When you pray

A Sermon preached at Pentecost VII 27 July 2025 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Hosea 1:2-10, Colossians 2:6-15, Luke 11:1-13

An offering of daily prayer was part of our preparation for our 160th anniversary. For 160 days, from 10 February until last Sunday, 20 July, inviting anyone and everyone who wanted to was invited to join in a simple daily prayer at 12 noon. Those of you who were here last week, will have heard that one of the guests, Jürgen Otto from the Catholic Church (Regionalleitung Wiesbaden/Taunus/Rheingau) was particularly impressed and made this a focus of his speech. The short service I prepared for us all during this time contains two verses from Psalm 84, the psalm that we said at last week’s service, a framework for intercessory prayer, and of course the Lord‘s Prayer, the one we heard Jesus teaching his disciples in this morning’s gospel reading. More than creeds and sacraments this is genuinely the one thing all Christians have in common, and I think the one prayer you can guarantee that everybody knows by heart. “When you pray, say…” is what Jesus commands his disciples. Wouldn’t it be nice if we kept all those other commandments as well!

But what is this prayer that Jesus teaches? You’ll notice that Luke’s version is a little shorter and not identical with the one we pray in worship. In fact, Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is the basis for the one we use in our services.

The first thing to note is that it is a communal prayer. Even when we pray alone at home, we still pray to our father, and the “you” when Jesus says “when you pray” is the plural you, so in German Sie or Ihr, in the American South Y’all, and all the petitions are plural too: we , us, our …. In its setting in Luke’s Gospel, as a direct consequence of a request from the disciples to be given a community prayer such as John the Baptist's community has, we could also call this "the Disciples' Prayer."  Being in community before God, sharing the same goals when we pray, is a major part of discipleship.

Secondly it is Jesus’ prayer but, like so much of our scripture, liturgy and beliefs, cannot be separated from his and our religion’s Jewish roots. There are similarities to parts of the Kaddish, a prayer that often closed synagogue services, and which begins with the words: “Exalted and sanctified be His great name” and includes the petition “May He establish His kingdom,” as well as prayers for “Ample sustenance and salvation, From the Father who is in heaven” and for “Healing, redemption, forgiveness, and atonement.” So, many of the themes of the Lord’s Prayer.

Thirdly, what do we pray for? It is much more than a checklist of specific wants and needs.

Father, hallowed be your name: This is both an expression of familiarity and relationship – God is our father, the source of all being – and of God’s authority and otherness. God is holy because of who God is.

Your kingdom come: I talked about the kingdom a couple of weeks ago in my July 6 sermon, when I said that the kingdom is both a present reality and a future promise, and that is what we pray for here too. That we live as if the kingdom were already here, and that we hope and pray that God’s good creation will be restored to its fullness and that evil and injustice be banished. Our action and our prayer are what will bring that about, in God’s time.

Give us each day our daily bread: This reminds us of our reliance on God for our daily needs and sustenance. And at the same time, it is a prayer that we will all receive what we need, note ‘us’ and ‘our’, and not ‘me’ and ‘my’, and certainly not a prayer for more than we need!

And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us: This reminds us to trust in the love and mercy of God. The call to also forgive those indebted to us is complementary, not a condition and is part of the active love of neighbor – and even enemy. that Jesus also commands! The apocryphal Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus (28:2) has a similar petition: “Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.” But Jesus reverses the order and removes the condition. God’s love and mercy are not conditional on our behavior.

And do not bring us to the time of trial: This is a prayer for strength in the face of temptation. Temptation cannot be avoided, even Jesus was tempted! This is a prayer for spiritual strength to be able to resist that temptation.

That is “what to pray.” The short parables that follow are intended to explain “how to pray” and may seem a little odd (nighttime awakenings, snakes, scorpions ..). The first one, about waking up a friend at midnight, can only really be understood if we know the background and meaning of hospitality in the Middle East both then and now. To give hospitality, to provide a guest, even an unexpected one with food and water was (and still is) an absolute duty. It overrides other sensibilities like waking up the neighbor and all his family, who would probably have been sleeping in one room. Our translation calls the behavior of the one seeking help “persistence” but shamelessness would be a better rendering, even holy boldness! And we should note that the person in the parable is shameless or bold not because of one’s own need, but because of the need of another!

Jesus encourages boldness and trust in prayer. We should never be ashamed to pray to God, we should never worry about what we ask, and never to assume that it is too much. God’s answer or response might however not be something that God does directly, but us being strengthened through the spirit and empowered to do those things we think are so necessary and vital that we pray for them, and that we pray for them together. God is ready and waiting to respond to us. All we need to do is ask, search and knock.

These are not blank check promises that God will give us anything we want but instead promises that we will be given what we need. The reference in the final verse to the Holy Spirit that will be given to those who ask God, tells us that God is always willing to give spiritual aid, support and succor to those who seek it. Jesus encourages us to be active in our relationship with God, always reaching out to God in prayer.

So even if our 160 days of prayer is now over, I still encourage us all to set apart a time for prayer each day: ask for what you and the world needs, seek and search for guidance, and knock on the door of God’s kingdom, a door that is always open.

Amen.