Luke 11:1-13
7-24-16
On his final trip to Jerusalem,
Jesus is teaching
his disciples about ministry.
And disciples ask
Jesus to teach them how to pray
Just like John the
Baptist taught his disciples how to pray.
I wonder what John the Baptist’s prayer was
like.
My guess is that it
was very different from Jesus prayer.
The prayer that Jesus teaches his
disciples,
is just about the
same one that we pray every week.
It’s almost hard to
think anything objective
about this prayer because
it’s so familiar to us,
It’s almost a part
of us.
Prayer, Graham Dean |
But really, Jesus prayer is more of
an outline than an
full-blown prayer.
It sets out the
things that we should be praying for:
-That God's name
would be holy,
-That God’s kingdom would come to us.
-That God would give us what we need to live every day
-That we be forgiven.
- And that our time on earth is would not be too hard.
-That God’s kingdom would come to us.
-That God would give us what we need to live every day
-That we be forgiven.
- And that our time on earth is would not be too hard.
That’s pretty much
it.
No specifics, no
unique requests.
It’s kind of a
prayer for all time and all people.
But maybe more important than
what Jesus taught
the disciples to pray
is how Jesus told
them to pray: Persistently.
Don’t give up. Don’t stop. Don’t take a break.
Don’t give up. Don’t stop. Don’t take a break.
Keep doing it.
“Ask
and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find, knock and the door
will be opened.
Everyone who asks receives.”
Now, I know there isn’t a person here
who hasn’t had a
prayer go unanswered.
All of us at times
have wondered what God was doing in this world.
All of us have
sometimes felt like we’ve asked for an egg,
and God gave us a
scorpion.
Even Jesus, in this very Gospel, fervently
prayed that God would
take away the pain
and death that he knew was coming to him in his
crucifixion, and
God did not, but still Jesus tells us to pray.
As I said last
week, it’s important to
remember the
question that was asked,
and this question
was “how do we pray”
The answer is “all the time.”
Even if you don’t
get what you want,
there is purpose
and power in your prayer.
There was a man shipwrecked on a deserted
island.
He was there for a
long time.
One day, after
losing all hope, he decided to pray:
“God, I’ve never
prayed before, and I’ve not been a very
good person, I’ve
lied and cheated, I drink, and swear and gamble.
But if you get me
off this island, I promise, I’ll change my –
Woah. Hold on,
there’s a boat coming my way—
Forget about that
last promise, God, I’ve got this covered.”
Now that’s silly, but there’s some truth in
it.
We often think of
prayer as a last resort.
We push ourselves
to pray only in an emergency.
Only when we’re
desperate and have no other hope left.
Sometimes we
bargain with God like God is some
kind of loan shark
that we owe money to.
But Jesus tells his
disciples, that is not the way to pray.
Jesus tells 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”
So do you often
knock on people’s doors at midnight?
Would you do it to ask for some bead to
entertain guests?
I know times have changed, but even back in
Jesus time,
I think that knocks at midnight were reserved
for emergencies.
Three loaves of bread to entertain some
people is not an emergency.
I would be uncomfortable and very
apprehensive to do that.
That is unless they were a very, very good
friend.
Then I would
know that I could knock on their door at midnight
and have a silly request and they wouldn’t
call the police
on me, or gossip about me the next day with
the neighbors,
or think any less of me in the morning.
That would
actually have to be a best friend, a family member
a parent. One who
would see my problems as their problems.
So the best gift of
Jesus story would not be actually
getting the bread
for entertaining guests.
The best gift would
be knowing you had a friend
who’s door you
could knock on at midnight.
And that is the
best gift of prayer.
Prayer is
the conversation between us and God
and conversation is
vital to any good relationship.
It’s not just
coming to God with emergency needs
(have you ever had
a friend like that?!)
Prayer is us
telling God our thoughts and hopes,
our worries and
concerns, our joys and delights.
Prayer is sharing
our secrets with our friend.
And it’s also God
sharing God’s dreams and hopes,
God’s reassurances
and forgiveness with us.
It is how God
reaches us and teaches us loves us.
And prayer is something that we share with
each other too.
No matter what
denomination, or even religion,
no matter what our
political ideas or opinions,
prayer is something
we share with every person of faith
and some people
without faith too.
Every time we start our food pantry, we
gather together to pray,
we asked this week
and the Muslim women prayed with us too.
Now, I’m sure many
of the people haven’t been to church in years.
I’m sure that some
of the people there
have not thought
about God in years.
I’m sure some are
confirmed atheists or agnostics.
Even when we don’t
know why or to who we’re praying,
prayer just seems
right.
I’m guessing the biggest difference between
John the Baptist’s prayer
and Jesus prayer
would be the first line of Jesus prayer:
“Our Father.”
The disciples knew
that Jesus had a special relationship with God,
But in this prayer,
Jesus is telling them and us that we do too.
God is the special
friend at midnight, that one we can trust.
God is our parent. Our Father.
God is our parent. Our Father.
And we are brothers
and sisters.
Prayer is the closeness of God and God’s
people.
To God and to one
another.
It’s the knock at
God’s door.
Keep doing it, even
when it feels futile,
Even when we don’t get
what we ask for,
Keep knocking, keep
praying
because the
greatest gift is knowing that
God will always be
on the other side of the door.