July 27, 2025: Praying as Jesus Taught

Epistle Reading  Colossians 2: 6-15
The Gospel:    Luke 11: 1-13  

Jesus often took himself away from the crowds and the busyness of life to pray. Sometimes he would ask his disciples to wait nearby while he prayed, so they could see that this was his practice. Sometimes they watched from a distance, wondering what Jesus would pray for and about and other times, they fell asleep while they were waiting for him. 

Still other times, Jesus would pray out loud to model for those around him such as thanking God before feeding the thousands with the multiplied loaves and fishes and before sharing the last supper with his disciples. 

Is it any wonder that the disciples wanted to know how to pray or the right way to pray? Don’t we also sometimes wonder how to pray, what to pray for, where and when?

While during Jesus’ life most of his disciples did not truly get that he was the son of God, they certainly knew his connection to God whether as a prophet or something else and they wanted to learn from him, just as we still can today.

“Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples” one of the disciples asks Jesus in our Luke scripture today. We don’t know any prayers or way of praying that John taught his disciples as it is not listed in scripture, but it is clear that Jesus’ disciples knew that John taught his disciples how to pray and they wanted some guidance as well. 

The prayer that Jesus taught in response to this request, often referred to as the Lord’s Prayer or more simply Jesus’ prayer, is a prayer we still pray today. In most Christian churches, it is pretty similar with the primary difference being whether we use the term debtors or those who trespass against us. Note that there are two slightly different versions in scripture both of which in the New Revised Standard Translation use the words debt or debtors: the shorter one we heard today from Luke and the slightly longer version, that is more like the version we pray (except that we use the word trespassers) from Matthew 6: 9-13 that goes like this: 

‘Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven,
    hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done,
        on earth as it is in heaven.
    Give us this day our daily bread.[a] 
    And forgive us our debts,
        as we also have forgiven our debtors.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial,[b]
        but rescue us from the evil one.[c]”

Let’s break this prayer down a bit to see what it is all about:

1. First Jesus asks us to address the prayer to God in Heaven. Jesus uses the term Father both because he called God Father and because he invites us to think of God both as our Creator and a parent looking out for us. Father was used at the time, rather than Mother as society was patriarchal. However, God is God, the Holy one who does not fit in a human gender box. I invite you, as many different versions of Jesus’ prayer do today, to consider the term for God that is most poignant for you. It might be Father, Mother, Parent, Creator, Savior, Loving one, Compassionate one, Miracle worker, Heavenly One or so many others. Joyce Rupp, a member of the Servants of Mary Community and co-director of the Institute of Compassionate Presence, offers 365 different names for God - one for each day of the year, inspired by scripture and spiritual writers from around the world in her book Fragments of Your Ancient Name. 

The second part of the opening that Jesus asks us to do in this prayer is to acknowledge God’s name as Holy and God’s position as ruler of both Heaven and earth. 

2. After addressing our prayer to God, Jesus taught us to ask for our basic necessities - our daily bread to sustain our bodies. Some days we might need to expand this to something else our bodies, hearts, or minds need. Maybe we need healing, calming, strength, peace or rest or those we love or even our enemies do. By having the first thing we ask for be our daily bread, Jesus was telling us to pray for the life sustaining basics we need from God here and that can be different on different days depending upon what is happening in our lives and in the world.  

3. Next, we are taught to seek forgiveness for our sins and debts. There is an assumption here that we will make mistakes, we will owe others at times: as the phrase goes - to err is human. This does not come as an accusation but as an understanding that as humans we will make mistakes and we do. We say and do things that hurt others or even ourselves but we have the chance to redeem ourselves and seek forgiveness “to forgive is divine”. The price of forgiveness is both a recognition of our mistakes and work to change our ways and the ability to forgive those who have sinned against us or are otherwise indebted to us.

 Note that this is not stated as a “Help me forgive those who have sinned against me” but as a statement of what we have already done, “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us” (Luke 11:4). 

In fact, Jesus taught us that the forgiveness of our mistakes, our sins, our debts is contingent upon us forgiving others. In Matthew 6: 14 Jesus says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” The price of our own forgiveness is the ability to forgive others, even our enemies, especially when it is difficult.

4. The final portion of the prayer Jesus taught us is to ask to be spared the temptation of evil, whether it be God or the devil testing us to see if we will break or plain old modern life which offers a myriad of temptations from judging or hurting others, to living only for ourselves and physical pleasures or hoarding wealth rather than helping others when we can. There are so many things in this world which can tempt us to sin or selfishness or distract us from God and caring for all of God’s creation. 

So there you have it - the recipe for prayer:

1. Acknowledge God as the loving, powerful, caring creator and ruler of Heaven and Earth.
2. Ask for what you need to sustain you today whether it be: food, patience, serenity, hope, health or companionship. 
3. Seek forgiveness for your mistakes, your anger or selfish moments and forgive others for the same.
4. Ask for help in avoiding further temptations that this world puts before us daily from toxic consumerism to negativity, individualism and nationalism that excludes others - all of whom God has created and equally loves. 

Jesus not only taught this prayer - he lived it. On the cross he prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing,” (Luke 23:34)showing his incredible ability to forgive and even show love to the enemies who were putting him to death. But he also showed his humanity by asking “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) in his moment of pain and slight doubt. Doesn’t this reassure us that our moments of doubts and questions are normal as well? They are part of being human. 
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 But Jesus’ life and death also reassure us as he ultimately puts himself and all of his pain into the hands of the Loving Parent as he prayed his final prayer, “Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). In this he showed his humility, his love and respect for God and the length to which God will go to help humanity: having Jesus, a sinless being both human and divine, die to his human form for our sins. 

Jesus gave us the outline for how to pray and we are invited to build upon that outline as we need it in our daily lives. For the Bible is the Living Word of God that is as relevant today as it was when Jesus taught his disciples that prayer 2000 years ago. Use the outline, choosing the term for God that recognizes the Patient One’s power and your connection to her today; ask for the basic needs that you have today; seek forgiveness for your mistakes and grant forgiveness to others who have hurt you, then seek help to avoid future temptations. And from the example of Jesus’ life I would add one more part to this daily prayer - offer your gratitude as Jesus did for that daily bread or help, or hope or love.
 
If you do these things, you will truly be praying the Jesus prayer. Amen. 

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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