Grounded in Prayer

Grounded in Prayer

Matthew 6:5-13

March 1, 2026  Meeting Jesus on the Road Lent 2

Rev. Cynthia Cochran-Carney, First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael, CA

 5 "And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Abba who sees in secret will reward you. 7 "When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask.

 9 "Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

 Prayer

What comes to mind? 

Grace before dinner.

Worship services – saying the Lord’s prayer.  Hearing the pastor pray.

Quiet prayers that you say in the midst of worry, fear, sadness, uncertainty

Public prayers in public spaces – the floor of congress, the UN

            One of the most interesting public prayers I was asked to give was at the graduation ceremony at Indiana University on the football field. 10,000 people.. The instructions were – “Your prayer must be interfaith and not too long.”

Christian prayers.  Interfaith prayers.  Silent prayer Written prayer, spoken prayer, sung prayer.

 One commentator said - Prayer is a very personal, intimate thing, one’s prayer life. Learning to pray or starting an intentional prayer practice is less like learning how to drive a car, how to play the piano, or even how to preach. For most, it is more like learning how to kiss. You learn some by watching others do it. Or maybe listening or maybe reading.

 In the Lenten book this week, the authors start chapter 2 by looking at this passage from Matthew which is part of the Sermon on the Mount.  In many ways, this passage  and the prayer Jesus offers to teach people to pray reflects the rest of Matthew’s gospel.  Matthew writes about all the different times Jesus went off alone to pray.

 One prayer practice that is in the book in walking a labyrinth, to walk slowly, intentionally, following the path, trusting it leads to the center.  For some it is way of praying, leaving something that is a burden in the center, and then slowly walking back to the opening.  Maybe an experience of grace.  We walk our path with Christ.

 The authors also explore the ongoing cycle of prayer and action.  These are not separate. One leads to the other and back again.  A rhythm of action and contemplation, prayer and acts of healing, teaching, listening.  If we are committed to following the ways of Jesus, this is part of the experience of abundant life.

 What has prayer meant in your life?  How has it changed?

As a pastor, I write prayers, I have many books of prayers written by other people. Finding the words that express something deeply true.  Short or long.  History in Hebrew scriptures, Psalms, in Gospels, in other books

One of the best recent books on prayer is by our friend Anne Lamott.  Three essential prayers – Help, Thanks, Wow.

 Who taught you to pray?  Who could teach you to pray?  How do we learn – with our heart and head?  It is worth thinking about whom you trust to teach you to pray.

 The words of what we call the Lord’s Prayer show up in Luke are not part of a long Sermon on the Mount.  “Jesus 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."

 In Luke’s version of this passage, when one of Jesus’ disciples requested he teach them about prayer, I don’t think the hope was to learn technique, like how to achieve the proper balance among praise, confession, thanksgiving, and so on. And I don’t believe the intention was to get Jesus to institute a prayer that Christians could gather around and speak in unison whenever they meet together for worship, although there’s nothing inherently wrong with how we’ve come to use the Lord’s Prayer.

 I think the unnamed disciple wanted to learn more about Jesus’ love for God and his intense desire to see God’s reign come to full fruition. “Teach us to pray” is about equivalent to “Show us your heart” or “Tell us — what is it like to be in communion with God?”  So Jesus invites them to pray  - Pray and discover what love looks like — love in action, love for God and neighbor.

 Maybe you thought he was teaching how to do a spiritual practice, but really he has been teaching about the One to whom we are praying. What you’re learning from Jesus is a theology.  Prayers that express our deeper truths spoken to engage people’s hearts and minds and to pray to the one who is the source of love and justice and peace.

 Prayer — in any kind of a context, whether private or public — is powerful: to pray is to articulate a theology.

 In other words, everything about a prayer reveals something about what the pray-er thinks God is like.

 That’s why it’s not enough simply that Jesus prays in the Gospels. Rather, he offers more than an invitation for us to imitate his practices. His prayer in Matthew and the prayer in Luke along with the short parable that follow in Luke 11:5-13, presents us with a sketch of how to imagine who God is and how God operates. Jesus speaks confident declarations:

 God hears.  God provides.

God forgives.  God protects.

God expects us to be generous to one another.

 What else do we hear?  In Matthew – Your kingdom come, your will be done.  So God has a kingdom?

 Rev. Joanne Whitt has some helpful insights into this phrase. The kingdom of God was Jesus’ primary metaphor for what God wants for God’s world – for what we mean when we say, “God’s will.” “The kingdom of God” is easily misunderstood.

 First, why “kingdom”? It’s an old-fashioned-sounding word – isn’t it? – especially to people in the Western Hemisphere. But Jesus’ audience knew about kingdoms, and what they knew wasn’t good. The people of Israel had a long history of bad experiences with kingdoms, from the pharaoh in Egypt through their own corrupt monarchs to the imperial powers of Babylon and, during Jesus’ time, the Roman Empire. They were oppressive. Ordinary people had no voice in structuring the society. And these ancient kingdoms were religiously legitimated. The king claimed that he ruled by divine right, and that the social order, however unjust, reflected God’s will.

 When the people heard Jesus talk about the kingdom of God, they would have been shocked. "You mean there’s an alternative to the kingdoms of Herod and Caesar?” Those were the kingdoms they knew. But they also knew Scripture, and they would have remembered that throughout their Scriptures, Micah and elsewhere, God is passionate about justice; God desires peace and freedom; God created the world of abundance

 “Reign” – “God’s reign” – is a perfectly good non-gendered substitute for “kingdom” because it gets this across. Just imagine those first century people, taking in the possibility of God’s reign, a reign of justice and righteousness, mercy and love for all. We also use God’s “kin-dom.”

So when we pray, we are asking that we might live into what Jesus had in mind with his metaphor of the kingdom of God.  Everything must change. At every point, Jesus’ kingdom of God subverts business as usual in the Roman Empire, and all empires. Jesus taught … that when we pray, when we act, we are living into God’s reign….

          Don’t get revenge when you’re wronged, but seek reconciliation.

          Don’t repay violence with violence, but seek creative nonviolent alternatives.

          Don’t focus on simply conforming to moral rules, but on how love changes us from the inside out.

          Don’t love insiders and hate or fear outsiders, but welcome outsiders into a new “us,” a new humanity.

          Don’t live for wealth, but for the Source of Love, who loves all people, especially the least of these.

          Don’t hate your enemies, but love them and do to them not as they have done to you, but as you wish they would do for you.

 We are called to participate in the kingdom: to be transformed by love, and to transform others with love.  That’s why we gather here, and that’s why we pray.  We gather to remind each other that the kingdom of God is here; it has begun; this love and transformation are possible now. We gather to remind each other that we are called to live in this kingdom now, to live toward it or into it. We gather to find our own voices, and help others find theirs.

 Christ, teach us how to pray like Jesus did.  Teach us how to be human again. Teach us to pray and work for peace. Teach us to trust, to forgive, to receive, to boldly live in our belonging to God and each other.  Amen.

 Resources

Cynthia M. Campbell and Christine Coy Fohr. Meeting Jesus on the Road: A Lenten Study. Westminster John Knox Press, 2026.  Ch. 2

Matt Skinner, “Who Taught You to Pray?”   Working Preacher  July 21, 2019                 https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/who-taught-you-how-to-pray

Rev. Dr. Joanne Whitt, “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done On Earth,”   sermon March 24, 2019                 https://www.togetherweserve.org/post/thy-kingdom-come-thy-will-be-done-on-earth