29 July 2007

Luke 11:1-13

The Presbyterians, as is their wont, tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. Back when I was a Presbyterian seminarian, I learned, all those years ago, that, in order to pass my ordination exams, there was a standard for prayer. I memorized it in case it came up during the worship portion of the exams. A good prayer, according to the Presbyterians, involves six elements: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, intercession and communion with the saints. I remembered it by the acronym formed by putting the first letters of each word together: ACTSIC. It worked.

Jesus’ disciples in today’s passage want to know how to pray. And they didn’t have the Presbyterian Church to tell them how to do it in those days. So they did what they could do; they went to Jesus. Now the disciples, being good, faithful Jews of their time, no doubt already prayed and knew how to pray. But they probably sensed in Jesus what we would call a deeper spirituality and wanted that connection to God for themselves. And who wouldn’t? I imagine all of us in this room today yearn for a deeper spirituality with God. And that is attainable through a deeper and richer prayer life.

So how is your prayer life? Are you satisfied with your connection with God? Don’t be discouraged if you answered in the negative. Most of us aren’t completely satisfied with our spirituality and need to work on our ongoing struggles with connecting with God. I know I need to, for certain.

So we find the disciples in the reading from Luke asking Jesus how to pray. They want to go deeper too. They want to be more like their teacher; connecting with God and finding God more often through their prayers.

Jesus response to the disciples’ question about prayer actually comes in three parts: a formula, a story and then some advice. Let’s look at them in order.

Jesus comes up with a formula, as it were. We’ve turned it into a prayer itself but if you look closely, it’s more like a template for a prayer than an actual prayer itself. It can guide you in your own prayer life if you use it as such. So let’s see what Jesus says about prayer.

The formula for praying in Luke is very short, shorter than it even is in Matthew’s version of this passage. It begins with an address to God which Jesus used often: Father. Naturally our address may vary; some of us have moved to different ways to address God. I believe that God not only accepts our varying addresses but embraces them. Whatever brings us closest to God is how God wants us to address God.

This prayer that Jesus teaches is both outward looking and inward looking. It is outward in that it asks for God’s reign to be fulfilled in the “your kingdom come” line. We seek the justice and mercy of God’s commonwealth on our earth and pray earnestly for it to happen.

It is inward focused in that we ask for God to be apart of our lives: give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. Each supplication is a request for God to enter in daily and to take care of us. We seek what we need in this prayer: we ask for bread and forgiveness. And we promise to forgive other’s indebtedness to us.

Finally in his example prayer, Jesus says to ask that we not be brought into the time of trial. I admit that I have the most problem with the prayer at this point. Is God going to bring me to a time of trial? Do I worship a God who would purposefully test me? I don’t like to believe that my God is actually like that. I don’t like to think that God is going to test me. But I think the meaning of this phrase is more along the lines of “keep me from facing hard times, God.” That’s the only way I can make sense of this line.

The story that Jesus tells in response to this question is one of persistence. It’s a story of approaching a friend, a neighbor, at midnight and asking for bread for visiting guests. Though the neighbor doesn’t want to get up and unlock his door, the supplicant is persistent. And that’s how we are to be with God; persistent. Seeking God time after time after time. Coming to God again and again and again.

It is important to note that the request for bread is not for the one who is asking for it. It’s for a traveler; a sojourner who needs care. The bread is for someone else. It is an intercession asking for God to take care of someone else’s needs. And so should our prayers include our requests, over and over, for God to care for others.

Finally, we come to the advice. It’s simply knock and the door will be opened; search and you will find. In other words, we have to actually do prayer in order to get results. It’s not going to happen without us doing our part. And once we do, we’re assured that God will listen.

And God will listen kindly. By using the metaphor of parenting and knowing what it is that is good for our children, Jesus reminds us that our heavenly parent, our creator is not going to do us wrong. Who would give a snake to a child when she asked for fish? Who would put a scorpion on the plate of a child expecting an egg? Certainly none of us would do that and certainly not God. Though we may not know what we actually need, God will not do us wrong. God will treat us as a parent would a child, knowing what is good and bad for us.

Prayer is our way of connecting with God. It’s an important part of our spiritual life. We not only speak to God through prayer but also seek to hear God through prayer. Prayer is two-way. Too often we think of it as one-way. But if we are truly serious about prayer, we wait to hear God’s voice to us. That voice may come in any number of ways, but we have to remain attentive in prayer.

I recommend that you follow your urgings for a closer relationship with God. Prayer is certainly one way that you will come closer to the divine. And we all can use a stronger connection to God. Don’t make it complicated like the Presbyterians try to do. Just remember to turn to God with the cares and concerns that you carry with you.