Because Immanuel is with us, we can pray with boldness and confidence, that is, with the courage born of faith.
In his dogmatics, Thielicke treats prayer under the locus on the Holy Spirit, whom he sees as empowering speech with God in Christ. Following Luther’s lead that prayer is based on the command and promise of God, Thielicke says:
“Prayer is not action but reaction. It bases itself on the preceding Word of God which makes it possible.”[1]
The primary example of Thielicke’s preaching on prayer is his sermons on the Lord’s Prayer; preached before, during, and after the air raids in Stuttgart. Collected and published after the war, under the title Our Heavenly Father, these sermons focus on the universality of Jesus’ prayer as it encompassed all the circumstances and situations of life:
“The Lord’s Prayer is truly the prayer that spans the world: The world of everyday trifles and universal history, the world with its hours of joy and bottomless anguish, the world of citizens and soldiers, the world of monotonous routine and sudden terrible catastrophe, the world of carefree children and at the same time of problems that can shatter grown men.”[2]
For a considerable number of people, many of these sermons would be the last sermon they would hear as their deaths would soon come from the bombs which dropped down on their city. Thielicke makes poignant references as to how this was the case, and it certainly colored his proclamation with holy sobriety and evangelical urgency.
Each of the sermons in this wartime series are based on individual petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Although direct citations of Luther’s Small Catechism are rare, the imprint of the Reformer is indelible. In the initial sermon, based on the Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer and entitled “Our Father who art in Heaven,” Thielicke speaks directly into the anxiety and fear of his hearers in war-torn Germany answering the question: How does one pray in a world that seems fatherless?
“Man is walking through the dark forest of life in the gloom of night. Specters are lurking around him, and strange sounds disquiet him. The dark forest is full of dangers. Modern man calls this weird sense of threat and danger the anxiety of life, the fear of life itself. He would give a lot if there were someone to go along with him, someone who would put his hand on his shoulder and say to him, ‘Do not worry, I am with you. I know the pitfalls. I know the dangerous cliffs. I know where the robbers lie in ambush. I will get you safely through. As long as I am with you, nothing can hurt you.’ He would give a lot if this were so.”[3]
Contrary to all appearances, we are not left alone. God is Immanuel. He is with us in the darkness.
Contrary to all appearances, we are not left alone. God is Immanuel. He is with us in the darkness.
Because Immanuel is with us, we can pray with boldness and confidence, that is, with the courage born of faith. Prayer is not a “whistling in the dark” or a cry of despair into an empty and chaotic universe. Prayer is the voice of faith.
“God has always spoken first; long ago, before our little lives emerged from the deep darkness of our millennium-old chain of ancestors into the light of the world, Jesus Christ walked the earth, died and rose for us, ascended into Heaven, and brought us the Father. God is always there first. Therefore, our praying is always and only an answer to this simple fact. Take Bethlehem and Golgotha out of the world, and the cry of God will be silenced and praying becomes meaningless.”[4]
Next, in a sermon on “Hallowed be Thy Name,” Thielicke instructs the congregation in two requirements of prayer. First, we must know to whom we are speaking. Second, we must know who we ourselves are. We know ourselves to be sinners, “lost and condemned persons” who, through the blood of Christ, are given the rights of sons in the Father’s house. It is to Him we are praying. To pray the Lord’s Prayer rightly is to pray against yourself, Thielicke says. This petition is not about our becoming more holy but God’s name being hallowed in us.
Citing Luther’s description of the Christian as a man “who runs out of a dark house into the sunshine,” Thielicke describes Jesus as the One who enlightens us in our darkness. Hence, he concludes the sermon:
“Goodbye, you dark house where I once lived. Now I know why you were so dark. Now I know, because now I know the light.”[5]
Thielicke references the fact that the city center of Stuttgart had been destroyed by a bombing raid just before this sermon on the Second Petition was delivered. In his sermon, Thielicke does not flinch in the face of the disaster but speaks of God’s judgment and His grace. Citing Romans 1:24, Thielicke describes God’s wrath as our Lord giving the sinner up to his sin, but this “giving up” of the sinner is not God’s final word, for He sends His Son into the world to redeem sinners. This is the action of the King who establishes His Kingdom.
What is this kingdom? In response, Thielicke cites Luke 17:21 and declares:
“The Kingdom of God is where Jesus Christ is.”[6]
In the midst of misery, there is the Kingdom. It does not hover above the world as some ethereal or mystical realm but is here in the midst of a world held captive to sin and enshrouded with the gloom of grief.
“The greatest mysteries of God are always enacted from the depths.”[7]
God’s Kingdom is now hidden. It will be revealed. At the moment, it is hidden behind the “scaffolding,” but on the Last Day God will rip away the covering and we will see the edifice our Lord has built in all of its splendor and untarnished glory. We will finally know the Kingdom from its end. Thielicke concludes the sermon on this robustly doxological note:
“And while the angels are singing their praises because the Kingdom of God is in motion, it comes to us with power; to us who dwell beneath the angels’ praise. Therefore: ‘Look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’”[8]
The sermon on the Third Petition, based on Matthew 7:22, was the last sermon preached in the Church of the Hospitallers as it was destroyed by bombs shortly afterwards. Once again, Thielicke’s realism is readily apparent:
“This petition too is prayed before the dark backdrop of a world in which, notoriously, this will is not done.”[9]
We do not pray, “Thy will be done,” as agnostics who are uncertain as to what the will of God is or confuse it with fate. We pray this petition as beloved children of the Father who rules all things by His powerful love and His benevolent might:
“For whomsoever the will of God has lost its terror (and this it has for all who know the Father of Jesus Christ), for him the darkest night of the valley of life has lost its specters and it shines with light.”[10]
We pray this petition as beloved children of the Father who rules all things by His powerful love and His benevolent might.
