Friends at Midnight

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’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.

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.

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.