The 10^th Sunday After Trinity

SERMON

Text: Matthew 6:13c

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

In Christ Jesus, through Whom our world was created and by Whom it is now preserved, dear fellow redeemed:

The topic of education has certainly been in the news lately. Both of the major party candidates for President have placed a priority on educational issues in their campaigns. The Lake Crystal-Welcome-Memorial school-bond issue has received coverage in The Free Press. Preparations for District 77 area schools are in full swing, as both teachers and students prepare to head back to class. Here at Immanuel we too look forward to the beginning of another school year in our Immanuel Lutheran School. This will be our 135^th year of providing a Christ-centered grade school education and our 41^st year of providing a Christ-center high school education for our membership and others who understand this vital need. This morning we will install Mr. Dan Roehl as our new Social Studies teacher for the upper grades. In addition, we continue registration after our service this morning for another year of Sunday School. Today as well brings to a conclusion our summer study of the Lord’s Prayer with a consideration of its doxology. It seems only proper then to consider the doxology within the context of the ongoing, pressing need for Christian education within our Christian School, our Sunday School, and our Christian homes. THE DOXOLOGY OF THE LORD’S PRAYER EXPRESSES OUR CONVICTION that God governs our world; that God guides our lives; and that God answers our prayers!

I.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray “for Yours is the kingdom,” He was instructing them in the basics of Social Studies, for He was revealing that God governs our world! This is a concept that, while true for God has revealed it, remains unknown to non-Christian educators and education. Because of the separation of church and state, public schools cannot introduce and should not introduce a study of God’s role in history, although they certainly can discuss the role religion has played within the history of mankind. Unfortunately, because God is not mentioned in connection with the affairs of this world within public education, the impression is given to millions of students that God plays no role in our world or its history whatsoever. Thus God is relegated to a back-seat roll of possibly providing comfort and help to private individuals. The thought that God governs our world has become a foreign concept, viewed as unworthy of consideration by secular historians and doubted even by many Christians!

I recall studying Historiography (the history of history) at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire while pursuing a Masters Degree in History. I waited for the entire semester to discuss the role of God within the study of history, only to be greeted by silence from my professor when I brought up the topic in our final class. Another student, who happened to be an ELCA pastor, dismissed the topic, saying that when you are talking about God you are not talking history, but philosophy. When I later discussed the issue privately with my advisor, he commented that most of the professors in the department had opinions on the subject, but that none would voice them publicly.

My dear friends, let us not fail to realize that history is indeed “HIS” story. Our God both created and governs this world. Consider the example God made of Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest of the ancient Chaldean kings. When Nebuchadnezzar refused to acknowledge God as the source of his power and success, but rather glorified himself, God caused him to go insane for a time. It was only after Nebuchadnezzar came to recognize and confess that “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses,” (Daniel 4:25) that he was restored to his throne. St. Paul was telling the truth in his sermon in Athens when he stated: “(God) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on al the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:26-28). History is not just a collection of dates and names, which merely describe the exploits of famous men and women. No, history—all of the Social Studies—is a study of God control and guidance of human affairs. You can learn that Martin Luther lived in the 16^th century and began what became known as the Protestant Reformation in any classroom. It is only within a Christian classroom, however, that you are taught to understand that God moved Martin Luther to use his time and talents, so that God might once again restore the gospel to the church and thereby renew the hope of salvation for millions of souls. Christian education recognizes and proclaims God’s role in the history of this world, even as it proclaims the truth that God will one day end the history of this world. This is the approach to history that Mr. Roehl will use in his classroom, and this is what will distinguish his teaching from that which goes on in the public classroom. One might say that Mr. Roehl, along with Paul Harvey, is free to tell “the rest of the story!”

Recognizing that God governs our world calls for a living faith and instills a vital confidence within the hearts of believers. It is, after all, true that “(God) raised (Christ) from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which it to come…(Yes, God) put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:20-23). Truly, THE DOXOLOGY OF THE LORD’S PRAYER EXPRESSES OUR CONVICTION that God governs our world,

II.

