Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost September 20-21, 2025
“I Urge You…” I Timothy 2:1-8
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Before I leave our church building following Sunday worship there are certain things that I need to do. I take attendance. I look through our directory and make a note of who I saw and who I didn’t. I write down certain things you have mentioned to me. I check football scores. I look for texts on my phone and check my E-mails.
One E-mail that caught my attention was a note from a 26-year-old young lady from Iowa. She had watched the sermon and listened to the music that we put on-line and she wrote thanking us for them.
The week of the Evergreen school shootings and the assassination of Charlie Kirk was just too much for her. She said that all of it happening just a few hours from each other really rocked her world. She wrote, “Since the news broke, I have felt like there is a hole in my chest. I keep crying and am truly terrified of the world we live in – which I am a proud woman who does like to admit when she’s scared, but this rocked me to my core.”
Pastor Tim Bohlmann serves a group of Lutheran Christians in Fisherville, Virginia. This past week in a note to his congregation he mentions the questions that have come his way recently. “What are we to think and how are we to act amidst the seemingly escalating violence in our country?” Another asked, “How do I make sense of the evil that seems to be winning the day?”
What do you do when too much evil looks at you squarely with its eyes? What do you do when you have had more bad news than you can stand?
What can you do? What must you do? How about praying? How about lifting up our country and our leaders and its citizens in prayer? Our reading says, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” (I Timothy 2:1-2) Later in the chapter he turns again to this call for prayer, “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.” (Verse 8)
Recently I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Prayer: Our defense against evil.” Paul, in the last chapter of Ephesians wrote, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Ephesians 6:18-20) In Luke 18 the opening verse begins, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1)
Why should we pray? The needs in our life and among our family and friends are great. There are things that are out of our control. There are things that cause us anxiety and worry and we cannot carry them one more step. Where can we go? Where must we go? To God. The Bible says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s might hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (I Peter 5:6-7)
Enlarge the borders of your prayers. I bet you pray. You pray for yourself, your families and your friends. These are the needs you know. These are the people that are on your heart. Good. Keep on praying. But go deeper, go bigger.
Paul, in our reading, urges us to pray for kings and all those who are in authority. Why should we pray for the president, the governor, senators, representatives, judges, leaders in law enforcement, school principals and many more? They have great positions and they have great power, but more than that – they have great responsibility and many burdens. We pray that they may have great wisdom. When Paul urges us to be faithful in prayer for them he says this about the effect of their work – “That we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”
George Krause in an article about extending the borders of our prayers asks us to regularly pray for those who don’t have authority or power. He tells us that prayers must be made for children who have never known the love of a parent, for abandoned wives, for fathers and husbands who struggle to be a good father and husband, for the homeless, the mentally ill, the alcoholic and drug addict, for those who feel that they are crushed under life’s pressure and think that suicide is their only option. “Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17) goes without saying.
Why should you pray? Because of who you are praying to. You are praying to God Almighty through the merits of Jesus Christ. In the Small Catechism of Martin Luther (1529) Luther gives this explanation in the Introduction of the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father who art in heaven. What does this mean? With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.” What a picture of prayer!! It is a conversation with God just as we would speak to another person.
Paul connects this calling to prayer with the heart of God who has a passion for all people. After urging prayers he says, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all men – the testimony given in its proper time.” (I Timothy 2:3-6) What does God want for you and all people? He wants His good to come to you. He wants His peace to live in your soul. He wants you to live in the security that you are a very child of God. He wants you, and all people, to live their eternal days in His kingdom – in heaven. That is why He sent His Son, Jesus. Jesus came to wash your heart of sins pollution and make you holy and right in Jesus. Having faith in Him receives God’s best gifts to you.
What would you do if you killed a skunk? Maybe you ran into it with your car, and it died. Maybe your dog and the skunk got into it and the skunk lost. Maybe it just died a natural death (skunks can only put up their own stench for so long, right?). What do you do? You call animal control – they know what to do.
Well, someone had a dead skunk and they knew who could help them in their dilemma. They spotted our dumpster and that dead skunk became the church’s pet until trash pick-up the following Tuesday. The day after the skunks arrival I was taking some trash out and as I got close to the dumpster I didn’t need to lift up the lid to know what was in there. But I opened the lid, saw him, and I got a good whiff. It has been at least two weeks since he left us and went to the dump, but I can still smell his perfume.
Here’s my point – It is fitting that we bring our death and our smell to church. Is there any better place to bring our fears and troubles and our mistakes and rebellion, our sins and failures? Bring them here. Bring them to God. “Take them to the Lord in prayer.” He is your heavenly Father. Jesus is your Savior. He is your friend.
In that E-mail from that young lady in Iowa she mentioned how her life was rocked with one tragedy after another 10 days ago. A friend of hers suggested going to church, but she just couldn’t. She wrote:
So the next best option (for me) was to look online. I just checked the first video that showed up and was going to see how it went. I thank God that your September 14th video came up first. During your introduction, you stated where Ascension Church is located, and I dropped to my knees and wept. I consider myself a spiritual person rather than religious, but it truly felt that God was here with me as I watched this worship. The whole sermon had me in tears – not out of sadness, but out of relief. You even referenced one of my favorite hymns, which made me weep even harder. For the first time since Wednesday, I feel that I can breathe again. I am no longer terrified (just scared), I feel that God placed your video first for a reason.
God is good. His timing for her, and for us, is perfect. He cares for us as a parent cares for their child. He provided Jesus to be our Savior. He listens to our prayers and does what is right for us. And He urges us to keep all others in our prayers. Amen!!
