Sample of The Making of a Disciple
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The Making of a Disciple
Sermons for the Midweek
Advent Devotions
by the Rev. Frank Winter
III, Pastor of Peace with Christ Lutheran, Fort Collins, CO
1. ORATIO. Matthew 6:9-10
We reach back into the earlier centuries of the church’s life for the themes of our Midweek Advent Devotions this year. They will guide our thinking about the formation of a Christian character in us – a good Christmas present for our Lord. The themes are taken from the Latin phrase “Oratio, meditatio, tentatio faciunt theologum,” which means "Prayer, study and trial make a theologian.”
We will take a look at each of these components -- prayer, study, and trial (or testing) -- and learn for ourselves why the saying has been handed down from century to century. As we see their spiritual value and make them more a part of our Christian lives we surely will not all become professional theologians, but we will more readily understand the truths they contribute to The Making of a Disciple.
We will look at oratio, the life of prayer that the
Holy Spirit builds in us as we desire a close relationship with God. In turn, we will see that this encourages meditatio, the study of God's Word,
which strengthens faith and encourages the Christian life. Oratio and meditatio then work together to
help us get through, and learn from, tentatio,
the testings and trials of life. All
three combine to produce renovatio,
if we may add another Latin word, the renovation or changing of our lives that
is wrought by the Holy Spirit in the
making of a disciple. Tonight, oratio, the life of prayer.
The sun rose at exactly ___
this morning. Perhaps you were up to
see it. I was, but that's not how I
know it rose at that time. I got my
information from yesterday’s newspaper.
It probably got its information months ago on a table recording such
data. You see, scientists can predict
the exact moment of the sunrise a long time in advance. They can do this
because they know the precise timing of the earth’s rotation and its revolution
around the sun. As a result, we say,
“The sun's course is set.” It does not rise when it feels like it. Its risings
and its settings conform exactly to the will of him who is the Creator of the
universe. The sun rises as God determined it should rise. It follows his will.
The same thing is true of
the moon, the planets, and the stars – all of which has allowed NASA to carry out
intricate missions to the moon, flights of spacecraft to Mars, and manned
forays into space and back with the space shuttles. There is a wonderful pattern in the universe, a consistency which
displays a conformity to God’s will in almost every corner of God's
Creation -- except for one spot, the hearts of humankind. Among God’s human creatures you find a
strong rebellion against the will of God. Though created as the crowning
accomplishment of all that God made, though made in God’s holy image, it was
man, the creature given personality and freedom of choice, who decided to
disobey God and risk the consequences of sinful self-will.
The result of this is not
just a general truth that human beings suffer from a sinful nature,
and by nature are
turned from God instead of being in tune with God. The result is a specific truth that this is true of you
and of me. When we confess our
sins to God we often admit that “we are by nature sinful and unclean.” That’s not just a ritual phrase. It’s a truth that defines our being.
But the very fact that we are
ready to come here and say it over and over in anticipation of hearing Good
News from God is an indication that we have received from him a greater truth
that has redefined our being. John
wrote: “If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, so we may
have confidence before him.” In
mercy, his Son took on the condemnation that we deserve, and has given us instead
his gift of righteousness. We have been
born anew by the washing of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit. God’s will is no longer something to be
feared and rejected, but something to be desired and pursued. Through Christ Jesus we have become God’s
beloved children.
That’s why we have made it
our purpose on these Advent evenings to consider what it takes to pursue the
formation of a truly Christian character in us as disciples of Jesus. A good place to begin is to see the
spiritual blessings that Jesus was concerned about as he taught his disciples
to pray.
It is not happenstance that
the first three petitions are "Hallowed be Thy Name", "Thy
kingdom come", and "Thy will be done". They are like three spiritual steps to be repeated again and
again in the life of a disciple. In the
first step we pray that we may learn truly to let God be God and to glorify him
for all he is and does. The second asks
God to extend his rule, his kingdom, into our hearts and lives, so his Spirit
may build our faith and direct our lives.
The third, the practical evidence of the first two, tells him that
we want his will to be done in
everything, because we know it as a good and gracious will.
It is not hard to see that
all three of the petitions express the desire that our hearts be brought
in line with the Will of God in Christ Jesus.
They are three steps that are taken again and again in the worship and
the prayers of God's people – whether it be alone in our rooms or together in
God's House. We will take all three
together again tonight, but in this meditation we will focus on the third step
– and consider God's will and its place in our lives of worship and prayer.
