Sunday 27th July 2025
Hosea 1: 2-10
Psalm 85 Pentecost 7 2025.
Colossians 2: 6-15 (16-19)
St. Luke 11: 1-13
“So I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given you.’” Luke 11: 9a
If you’ll forgive a personal example, years ago, one of my daughters was praying before she went to sleep. She was remembering her family and friends, that they would be kept safe and filled with the love of Jesus… It was a sweet prayer… At the same time, she was tired, and she wanted to crawl into bed and to go to sleep. So she concluded her prayer, saying, “and bless all my names…” Then she crawled into bed, and was soon asleep…
We all have different experiences and practices of prayer. Some of us might be like that little girl, wanting to remember our loved ones before sleep overtakes us… For others, prayer might be more of a struggle, especially if we are aiming for the discipline of a daily habit… For yet others, the need to pray is like our need to breathe oxygen; it is part of how we live, perhaps even without thinking…
This homily isn’t intended so much for people who have very rich prayer lives, and pray easily and very frequently. For the blessed folk who are like that in our congregation, you don’t need any help from this preacher! While praying, God the Holy Spirit intercedes for us before the throne of God, with sighs too deep for words (Romans 8: 26)…
Rather, I hope that this sermon is addressed more for the rest of us – that is, for those of us who sometimes struggle to pray, at least part of the time; or for those of us who suspect that our practices of prayer might need some refreshing; or, if there are folks here who don’t really pray at all apart from our liturgical prayers on Sunday morning, and need some support about how to start…
If we feel that our prayer lives could use some improvement, then we can be encouraged by the one of the 12 apostles themselves, who evidently felt that his prayer life could use some improvement; he goes to the Lord Jesus for guidance… Today’s gospel passage begins, “(Jesus) was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him,’Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples…”
Let’s go to the Source. What does the Lord Jesus teach us about prayer; and how can our prayer lives improve, in light of his teaching?…
What is prayer, anyway?… At its core, prayer is an expression of communication and fellowship. It’s an expression of communication and fellowship…. There are different
kinds of prayer – from the liturgical meditations in a monastic chapel to the scream from a hospital bed, and everything in between, but at its core, prayer is an expression of
communication and fellowship… Good friends spend at least some time talking and listening to one another…
Friendships thrive on communication… In the same way, our fellowship with God thrives when we enjoy times of prayer together… God wants us to bring our lives before him – and by the way, God has some points about our lives that he wants to share with us…
Don’t we want to pay attention to what the Living God of the universe has to communicate to each one of us?… Presumably, since it’s the Lord, we need to be paying attention, to see the direction to which we might be guided…
Here’s an example: Years ago, I was with someone who had just returned from a trip. They had had a wonderful time, and they wanted to tell me all about it – who they had seen, what they had learned, even the mistakes they had made along the way… I didn’t have to tell them, “you have an onerous duty to share what’s on your heart right now!…” She couldn’t be stopped! I simply interjected an odd comment or two – but I was enjoying her telling me, about what was in her heart at the time…
I wonder if our prayers are sometimes like that: We might be filled with what is in our heart at the moment; we might be having feelings like anxiety or frustration or gratitude; we might be wrestling through what we are confronted with in our world… But out it comes… And God is listening – and sometimes, God is trying to get a word in edgewise…
Especially as we mature, we might try speaking less, and listening more – just as we do with our friends around us in daily life. In healthy friendships, we want to know what is important to our friends…
The Lord Jesus had so many demands on his time… He hardly had time to eat, because of the crowds of people who wanted to see him (Mark 6: 31). His family was worried about him (Luke 8: 19)!… But we can notice that the Lord Jesus made it a priority to pray… The Lord Jesus frequently prayed early in the morning, before the demands of the day started (Mark 1: 35). That might be a useful model for many of us…
We know that our Lord was frustrated by examples of prayer that were showy (Matthew
- 1), or self-serving (John 8: 44), or mere empty rituals without sincere hearts (Matthew
- 7-8)… Whatever form of prayer we use, it’s not about how we look to others… Prayer isn’t about getting our own way… It’s about getting drawn into the priorities and goodness of the Living God…
So – prayer is an expression of fellowship and communication. For our fellowship with the Lord to grow, our prayer lives need to develop. Lastly, let’s notice that the Lord encourages us to persevere in prayer. The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge encourages us to persevere. Bring it to the Lord! He doesn’t want us to be carrying our burdens alone…
The roots of our Anglican tradition of Common Prayer are found in the prayers of the Benedictine monasteries and convents… I recall a Benedictine monk summarizing the prayers of the faithful very simply: “Keep it honest. Keep it simple. Keep it going.” “Keep it honest. Keep it simple. Keep it going…”
Many of us struggle in our practices of prayer. But God in his mercy has given us a lifetime to learn to get closer to him through Jesus Christ. May we aim, with the help of the Spirit, to become little by little deeper men and women of prayer; now and for ever.
Amen.