February 24, 2026

In today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 6:7-15), Jesus gives his disciples guidance on how to pray, not with elaborate prayers of many words, but quite simply. Turning our minds towards the presence of God, we can rest in the knowledge that God knows what we need before we say it.  We can simply be, resting in God’s presence. Nonetheless, Jesus also gives us a simple, short prayer that covers all the bases of human spiritual and daily needs – the Lord’s prayer.

Included in the Lord’s prayer is the phrase, “deliver us from evil,” or in some translations, “deliver us from the evil one.” Right now, humanity has a giant stomachache from the news we are digesting from the Epstein files. Our minds are stunned by the allegations of evil deeds contained therein. We cannot get our minds around the depravity and cruelty, the crimes against humanity, in short, the evil deeds.

Having grown up in the modern era, many of us are not accustomed to thinking about evil. It seems like an old-fashioned concept, reminding us of doom-and-gloom preaching about sin and the dangers of hell. Yet we are all related, descended from the same ancient human ancestors. When a child is murdered in cold blood, does this evil not affect every one of us on a cellular level? Do we not feel it in our bones?

Thus we pray, “deliver us from evil, deliver us from the evil one.”  The best protection against evil is connecting through prayer to the pure white light of God’s love.  Let that light envelope us as we find a collective path forward. Helping our neighbor has equal value to studying Scripture or sitting in prayer. Let it be so.

Amen.