

In Luke-Acts, prayer is intimately associated with the Scriptures, common life, table fellowship and hospitality. Last week, in the Gospel passage on Martha and Mary, we heard the importance of this association. In Acts 2:42, we read that the first believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Later, in chapter 6, we are reminded that when the Church chose the first deacons to wait on tables, the Twelve said, “’We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen” and six others and “set them before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” So, we see that prayer is related to Devotion to the Word, common life, table fellowship and hospitality.

Earlier in chapter 3, Luke distinguished Jesus from John the Baptist and showed how the Lord received the Holy Spirit while he was praying in the Jordan River. Here again, in chapter 11, we find Jesus at prayer in the company of his disciples. Once he finishes, they ask him to teach them how to pray as John taught his disciples. Jesus’ followers needed a prayer suitable to their identity as the Lord’s disciples, and so, fittingly, they make this request by addressing Jesus as Lord, as did Martha in last week’s passage.

According to the prayer, they are to address God as Father for they share in the Lord’s divine life or sonship. Like Jesus, they too will receive the Holy Spirit, if they pray for it. In short, this passage distinguishes Jesus’ disciples from John’s, just as the baptism account in chapter three distinguished Jesus himself from John. Here, Jesus also reveals how those whom he had chosen are related to the Father, and what this relationship demands of them and what they can expect from it. In other words, this passage is not only about memorizing a prayer, but also about the life of Christians journeying to and living in the Kingdom.

The Lord’s prayer is for those who accept to follow Jesus on his journey to God. Recall at the end of chapter 9, how Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem and how several had more important duties and chose not to follow him. The disciples who followed Jesus recognized that it was necessary that he be with the Father and that they too press on in the Christian mission toward the Father. The Lord’s prayer is the prayer of those who received the promise of the Holy Spirit, verse 13 of today’s Gospel. As such, it is truly the Lord’s prayer and not merely the prayer of Jesus.

To understand that, we know that before his death, Jesus had only begun to act and teach, as the opening verse of Acts reveals. After his resurrection, when God made him Lord, he continued to act and teach – as Peter stated in Acts 2, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” And the Lord’s prayer is the prayer of those who were taught by the experience of the Risen Lord and know that they are God’s sons and daughters. That, folks, is Gospel.

Finally, my third point, Luther teaches us to pray. Learning how to pray has always been an interest of mine. As long as I can remember, I wanted to learn how to pray in order to have a deeper, fuller, richer relationship with God. Some points about prayer I have learned from my parents and pastors, others from professors and printed books, and still others from workshops, retreats and friends. I have come to know and appreciate prayer as the necessary foundation of our work as church and individuals. It is communal and personal. Martin Luther shared this knowledge and appreciation throughout his life.

He frequently wrote and spoke about prayer and emphasized that God commanded us to pray and that God promised to hear us. For that reason, our prayer should be frequent, bold, honest and forthright. Prayer’s starting place is not the human but rather God.

By now, you should have read Luther’s Small Catechism at least once in your life. If you have not noticed, it is a book of prayer. Luther’s structure moves us from the Law of the Commandments, through the Gospel of the Creed, and finally to the Lord’s Prayer, where grace flows freely from God to us.

In A Simple Way to Pray, Luther wrote that prayer should “be the first business of the morning and the last at night. Guard yourself carefully against those false, deluding ideas which tell you, ‘Wait a little while. I will pray in an hour; first I must attend to this or that.’ Such thoughts get you away from prayer into other affairs which so hold your attention and involve you that nothing comes of prayer for that day.”

In his Large Catechism, he advocated daily prayer. “From youth on we should form the habit of praying daily for our needs, whenever we are aware of anything that affects us or other people around us, such as … neighbors.” He continued by reminding us of God’s command to pray and promise to hear us before writing, “I would like to see people learn to pray properly and not act so crudely and coldly that they daily become more inept in praying. This is just what the devil wants.”

As I was preparing this and other sermons, I had also been driving to Pittsburgh to visit my cousin, Joan. Joan and I shared a birthday, three years apart. The last time I visited her she was living in Virginia, having retired from her FBI career. She returned to Pittsburgh, and shortly after that was diagnosed with cancer that metastasized in her brain. Joan was a woman of faith. She loved attending church and worshipping God. Her spirituality was deep, and she too believed the promises of the Lord’s Prayer.

I visited Joan while she was in a rehab facility, but this time I was visiting her at a hospice facility because all treatment, including physical therapy, had been discontinued. Joan spent her last weeks and days praying and waiting. Just waiting to die and to be received into Our Father’s arms. With that, a question emerged: What would Luther have to say to her?

Friends, prayer happens in the midst of darkness, the darkness of night and despair. Commenting on Genesis 15, the story of Abraham, whose descendants were to be as numerous as the stars in the night sky, Luther wrote these words: “The fact that Abraham is commanded to look at the stars is proof that this vision occurred at night, at a time when Abraham was sighing and lamenting. It is characteristic of sublime trials to occupy hearts when they are alone. For this reason, there is frequent mention in Holy Scripture of praying at night and in solitude. Affliction is the teacher of such praying. This because Abraham was occupied with these sad thoughts, he was unable to sleep. Therefore, he got up and prayed; but while he is praying and feeling such great agitation within himself, God appears to him and converses with him in a friendly manner.”

God spoke to Abraham in a friendly manner. Such insights come only through Luther’s personal prayer time. … Back to Joan. During her last days, I spoke to her several times about her situation. She was well aware of how her life would end. While she experienced the effects of brain cancer, she was confident about how the Lord Jesus would welcome her. She was quite hopeful about salvation and eternal life. She was also more concerned about her older sister’s welfare than her own. She prayed many moments throughout the day because prayer was not new to her. Without her lifetime of prayer, she would not have handled this situation with such hope. She prayed the Lord’s Prayer as we do, and in praying through darkness, as Joan did, we echo that very plea—thy kingdom come—holding fast to the promise that death is not the end.

My friends, having said all of this, I have a few questions for you. When was the last time you reflected on when you learned how to pray? When was the last time you got up in the middle of the night, agitated about something? Have you ever been given unwelcome news about someone you love, and could not sleep? Like Abraham, did you go outside and look at the dark sky? Did God speak to you in a friendly manner? Did you turn to God in prayer? Did you pray as Jesus taught?

Four hundred seventy-four years ago, Martin Luther gave you The Small Catechism for your spiritual benefit. If you have a copy, I encourage you to prayerfully meditate upon its words. If you are teaching your children or grandchildren how to pray, turn to it for assistance. If you are reading it as your spiritual companion, let Martin Luther and the Three Persons of the Trinity guide you deeply in your life of prayer, and may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.