A Sermon Delivered on July 27, 2025 by the Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley.

This morning, we’re looking at Luke 11:1–13, a passage that comes right after last week’s story of Mary and Martha where Mary chooses to sit at Jesus’ feet, soaking up his teaching while Martha fretted about in the kitchen. Today, we find Jesus in prayer.

Prayer is a big deal in Luke’s Gospel, and he uses it like a thread running through his entire story. Luke opens with Zechariah praying in the temple and ends with the disciples gathered there again praying and worshiping after the resurrection. There are many references of Jesus rising before the break of day and going to a lonely place to be with his Father. In between, we catch Jesus praying at key moments in his ministry such as at his baptism, before choosing his disciples, and before his arrest. For Jesus, prayer is as necessary to life as breathing. 

Let’s listen to the Word of the Lord.

Luke 11:1-13

¹ 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.” ²He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. ³Give us each day our daily bread. ⁴And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” 

⁵And 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; ⁶for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷And 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.’ ⁸I 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 you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? ¹²Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? ¹³If 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!” (NRSV)

The disciples ask a reasonable request: Lord, teach us to pray. They had seen John the Baptist teach his disciples how to pray, and now they want Jesus to do the same. After all, they’ve seen how central prayer is to his life. For Jesus, prayer is not about ritual; prayer is all about building and maintaining relationship with his Father in heaven.

Jesus teaches us that building our relationship with God takes an investment of prayer on our part and that prayer has three components: prayer is simple; prayer is trinitarian in its form, and prayer is persistent.

Prayer is simple. So many people get nervous about praying, especially saying prayers aloud for others to hear. That is why during the passing of the peace when you are a particularly rowdy bunch some mornings I will sometimes say, “The last person standing says the opening prayer!”  People tend to worry about getting the words wrong, as if God is grading us on style points. Friends, if prayer is about establishing and building relationship, then there is no wrong way to pray. Prayer is simply opening our hearts in God’s presence whereby we bring all that we are, all that we feel, and all the burdens we carry and place them in the lap of God. Prayer is beautifully, profoundly simple.

I remember my first church out of seminary. There was an old saint named Mary England. She was in her 80s, but nobody could keep up with her. Her nickname was “Flash.” One Sunday, Flash pulled me aside after church. Smiling sweetly, she said, “Preacher, you’re new at this, so let me give you some advice: Stand up to be seen; speak out to be heard; and sit down to be appreciated.” Then she patted me on the chest and walked off. It is still the best preaching advice I have ever received!

This is what Jesus is saying about prayer. We are to keep it simple. Be direct. We are to say what we need to say and trust God is listening.

Jesus teaches us to pray to our “Father” which is an intimate, relational word. He just as easily could have said, “When you pray, speak as though you are talking with your loving mother.” The point Jesus is making is prayer is conversation between beings who love one another. It is like a preschooler tugging on a parent’s sleeve and saying, “Momma, daddy, why is the sky blue?” Prayer is trusting that God is bending down straining to hear us, no matter how small or confused we may feel.

The second component of prayer Jesus teaches is that prayer has a trinitarian shape in its practice. Prayer involves God, my neighbor, and then myself. We tend to make prayer a private conversation between “me and Jesus” when a careful reading of the Lord’s Prayer reveals there is no first-person singular voice said at all. Like the trite saying, “There is no “I” in Team,” there is no “I” in the Lord’s Prayer either. The “I” or the “me” is only in relationship with the “us” and “our.” 

Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread, not just mine. He teaches us to not only ask release from the harm of our personal sin but he demands we release others from the sins they have committed against us personally. Prayer is about restoring our personal relationship with God along with restoring relationship with those around us.

We have said The Lord’s Prayer so many times we miss the subtlety our Jewish friends would pick up at once. When Jesus says, “forgive us our sins as we forgive our debtors,” his Jewish listeners would think of Leviticus 25 where the concept of the Year of Jubilee is described. In the Jewish Law, a person’s personal and family debts were automatically cancelled every fifty years. If your family’s land was used as collateral to pay a debt, it was returned to you, its original owners on the fiftieth year. If you were sold into slavey, you were set free during the Jubilee Year. The whole community hit the reset and reboot button. It was a reenactment of the entire Exodus event where all the people were liberated from their bondage to Pharaoh and his taskmasters in Egypt. 

This is what prayer does. It re-centers us. It reboots the relationship between God and us; it also tells God we are intent on resetting the relationship with our neighbors.

Finally, Jesus teaches the third component of prayer is that it is persistent. Ask. Seek. Knock. And then, keep knocking. 

Jesus tells a story about someone knocking on their neighbor’s door at midnight asking for bread. And the sleepy neighbor, annoyed as he is, eventually gets up and helps. Why? Because it is what hospitality demanded. To refuse hospitality would have brought shame not just on the individual who failed to answer the door, but it would bring shame to the whole family.

Jesus is reminding us that even a cranky neighbor will eventually help because of the person’s persistence, how much more will our loving God respond to our persistence?

God is not like that reluctant neighbor. God derives joy from giving us good things. “If you, who are imperfect parents, know how to give good gifts to your kids,” Jesus says, “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?”

But What About Unanswered Prayers?

I am going to lean out there and say our feeling of unanswered prayer often reveals more about us than it does about God. Sometimes we’re looking for the wrong answer. Sometimes we’re looking in the wrong direction. Sometimes we’re looking for a “yes” when God’s loving response is a gentle “not yet” or even a “no.”

Then again, maybe we are praying for the wrong thing. Did you hear what Jesus said is the object of our prayer? Prayer is not about asking for things; prayer’s purpose is asking God’s Holy Spirit to dwell in our presence. It’s about intimacy with God. And when we sit in that presence, we trust God hears even when the answer is delayed or is different than we expected. Sometimes, the hardest spiritual work is staying open long enough to see the answer when it finally comes.

So, this week, take a good, long look at how you pray. Let’s go back to the basics by keeping it simple. Let us keep its trinitarian shape of God, each other, as well as ourselves. And finally, stay persistent. Ask. Seek. Knock. God is already listening. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

© 2025 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801 and shall not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.