Prayer

Readings

Hosea 1.2–10, Psalm 85, Colossians 2.6–15 [16–19], Luke 11.1–13

Collect

Lord of heaven and earth, as Jesus taught the disciples to be persistent in prayer, give us patience and courage never to lose hope, but always to bring our prayers before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The day before the harvest festival at Lockage, a small child asked me why I was in casuals and not in my cassock. I did answer. Last Sunday, three weeks after she came, she asked me the same question. The conversation continues, she asks the impossible – can you make tomorrow Christmas? She likes decorations and Santa bringing gifts. Why didn’t you come to my birthday? Then she comes and shows a small wound. Then she comes and gives me 20/- from her purse. She has decided to buy a gift for a friend. Cut her finger and comes and shows it.

Here was a small child, not satisfied with an answer, wanting something impossible to be done, questioning, and also sharing her pain, as though she knew me for a long time, but taking the liberty to tell me what was in her heart.

That is what Joseph Scriven captures for us in his hymn “What a friend we have in Jesus”. A man who endured personal tragedy, losing two fiancées—one to drowning and another to tuberculosis, seeking solace, he moved to Canada, where he dedicated his life to helping the poor and disabled, living modestly and selflessly. 

He often preached and performed acts of kindness, refusing payment for his services. He wrote a poem for his ailing mother titled “Pray Without Ceasing,” which later became this hymn, to encourage her, since he couldn’t go and visit her in Ireland. Living with his friend in old age, he was found dead in the posture of kneeling.

He captures through this hymn, that, in different situations, when we are uncertain what tomorrow will be, there is hope in God. This captures for us that Jesus is a friend to whom we can take all our cares and burdens and our emotions, and everything that troubles us and disturbs our peace, that he will listen to us.  And he listens to us and we can hold of God. 

In our Gospel reading, the disciples come to Jesus and say Teach us to pray.  In the ancient world, religious communities had a distinct way of prayer. And the disciples want Jesus to teach them as John taught his disciples. 

The Jesus in St. Luke's Gospel gives importance to prayer. Here, it is not a relationship between two friends, but it is one between a father and a son, a parent and a child. Where the son is dependent on the Father. Jesus reveals to us that prayer creates a bond and an intimacy when he is in conversation with the Father.

Through prayer, he is able to find the Father's will, pour out his heart, make crucial decisions, and even understand why the Father is silent at the most important time that he needed him. At his Baptism, in lonely places, before selecting his disciples, before Peter's confession, at the transfiguration, before teaching the Lord's prayer, in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross.

And so prayer is important in life. It is a discipline that is slowly eroding. It won't be surprising if in the future we have people using AI or AI assistants praying on their behalf to God.

Prayer is a two-way communication where you speak to God, listen, and then, in return, listen to God speaking to us as well. We listen not only to get answers, but also to obey God’s will, even if our reputation is at stake, just as we read in Hosea. God calling Hosea to do the most unbelievable thing – to take a wife of prostitution and have children of prostitution. Purely to show the people the level they have fallen to in their relationship with their God. 

Today, prayer is all about asking for things. When we say asking for things, I am reminded of this experience that I have had in most of the churches, very interesting – when it comes to exams, children take a break from church services, SS. But the Sunday before the exam, they come to pray. A lot of Christian parents are guilty of this formation of their children. But prayer helps us to put our trust in God, to get to know God's heart and God's will, and understand what God is trying to tell us through his words, where we can submit our will to him; it helps us to build a relationship with him.

And so when we pray the Lord's prayer, we have our hands open, ready to receive what the Lord wants to give us. Today, we will not sing but say the Lord's prayer to understand this. Not fast, but slow to soak in the words.

And so Luke tells us, ask, seek and knock. For you will receive, find, and the door will be open to you. This opens up for an active relationship with God and helps us to hold fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

Luke ends this section, “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!’

Why the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a gift from God. Given to the community of Jesus. A gift that brings joy, strength, forgiveness, love, forgiveness, and the courage to witness. Therefore, it is a gift for life. 

So prayer is not an option. Pray! Teach your children to pray! so that you build a relationship with God, where God becomes your friend, like Abraham, like Joseph Scriven, like Jesus, and acknowledge the presence of God, every day of your life.