A Simple Way to Pray: The Apostles' Creed

 The Apostles' Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

      creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

      who was conceived by the Holy Spirit

      and born of the virgin Mary.

      He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

      was crucified, died, and was buried;

      he descended to hell.

      The third day he rose again from the dead.

      He ascended to heaven

      and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

      From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

      the holy catholic church,

      the communion of saints,

      the forgiveness of sins,

      the resurrection of the body,

      and the life everlasting. Amen.

     This is now the third and final post that looks at Martin Luther’s prayer advice to his barber. Luther was one of the key leaders of the Protestant Reformation of the early 1500s, and one of the leading theologians of all time.

     He was also a pastor who had a deep relationship with Christ, and wanted others to experience the same deep intimacy that God holds out to all people. Luther’s advice to his barber is to ground his prayer in the words of the Lord’s Prayer, first of all, then to move on to the Ten Commandments, and, finally, to The Creed.

    Prayer can start with the Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, or the Creed, but it finds real traction when the Holy Spirit steps in and prays through a person. Luther’s suggestions in this letter to his barber are to be seen as suggestions that open the door for the Spirit to step in and pray through you.
We’ve already looked at Luther’s teaching on the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. Luther’s final suggestion to his barber is that if he still feels drawn to prayer after praying through those first two texts that he turn his attention to The Creed as a springboard for prayer.

A Simple Way to Pray: The Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:3-17 (The Message)
“No other gods, only me.
No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am GOD, your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.
No using the name of GOD, your God, in curses or silly banter; GOD won’t put up with the irreverent use of his name.
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to GOD, your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days GOD made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore GOD blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.
Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.
No murder.
No adultery.
No stealing.
No lies about your neighbor.
No lusting after your neighbor’s house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Introduction

In the last post, I wrote about Martin Luther’s little essay, "A Simple Way to Pray." Martin Luther was a Catholic monk who became the leader of a movement of renewal and reformation that spawned the Protestant churches. He was a pastor and a theologian and all of his writings had the intent of helping other people experience a deep spiritual life. His essay, "A Simple Way to Pray," was written for his barber, who had asked him for practical instructions on prayer.

Luther encouraged his barber to take prayer seriously. In order to do so, he said his barber should clear himself of distractions. No cutting people’s hair with one hand while holding a prayer book in the other. Rather, a barber should cut hair when he is at work and give a separate time every morning and evening for a short and simple prayer. There is wisdom in this. As much as we can and
should make our whole lives an act of prayer, this life-prayer is sustained by regular periods of focused prayer.

Luther said that true prayer only happens when the heart is properly inclined to it. In other words, there is a communion of Spirit and flesh that takes place in prayer and we can’t short-cut it by removing the Spirit. That would not be real prayer. So we are to ask God to listen to our prayers and have faith that God does. That God listens to our prayers is not magic, it is not some power that we hold over God and we can order God around. It is God’s act of free grace that we respond to with humility and gratitude.

Luther told his barber that better than trying to sound all religious in his prayers was to simply respond to what the church affirms as God’s teaching. Luther gives three specific examples: 1) The Lord’s Prayer, which we looked at last time; 2) The Ten Commandments, which we will look at today; and, 3) the Creed, which we will look at next week.

Luther recommended the Lord’s Prayer as a starting point because it was the prayer taught by Jesus. Rather than merely repeating the Lord’s Prayer, Luther said that he would meditate on the Lord’s Prayer by repeating a phrase from the prayer and then adding his own prayer; then he would move on to the next phrase and add his own prayer, and so on. In this way, the form prayer Jesus taught became the foundation for personal prayer. The words of Scripture led Luther to reflect on them and to apply them in his own prayers by expanding them to include the people and events of his own life.