The Second Sunday in Lent A
The Second Sunday in Lent A
Nicodemus just wants to make sense of it all. This is his humanity speaking. The mysteries of the faith confound human reason, drive us to seek understanding, and cause us to covet a resolution to our confusion. In this manner, understanding contends with faith and its mysteries. Understanding seeks resolution to the mysteries of faith while faith itself holds the mysteries, saying, “Trust me.” Such trust comes hard for the old sinner in us. Following the precedent set by Eve and Adam in their original sin, that old sinner in us continues to suspect God and distrust the mysteries of the faith, unless of course they can be explained, understood, or rationalized. And so, with Nicodemus, we blurt out, “How can these things be?” Confronted with the mysteries of the faith, mysteries like God’s election, the justification of the ungodly, the new life in Christ… the old sinner drives toward understanding them. But faith? Oh, faith finds its contentment as it seeks to stand under the authority of these mysteries, trusting in their reality even without explanation.
Prayers from one who’d seek to understand the mysteries rather than standing under the authority of the mysteries themselves…
Heavenly Father, your ways are not my ways, yet your ways benefit me by providing me with the gifts of Christ. Help me to live under his authority and enjoy the forgiveness of sins in him, his salvation, and his life. Father of mercy, hear my prayer.
Heavenly Father, your ways are not my ways, grant me such faith that I would leave the mysteries to themselves without explanation while letting your Word have its way with me. Father of mercy, hear my prayer.
Heavenly Father, your ways are not my ways, as your Word has its way with me, give me the comfort of my election in Christ, the confidence that even though I remain ungodly nonetheless I am justified in Christ, and the certainty that the new life in Christ is mine even as all evidence points to the contrary. Father of mercy, hear my prayer.
Heavenly Father, your ways are not my ways, as I live out the new life in Christ that is mine through faith, so too grant that I provide those works necessary for my neighbors’ well-being and for the provision of their daily bread. Father of mercy, hear my prayer.
Heavenly Father, your ways are not my ways, as I set my hands to those works useful to my neighbors, hold me in such faith that those very works do not become my righteousness. Father of mercy, hear my prayer.
Heavenly Father, your ways are not my ways, hold the Institute of Lutheran Theology in the mysteries of faith, keeping Jesus Christ at the center of its teaching. Father of mercy, hear my prayer.
Heavenly Father, your ways are not my ways, grant me to dwell in the mystery of faith that is my baptism into Christ. As I live out these days between the sacramental death of my going down beneath the water and the Word and that day when I return to the dust from which I came… in these days, grant me to wait with patience for the glory of the Lord to appear. Father of mercy, hear my prayer. Amen