In many of the prayers
lifted to God from this altar, and in many prayers spoken in your hearts and
homes, we use the phrase "if it is Your will". This is more than a kind of pious phrase it
seemed good to us to add. Xenephon, an
ancient Greek historian, wrote that Socrates taught his disciples simply to
pray for good things in general and to leave it to the gods to decide what
things ought to be granted. There is a
truth found in what that wise old pagan philosopher had to say – but that is
not why we do something similar in our prayer life. We take our cue from the example of our Lord Jesus. It is the way he prayed and the way
he taught his disciples to pray.
We formally pray "Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven" in the Lord's prayer and more
informally add "if it is Your will" to our ex corde prayers because
we know that prayer doesn't change things. We pray in this way because we know, instead, that it is God
who
changes things! We pray in this way
because we want our wills to be aligned with the Will of God – whatever that
means in terms of his answers to our prayers.
We leave decisions up to him. If
it is his will not to change the circumstances, then we want him to
change us so we may live endure or conquer the circumstances through the
love of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, who bore the cross for us.
In our prayers and worship, when we ask for things to be a certain way in this world, we make it conditional on God's will for us because we know that he knows what is best for all concerned. We know that we are not heard and answered by God because of who we are, or because of how often or how fervently we pray. If that were the case, then Jesus would surely have heard a YES in answer to his prayer in the Garden: “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me.” Similarly, St. Paul would have received a YES when he asked the Lord to remove the “thorn in the flesh” that was troubling him and, he felt, limiting his Gospel mission.
We make our requests known
to God and then happily tell him to do what he knows is best! We are firmly convinced that he loves us
with an everlasting, no-holds-barred love!
We see this in the Christmas celebration. God’s love for us took him to the point where his Son became one
of us, a human baby born of a human mother.
We have seen God's love in his determination to redeem and rescue us
from sin and death through the suffering of Jesus as God's atoning sacrifice on
the hill outside of Jerusalem. Our
Brother Jesus gave up his life so that you and I might enjoy the pleasure of
life in God’s family in a world without end.
So the only logical conclusion is:
If God loves us to that degree, how will he not also give to us all the
good things that we need to live with him and for him here and now?
We may ask in our prayers
for certain things to happen – but then leave the request, the thoughts, and
the situation itself in the hands of Jesus.
With our "if it is Your will" we place the whole bundle in
hands that healed the sick, hands that blessed loaves and fishes until all were
satisfied, hands that broke the bread and passed the cup of wine on Maundy
Thursday, hands through which spikes were driven to fasten him to the cross of
suffering. You tell me! – where better could we place our cares and our
concerns? Who better to care for our
children, to heal our parents, to guide our friends, to see us safely to our
destinations?
Such prayer is an act of
faith that directs our attention to our Father in heaven. He already knows our cares and concerns. Paul said that the created world groans in
its decay, and our souls groan under the weight of sin – waiting for our full
redemption. He assured us that God
already knows our situation – and that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with
sighs too deep for words. God already knows
– but it is through our prayers that we consciously put our confidence in God
and let him know that we are relying on him.
There is a portion of our
prayer life which is concerned about things that are private and sensitive, and
so we often whisper these prayers when we are by ourselves. But prayer is also meant to be a community's
expression of our shared reliance on God' s grace. God, who has met our deepest need in the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, has also formed us into Christ’s body, the Church. And so we join hearts and voices to
pray together for God’s hand of blessing to be held over us and those
around us – for blessings spiritual and physical. We are freed up even to suggest to God those things which we
think may benefit our friends, our neighbors, our enemies and ourselves
because, in the end, we place all matters into the hands of our Lord. We say, “If
it is Your will.” We leave it up to
the will of him who willingly chose the way of sacrifice and death so that we
would enjoy the glories of eternal life.
To the God of all order and
creation we confess our departures from his will and way, to our Redeemer in
heaven we give thanks for his free gift of forgiveness and life, and from his
Holy Spirit we request those things we think will benefit our lives in him –
all in firm reliance on the will of him whose love for us is eternal.
Our
movement through life toward being disciples of strong Christian character will
not be as consistent with God’s will as are the movements of the earth and the
moon, the planets and the stars. We
still carry around the old sinful nature also as Christians. Our self-will still asserts itself. But because we can pray “Forgive us our
trespasses” in Jesus’ name, we may also pray "Hallowed be Thy Name,"
"Thy kingdom come to us” and “Thy will be done in us and by us” – and know
that God’s Holy Spirit will work to have that happen.
And our Christmas celebration will underscore all of that for us once again!
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