Message: What We Hope For / Luke 11:1-13

To pray is to hope. Through prayer, we give thanks, confess our mistakes and failures, and ask for what we need. Even when we feel as though we are standing at the edge of a cliff, we continue to pray. Not because we are free from despair or fear, but because we refuse to surrender to them. Prayer gives us the courage to take one more step toward hope.

The Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) described despair as “the sickness unto death.” For him, death was not about the body but about the spirit. A person who has lost all hope and given up completely is no longer truly alive. Despair, he said, destroys relationships. It breaks the bond between us and God, between us and our neighbours, and between us and the world. It eventually causes us to lose our true selves. That is why Kierkegaard believed prayer to be an act of courage. He once prayed, “God, give me once more the courage to hope. Fertilize my barren mind. Let me hope again.”

Some Christians question the value of prayer. They say it does not change anything and only action really matters. This view is often found among people who care deeply about social justice. They feel that prayer does not do much when we are faced with injustice and violence.

But that misses the point. Prayer is not an escape from action. It is not an irresponsible wish list. We pray because we refuse to let skepticism or apathy harden our hearts. We pray because we believe that light is never overcome by darkness. We pray because we care. We pray because we still dream.

When we feel powerless, prayer gives us strength. It helps us keep our hearts open to love, to justice, and to gratitude. Prayer is not something we turn to only when nothing else works. It is the starting point for action. It is our first response when we long for a better life, better relationships, and a better society.

However, there are times when we do not know how to pray. Even Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In response, Jesus gave them words that express profound hope. In the Bible, Jesus’ prayer appears twice: once in the Gospel of Matthew and again here in Luke. The version we read today is shorter but still holds the core of Christian hope.

The prayer begins, “Father, hallowed be your name.” The word “Father” is not about divine patriarchy or male authority. It is true that Jesus lived in a strongly patriarchal society. But when Jesus spoke of God as Father, he meant inclusion and intimacy. In Luke’s Gospel, the image of the father is never about patriarchal masculinity. It is loving, compassionate, and welcoming. Think of the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. He runs to embrace his lost child. That is the God we pray to, the One who forgives, accepts, and never gives up on us.

The phrase “hallowed be your name” reminds us that no one and nothing can take the place of God. In ancient Israel, God’s name was so sacred that people would not speak it. Instead, they used the word “Adonai,” which means “Lord.” To hallow God’s name is to say that no image, no word, no ruler, no wealth, and no power can replace the divine. 

In Jesus’ time, this was a bold and dangerous statement. About ten years before Jesus was born, a prayer was carved into a stone monument in the Roman city of Priene. It celebrated the birth of Emperor Augustus, declaring, “The birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the gospel for the world that came by reason of him.” The Romans treated their emperor as divine. Everyone else was expected to serve him as slaves. But Jesus rejected that kind of oppressive belief. When we say that God alone is holy and glorified, we reject every ideology, tradition, or system that justifies violence, exclusion, or injustice.

The next line of the prayer is, “Your kingdom come.” This is not a prayer to escape the world, but a longing for transformation within it. The kingdom of God is not far away. It is not just a place we reach after death. Jesus showed that God’s kingdom comes near through acts of compassion, healing, justice and community. It is found where the poor are supported, the sick are cared for, and the lonely are welcomed.

The Law in the Hebrew Bible gives us a glimpse of what God’s kingdom looks like. It was a gift from God, who dreamed of a new world through the people freed from slavery in Egypt. Because of this, it is full of care for the vulnerable, including the orphan, the widow, the stranger, and even the animals. So, when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are asking for a world where everyone’s dignity is respected, where systems of exploitation are torn down, and where people live together in peace and safety. We ask that this kingdom take root among us here and now.

The third line is, “Give us each day our daily bread.” This is not a prayer for excess or luxury. It is a prayer for enough. Enough to live, enough to share. Many wounds in history have come from our refusal to live with enough. Colonizing nations did not cross the seas out of necessity. They wanted more: more sugar, more fur, more spices, and more land. In seeking more, they caused generations of pain.

Jesus offers us a different path. He teaches us to accept each day with gratitude, to be content with daily bread, and to share what we have. This is not just a private spiritual practice. It is also a call to justice. Jesus did not say, “Give me my daily bread.” When we pray for our daily bread, we are asking that no one in our community is hungry or lacks what they need to live.

The fourth line is, “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.” Forgiveness is not weak, soft, or sentimental. It is a form of resistance. Forgiveness breaks the cycle of harm and creates space for healing and reconciliation. Most importantly, Jesus reminds us that when we ask for forgiveness, we must also be willing to forgive others.

So how do we forgive others? Jesus used the word “indebted.” This is not only about spiritual debts. In Jesus’ time, many people were literally crushed by debt. The Roman Empire demanded heavy taxes to support its military and the luxurious lifestyles of the powerful. Most people lived under the weight of poverty.

In the Bible, there is a beautiful vision called the Jubilee year. Every fifty years, all debts were to be forgiven, land was to be returned, and people were to be set free. No one was meant to be trapped forever by poverty. Jesus renews this vision. He teaches us that forgiving others sets them free, and in doing so, we find freedom ourselves.

The final line is, “Do not bring us to the time of trial.” In the Bible, trials are challenges to our sense of identity. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, each temptation was meant to make him give up his identity as the beloved child of God. This shows that when we forget we are God’s beloved, or that every human being bears the image of God, we give in to the shadow of evil and become silent in the face of hatred, discrimination, and violence.

Jesus teaches us to pray for strength in the time of trial. Not because we are always strong, but because God is strong for us. With God’s help, we can stand firm in the face of difficulties. We can become people who hold up the dam of peace and justice, even when it seems about to break. We are those who stand in the gap, refuse to give in, and choose to hope.

The Lord’s Prayer is not a wish list. It is our vision statement that helps us see what we hope for. It is not passive. It is active. It is the breath of those who will not give up, even when the world pushes them to stop. It is the courage of those who still believe in love, even when they feel like they are standing at the edge of a cliff. It is the conversation of those who keep building a beautiful bridge, even when it seems no one is listening.

To pray is to hope. To pray is to resist despair. To pray is to stand with those who are suffering, to cry out with them, and to long for a better world. That is why prayer is the backbone of our faith. It gives us the strength to stand. It connects heaven and earth. It gives us words when we do not know what to say. It helps us keep walking. It helps us keep loving. It helps us keep hoping.

So, we pray. We pray not only when life is easy, but also when it is hard. We pray not only when we are full of faith, but also when we are full of doubt. We pray because the light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Thanks be to God. Amen.