 Thy Will Be Done9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 Jesus’ disciples came to him on at least two occasions and asked him to teach them to pray. The result was what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. It is recorded in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. From these passages we understand that the Lord’s Prayer is both a set prayer and a pattern for our personal prayers. (In Luke 11 Jesus said “When you pray say…” implying a set prayer and in Matthew 6 he says “Pray then like this…” implying a pattern for prayer. Both are good and Luther encourages us to pray the Lord’s Prayer in both manners. Recently, as we approach the Synodical Convention (July 18-24th), I have found myself praying the 2nd Petition, “Thy will be done” frequently. For example, as we were conducting the elections for Synodical President in which each congregation had a lay and pastoral vote, I prayed for God’s will to be done. I most certainly had my opinion as to who would be the better choice but I didn’t pray for one candidate or the other to be elected. I prayed that God would guide his church and that his will would be done in the presidential election. President Harrison won the election on the third ballot gaining 50.1% of the vote! That is a very tight race! We thank God for President Harrison, his past service to the church, and his continued service. But is this God’s will? An interesting question. I have no reason to believe it is not and I believe, until it is shown to be otherwise, we ought to proceed as if it is. This was a valid election according to our agreed upon way of life together (constitution and bylaws). It is right for us, if we did not vote for him, to set aside our will and cede to the majority. We trust that God, by the guidance of his Holy Spirit is working through the church to work his good will for the church and the world. This is a God pleasing way to live! It is also interesting to reflect on how Jesus prayed this petition in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is quite evident that Jesus wasn’t looking forward with desire for the cross. He would have had it pass by him if possible. Yet you know well what he prayed, “Not my will but yours be done.” Ever since that day we have taken this a model for living in trusting relationship with God our Father. There are so many things that we think are right and yet we never want to push our agenda. We always want to submit our agenda, our will, to that of our gracious heavenly Father’s. The challenge is of course our sinful human nature. The Scripture teaches us, and we know from experience, that it is opposed to and set against God and his will for us. It constantly tempts us and leads us to fulfill the passions of our flesh (see Galatians 5:16ff) rather than the will of God. But thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ! When by faith we receive Jesus, we are rescued from our sinful nature. In baptism our sinful nature is drowned and buried with Christ and a new person rises in Christ. This new person in Christ is led by the Holy Spirit into the fruit of the Spirit and doing God’s will. As Paul writes, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” God then works that his will might be done in our lives and through us in the world. Luther reminds us in his explanation of the 2nd Petition, What does this mean? The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also. How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. Many more elections and issues will come before our convention. It is good and right that we study them and have an opinion. It is good that we share how we believe the Spirit of God is leading us. We pray that God will work through his people and that collectively we will move ever closer to the goal, “Thy will be done.” Pray for our convention. Pray for our delegates. Pray for our elected and appointed leaders. District UpdateCongregational News · Pastor Steve Vera received and declined a call to Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Trumbull, CT. · Pastor Rick Vossler’s retirement service and dinner will be held on Sunday August 2nd. · Grace, Livingston has voted to close. A date has not yet been set. · Zion, Westwood has received and is working with their second call list. · Holy Cross, Bordentown has voted to withdraw from Synod. · Rev. Williams Machazek – Nueva Vida, Bloomfield has entered into a colloquy mentorship Events Convention Orientation and Preparation  The NJD delegation to the 69th Regular Convention of the LCMS met at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Westfield on June 27th from 9 am until 3:30 pm for orientation and preparation. Each Circuit of the NJD is able to send a lay and pastoral delegate to the convention. In addition, there is a delegate to represent the Commissioned Ministers and two delegates to represent the Board of Directors. The dates of the convention are July 18-23rd. The orientation portion focused on travel, accommodations, how the convention functions. The preparation portion focused on the business portions of the convention (Reports and Resolutions). Our pastoral delegates were each assigned a floor committee or two and reviewed the resolutions from those floor committees for the delegates. There is a lot of information for the delegates to master but at least the orientation and preparation helped them gain a solid foundation from which to work. The convention will be available via live stream at: https://www.lcms.org/convention/national/livestream Of special interest may be the Convention worship service on Saturday July 18th at 7:30 pm (Mountain Time – 3 hour difference). The NJD delegation is: Pastoral Delegate Lay Delegate Circuits 1&2 Anthony Giordano Todd Hergenhan Circuit 3 Jonathan Hodges Ryan Evanko Circuit 4 Luke Elowsky Boyd Bergman Circuits 5&6 David Small James Steimle Commissioned Laura Small NJD BOD Jon Dunbar Tom Jennings Initiative for Ministry Development and Strategic Plan Task Forces
At this time, it appears that most if not all of those congregations that desire to engage in Small Church Clarity or NJDU have done so. The process is still available for those congregations with new pastors or congregations that could not participate earlier upon request. Rather than participating with a cohort of congregations, though, the process will be done individually. For all those that have completed SCC or NJDU the Annual Planning Reunions will continue. Look forward to one of these reunions this fall (November?) sporting a new and enhanced design. The Strategic Plan Task Forces have been meeting and working on their goals. The Healthy Congregations Task Force and the Multi-culture Task Force have completed their first task of producing the content for a tri-fold that will present what ministry in their particular area will look like. The Healthy Workers Task Force is finishing up their content work. These products will be used to help us move forward with the work of our Strategic Plan. Conclusion Thy will be done is rightly a staple of our Christian prayers and lives. Yet we confess that it is something we struggle with each and every day of our lives. Therefore, we seek Christ’s forgiveness and strength and heed Paul’s words to walk in step with the Spirit that indeed God’s will might be done in our lives. The Lord be with you, President/Bishop Gewecke |