Based on Matthew 7:7-11, the sermon on the Fourth Petition was preached in the parish house of Saint Matthew’s Church, as the other churches had been destroyed. Here, Thielicke comforts the beleaguered congregation with the reminder that the God we address as “Our Father” is not so spiritual as to belittle or ignore our need for “the little things” of life.
“For even the external form of the Christmas miracle is connected with a ‘little thing’ that the Lord took upon Himself in order to meet us in the world of ‘little things,’ namely the lack of hotel accommodations, the lack of shelter.”[11]
We pray for daily bread, reaching for the Father’s hand and not the pennies in His hand.
“In this lowliness lies the supreme greatness of God.”[12]
Thielicke draws out this paradox with Christmas (God in a crib) and the return of Christ in glory.
“Because He has given you the greatest thing, you can come with the smallest things.”[13]
Thielicke preached two sermons in this series on the Fifth Petition; one based on Hebrews 4:15 and the other on Matthew 18:21-27. In the first sermon, the focus is on the sympathy of the great High Priest, Jesus, for sinners as our gaze is directed to the One who paid a debt for us, a debt we cannot repay Him. In the second sermon, Thielicke engages the theme of guilt.
“Forgiveness, therefore, cannot mean to be chemically cleansed. Rather, it means my sin no longer separates me from God, that it can no longer be a chasm which cuts me off from the Father.”[14]
The life of the Christian echoes God’s forgiveness in Christ.
The sermon on the Sixth Petition, based on 1 Corinthians 10:13, was the first to be delivered after the Allied occupation of Stuttgart. Here, Thielicke deals with the dynamic of temptation as the invitation to trust something other than Christ crucified.[15] The sermon contrasts Nietzsche’s watchword, “live dangerously,” with the attentiveness which marks Christian existence. The believer is to live and pray in watchfulness of the dangers and threats that constantly challenge faith. It is from this perspective Thielicke can speak to the temptations that now arise with the changed circumstances of his congregants.
Thielicke’s sermon on the Seventh Petition, based on Matthew 4:1-11, is a testimony to how seriously he takes the reality of Satan, the evil one, and the power of the demonic to attack and destroy. This petition teaches us to pray with discernment, for the tempter is seductive with deceptive disguises and masks of piety. The sermon does not leave hearers in fear or doubt but points to Jesus who is the only Victor. He has power over the evil one.
The focus of his final sermon on the Conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer is based on Luke 17:20-24. Once again, Thielicke returns to the theme of God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom comes not in the heights but in the depths:
“The fact is God did send His Son through the back door of the world, through the stable of Bethlehem. He sent Him into the darkness of earth and let Him descend into the deepest pits of human suffering and death. So, if you want to see God, you do not lift your eyes to the cloud... rather, you must look down. God is always in the depths.”[16]
In Christ, God has established an eternal kingdom that will not pass away. Therefore, we ascribe all glory, honor, and dominion to Him.
“To praise God means to see things from the perspective of their end.”[17]
The Lord’s Prayer reveals our neediness and the Father’s generosity. Thielicke’s preaching on the Lord’s Prayer captures both of these aspects as he confronts our sin and shame, our cravings and untamed desires with God’s forgiveness in Christ and the confidence of a place within the Father’s house even as the world seems to be falling apart. Christians pray with boldness and confidence only because of Christ Jesus, who has already obtained our reconciliation with God for all time and eternity.
This series will conclude with Part Four: “Thielicke’s Preaching in the Face of Death.”
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[1] Helmut Thielicke. The Evangelical Faith, Vol. 3: The Holy Spirit, the Church, Eschatology, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982. 84. Thielicke’s systematic treatment of prayer is reflected in his sermons on prayer. This is particularly evidence as he asserts: “The Lord’s Prayer is the decisive introduction to prayer as it encompasses the whole span of possible situations out of which we pray” (see page 88). Other significant treatments of prayer by Thielicke are: “How to we Learn to Speak with God?” in How to Believe Again, trans. H. George Anderson. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972. 90-100. Also see, “Learning to Pray” (pages 144-149) and “Prayer: The Way to Peace” (pages 150-154) in Faith, the Great Adventure, trans. David L. Scheidt. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985.
[2] Helmut Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father: Sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, trans. John W. Dobestein. New York: Harper & Row, 1960.
[3] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 18.
[4] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 31-32.
[5] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 53-54.
[6] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 60.
[7] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 65.
[8] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 67.
[9] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 69.
[10] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 75.
[11] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 82.
[12] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 87.
[13] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 89.
[14] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 110.
[15] Temptation is a major theme in many of Thielicke’s sermons and devotional writings. Here, one might especially see: Between God and Satan. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958. This little book is a fine study of Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4:1-11. It is to be commended for reading as preachers prepare to preach on the First Sunday in Lent.
[16] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 151.
[17] Thielicke. Our Heavenly Father. 155.
