Can you pray honestly with a heart in which the quiet conviction still smoulders that you are, after all, better than others? The sermon opens with the devil’s confession from the film The Devil’s Advocate, vanity is my favourite sin, and moves to the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18), recalling who both men really were in the eyes of Jesus’ first listeners. It turns out that coming to God empty-handed is hardest for those who are neither quite bad nor quite good. Listen if you want your prayer to centre on God’s grace rather than on your own merits.
The Pharisee and Tax Collector
Teach Us to Pray
Of all the spiritual practices the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them, they chose this one: prayer. Jesus himself not only taught them how to pray, but through stories and parables he showed how humble and persistent prayer can change reality. “Breaking through to heaven”, that’s how John Ortberg described prayer, and that’s what we’ll seek to learn alongside Jesus’ disciples during Lent.
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15 sermons
