Copyright: © 1998 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.
Acts of Worship appeared as a series of
articles in Canada Lutheran, the magazine
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Canada. Richard Stetson is Assistant to the Bishop with responsibility for
worship.
The heart of prayer.
"I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart " The opening of Psalm 9 springs forth in thanksgiving and then flows into witness, exultation, song and praise. A speaker I heard recently called gratitude the heart of prayer. The psalm says gratitude is at the center of witness and praise as well.
St Paul counsels, "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6, italics added).
Jesus also offers us an example of thankfulness. Stories of feeding large crowds of hungry people with very little food on hand appear in all the gospels. Several of these tell us that Jesus gives thanks before breaking bread for distribution to all. John's gospel makes a particular point of this by noting that the Lord gave thanks when referring to this event further on in the sixth chapter.
In Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22, we learn that Jesus gave thanks to God before distributing the bread and cup at the Last Supper. Many Lutheran churches have rediscovered how appropriate it is to offer thanks to God at the Lord's Table. In this, we follow the example of Jesus and early Christian celebrations of the Lord's Supper which included a "Great Thanksgiving."
Current models pre-date the Roman Canon, a lengthy prayer with marked sacrificial elements. It was deleted in Martin Luther's German and Latin masses at the time of the Reformation.
The Great Thanksgiving and Jesus' own words prepare our hearts to receive the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection, his real presence in, with and under bread and wine. Forgiveness of sin; life and salvation--all coming to us via the means of grace--inspire joyful, thankful living in God's service. "I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation" (Psalm 111:1).