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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

July 27, 2025 - 9:00 a.m.

Persistence in prayer is encouraged by Jesus. The life of the baptized—to be rooted and built up in Christ Jesus—is to be nurtured with prayer. God hears and answers prayer and so strengthens God’s own. “When I called, you answered me; you increased my strength within me.”

Readings

Colossians 2:6-15
Buried with Christ in baptism, raised with him through faith

Psalm 138
Your steadfast love endures forever; do not abandon the works of your hands. (Psalm 138:8)

Luke 11:1-13
Jesus teaches the disciples to pray

Music

Prelude: Improvisation on “Song 67”
Gathering Song: Sweet Hour of Prayer (Sweet Hour)
Kyrie/Canticle of Praise: Setting 4
Hymn of the Day: Lord, Teach Us How to Pray Aright (Song 67)
Offertory Song: Let the Vineyards Be Fruitful (Nelson)
Communion: Setting 4
Sending Song: Lord, Dismiss Us with Your Blessing (Sicilian Mariners)
Postlude: Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 723 - Johann Sebastian Bach
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Our Persistent,
Negotiating Prayer Life

Today’s readings incorporate several themes: negotiation, commands, persistence, and expectation. And surrounding all these themes is a bigger theme: boldness. Abraham is bold in speaking with God, so bold in fact that he not only negotiates with the Almighty, but the Almighty willingly grants his request. Abraham had no fear in speaking in such a way to God, because he knew that God was listening and appreciating his concern. The disciples, too, speak with boldness. They don’t ask Jesus to teach them how to pray; they tell him to teach them how to pray. Their imperative sets up a pattern of imperatives as Jesus teaches them the prayer that has been prayed unceasingly in the church catholic. These themes continue in boldness as persistence is encouraged, even to the extent of being able to ask, search, and knock, knowing that the Lord says we will receive what we ask for. And God wants to give to those who ask God. We are to ask in boldness, which comes from being “rooted and built up in [Christ]” (Col. 2:7). Strengthened by the Lord’s supper, we are filled with God’s Spirit to speak boldly and to be persistent in our prayers, and to be ready to receive the things for which we ask. The question becomes, then, what is it we want and need?
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