Year C, Pentecost 7 Luke 11:1-13
For most of my life, I have
been someone who has depended heavily on prayer, as a source of comfort. In the darkest times of my life, I found
comfort knowing that God was there with me.
This probably doesn’t surprise you given my profession. However, when I mysteriously contracted MRSA
and found myself in the ICU in septic shock, I could not pray. I tried the first day or two and then I
stopped. I felt something in my spirit break
and what really scared me was that I didn’t care. I wasn’t angry at God. I just
stopped caring about God.
Despite the fact that I should
be an expert in prayer, when I read the Gospel for today, I thought, oh
no. Not prayer. I have a lot of
conflicting feelings about prayer. The beginning of the text has Jesus praying.
Of all the gospels, Luke puts the most emphasis on Jesus’ prayer life. There are several examples of Jesus not only
praying with his disciples, but also retreating to a private place to pray. If
you were to read the first and last chapters of the Gospel of Luke, you will
see that the Gospel begins and ends with people praying. Sometimes we know what Jesus was praying for,
but often we don’t. For Luke, the act of
praying and communicating was what was really important.
The prayer that Jesus teaches
his disciples is beautiful in its simplicity.
He teaches his disciples to ask for three things. The first two are nourishment and
forgiveness. The last request is a wee
bit confusing. “And do not bring us to
the time of trial.” Most Bible translations say, “Lead us not into temptation.”
When we say the Lord’s prayer during our service, we use that phrase rather
than “do not bring us to the time of trial”.
I believe we are being encouraged to pray that God will help us handle
the challenges of life. We know we can’t
avoid them entirely (that would be my preference), but we can lean on God
during those times.
This Gospel text would have
been a lot more palatable if it could have just ended there. Jesus then moves into a parable about a man
knocking on his neighbor’s door at midnight looking for some bread because he
has some last minute houseguests. This
all sounds wild to us because I would never knock on a neighbor’s door at
midnight demanding bread.
But we have to remember this
was a different time and place. They didn’t have hotels and airbnbs. When people were traveling, they would often
stop by unannounced expecting food and shelter.
Hospitality was important. If one
didn’t provide hospitality, that would shame them and possibly the whole
village. So it was also normal to expect
your neighbor to help provide for the house guest, even at midnight. The person who was being unreasonable in this
story was not the guy knocking on the door, but the man who was refusing to
answer. Yet eventually, he relented,
either because of the neighbor’s persistence or because he didn’t want to be
shamed.
The reason I find this parable
problematic is that it seems to indicate that if we just ask for things over
and over again, then God will eventually relent and grant our petition. I’ve actually tried that. It didn’t work. In
the end, it just left me extremely frustrated and disappointed. I would never tell you not to pray for a
specific thing, but I believe the time when prayer can feel the most
frustrating is when we focus on the outcome.
I prayed a lot for my friend who died of cancer. I prayed that she would live, but I also
prayed for strength and peace. I knew that God was with her in the end.
Eugene Peterson wrote that
“Prayers are tools, but with this clarification: Prayers are not tools for
doing or getting, but for being and becoming.”
Prayer cannot be an order we give to God. God is not a short order cook.
Prayer is the way that we deepen our relationship with God so that when we face
the time of trial or the time of temptation, we will have a relationship with
God that will help carry us through.
There are times in my life,
even as a minister when I have been angry with God. There have been times when
I even stopped caring. I am not proud of
that time, but I share it with you because I want you to know that even when we
give up on God, give up on prayer, God never gives up on us. If you feel like you are talking to God and
God is not responding…consider this. The fact that you are talking to God,
means that God has already spoken to you in some way. Because otherwise you would not be moved to
talk to God at all. God spoke at your
birth. God speaks with every breath you take. God speaks with the sunrises and
the sunsets. God has never stopped
speaking.
The last line of our reading
is: “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirt to those who
ask him!” Jesus never guaranteed outcomes.
Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit…which is sometimes described as an
advocate or comforter. Perhaps our
expectations of God are too narrow. God has provided more than we could ever
desire and the more we open our hearts to God, the more we will feel God’s
presence. Prayer is a tool for being and becoming. We don’t come to church because we have
reached perfection or because we have figured it all out. We don’t worship God because we never
question or doubt. We do these things because we have not yet become who God
has called us to be and we want to be
that person.
Jesus
told his disciples, “For everyone who asks receives, and
everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be
opened.” Jesus never told them that they
will receive what they were asking for or find exactly what they were looking
for. He just promises that we will
receive. We will find. The door will be openned. We will become who God has
called us to be.