6th Sunday after Trinity St Andrew’s Milngavie 2025
Robin led the service with Fraser assisting, and Abigail played the piano. We were in full voice this morning, with a spontaneous rendition of ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God’ sung as a round!
Painting has been underway in the fine weather this week, with the outside of the hall now looking transformed. We thank Catriona for organising this work.
This Week
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in the hall.
Readings for next Sunday – Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2: 18-23, Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12: 13-21
Today’s readings – Genesis 18:20-32, Colossians 2:6-15, Luke 11:1-13
Andrea’s Sermon
One of the great joys of ministry since I have been here is the Tuesday prayer group. Essentially it’s a group of about eight of us who meet here on a Tuesday morning. After a brief discussion of main prayer topics and a short bible passage we start our prayers. Of course there is no shortage of material. Each week there is fresh news from abroad and also within our own families, friends and communities. All the prayers are all informal and delivered off the cuff and as a result probably are a bit wordy, a bit of a gabble but they are offered sincerely and passionately.
So of course we know deep in our hearts that God will not necessarily answer our prayers immediately, if at all but we keep going none the less.
Perhaps in the same way the psalmists of the OT did as they cried to God with words of petition, sorrow, anguish and hope. Perhaps like them we just need to get things off our chests too. So we persevere because that is what God calls us to do.
Jesus says, “I say to you ask and it will be given, search and you will find, knock and the door will be open unto you”
And indeed, the door is opened to us, praying is not just about the words and what we pray for but about relationship with God and each other. I have always felt close to people I have prayed with routinely.
Jesus says in Matthew “Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him”
God may know what we need but we still need to pray because it’s essential to sustain the relationship, to keep the door open. Through conversation and dialogue we form our human relationship and so with God – it is conversation through prayer.
But each one of us is different. So each of us in our own way expresses our relationship to God in the way that comes most easily to us. But sometimes we are lost for words when we pray, sometimes we are depressed, not sure of ourselves, anxious, fearful and we know we need to pray but find we can’t.
It is then that Paul’s promise mentioned in the letter to the Romans comes to our rescue: Paul says in chapter 8:
“Likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we ought but that very spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words and God who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the spirit”
In other words, the Holy Spirit dwells in us so we can let the Holy Spirit pray in us. Throughout the gospels there are many examples of Jesus himself praying. Perhaps the most moving is in the Garden of Gethsemane, particularly in Luke’s version: “Father if you are willing remove this cup from me ….. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly And his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground”
The disciples too wanted to pray fervently, so they asked Jesus what to say. He then teaches them how to pray.
The Lord’s prayer –It is such a sacred prayer to any Christian, sometimes it is the only prayer that is familiar, it is the only prayer that people know and it is a model for all our praying. First it acknowledges that God is the loving father of us all, then we pray for the kingdom to come on earth that it may be a place of justice and compassion just like heaven. Then comes the request for daily food – enough to eat simply, next follows our request for unconditional forgiveness with the promise that we too may offer forgiveness to others. Finally, we ask for God’s guidance away from situations of temptations and harm.
We say the Lord’s prayer so often it is easy to be unaware of what we are actually saying, interestingly when we say the Lord’s Prayer we are not actually asking him to give us things as such but to change our attitudes, to make us more willing, loving, forgiving and understanding, to give us what we need to cope with life. The Lord’s Prayer says everything we need to say in words. It brings us into God’s presence in the same way as it did with the disciples. So with this special and sacred prayer, the prayer that Jesus himself taught us, we can pray with confidence, trusting that our prayer is heard