The Lord Jesus Christ proposes to His followers the prayer of "our Father" and completes it with a brief recommendation in answer to the demand of these last ones to teach them how to pray. The brevity of Christ’s answer to a so important question is in itself astounding. Conversations about prayer in the contemporary Christianity are more ample than what says the Lord. Besides, we can find in His words some very important moments. Firstly, Jesus tells His followers nothing similar to these words: "you cannot understand this now", as He did sometimes to the followers and especially to the Jews on the mystery of Incarnation. His recommendation is of a rather simple and practical character; He doesn’t make of the prayer an esoteric thing, which means accessible only to the elected ones and the initiated and veiled from laymen.

The Lord Jesus proposes to turn to His Heavenly Father with worship and ask for the fulfillment of His will and His vision for the world. He also suggests making a very brief request of our daily needs, a request for forgiveness, the ability to forgive others, and protection against evil. And further, Jesus speaks only about insistence and humility in prayer in His explanation to the followers. All the rest, what is written in tomes concerns in essence not only prayer, but also the fact that we have to gather together our personality that is divided in parts.

Today's reading includes two episodes joined by the evangelist into one account. It begins with the disciples' question about prayer, in response to which Jesus offers them, and through them all of us, the "Our Father" (vv. 1-4). Luke, as one can see, focuses chiefly on the importance of asking, and of asking persistently, as a necessary condition for receiving what is asked (vv. 5-13). It would seem that God is not a human being who needs, like a forgetful or unfriendly steward, to be reminded again and again of what is requested. On the other hand, persistence in this case turns out above all to be evidence that a person remembers his request and that it is truly important to him. Indeed, is it worth granting a request that the one who asks forgets the very next day? One can ask this way only for trifles; important requests are those that a person who truly cares about them is ready to repeat again and again, confirming the seriousness of his intentions.

The same seriousness is at issue in the second part of today's passage. The point is not only that the very idea of casting out demons by the power of their ruler was absurd (vv. 17-18, 21-22). The point is also that for those arguing, everything Jesus did was a kind of game, something remotely resembling their own disputes, which were undoubtedly fascinating but, in essence, demanded no commitment. This explains the demand for a sign that would prove Jesus right (vv. 14-16).

The proof had to be theologically correct; it had to correspond to the "right" ideas of the "right" rabbinic school in order to be accepted. And until such proof was presented, anything would do as an explanation of what was happening, including absurd claims about the "prince of demons." But Jesus Himself was not going to play these games, because for Him everything He did was absolutely serious. And He tries to explain to His listeners the full seriousness of what is happening (vv. 24-26). The games are over; what is at stake is a person's spiritual life and spiritual death.

But professional disputants, as one can see, have no concern for that. What matters to them is whether Jesus will manage to outargue them or not. And in their disputes they lose the Kingdom without noticing it. For the Kingdom is not a game; it is serious. And forever.

As Paul begins his letter to the Thessalonian church, he mentions the witness for which, judging by his words, this church was known throughout mainland Greece, which consisted of two regions: Achaia and Macedonia (vv. 6-10). At the same time, almost in passing, the apostle also describes the mechanism that makes such witness and the spread of the good news possible. He recalls his own witness to the Thessalonians when they were still newly converted, as well as the witness of his coworkers, which Paul describes as a witness not only in word, but also in the power of the Spirit of God (v. 5). And in that witness the newly converted received not only words, but also the Spirit, who opened the Kingdom to them. Then they, in turn, became able to carry the witness they had received further, continuing the work begun by the apostle.

The situation Paul describes is a characteristic example of how the good news spreads in the world. The Church is not a religious organization, but a community of people living in the Kingdom. Its main task is to make the Kingdom, with its life and its laws, which differ fundamentally from the laws of our world that has not yet been transformed, present in the world so that the world may be transformed and everyone seeking the Kingdom may share in the new life. But then it becomes clear that the preaching of Christianity can and must be not an account of a new religion that the preacher offers to those seeking the truth, but a witness to this Kingdom and to the One who brought it into the world.

Witness of this kind will, of course, be received as empty talk if the witness cannot offer proof that the Kingdom he speaks about is not an invention or a dream, but true reality. And in this case the proof can only be one's own example. Everyone listening to the preacher must see in the preacher himself signs of belonging to the Kingdom, just as everyone seeking the Kingdom must see a visible example of the life of the Kingdom when coming to the assembly of the community of the faithful. The Kingdom cannot be proved by any arguments; the only argument here can be the personal experience of one who has shared in it. And Paul thanks God for his Thessalonian brothers, who, as is clear, helped many of those who were seeking the Kingdom experience it.