Today is Rogate Sunday. It comes from the Latin verb rogare, which means “to ask” or “to pray.” Whereas the other Sundays in Easter get their Latin names from the introit, this Sunday gets its name from the theme of prayer that runs throughout today’s readings.

Look at the Old Testament reading. The Israelites had complained against the LORD and Moses that there was no food and water; they whined that they loathed the food He provided for them. This complaint was actually a type of prayer. A prayer of complaint and rebellion, of mockery and ungrateful hate, like a child having a terrible tantrum and purposefully dumping and destroying the food given to them. As a result, the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people and many died.

Recognizing their sin and who they had sinned against, they asked Moses to pray to the LORD on their behalf, that He would take away the serpents from them. Moses did and the LORD God answered his prayer and had him make a bronze serpent raised upon a pole to direct the eyes of the people to this symbol of their sin and the punishment that they deserved. This symbol also pointed them to their ultimate hope for salvation in the crucifixion of the Christ yet to come.

St. Paul in today’s Epistle writes to Timothy, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way”. Notice what St. Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t say pray only for your friends. He doesn’t say pray only for the rulers you agree with and like. He says to pray for all people. Pray for your enemies. Pray for those rulers who make life difficult for you. Pray for all people.

In our Gospel lesson on the night when He was to be betrayed, Jesus told His disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full”. Receive! Ask! Pray! Receive!

As Christians, we talk a lot about prayer, but what is it? Prayer, broadly stated is: communication between mankind and God. It is a speaking and replying to God in response to what God says first to us. There is a holy response to God by faith. It can be thanksgiving, praise, and asking for things physical and spiritual including repentance. It can be expressed in the form of music and song as we talked about last week or it can be spoken by our mouths or by our actions. Sometimes prayer is speaking to God about thoughts and feelings of one’s own heart and mind: asking for physical and spiritual needs and wants. But prayer as we heard from the epistle should include intercessions, that is prayers on behalf of others.

When it comes to praying: there is that good speaking to God, a righteous and God pleasing type of prayer which we often speak about. This is prayer which is the response of faith. But there is a bad kind of prayer which is not done in faith. This is the communication which unbelievers speak unto God even if they are not aware that they are doing it. The world essentially prays unto God by their words and actions of unbelief that “they don’t want or need Him”. By thumbing their nose at God and following the gods of their own making, they are communicating their mockery of their creator. This bad kind of prayer is the prayer that the children of Israel in their rebellion and complaining prayed unto God. When Christians fall into temptation and sin, they are praying this same kind of evil prayer unto the Lord.

What is the content of that prayer action or voice? The content of that unbelieving and sinful communication back unto the Lord in response to all He does? This evil prayer is a cursing of God. It is not a blessing of His name but cursing His name. In this prayer of unbelief, the world, the flesh, and you and I when we sin are saying to God: “Forget you! I don’t need you. I reject you and hate you and I hate your gifts that you have given, they aren’t enough for me…”

We are like bratty rebellious spoiled children cursing their parents for giving them life. But in doing this, we bring upon ourselves the curse which we deserve. Because of our sin, we have asked for the fiery serpents to come bite us, and the fiery sting of sin is death. And since all humanity has sinned all must die.

But we also deserve eternal damnation and death. Because of our great sin and unworthiness we need someone to pray to God on our behalf, even as we repent and cry out in prayer Lord have mercy!
God Himself anticipated that need, and established His Son, Jesus, the Christ, begotten before all worlds for this task of interceding for us. More perfect than Moses or Paul or any naturally begotten human, He came into human flesh in response and anticipation of our prayerful cry of repentance. He responded to His Father in the prayer of perfect obedience in fulfillment of the demands of the Law but also in the receiving of our punishment. God Himself lifted up Jesus upon the pole of the cross in the wilderness of our sinful world. He died in our stead and took our punishment so that anyone who has been bitten by sin and recognizes with sorrow, fear, and contrition that they should die, may look to the cross by faith and hope and be saved.

Saved because Jesus crucified and raised intercedes and prays for us even as He has already paid the price of our sin. The Father hears and He gives forgiveness, life, and peace for the sake of His Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

God now has spoken to us by His Son, Jesus Christ. He speaks by His Word to warn and call people back from their sin and the suffering brought about by their own sin but also when the world just hates Christians. He spoke to us in Holy Baptism when He took us “sin bitten heathen” and poured upon us the balm of Christ’s pure blood and righteousness removing the sign and mark of the curse and replacing it with the sign of the cross and His promise of life everlasting. His Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds, so that we have the ability to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. We are now declared His children and are given the privilege to speak to our heavenly Father in that right and proper and God pleasing way, by faith. In gratitude and thanksgiving, in need and suffering with the hope that we have in Him that we can pray in faith in His promises and knowing that He will hear this righteous prayer for the sake of Christ.

So proper prayer is the voice of faith. It’s the voice of faith that rests upon the promises of God’s Word. This prayer is the natural extension of the work of the Holy Spirit, who through the Word of God creates faith, a faith that asks God to make His will our own. And so we ask. We pray.

We pray, not because God must first be told of our needs and wishes. We pray as a response to His voice. He desires for us to pray to hear our voice in song and prayer and tells us: “Ask, and you will receive” and “…Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me”.

And so, God commands us to pray, because it is good for us. It confirms us in the faith which He has given. It empties our hearts and minds and directs us to Him to see His grace and mercy in action. “…this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us” (1 John 5:14). He hears us not because of our goodness, our godliness, or our merit and worthiness, but for the sake of Jesus Christ.

That doesn’t mean that we cannot nor should not try to be godly, good, and charitable in thought, word, and deed. In fact, that should be our prayer in gratitude for His grace: “Lord conform me to your image. Make me more like you in grace and love.” And by His Spirit working through His Word, His sacraments, He gives us that power to pray in righteousness to the glory of God in the loud speaking of our actions as Christians living out in our communities in this world by faith.

Fellow redeemed, right prayer is the voice of faith that rests upon the promises of God’s Word. It is the response of faith to His loving voice. Without receiving His voice by hearing His Word and receiving His presence in the sacraments, we cannot know pray rightly by voice or by action because it is only by His voice that our faith is built. Keep coming to where He is for you. Receive! Ask! Pray! And receive again! Remember we don’t pray in order to appease or manipulate God. We pray because, as His baptized children, He’s “Our Father,” the Father of Heaven and Earth. We are invited to call upon God, invoking His name, to His glory and praise as a witness for ourselves and this world, knowing that He will give us much more than we could ever ask for; that He will provide for us in a better way than we could ever know. So, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” in Jesus Christ. Amen!

Pr. Aaron Kangas