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Luke 11:1-13
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1He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of
his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his
disciples."
2 He
said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone
indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial."
5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to
him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;
6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before
him.' 7 And he answers from within, "Do not bother me; the door has
already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up
and give you anything.' 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and
give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his
persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
9
"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will
find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who
asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who
knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if
your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or
if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who
are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" |
I. The problem of
Prayer
Why is it so hard for us
to find time to pray?
The disciples saw Jesus
go out regularly to pray.
"In the early
morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted
place and there he prayed."
Mark 1:35
Luke 5:15 reads,
"But now more than ever word about Jesus spread abroad: many crowds would gather
to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted
places to pray."
In Luke 6:12 it says,
"When Jesus' enemies were discussing what they might do to him. Jesus went out
to a mountain to pray and he spent the night in prayer to God."
They saw him pray, but they do not seem to have
understood its importance to him and they did not seem to see praying as part of
a disciple’s journey.
We have so many examples
of Jesus praying in the gospels, but there are no examples of the disciples
praying until the book of Acts. Perhaps they were like many of us, following
Jesus, watching Jesus, but uncomfortable with having a prayer life like his. So
they ask him, "Teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
Their expectation seems
to be that if they say the right words which he will teach them, that will be
prayer enough. But, he gave them an example of what a prayer might be like and
we, his followers, have been repeating it in one form or another ever since.
Jesus prayed this prayer
in many different ways, our traditional version from Matthew is different from
this one in Luke. The point is not the exact words but the type of things we
ought to have conversation with God about.
“Father, hallowed be
your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us
our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us
to the time of trial."
We won’t be looking at
what we can learn from this prayer about our praying today. Instead we will be
looking at what Jesus was teaching in the prayer parables that follow it.
Jesus goes beyond the
form of the Lord's Prayer to speak about the barriers the disciples had set up
against prayer. He tells this funny story about the man who wakes up his
neighbor.
Many of us know Kramer
from the TV series Seinfeld. Kramer is a character who does not know that there
are limits in relationships. He thinks that Jerry’s apartment is an extension of
his apartment. He is likely to show up unannounced at any time. And he thinks
Jerry’s refrigerator is also his refrigerator. The guy in this story is Kramer.
Someone shows up at his house in the middle of the night, probably his father.
He immediately goes across the hall and knocks on Jerry’s door.
Now to see the humor you
have to know something about a regular house in Jesus’ time. It had a large room
and at night the animals, the donkey, the cow, the dog, and the chickens were
brought in for the night. The family slept in a loft above this room. They did
not have central heating so they slept together, probably cuddled up.
Some of you know what it
is like to get children to settle down and go to sleep at night. Can you imagine
the problems with getting the chickens to settle down? Suddenly, In the middle
of the night, Kramer is pounding on the door. "Friend, lend me three loaves of
bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.'
The man in the house is not pleased. And he answers from within, "Do not bother
me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I
cannot get up and give you anything." But Kramer doesn’t know when to quit. He
keeps pounding until everyone is awake, the children and the chickens and there
is nothing that can be done except to give him the bread he wants.
What Jesus is poking fun
at in this story are the attitudes the disciples had about praying to God.
Is God a cranky
neighbor who has gone to bed? Do you need to pound on God’s door until you make
him get up and do something for you?
The matching parable to
this one is in Luke 18 about a widow and an indifferent judge. Maybe we think
we need to carry all our guilt and failure to judge’s door begging forgiveness
each day.
You might say that the
reason you don’t pray regularly is that you don’t have time. We all find time to
do the things we want to do. C.S. Lewis says, “For most people prayer is a duty
and an irksome duty at that.” It
may be irksome because of some of the barriers we have erected from our side.
Jesus goes on in another
set of quickie parables to explore another barrier the disciples have set up to
prayer.
"11 Is
there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake
instead of a fish?
12 Or
if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?"
Now Jesus
is throwing light on a problem many people have with a relationship with God.
They do not really trust God. They are sure that if they become seriously
religious, If God suddenly starts looking their way; God will ask them to do
something they really don't want to do like “Go, sell all that you own, give
it to the poor and follow me.”
Or “I want you to go
on a mission to Antarctica.” Some people fear that if God figures out who they
really are, the lightening bolts will
follow. They are afraid God might give them what we deserve.
We may think keeping God at a distance, except when we are desperate, is a good
policy.
We don’t find time to
pray because God worries us or because we don’t find the idea of an intimate
relationship with the Maker and Judge of all creation to be very appealing.
Jesus wants us to know a
God who is like a loving father or mother. In his model prayer, Jesus has us
begin by addressing God as “Father.”
This word “Abba” in Aramaic
is not a formal Father but more like the intimate word “daddy.” Jesus has a
close relationship with God that is as special as one with a father or a mother.
Being with the Abba is a source of strength and of joy for him. He cannot
imagine himself going out into the world without being close to the Father.
Jesus wants us to have that kind of closeness. That is why he teaches us to pray
and why he tries to break through our barriers to a rich prayer life.
II. The Purpose of
Prayer
This brings me to the
second question I want to explore with you today. What is the purpose of prayer?
