13\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>If you then,\u00a0who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father\u00a0give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!\u201d<\/p>\nIn the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLord, teach us to pray\u201d, the disciples asked Jesus.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Last summer, at Vacation Bible School, we talked about prayer during the Bible lesson portion of the evenings, but I also offered simple prayers, with the kids repeating each short petition. And during the week, one of the excited little ones told one of the teachers, \u201cNow I know how to pray. I didn\u2019t know how to pray before!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to remember that a lot of our little ones won\u2019t know how to pray, unless we teach them! And lo and behold, evidently the disciples of Jesus weren\u2019t quite sure either, as in our Gospel lesson today, the disciples asked, \u201cLord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.\u201d\u00a0 Today, some of us are still asking that question, but we have all kinds of other questions about prayer as well!\u00a0 Like, \u201cJesus, does prayer really make a difference?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cJesus, how do we know when we\u2019re praying for your will, not ours?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cJesus, how can we get started in a deeper prayer life?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cJesus, do we really receive whatever we ask for; will we really find whatever we\u2019re searching for; when we knock on God\u2019s door in prayer, will he always open?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From our perspective, the surprising thing about the disciple\u2019s question is that it\u2019s only one question!\u00a0 We have so many questions about prayer that it would be hard to limit ourselves to one.\u00a0 And yet, that one question, in some ways, covers many bases.\u00a0 Many of our questions can be rolled into that one, \u201cLord, teach us to pray.\u201d And what is Jesus\u2019 answer?\u00a0 Is his answer, sufficient for us?\u00a0 It should be.\u00a0 And maybe that\u2019s part of our problem.\u00a0 What Jesus teaches us about prayer doesn\u2019t seem to satisfy us.\u00a0 We think there should be more.\u00a0 We think it should be more involved than it is.\u00a0 And maybe, that\u2019s why prayer is so difficult for us. We think there should be more to it than what Jesus says that there is.\u00a0\u00a0 Because what Jesus <\/em>says, about prayer, in response to his disciple\u2019s question, is that prayer is to be personal and straightforward, and so, it\u2019s simple and easy! And when we try to make it more than that, that\u2019s when we find obstacles to prayer, and find it hard to pray. Which is why we need to be reminded, again and again, of Jesus\u2019 teaching.\u00a0 It\u2019s why we need to hear, again and again, how Jesus teaches us to pray. And what does He teach us about prayer, today?<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 First, he invites us to address God as Father.\u00a0 When Jesus first taught this to his disciples, it was a radical and new way of approaching God in prayer.\u00a0 What Jewish men had been taught was that God was so holy and sacred, that it was blasphemous, even to speak God\u2019s name, Jahweh, Lord.\u00a0 Consequently, Jews avoided addressing God directly, preferring third person modes of speech that were considered more respectful of God\u2019s name and being.\u00a0 Still today, there are times when that kind of speech might be preferred and appropriate.\u00a0 But not in personal prayer.\u00a0 Because Jesus teaches us to pray, saying, \u201cFather\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Jesus teaches us, in our personal relationship with God, to approach Him, as our loving, present Father; as the Father who has adopted us to be His children, and in so doing, makes himself available to us.\u00a0 Jesus tells us that our God doesn\u2019t want to be a distant, abstract, unapproachable Creator-being, but one who is so close to us, so near to us, that He is indeed, our Father.\u00a0 Which means that prayer\u2014communication with our God can be just that: as personal and intimate as between a parent and child.\u00a0 That should not be hard.\u00a0 In spite of the difficulty some of us might have communicating with our parents, to have God as our Father means we can speak from our hearts, means we can say whatever is on our minds, it means we can be open, honest and direct in our communication.\u00a0 And just as a parent responds to his or her children, just as a parent will listen to his or her children, Jesus says, how much more will the heavenly Father, give the Holy Spirit, to those who ask Him.\u00a0 How much more will our Father hear us, and heed our prayers, and respond.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So second, the Lord teaches us to pray, not for what we want, but for what we need.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting, that of all the supposed needs we humans have, Jesus includes three in his model prayer.\u00a0 Daily bread, forgiveness, and protection in the time of trial.\u00a0 Does this mean Jesus views these as the most important, as the only needs worthy of prayer?\u00a0 I don\u2019t suppose we can answer that from this gospel text.\u00a0 But it\u2019s clear that Jesus is saying to us, maybe we don\u2019t need as much as we think we do.\u00a0 Of course, we need daily bread, daily sustenance, what we need to survive.\u00a0 Luther writes, in the Small Catechism, that daily bread includes everything needed for this life: food, clothing, home, property, work and income, a devoted family, an orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbors.\u00a0 This is all included in the prayer for daily bread.