Luke 11:1-13
[Jesus] 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.”He said to them, “When you pray, say:
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.”
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; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 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.’ 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.
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. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 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!”
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If you are keeping track of our gospel readings these past weeks, we have been given lesson after lesson in hospitality, Jesus-style.
We have learned from the seventy sent out to receive hospitality graciously from those who welcome us and our message of the kingdom of God.
We have learned from the parable of the Good Samaritan that being neighbor means showing hospitality, even across the boundaries of friend and enemy.
We have learned from Mary and Martha that hospitality and rest need to be given equal attention, and that hospitality ceases to be true hospitality when it causes us anxiety and distraction.
From our gospel today, we learn that when unexpected guests show up ad midnight and we want to receive them with hospitality but have nothing in the fridge, we can call on our friends and neighbors to help us out, even if they grumble a bit about having to get out of bed.
Ok. Maybe this isn’t the best lesson about hospitality.
It’s a better lesson about prayer.
So what are we to learn from this unlikely middle-of-the night scenario?
Maybe sometimes prayer sounds a lot like yelling across the street in the middle of night in a moment of need.
And maybe sometimes we are the answer to this prayer for one another, if only we can be bothered to put on our slippers and walk a casserole across the street.
And maybe we pray always with the confidence that God will respond to us with as much love as a parent would respond to the requests of a hungry child.
Jesus teaches his disciples to pray boldly, and not to be shy about what they ask for in prayer; he encourages them to be persistent in bringing their requests to God, not to be timid or not to back down.
“Ask and it will be given you,” Jesus says. “Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.”
We live in a culture where we have an increasingly hard time asking for help. We are reluctant to ask other for what we need. Sometimes we are stubbornly independent as my two-year old insisting that she can squeeze toothpaste out of an entirely empty tube, refusing with gusto all offers of assistance.
And I wonder whether this reluctance to admit our needs carries over into our lives of prayer as well. If we soften the ask, so as not to presume too much of God, or so as not to lose face, or because we want to manage our expectations. If we pray for smaller things, they we can’t be as disappointed if we don’t receive the answer we were expecting.
As I think about what lessons in prayer Jesus teaches us, this might be the first lesson for us: to ask - I mean really ask - for what is on our hearts. To shamelessly pray for miracles beyond our own ability to manufacture or manage. To ask God to do the impossible or the unlikely.
We can pray with such boldness, and without fear of disappointment, if we pay attention to the other important lesson that Jesus teaches us about prayer, which is that God will always respond to our prayers with generosity...but perhaps not in the way that we might have expected.
We need to pay attention to what Jesus says at the end of today’s reading: If even a wicked parent knows how to give good things to his children, how much more will God the Father give his children an abundance of his Spirit.
Not “how much more will God give his children exactly what they want.”
This is an incredibly important distinction.
Jesus is teaching us to pray boldly. To pray shamelessly. To pray with persistence. But also to understand what prayer is all about, which is, as it turns out, not a matter of bugging God until we get what we want.
Prayer is about trusting that, in all things, God will respond to us with an abundance of God’s own love and power, God’s very self given to us freely and generously through the Spirit.
Sometimes, this an abundance of God’s Spirit does, in fact, show up as receiving what we have asked for in prayer. But sometimes, this abundance of God’s Spirit shows up as unexpected grace when it feels like our prayers have gone unanswered. Or as a solution or possibility that we hadn’t even considered. Sometimes, the abundance of God’s Spirit shows up as humility to revise our prayers when we have prayed for the wrong thing. Sometimes, God’s Spirit shows up as humility to ask others for help. And sometimes, God’s Spirit shows us how we can help others.
Did you notice of the images and examples that Jesus uses to teach the disciples about prayer today involve generosity and reciprocity? Freely asking forgiveness from God because we have already been forgiving one another. Friends running bread to each other in the middle of the night. Parents tending to children. Freedom in asking, grace in giving and receiving.
Jesus isn’t just using these as metaphors for how God responds to us in prayer. Jesus also uses these images to awaken our hearts and minds to the ways that we are called answer the prayers of our neighbors.
This is what happens when we receive an abundance of God’s Spirit in our own lives of prayer: we are transformed by that Spirit to become vehicles through which God answers prayers in the world.
Jesus teaches the disciples to pray, and Jesus also commissions them to do the work of the kingdom. Jesus takes time away to pray, but then returns to the villages to heal and to forgive and to model justice for the poor and the outcast.
Is it faithful for us to pray for the hungry but then neglect to feed a hungry neighbor?
Can we pray for peace but then turn our faces from images of war and conflict in our world because they make us too uncomfortable? Is it good enough for us to pray for comfort for the grieving, but not actually call or send a card or pay a visit to someone in our life who is experiencing a loss?
Prayer is not a substitute for action. Prayer doesn’t let us off the hook from investing time, energy, or emotional energy into caring for one another and shaping our world.
Prayer is an act of faith that trusts God’s ability to act beyond our wildest imaginations. Prayer is an act of faith that God will respond to us, always, with goodness and not evil; with generosity and not disdain. Prayer is an act of faith that means we trust God’s power to change our hearts.
The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard is credited to have said, “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather change the nature of the one who prays.” In other words, if we pray but are not changed by our prayers, than how can we expect that the world will be changed by our prayers? Or put even more bluntly, how can we trust that God will change the world if we do not also trust and expect that God will change us, too?
So let us reimagine our lives of prayer, my siblings in faith. Consider that prayer is a time to deepen our relationship with God and with the world. Consider that prayers are not simply words spoken to God on behalf of the world, but also words spoken to us by God as directives for where we might take action in the world. Consider that prayer will always change our hearts. Consider that answered prayer doesn’t always mean getting what we’ve asked for, but instead receiving something better and more constant, the very Spirit and presence of God.
I mean, I don’t think they were trying to teach us about prayer, but maybe the Rolling Stones were really onto something when they sang,
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes
Well, you just might find
You get what you need
And with that song now stuck firmly in your head, I think there is nothing else for me to say than thanks be to God. And amen.