The Lord's Prayer
Lesson One
  1. Primary Resources
    1. The Lord's Prayer
      By: Martin Chemnitz
      Translated by: Georg Williams
      (CPH, 1999: St. Louis, MO) [ref. as "MC"]
    2. The Sermon on the Mount: The Church's First Statement of the Gospel
      By: David P. Scaer
      (CPH, 2000: St. Louis, MO) [ref. as "SM"]
    3. Discourses in Matthew: Jesus Teaches the Church
      By: David P. Scaer
      (CPH, 2004: St. Louis, MO) [ref. as "D"]
    4. The Book of Concord
      Translated and edited by: Theodore G. Tappert
      (Fortress Press, 1959: Phil. PA) [ref. as "Tappert"]
    5. The Book of Concord
      Edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert
      (Fortress Press, 2000: Minneapolis, Minnesota [ref. as "Kolb & Wengert"]
  2. General course plan
    1. Not a general study of "prayer".
    2. "A true and perfect prayer, of which the Lord's Prayer is the best example, responds to God with nothing which He has not already proclaimed in the gospel and given in the sacraments." (Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics, VIII: Law and Gospel and the Means of Grace, by David P. Scaer: The Luther Academy, 2008: St. Louis, MO, p. 181)
  3. Texts
    1. Mt. 6:5-15 (particularly 9-13).
    2. Lk. 11:1-13 (particularly 2-4)
  4. Scaer's "The Rubric on Prayer" (SM, 151ff)
    1. Discussion of Mt. 6:5-15.
    2. Has three parts.
      1. A warning.
      2. A prayer.
      3. A "saying on the necessity of forgiveness" (SM, 151)
    3. Condemns:
      1. Public display.
      2. Repetitious pagan prayers of Gentiles.
    4. Jesus then offers Lord's Prayer.
    5. He then explains necessity of forgiveness if to receive God's .
    6. "Whenever you pray" (6:5)
      1. Uses plural (GK: proseuch?sthe)
      2. Speaks not to issue re: public/corporate worship.
      3. Speaks to "public display of personal piety." (id)
      4. Also, points to continual life of prayer.
      5. i.e. Don't attract public attention in private prayer.
      6. What is important is that one praying "knows that God, who searches the hearts of men, will know what the prayer is about." (id)
    7. Mt. 6:6
      1. "Unexpectedly" (id) reference is to God "seeing" not "hearing" the one praying in secret.
      2. God "sees".
      3. Could be referring to God already knows and has heard before it is offered.
      4. At that moment, God is "looking upon the inward posture" of one praying (id).
      5. Mt. not ref. propriety of public worship.
      6. Mt. is ref. private devotion
        1. "you" plural in verse 5.
        2. "you" singular (Gk: su...proseuch?) in verse 6.
    8. Long prayers
      1. Not condemned for length.
      2. Condemned for their repetition (SM, 152)
      3. e.g. Jesus: Mt. 14:23.
      4. Mt. 26: 36-44.
        1. Same prayer three times.
        2. "Probable" that only first words preserved (id).
        3. Lk. 22:[41]-44.
      5. Lk. 24:53
        1. Note "continually" (NIV)
        2. (Gk: dia pantos)
        3. Scaer: "always".
      6. Unacceptable prayers of "Gentiles" or "pagans".
        1. Not only due to lengthy repetitions.
        2. Also due to "wrong goals" (SM, 153)
        3. Are filled "with requests for things" (id)
        4. God already knows our needs.
        5. Is. 65:24.
        6. Jer. 33:3.
        7. Mt. 6:8.
      7. Prayer of the Church
        1. Presupposes God already providing ordinary things of life.
        2. Should therefore "move on to the level of the higher righteousness." (id)
        3. He knows and is responding.
        4. Not "simply a divine omniscience" (id)
        5. Is "a fatherly care" (id).
      8. Lord's Prayer
        1. Follower not only left with warnings re:
          1. "ostentatious prayer" (id)
          2. "repetitive prayer" (id)
          3. "prayer excessively concerned about things" (id)
        2. He "is given a prayer on which he can rely and which he is to pray" (id)
        3. Not "an example of how to pray" (id) [cf Chemnitz: Lesson Two]
        4. But is "the prayer to be prayed" (id)
        5. Soon becomes regular part of liturgy.
        6. "The Lord's Prayer is intended for corporate worship, which is evidenced by the use of the words our, us, and we (6:9-13)" (D.225)
        7. "When this or any other prayer is offered outside of church worship, however, it is to be prayed in such a way that others are unaware of it." (id)
        8. Note the flow from corporate to personal.

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