…and that God guides our lives! When we pray not only “for Yours is the kingdom,” but also “for Yours is…the power,” and when we recognize St. Paul’s statement to be true that Jesus is the “head over all things to the church,” we are confessing that God guides our lives! This is a truth, of course, which Scripture clearly identifies, and which should bring us the greatest of comfort and result in lives lived with confidence! The Psalmist David assures us concerning God and His great interest in our personal lives, “Your (God’s) eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me. When as yet there were none of them” (Psalm 139:16). In other words God has a plan for each of us. The exciting challenge of our lives as His children is to discover and fulfill that plan. St. Paul indicates the very same thing when in Ephesians he writes, “We are His (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (2:10). Every morning that we awake as God’s special spiritual creation, He has prepared good works for us to do! How exciting to begin each day with a special prayer that God would guide us and direct us so that we might accomplish His gracious good will in our lives and for other lives! Keep David’s very familiar statement in mind, “Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5). We are not out in a mindless universe on our own without any divine help or guidance—what a barren outlook and how unfortunate! Christian education provides the basis for a meaningful existence, filled with purpose and providing us with God’s ultimate and gracious good goal of eternal life in heaven!

Permit me to provide you with one personal example—the case of our new Social Studies teacher, Mr. Dan Roehl. The Roehl name is familiar to many of you, for Dan’s father, Ron, was once a called servant of Immanuel, having helped us establish the high school department of our Immanuel Lutheran School. Dan grew up on the campus of Immanuel Lutheran College in Eau Claire. He received a Christian grade school education at Messiah of Eau Claire. He received a Christian high school education at Immanuel High School in Eau Claire. I was privileged to be one of his instructors. When Dan graduated from high school, he had a desire to prepare himself to teach in a Christian school, but he felt his gifts lay in working with older students rather than younger ones. He decided to pursue a degree in Secondary Education at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, rather than a degree in Elementary Education at our Immanuel Lutheran College, leaving his future in the hands of the Lord. After teaching in public schools for a number of years now, the Lord has provided Mr. Roehl an opportunity to enter the Christian teaching ministry in our midst. David’s words have once again proven themselves true, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). Truly, THE DOXOLOGY OF THE LORD’S PRAYER EXPRESSES OUR CONVICTION that God guides our lives…

III.

…and finally, that God answers our prayers! When we pray “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen,” we are expressing both adoration and confident expectation! When we turn to our heavenly Father and our dear Savior in prayer, we acknowledge our dependence upon Them and in so doing we glorify them! We are recognizing them as “our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46:1). We are recognizing them as the Givers of “every good and perfect gift” (James 1:17). We are doing what God has urged us to do—“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6)—and punctuating our faith and confidence in our gracious God by saying, “Amen”—that is, “Yes, indeed, it shall be so!”

One of the glories of Christian education, yes, indeed, one of the privileges Mr. Roehl and our other teachers have is to instruct our students in and participate with them in prayers to our Savior God. Prayer is ultimately communication. Good instruction in communication is recognized by all as vital to the educational process, yet it is only within Christian education that the most vital of all communication—communication with our Creator and Redeemer God, can be both taught and practiced. Let us recognize, dear friends, the vital role Christian education plays in our midst and what vital gifts it bestows upon our children.

In conclusion, may we never allow our prayer life to degenerate into a mindless repetition of words, nor a last ditch attempt to find a resolution of our problems, nor a superstitious attempt to influence the power above to change our luck. No, let us pray with confidence this Lord’s Prayer and indeed all of our prayers, for our Lord Jesus wants us to pray, and has promised to answer our prayers. “Prayer is,” after all as the hymnwriter James Montgomery once expressed, “the Christian’s vital breath, the Christian’s native air” (The Lutheran Hymnal, 454:5). As God’s children we will want to communicate with our heavenly Father. He, Who has redeemed us by the blood of His dear Son and Who has sanctified us by the power and through the indwelling of His Spirit, promises both to listen and respond to us. St. Paul reminds us of the blessed results of prayers offered with confidence and conviction, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting