Luke 11: 1-13
Last week we read the Lord’s Prayer from the Gospel of Matthew where the emphasis was on the petition for forgiveness. Today we read from the Gospel of Luke and see that this author stresses that prayer works. Ask and you will receive.
Jesus grounded his entire life and ministry in prayer. He often went away from the work and other people to pray. He got up early and stayed up late to talk with God. Prayer was part of his entire being. So it’s no surprise that the disciples asked him to teach them to pray. They saw how prayer gave him confidence and courage and energy for his ministry and they wanted what he had. They wanted to be the kind of person that prayer helped Jesus to be.
In response Jesus teaches them a simple prayer focused on everyday life issues. He doesn’t give them an elaborate ritual or fancy words. They are taught to ask for what they really needed. Here’s one way we could think about those needs:
God, we believe you are real and have power and influence in this world.
Make your good vision for life our reality.
Give us enough food.
Forgive us and help us to be forgiving of others.
Don’t let the hardships of life threaten us.
This is a practical prayer for people living under military occupation in a world where many folks were poor and hungry. It’s also a prayer that the ministry they were engaged in – helping people live in a more loving and forgiving community – would be successful.
Two thousand years after Jesus taught his disciples this simple prayer, those who call themselves disciples are still repeating it. We use it every Sunday. It’s familiar and loved. I wonder, though, if sometimes we say it just because we say it without believing in its power. It’s a helpful exercise for us to think about what this prayer means in contemporary times. Here’s one take on that:
God, you are the power of the universe that unites all life.
May we see goodness and holiness in our world.
May the way we live reflect the values we hold because of our faith.
Help us be sure everyone has food and the necessities of life.
May we forgive others and ourselves and heal divisions.
When we face hard choices, help us to choose wisely and for the common good.
You might want to think about what the words of this prayer mean to you. What are we really asking God to do and what result do we want to see in our lives when we pray it?
One of the benefits of the Protestant Reformation which birthed our two denominations is giving prayer into the hands of ordinary people. Prayers aren’t rituals or fancy words that only trained and ordained people can speak. They aren’t confined to holy buildings or religious occasions. Prayer, like Jesus taught, is a conversation with God, who listens to us all. Sometimes those official prayers are helpful and we find comfort in them. But the thoughts that come into your mind when you can’t sleep are also prayers. They also connect you to the loving heart of the universe that we call God. Even the spontaneous words we speak when things go wrong can be prayers. “This is the pits!” is a prayer. Or when things are beautiful and we say, “What an amazing sunset!” that also can be a prayer. Jesus prayed because he lived in constant connection with God. It can be our goal to live immersed in that kind of connection, and everyone can do it. God is always with us and whenever we remember that presence, we are living in prayer.
Luke stresses that prayer works. Jesus believed that what he asked for would happen. He taught his disciples to expect results when they prayed. What does that mean? I’ve spent my life preaching that prayer is effective and we should all do it. But we all know that sometimes what we pray for doesn’t happen, even if we’re persistent. People we love die of illnesses that aren’t cured or age that doesn’t go away. Russia invaded Ukraine and is killing thousands of people. Our country and the world is still full of racial injustice and political divisions. Children in our country and around the world go to bed hungry at night and get up to work instead of going to school. If prayer works, why over two thousand years haven’t we prayed a better world into existence? If there were a simple answer to that question, we’d be living in a different reality.
Jesus was convinced that prayer was worth the effort, that it helped him. The reality is that it didn’t keep him from being executed and it didn’t make his movement an overnight success. It did give him courage and hope. In the long run, it made a difference not only to the way he lived and the way he faced death, but to all of us – to the world.
Many folks have written that prayer isn’t about changing the world; it’s about changing us. That when we pray we approach life differently and that shift in our own attitudes can make a difference in the way we live and in what happens around us. Praying for a person we love can help us see good in their lives, even if it’s not exactly what we asked for. Praying for a person we don’t get along with can bring us patience and understanding which changes our relationship. Praying for a better world can give us the energy to get up and make changes. If enough people pray, we can find consensus for a new way forward.
Most of all prayer keeps God’s vision for the world front and center in our thinking. Prayer can keep us from being resigned to injustice or hardship. Not all the brokenness of the world is inevitable. It can be changed and God can work through us to accomplish that change. Holding a friend in prayer during a hard time keeps them in our hearts and helps us reach out with some help – a cup of coffee, a few minutes to listen, a card that says we care. We often say that our goal is to live like Jesus. Jesus prayed – alone and with others, at intentional prayer times and in the midst of doing other things. For Jesus prayer was his way of staying connected to God and to the vision of life that worked better for everyone. This prayer and all words of prayer can help us keep that connection for ourselves. It’s a way of holding the vision in hope and finding the courage to act on it in all the ordinary moments of our days. Eventually, it becomes who we are – people of faith and action. And in that way prayer changes us and through us it changes the world.