Disciples ask Jesus for help, “Teach us to pray.” Included in Jesus’ response he says, “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
In part, prayer can be viewed as foolish, a waste of time. We are turning over to an invisible entity a hope, a wish. How helpless we make ourselves. We are struggling, in so many circumstances – political violence, financial stresses, health care needs, job insecurities. We are feeling vulnerable for ourselves and for loved ones. Persons who control our lives are causing our difficulties. Who are we amidst all this chaos? We do not sense our ability to do anything to change what is happening. Responsibility for our feelings of helplessness are not ours alone. Rulers in control plan our helplessness. It is how rulers operate. It is the reason the conserving ruler class will always emphasize the private realm. Rulers will highlight sexual matters, about which many of us have complex feelings and may feel helpless. Rulers will routinely pick on persons who are gay or trans. We retreat into a world of personal reflection. Rulers know we who live common lives are susceptible to guilt. Additionally, rulers will make sure we feel shame. At the same time, rulers show little susceptibility to guilt. They give little evidence of shame. The current issue concerning the sexual trafficking and abuse of minors directed by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell involving the ruling class is revealing. It is revealing truths about our micro ethics and our macro ethics concerning sex and concerning the grooming of common people – for helplessness. All the while, rulers help themselves to whomever they want for their own self-interest and ambition. As rulers operate for control in their lives, they operate to disempower us in our lives. Rulers, persons who lean into sociopathy, hinder us from action in the social realm. We are specifically hindered from changing our world, from transforming it. For we have been groomed to call upon an entity invisible to us, God. But that ‘God’ is an entity made by, and in the image and likeness of, entities visible to us – rulers. If we cry out to this ruler God in prayer, ‘Help,’ we should not be surprised if we feel we are turning over our hopes, our wishes, our power. With disciples, Jesus is encouraging prayer as a power. Thus, part of transforming our world, is transforming our image of God. As we no longer live in reference to the ruling class, we no long live in reference to their mirror image God.
Who is God amidst all this chaos? Is God power itself – the power of the universe – the power of our humanity – the power of interconnected lives? Is God the active power that lives within us, between us, and beyond us? How are we calling upon that power?
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, we are alive with power.
Question: What is the active power within, between, and beyond that I am nourishing and that is nourishing me?
July 27, 2025 Gospel Luke 11:1-13 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time