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty simple, really, and it\u2019s freeing, to realize that what we need is relatively little, in the grand scheme of things. There may be a lot that we want, in life, but what we need can be boiled down to food, shelter, honest work, healthy relationships.\u00a0 It\u2019s good and right to pray for what we need, to live.\u00a0 Just as it\u2019s good and right, to pray for forgiveness, and that we will be able to forgive, as well.\u00a0 Because as important as is daily bread, Jesus is teaching us that on a par with that, is forgiveness.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus is teaching us, today, that also essential to life, is being forgiven, and forgiving others.\u00a0 Now, just think about that.\u00a0 Certainly, Jesus says, you need food and home to survive.\u00a0 But equal to that is forgiving and being forgiven!\u00a0 Have you ever stopped to consider, to ponder, that forgiveness is that important to human life?\u00a0 Jesus says it is and he suggests we pray for it!\u00a0 It is that important.\u00a0 Because how can we live, in a right relationship with God, and with each other, without, forgiveness?\u00a0 In fact, the Kingdom of God, the new creation that God is bringing about in the sinful world in which we live, is based on, forgiveness, on being forgiven by God\u2019s grace, through the death and resurrection of Jesus.\u00a0 And forgiving others, as we\u2019ve been forgiven.\u00a0 That, Jesus says, is worth praying for, and that\u2019s why we pray for it every time we pray the Lord\u2019s Prayer.\u00a0 And, along with that prayer for forgiveness, Jesus says, also pray for deliverance from trial, from temptation, from testing.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Martin Luther explains this petition to us in the Small Catechism, when he writes, \u201cGod tempts no one to sin, but we ask in this prayer that God would watch over us and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful self may not deceive us, and draw us into false belief, despair, and other great and shameful sins.\u201d\u00a0 Together with prayer for daily bread, and forgiveness, Jesus teaches us that deliverance from evil is something we should be praying for, regularly, daily, unceasingly.\u00a0 We pray for it, because we know that God can protect us from times of trial and temptation, but also because in praying for it, we are also strengthening ourselves against it.\u00a0 We are building up our own resolve to fight against, sin, death and the devil, as we align our wills with God\u2019s will, in prayer.\u00a0 And though we will face trial and temptation, prayer for God\u2019s help, against it, gains us not only God\u2019s aid, but helps to keep us out of the line of fire, so to speak, so that we proactively, keep ourselves out of situations where we might be tempted to sin.\u00a0 Prayer does all of that, for us.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we keep praying.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we need to begin praying if we don\u2019t already have an active prayer life.\u00a0 Which brings us back to some of our earlier questions.\u00a0 How do we begin to pray?\u00a0 What should we say?\u00a0 How can we be disciplined and faithful in our prayer life?<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Without being flippant, or overly simplistic, to borrow a phrase, \u201cJust do it!\u201d\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 instruction makes prayer a possibility for each of us, because he shows us how truly simple it is.\u00a0 He shows us you don\u2019t need a special book, or a new language, or fancy prayer formulas.\u00a0 He shows us we can pray in short, to the point phrases that any of us can utter.\u00a0 He shows us that we can approach God and communicate with God, as a son or daughter would speak with a loving Father.\u00a0 It is as simple as that.\u00a0 It can be spontaneous. It doesn\u2019t have to follow a pattern. It doesn\u2019t have to be at set times of the day, although that may be helpful.\u00a0 It can be the flowing, free, genuine sharing between parent and child, that Jesus models for us, in his model prayer.\u00a0 So, do it.\u00a0 The easiest, most profound, most effective way of developing a prayer life, is to pray the Lord\u2019s Prayer, once a day.\u00a0 Praying the Lord\u2019s Prayer, every day for the rest of your life, would be enough.\u00a0 And then, if, when you feel the need, add a petition, a request, a thanksgiving, a praise, a thought, a concern.\u00a0 Begin by saying, simply, \u201cFather\u2026\u201d\u00a0 and end with, \u201cin Jesus\u2019 name.\u00a0 Amen.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus teaches us that prayer may be that simple, that intimate, yes, that uncomplicated! \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
\u00a9David M. Wendel<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 d.wendel@grace43081.org<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 Westerville, Ohio USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Cycle C | 27 July 2025 | A Sermon on Luke 11:1-13 | by David M. Wendel | \u201cLord, Teach Us to Pray!\u201d Luke 11:1-13\u00a0 English Standard Version Copyright \u00a9\u00a02001 by Crossway Bibles Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,157,853,108,629,110,607,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-25301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-david-m-wendel","category-engl","category-kapitel-11-chapter-11-lukas","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25302,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25301\/revisions\/25302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25301"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=25301"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=25301"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=25301"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=25301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}