CHAPEL - “THREE PRAYERS”  - OCT.  24, 2012

Before I begin I should like to thank Pastors McHan and Megorden for this invitation, the organist and the members of Eta Sigma Phi, the classics honorary, for their assistance. I thank you for coming and beg your indulgence that I depart from the usual pattern of text plus explication plus application for a recollection of three prayers which strongly influenced me- what those prayers meant initially and what they came to mean after further reflection.  If you happen to disembark from my train of thought, I urge you to think of a prayer which was meaningful in a special way in your life. 

The first prayer which I mention is the oldest prayer I can remember praying. It goes:

I Jesu Navn gar vi til bords

a spise. drikke pa ditt ord

Deg Gud til aere, oss til gavn’

Sa far vi mat in Jesu Navn. Amen

Yes, it is in Norwegian. But you must remember there was a time when it was widely held that God heard prayers in English but preferred Norwegian.  My parents were confirmed about a hundred tears ago and they grew up in homes where the usual language was Norwegian even though their parents were born in this country. Their church services and confirmation instruction were also in Norwegian. It is not surprising that they continued to use that language. As late as 1950 I heard my father in law preach in Norwegian – a favor to the old folks, I am embarrassed to admit that I am not competent in conversational Norwegian but  we have four grandchildren who know the language, thanks to their time at Skogfjorden, the Norwegian language village. When we were children, my younger siblings pestered me to tell them what the folks were talking about when they switched into Norwegian and I could usually do that. But a translation of that prayer is:

In Jesus’ name we go to the table

To eat and drink according to his word

To God the honor, to us the gain

So we have food in Jesus’ name. Amen 

Now when I was a boy, this meant we were going to eat. Boys. are always ready to eat and I was well fed. But later on I realized that this small prayer was in fact a  mighty statement of faith for it said that in this house,  in this family, we recognize the power and majesty of God. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” All that we have is a gift from God. We are stewards of that gift.  Even though we work hard to get it , we are still accounted managers of what we have been given to use it according to God’s will and purpose. 

The second prayer came from the concluding prayer of the church service in the red hymnal.  (that’s the hymnal after the black one and  before the green one) It reads:

“Bless we pray thee, the schools of the church, universities and  centers of research, all institutions of  learning and those who exercise the care of souls therein.”  

 I don’t know how many times I prayed this prayer in church before it dawned on me that we were talking about Concordia and we were talking about Concordia faculty and staff. The whole church was praying for the work we do here. It was a somber reminder of the gravity of our challenge.  It was also very encouraging. The phrase  ‘the care of souls therein’ does not rest easily these days. The old doctrine of   ‘in loco parentis’  (where  a teacher is regarded as standing in the place of a parent) is long gone and students now are counted fully adults at age18 by the Buckley amendment . They can sign contracts and take out loans. Yet I beg to claim that there exists a certain unspoken contract between teacher and student; that there are certain expectations on either side and a commitment to a common goal.  Students have a right to expect the teacher to be competent in the field, to be committed teaching and to evaluate student work fairly. Teachers have a right to expect the student to be committed to the class, to be prepared and to attend and participate. If nothing else, I note that what the students pay is called tuition and that word  derives from the Latin verb ‘tueor’ which means to look out for. 

The third prayer comes from the closing prayer in the old black hymnal that was used when I was a boy. We did not change hymnals very often in those days. I think we used the black hymnal for more than forty years. Nor was there much option as to liturgy. I think I was beyond college before I knew that you could start a service with any other hymn than ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ which we sang earlier. The closing prayer I remember goes:

”O Lord, we render unto Thee our heartfelt thanks that Thou hast taught us what Thou wouldst have us believe and do.  Help us, O God,,  by Thy Holy Spirit. for

 the sake of Jesus Christ, to keep Thy word in pure hearts that we may thereby be strengthened in faith, perfected in holiness and comforted  in life and  in death.    Amen. “

When I was a boy, this prayer meant that the church service was nearly over and that was good news. The boring sermon and the hymns with endless verses were done and we would soon be out of here. We would go home, have Mom’s Sunday dinner and then I would get into my old clothes, out the back door, on my bike and looking for the neighborhood ball game. 

Yet as I grew older, I gained a different view of that prayer. Particularly the first line, ‘we render unto Thee our heartfelt thanks that Thou hast taught us what Thou wouldst have us believe and do.” It became for me an incredibly strong statement of faith, the unshakeable belief that God would do in the future as God had done in the past two millennia-- protect and guide the church, that God would call faithful pastors to lead and guide us despite dealing with  fallen humanity,.  I find it very comforting and assuring.

So may God bless us all.

Amen.