The way we can discover
who God really is is by following Jesus' teaching in this passage.
"So I say to you, keep asking and it will be given
you; be searching, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened
for you. For everyone who goes on asking receives, and everyone who keeps
searching finds, and for everyone who continually knocks, the door will be
opened."
The
emphasis is in the Greek continuing action verbs. Jesus is telling us to make
the asking, seeking, knocking an ongoing part of our walk with God, just as he
did. He calls us to be persistent in prayer, not because God is hard of hearing
or does not care, but because receiving, finding, and having the door opened to
us puts us in relationship with the God who loves us continually.
Recently
my family was gone for several weeks to distant places where I could not call
them. But every morning when I got up, first thing, I would go the computer,
turn it on, and check to see if they had sent me an e-mail. I did that not only
because I was lonely, but because those relationships mean everything to me. I
got to thinking doesn’t God also check the e-mail every day looking for a word
from me. I know that too often God does not hear anything from me except when I
need some money or something else. God waits to hear from me not because God is
lonely, but because God loves me so very much and my relationship to God is so
important. Being in relationship is the very heart of who God is.
It is not
the results of the persistent asking, seeking, and knocking that are the
purpose; instead it is in the process of the asking, seeking, and
knocking that prayer reveals its purpose.
The third
line of the Lord’s Prayer is important: “Thy kingdom Come, Thy Will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.” Notice it isn’t: “My Kingdom come, My will be
done.”
How can we
know the “Thy Will” Christ prays for, if we do not make space for it in our
lives? “My Will” is often all I know. It pounds away inside me like the
persistence of my pulse. Discovering the Will of God is a process of asking,
seeking, knocking. Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing
God’s will.
God is
good. God provides what I need through prayer and it is powerful; however, the
purpose of asking God is not meeting a string of my needs. Jesus already told
us,
“Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness (right relationship) and
everything you need will be given to you as well.”
Praying
puts our lives in the proper perspective. The righteousness of God describes a
life lived with God and neighbor, with our community and the creation, which is
marked by strong healthy relationships. Relationship with God is the source
from which a right understanding of our needs and the needs of others can flow.
The people
on the Titanic learned a basic fact about icebergs. There is much more below the
water line than above it. The same is true of us. What we are conscious of in
our thoughts and actions is driven by a mysterious unconscious life of needs,
dreams, and old memories. Soaking our lives in continual prayer changes our
conscious life by letting God’s light go to work in aspects of our lives that
are below the water line. The purpose of prayer is the let our relationship with
God heal and change us. “The true revelation in prayer is not when God hears
what is prayed, but when the one praying keeps at it until they came pray what
God wills.”
Kierkegaard
I was at a
book signing with author, J A Jance, who writes some of my favorite mysteries
with detective JP Beaumont and Sheriff Joanna Brady. She is a powerful speaker.
After she spoke she asked for questions and of course the preacher had a
question. I asked, “If it is not too personal, can you tell me about how your
faith influences your writing?”
Her
eyes lit up and she told two stories. But she asked if Bonnie and I wanted to
wait around and hear a third. We did. She told us that when she was younger and
before she was a known writer, she was a recently divorced, single mom living in
Seattle with two little children. She was selling life insurance. A mill had
recently gone out of business in Vancouver Washington. They had a group life
policy for their employees. Her boss wanted her to go to Vancouver, WA and ask
the 800 employees if they wanted to continue their policies.
So
every Monday she would make the 17 trips to the car it took to get the kids
loaded and dropped of with their sitter, then she would drive to Vancouver and
call on the employees Monday through Thursday. She had no money so she was
staying in “flop Houses.” But she read about a new Methodist minister in town,
Mary Ann Swenson, (now a bishop) in the paper and decided to see if she could
sell her some insurance. Mary Ann didn’t want insurance but before JA left she
asked Mary Ann if she knew anyone who would take in a boarder three days a week.
Mary Ann said that she and her husband Jeff would be glad to have her. So for
six months, three nights a week, she stayed with Mary Ann and Jeff. They would
do normal things like watch Johnny Carson, but she said those three nights a
week were like a place of wholeness and peace in a chaotic and painful time for
her.
During that time of being with Mary Ann and Jeff her faith became a rock of
strength in her life. Night after night wholeness was restored in her life by
being in the company of people who were soaked in God. It made all the
difference for JA Jance and we can find that wholeness as well in prayer. (By
the way, Joanna Brady’s best friend is a minister based on Mary Ann Swenson)
What is
the purpose of Prayer?
Mother
Theresa of Calcutta said, “Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of
containing God, Himself.” Listen to what Jesus is teaching us in the final
words in this passage:
"If you then, who are
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the
heavenly Father give …… (You
remember this passage from Matthew where it says good things to those who
ask him. In this passage it doesn’t say “good things” it says the best thing
“how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who
ask him!" The purpose of persistent prayer is to receive God into our lives
through the Holy Spirit so that we can know and fulfill God’s will on earth as
in heaven. In prayer God gives himself. That is why we pray. It is both the
problem and the purpose of prayer. Ask! Seek! Knock!
Prayer is in the journey.
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