Kevin Williams is the Director of Welcome at Westfield Congregational Church, Killingly, CT.

Scripture: Luke 11: 1 - 13 (NRSV)

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

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

Reflection: Persistence

Kevin Williams

There’s no doubt about it.  Persistence is hard.   And when it comes to what we do with information we receive, well, that difficulty increases exponentially.
 
In a 2015 Fast Company article titled “Why It’s So Hard To Pay Attention, Explained By Science”, the author cites “In 2011, Americans took in five times as much information every day as they did in 1986—the equivalent of 174 newspapers. During our leisure time, not counting work, each of us processes 34 gigabytes, or 100,000 words, every day. The world’s 21,274 television stations produce 85,000 hours of original programming every day as we watch an average of five hours of television daily, the equivalent of 20 gigabytes of audio-video images. That’s not counting YouTube, which uploads 6,000 hours of video every hour. And computer gaming? It consumes more bytes than all other media put together, including DVDs, TV, books, magazines, and the Internet."
 
The data in that story is now 11 years old.  Imagine how much more we’ve piled on since then!
 
Truth is that given the amount of information thrown at us daily, it’s truly no wonder our attention span is so short.  It’s not a shock that asking us to do something over and over across a long duration of time is such a foreign concept.  If it was hard for the novice disciples of Christ back in the times of Luke, how much harder is it for us to learn and apply knowledge today.
 
And yet, that’s exactly what is being asked of us by Jesus in the example we share this week.  How often do we take the most basic of prayers, the Lord’s Prayer, and lift it up?  Is it only in that moment in weekly worship when we are guided (or are guiding others) to do so?  How often do we cry out that we’ve asked for God’s will to be done on Earth?  Or for our daily bread to be provided?  And yet then complained about how things are turning out on Monday morning?
 
“And 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; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’.  And 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.’.  I 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.
 
“Because of his persistence.”  You see, prayer needs to be a steady stream of conversation between ourselves and a Father who loves us so much that they will share the Holy Spirit with us freely.  A friend of mine gave me a mug that sits by my desk each day that reads “If you only pray when you’re in trouble, you’re in trouble.”.  It’s a constant reminder that we are asked to pray constantly.  To have a conversation with God all the time.  Don’t know what to pray?  Simply start with even the shortened version of the prayer Jesus taught to the early disciples.  Because no matter where our lives have placed us in this moment, we can always use God’s kin-dom here on Earth, our daily bread, and to forgive and be forgiven.
 
In our steady efforts to cry out in the name of justice, to hear what is happening around us  today and to demand that action happen to bring light into the darkest corners of our world, we can allow the noise to build rage and pain and anger, and allow the last bit of energy in our souls to drain out.  Or we can pause long enough to dial up our Heavenly Father on the ole prayer hotline, start a conversation, and not stop until we can comprehend the answer God is giving us today.  If we are to follow the path to peace we are shown, we must invest out energy in asking, in seeking, in knocking steadily.  Until the answer is clear.  May we have the focus to persist and persevere in prayer each day.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, open our lips and let us pray persistently to you.  Enter into Holy conversation with us, that we might deepen our understanding of what is truly your will in our world.  We ask this as we pray to you not just on Sunday, but each and every day:  Father, reveal who you are.  Set the world right.  Keep us alive with three square meals.  Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.  Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.  Amen.

New Prayer Requests:

We ask churches and church leaders to join us in the following prayers either by sharing them during worship, printing them in bulletins, or sharing them in some other way. To make a prayer request, please contact Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane at cochranem@sneucc.org.

Prayers of Intercession:

  • For the people of Ukraine whose lives continue to be shattered by war
  • For those grieving or suffering due to the over 23,400 gun violence deaths in the US this year
  • For the family and friends of The Rev. Dr. Jane Heckles, who's first call to ministry was at The Federated Church of Christ, UCC, of Brooklyn, Connecticut. She also served more widely in the national setting of the UCC on financial and missional support for the denomination, as well as had various ministries in other Conferences,  theological institutions, and local churches.  She died June 18, 2022.
  • For the family and friends of The Rev. Leonard H. Warner, former pastor of the First Congregational Church of Norwood for 28 years, retiring in 2001.  He had previously served at Chaffins Congregational Church in Holden, MA from 1965-1973. Rev. Warner’s funeral service will be held on Saturday, July 23rd at 11:00am at The First Congregational Church in Norwood, 100 Winter St, Norwood, MA. 

Prayers of Joy and Thanksgiving:

  • For those who are persistent in praying and advocating for peace, righteousness,  justice, and the environment
  • For the mutual decision of two Granby churches to re-unite and re-ignite

 This Week in History:

July 19, 1799 (223 years ago): Rosetta Stone found, which helped scholars crack the code of hieroglyphics. [History]

“Study the past if you would define the future.”
Confucius

 
 
Starting With Scripture is a weekly devotional and prayer request of the
Southern New England Conference, UCC.
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Marlen Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor
cochranem@sneucc.org