Prayers of Approach
Our Father in heaven, we come to worship you. We gather as your people. We seek your kingdom and its outworking among us, yearning for the world’s sufficiency, searching for peace and harmony, justice and fairness. To you, our God, we come.
We come to hear your Word, to celebrate your love and to pray for your world, we ask you to deepen our faith, to refresh our spirits and to unite us in heart and mind. You, God, are the centre of our being, the plumb line by which we measure our lives. For you are God of all, and all are your children. You are the promise of what is right and the measure of what is wrong. You are the teacher of love, respect and understanding. In you we find sufficiency and more. It is you, O God, we worship. It is you and your ways we adore. It is you and your giving that shows us how to live our lives. Amen.
Hymn To God be the glory, great things he has done (R&S 289, MP 708)
Readings: Colossians 2:6-15
Luke 11:1-13
Introduction
Today’s readings are all about what really matters. The congregation in Colossae is being pulled towards concerns about special foods and days, but Paul encourages them to keep focused on Jesus. He uses a number of images to highlight the completeness of our life in Christ. Paul is keen to stress to the Colossians that, in a world where philosophies and fads come and go, what really matters is Christ – the one in whom the fullness of God dwells and in whom we find fullness of life.
Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray using the words that we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. Then he encourages them to persevere in prayer, in all circumstances, trusting that God will provide what is needed – and, in particular, will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
Hymn Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us (R&S 373, MP 435)
Sermon
How many prayers do you know off by heart? It’s probably more than you think. There is of course the Lord’s Prayer which is the central point of our Gospel reading today, but there are also those we learned as children – ‘For what we are about to receive…’, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep…’, or those biblical prayers, ‘May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…’, ‘The Lord bless you and keep you…’ and maybe a few more besides. But how would you react if you were asked to say a few words of prayer? It isn’t easy and even after almost 30 years of ministry I sometimes still feel a moment of panic when some one asks me unexpectedly to open or close in prayer. It’s understandable then that Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them how to pray.
One of my favourite short prayers is from St. Teresa of Avila who said, ‘From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord deliver us.’ It seems to echo so well Jesus’ sentiments as he cut through all the long-winded rigamarole to the bare essentials of praying. His pattern answers the question of ‘Why do we pray?’ as he takes us through the elements of different kinds of prayer, from the general prayer for God’s kingdom to come, to the desperate demands of need, to the sensible, if banal, everyday petitions, and finally the promise of an answer to all petitions: the Holy Spirit? And, what does this mean? Does it mean that we won’t get an answer so much as the means to find the answer and recognise it? Or that the gift in answer to prayer may be no more specific than a renewed sense of God’s presence and a renewed trust in God’s love?
Even though it brings things down to a concise pattern, freeing us from those long ‘shopping list’ prayers which our intercessions sometimes fall into, we still want to expand and elaborate and explore what each phrase means, for example, what picture does ‘daily bread’ conjure up for you? Possibly a white-sliced or a small crusty granary loaf? If you were in France, it might be a long French ‘baton’, a croissant or a brioche that would spring to mind. And in the Middle East, a pitta or a flat bread, perhaps. All quite different.
So, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer the basics are different, as fits their contexts. So is the practice. Whether you eat your breakfast rolls standing at a counter in a bar or as in the Middle East reclining or sitting cross-legged around a low table to eat dinner, sitting at a table or in the lounge, gathered around a telly, what is common to most of these is taking at least part of your daily bread in company, with chat and camaraderie. There is depth, permanence, creativity and wisdom in these relationships, a deep sense of what really matters. All this is in contrast to so many things that are superficial or transient.
In life so many fads and fashions are here one moment and gone the next. As Paul shows in Colossians, Christ, enables us to see what really matters. In contrast to the transient and the ephemeral, Christ provides the reference point from which to examine the philosophies and fashions of the age and to see what really matters. It is a viewpoint that informs how we live. The Lord’s prayer is a model, brief yet comprehensive and serves as a living pattern to inspire our own prayers.
Hymn Seek ye first the kingdom of God (R&S 512, MP 590)
Prayers of Intercession
Faithful God, You created a beautiful world for us to enjoy and treasure, and you surround us with Earth’s gifts to sustain us.
Fill us with gifts of compassion, bravery, joy and love for your world as we seek to challenge the deep structural injustices and build a fairer and more sustainable future.
We pray for all those who work in Social Care and the Health Services in our country and around the world, where underfunding, lack of resources, lack of support and misuse and abuse by so many causes stress to staff, deteriorating care at crisis times, delayed diagnosis and insufficient support. We pray for those who work, who plan for, who fund and who need to use such services.
For governments and regimes around the globe who find themselves in turmoil. We pray for a wider recognition of the needs of all and seek equality and fairness for all humanity. We pray that we may, in our small way, be part of the solution. For those who seek to flee corrupt and violent regimes and who put themselves in danger to simply find a better way of life. May they find, welcome, care, love, support and guidance as they journey.
And we pray especially for an end to the deaths of civilians, especially children, at food aid sites in Gaza and for the horror of people being killed there as they seek the essentials for survival. We pray for urgency in ending this war; we pray for Palestinians risking their lives daily just to find food; we pray for strength to carry on for all aid workers and medical staff in Gaza and for humanitarian aid to be swift and generous. May there be justice for earth’s suffering and starving peoples.
For those without faith or moral compass, who do not seek the Kingdom of God, the support and love of God, who do not seek or know the burning of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We pray they may see the spark in others and be drawn to faith and find the love and comfort that faith can bring.
We pray for the lost, the lonely, the ill, the dying and the bereaved, that in times of pain, confusion and grief they may find comfort in God, in family, friends or neighbour, in a touch, a word, a smile or companiable silence.
This day, these are our prayers for those whose lives touch our lives, our consciousness, our very being, they are the prayers for the people whose needs weigh heavily upon our hearts and lives.
Holy Spirit of God, Hear our prayer. Amen.
Hymn I want to walk with Jesus Christ (R&S 367, MP 302)
Blessing
Lord Jesus, as we go through this week, help us to leave behind things that don’t matter and won’t last, to keep you at the centre of our lives and to give ourselves afresh to what really matters. Amen.
Prayers and other material (adapted) © Roots for Churches Ltd. Used by permission.
