Praying Together 27th July 2025

So the commandment is a challenge. To love those who betray you. Those who jeer. Those who wield the whips embedded with flint, hammer in the nails, pierce your side.

Meditation for Sunday 27th July

Collect

Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
Pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you above all things,
may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Listen to: Rachmaninov – Liturgy Op. 31-14 The Lord’s prayer

Gospel Reading – Luke 11: 1 – 13

11 He 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.’
2 He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

Father,* hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.*

3 Give us each day our daily bread.*

4 And forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial.’*

5 And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” 7 And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for* a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit* to those who ask him!’

Reflection

Prayer is part of faith life in many religions. People ask each other for prayers in times of difficulty and challenge, and often people offer prayers. Aren’t messages like ‘sending love and prayers’ or ‘prayers, please’ familiar? Prayer and praying are understood and used by people in different ways. And – not only – for people of no faith or who are new to it, praying can be somehow alien and awkward.

So how should we pray as Christians? Even the disciples in our Gospel reading don’t seem to be sure, and they ask: ‘Lord, teach us to pray’. It is important to recognize, the do not ask: ‘Lord, teach us a prayer.’

In Luke’s Gospel prayer is often mentioned, and it also gives us the account of Jesus’ instruction we are reflecting on here. Matthew 6:9-13 and Didache 8 contain further versions of the Lord’s Prayer.

‘Father’… it opens with in Luke’s gospel. Jesus instructs that prayer begins with a turning or returning to God, who is like a good father to his beloved children. By addressing him directly, we enter in his presence. For some, who have experienced absent or hurtful fathers in their own lives, the idea of a nice and caring Father might be difficult to use. Though deep in us, there is an idea of and a longing for a good, caring, loving and trustworthy father. And in prayer we can interact with him. We also remember that we are created and in our whole existence depending. He was there before us. Without father no child.

‘Hallowed be your name’…we are asked to say. For God is the Holy One, the only God to worship and to seek.

‘Your Kingdom come’…is our statement of faith, hope, our aim, what we work for, God’s reign. We trust God, what he brings is good.

‘Give us each day our daily bread’… yes, we acknowledge our need, our daily returning need and dependency. We need food, in a physical and spiritual sense, and we need it again and again and again. God provides, we receive, and once only won’t do. We are reminded to ask and ask again. Just as the man in the gospel reading, who needs to knock and persist asking.

‘And forgive us our sins’… this connects with ‘and’ to the prior line ‘Give us each day…’ . Yes, we learn about ourselves that we are sinners, make mistakes and fail in many ways. It is a matter of humbleness to realise our condition. And it is not by certain rituals or by paying some fee, no, we need to ask, we are invited to ask. God offers forgiveness, and just like bread, we need his forgiveness again and again and again in our striving to become better people. And he wants us to practice this through a personal, living relationship with him.

‘For we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us’… whereby this is not optional, and it does not say we are to think tit for tat. No, with these words we state that we forgive others. Everyone who has forgiven another and vice versa, knows of the resulting feelings of relief and renewal.

‘And do not bring us to the time of trial’…we might be more familiar with the wording ‘and do not lead us into temptation’, which raises even more questions. How could God lead into temptation or trial, would he do that? The translation in our reading helps to clarify this. Jesus is talking about the trial in which we might get weak (or tempted) and renounce our faith. Let us stay strong in our faith in you, Father.

So Jesus did not teach ‘a prayer’, or magic words to make our wishes be fulfilled. He taught a way to pray, a way of faithful life, a lifestyle formula so to speak.

It is interesting to acknowledge that at the liturgy during worship we are at prayer from the very start: the prayer of gathering in God’s presence, the prayer forgiveness and absolution, the prayer of praise in the Gloria and, in the holy readings, the prayer of listening and receiving his word. The liturgy continues with the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, for we depend on God’s provision, the Lord’s Supper, where we draw even closer to him, the Lord’s Prayer itself, which charges our life and worship, and Holy Communion. In a word, it is all prayer, a rich sequence, choreographed in different moments of gathering, praise, listening and communion.

Now let us use the pattern of the Lord’s prayer like a droning sound, beat or rhythm also in our daily lives walking with our Father, through him and in him.