7th Sunday after Pentecost
27th July 2025 Wolf Kirchmeir
Prayer
Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19); Luke 11:1-13
May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be ever acceptable in your sight, O Lord.
Dear Friends in Christ,
“Teach us to pray”. That’s what the disciples asked, and Jesus gave them what we call the Lord’s Prayer. We use the longer version as recorded in Matthew. There are also several modern versions of it. They aren’t strict translations, but paraphrases. They are intended to make the intentions of the prayer easier to understand, so that we may pray it more mindfully.
But what exactly are we doing when we pray? What is prayer?
“Teach us to pray.” A simple request, wouldn’t you say? Just four words in English. And such a simple answer, just a few sentences. What’s the problem? Just repeat the words that Jesus gave the disciples, and problem solved, right?
No problem at all, until we start to think about it. Then we may see a puzzle. We know that merely repeating the words isn’t enough. The disciples were asking for more than the words.
I think it’s the context that points the way. Usually, Jesus went off by himself when he prayed. The disciples didn’t know how he prayed, but they clearly thought there was something worth learning. After all, the Jewish tradition is public prayer, out loud, in the temple or in the synagogue. So when Jesus went off to pray by himself once again, the disciples wondered what was going on.
And we should wonder, too.
So let’s start at the beginning: What is prayer? That looks like an easy question. So let’s try out a few ideas.
Is prayer asking for some blessing? If so, does that mean that you won’t be blessed if you don’t ask? But then what about the people who don’t ask, and receive the same blessings you enjoy? Or what about the ones who don’t ask and receive even more blessings than you do?
OK then, is prayer asking for some personal favour, something just for you? Doesn’t that sound as if you believe that you deserved more or better things than other people? That seems to go against Jesus saying that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
Well then, is prayer just talking to God? Moses talked to God a lot. Their talk was mostly about God’s plans for the Israelites. That sounds like a conference, not prayer.
Maybe we should ask a different question. What is prayer for?
We are supposed to engage in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. I think it’s fairly obvious that we should praise God and give thanks for all the blessings we enjoy.
But then, what’s prayer? Aren’t praise and thanksgiving forms of prayer?
I think you can see where I’m going with this. In any simple answer to what prayer is, there’s something missing. I have a few ideas, which I’ve cobbled together from what wiser heads have said. I’ll share some of them with you, and pray that my words will help us not only to understand better what we think prayer is, but will also help us to accept the guidance of the Spirit in our practice of prayer.
One of the things we learn as children is to pray for what we want. Here’s a story about little Johnny. You know, the kid who figures in all those jokes about sassy answers, or awkward questions, or mischievous pranks.
The family was staying at grandma’s house. It was bed time and Johnny was saying his prayers. “Bless Daddy and Mummy and Suzie. And bless Nana,” he said quietly. And then he shouted out loud, “And please send me the red bike from Smith’s hardware store.”
“You don’t have to yell,” his mother said. “God isn’t deaf!”
“Yes, but Nana is,” said Johnny.
Many people pray for a miracle. It seems that some people think of prayer as some kind of magic spell. The rule for magic spells is simple: You say the right words, and perform the right actions, in the right place, at the right time, and in the right order, and the magic happens. Make even one little mistake, or forget even one word of the spell, and the magic won’t work. But do it right, and God will do what you want.
To me, that looks like trying to control God. And if there’s one thing you can’t do, it’s to control God.
Little Johnny knew better. He may not have been able to say it, but he knew that God works his miracles by using whatever is handy. Usually that’s people. For Johnny, it was Nana. Johnny wanted God to help her decide to give him what he wanted.
For us, it’s usually us. When we ask God to do something, we’re asking for God to help us decide what to do and to do it. That’s a thought I will come back to.
Well then, if asking for what we want, and using the right words, is not what it’s about, then what is prayer about?
Look at Jesus’s example of prayer again. He lists a series of petitions. So at first glance it does look like praying means to ask God for what we want and need.
But the three first petitions focus on God. Listen.
Father, hallowed be your name. That sentence acknowledges God as the ruler of the universe.
Your kingdom come. That says that we know we have become exiles from God’s kingdom, and wish to return to it.
May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is how God’s kingdom will be re-established, and it explicitly states that it’s God’s will that matters, not ours.
So the first three petitions make us aware that it’s not what we want, but what God wants that counts. Prayer is not like a magic spell, we aren’t trying to control God. On the contrary, we are reminding ourselves that God is in control.
With the first three petitions we give up control to God. We align our desires with God’s desires for us.
Having aligned ourselves with God’s will, we ask for the essentials. Listen.
First, we ask for the means of bodily life: Give us each day our daily bread.
Second, we ask for the means of spiritual life: Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And third, we ask for protection against the dangers that surround us: And lead us not into temptation.
Now, we don’t really have to ask for these essentials. God will provide them. So why does Jesus recommend that we ask for them? What’s the point of asking for what we will receive anyhow?
Well, I’m reminded that when I was very young I was taught to ask politely for a snack, to say “Please”. And then of course to say “Thank you”. I knew that I would get the cookie or the glass of milk, but asking and giving thanks for it made some kind of sense. What kind of sense?
The sense of belonging, of being part of the family, of being loved.
I think that’s a clue. I think prayer is like asking for the snack we know we will get anyhow. I think prayer is about belonging. It expresses our desire to be a child of God. It acknowledges that we are unable to be good children without help. It asks for those changes in mind and heart that enable us to be part of God’s family.
Prayer asks for that transformation that we cannot accomplish on our own.
That transformation has real life consequences. When we pray for the sick, the poor, the victims of crime and oppression and natural disasters, we’re not reciting a magic spell. We’re asking that the helpers have the skills and the resources and the compassion needed to carry out their work. We’re also praying that we will have the insight and the will to do what we can to help in that work. To be part of God’s family is to care for our neighours and the world around us.
To put it bluntly: To pray for others means to pray that we will act to help them.
Prayer may be expressed in words, but it is an action. It’s something we do. It’s spiritual exercise.
Its purpose is to connect us to the Divine in ourselves and in each other.
Its purpose is to make us aware of the creative and sustaining power that brought this universe and us into being.
Its purpose is to transform our relationship to each other and to the world in which we live.
So how do we do this praying thing? Listen again to the prayer that Jesus taught:
First and foremost, we begin by focusing our attention on that divine power that we label the Creator.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Second, we open ourselves to the guidance of that divine wisdom that we label the Spirit.
Thy kingdom come.
Third, we ask that we may amend our lives to practice the love that we label the Christ.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Then we acknowledge the source of our life by asking for the bread that sustains it.
Give us this day our daily bread.
We ask for renewal by asking for forgiveness.
Forgive us our trespasses.
And we ask for a loving relationship with each other.
As we forgive those that trespass against us.
Finally, we ask that the troubles which we will meet will not overwhelm us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples covers the ground. It’s a model for us, not so much in the words, but in what those words imply, in what those words describe, in what those words say.
They imply that prayer connects us to the Creator.
They describe that connection as one of love.
They say that we are connected to each other by and through that love.
Let us praise God for the gift of life, and give thanks for his everlasting love. Amen.