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Luke 11:1-1    

7thSunday after Pentecost

Examen, intercessory, thanksgiving, supplication, meditative, contemplative, petitionary, ….  “What are types of prayers, Alex!”  (I am the only one who watches Jeopardy?) Richard Foster lists 21 forms of prayer in his book entitled, Prayer:  Finding the Heart’s True Home.[1]Do we stand?  Do we sit?  When should we pray? Does the place matter? Do we close our eyes when we pray?  Is there anything too selfish, or miniscule, or too large for which to pray?

Are we good enough to pray?  Are we ever not worthy enough to pray?  Luther wrote in a sermon, “We pray after all because we are unworthy to pray. The very fact that we are unworthy and that we dare to pray confidently, trusting only in the faithfulness of God, makes us worthy to pray and to have our prayer answered…. Your worthiness does not help you; and your unworthiness does not hinder you.”[2]

There are so many questions about prayer!  No wonder the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them. Out of all the accounts of the disciples with Jesus, this is only thing they asked him to teach them,– how to pray.  Actually, they did not ask.  It was more of a demand, said in the imperative.  Surely James and John, Peter and the others had prayed in their temple Sabbath services, and had witnessed Jesus pray on the mountain, and through the night, and with the crowds of people who sought his help.  Why did they think they needed lessons?

“Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you,” Jesus told them.  Is that always true?  There was an occasion when I mentioned to someone that I felt a cold coming on.  He told me that if I had faith enough, my prayer for health would be answered.  I was getting sick because my faith was shallow. I don’t think prayer works that way, or God. Then I think about our prayers for an end to homelessness, even as we make plans to serve at the shelter. We pray for end to violence, but the evening news tells us yet again of a murder or war.  Ask, seek and knock. It will be given, you will find, and the door will be opened.  When our prayers are not answered, we are often told that God does answer all prayers, but sometimes God’s answer is “no,” or that we just need to use the right words, or have more faith, or in God’s time, which is not the same as our time.

In the movie Bruce Almighty, God puts Bruce into the position of doing God’s job.  Now responsible for the prayers of everyone in the world, Bruce tries various ways of handling his responses.  In one scene, Bruce prayers are coming in faster than he can keep track. He decides to put each one on a yellow sticky note.  Every millimeter of the room, and his body, are covered.  Then he has the brilliant idea, download them to his computer in an e-mail like program. Just reply “yes” to every prayer request.  Seems great! The next day, we hear someone complain about winning only $17 out of a multi-million-dollar lottery prize.

How does God really handle our prayers?  Why I was healed and my friend was not; we both had many people praying for us to be made well.  We cry to God, but there are still forgotten children and dead sons.  I can’t explain the mysteries of prayer, but I know prayer does not work like a transaction. Our God is not a transactional god—if you do this then I will do that.  God is not an if/then God.  God acts according to because/therefore.  Because I love you, therefore I forgive you.

Jesus uses a parable to illustrate.  In a world where hospitality was vitally important, a man finds himself without any bread to feed his guest who had arrived in the middle of the night.  The man goes to a friend’s house to borrow some. He pounds on the door, waking the entire neighborhood.  “Go away. The door is locked.  We are all settled in for the night.”  Jesus ends the parable by telling us that the because of this man’s persistence, his friend will get up and give him whatever he needs.

A better translation of the word “persistence” is “shamelessness.”[3]  One scholar writes, “Though the petitioner acts in a shameful way, his neighbor deals with the shame in a way that will bring honor to them both.  Perhaps this is a better way to view what ‘hallowed be your name’ means:  God will act to honor God’s name even when we act in dishonorable ways.”[4]  While Jesus teaches us to pray, what we are really learning is about the One to whom we are praying.

God wants us to yearn for conversation, to trust God enough to go in prayer, confessing our longings without shame, to admit that we are still waiting for God’s kingdom to come, and that we are hungry for the bread that God gives.  Pray without ceasing,[5]  and when we cannot even speak, the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words,[6]St. Paul writes.

Prayer is full of questions and mystery, but we pray because Jesus told us to.  Because God is our source of being, we pray. God has promised God’s presence through the Holy Spirit when we pray. Because God is the one who has changed our hearts.  God takes our broken pieces and loves us into wholeness.  We pray because it has been a year of sorrows.  Because we have not recognized all our blessings, let alone said thank you. Because God’s story and our story is not finished yet.  Because we long to love God more deeply.  We pray because we need a reminder that after the suffering and death of the cross comes resurrection, and only God can bring new life.  We pray to place our hopes into the hands of the only one who can hold them without letting go.  So, knock. And then knock again.

 

~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin

 

 

 

 

 

[1]Foster, Richard. Prayer:  Finding the Heart’s True Home.  SanFrancisco: HarperOne, 2002.

[2]As quoted in By Heart:  Conversations with Luther’s Small Catechism.  Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2017. p. 100.

[3]The Greek word is anaideia, and is used within our scriptures only in this instance.

[4]Brian Peterson’s Commentary on Luke 11:1-13.  https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4119

[5]First Thessalonians 5:17

 

[6]Romans 8:26b