Keep Praying

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.

There’s a little more of it in Matthew

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.

 

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.

It’ beauty is in its simplicity.

 

But maybe more important than

what Jesus taught the disciples to pray

40 Nights 
Jeorge Cocco Santangelo

is how Jesus told them to pray: Persistently.
Don’t give up. Don’t stop. Don’t take a break.

Keep doing it. Jesus says:

 

“Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find, 

knock and the door will be opened.

Everyone who asks receives.”

 

This piece of scripture 

has always given me trouble.

And I know I’m not the only one.

Now I know that many people throughout history,

many in this room even, have had prayers answered.

Miracles. Things that should not have happened

and prayer is the only reason.

 

But there are also many prayers that have not been answered.

 

For thousands of years, Christians have prayed for peace

for justice, but once one problem is solved,

another springs up somewhere.

People have knocked their knuckles bare,

asking for the illness to go away and their loved ones to live
And still people die.

 

People have prayed to overcome addictions that they never beat.

That they would be able to make the rent.
And yet people become homeless.

There are people who have prayed end their abusive relationships,

and it just doesn’t happen.

 

People around the world have been praying for the

people of Ukraine and that the aggression against them would end.

But this war does not seem to be close to ending.

 

Lots of good, honest, genuine prayers that really seem in line

with God’s will for this world have not been answered.

All of us at times have wondered what God was doing .

All of us have sometimes felt like we’ve asked for an egg,

and God gave us a scorpion.

 

And to suggest that prayers that don’t get answered

are just not done with enough persistence or faith

or that their not the right type or quality of prayers,

is ridiculous and cruel and not the point.

  

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 Jesus gives is “all the time.” Even if you don’t get what you want, there is purpose and power in your prayer.

 

Jesus tells them the parable:

“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 bread to entertain guests?

I know times have changed, but even back in Jesus time,

I think that knocks at midnight were reserved only 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 even. 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.

 

So many of us only wait until those terrible crisis situations to pray.

We only come to God with our most desperate problems.

We ONLY knock on that door at midnight and hope to get an answer.

 

But 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 with us,

God sharing 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 religion,

no matter what our political ideas or opinions,

prayer is something we share with every person of faith

and a lot of people without faith too.

We pray to remind ourselves that we are God’s children.

 

We might never get the satisfaction of knowing why or

prayers didn’t get answered, but the more we pray, the more

we have the satisfaction of knowing that God is with us.
Even through the most challenging times of our lives.

 

Elie Wiesel was the Jewish writer who survived

the Holocaust and was at Auschwitz.
He remembered that while he was in the camp,

the older prisoners created a rabbinic court of law

and the purpose was to indict God.

 

Their charge was that they had been faithful,

they had prayed, they had done what God required and still

they were suffering unimaginable pain and anguish.

 

The trial lasted several nights.

Witnesses were heard, evidence was gathered,

and a unanimous verdict was reached:  They declared God guilty of crimes against them, creation, and humanity.

 

Wiesel said, “Then after a long silence, the Rabbi there

looked up at the sky, and said 'It's time for evening prayers,'”

Even though they were angry and found God guilty,

They still recited the evening prayer service

as they had done every night.

They prayed because it was time to pray.

 

We pray in joy, we pray in sorrow, we pray in anger,

we pray because we have no one else to talk to.

We pray quietly, loudly, in desperation, and just because.

We pray at the appointed time in our worship.

We pray before meals, and in the morning, and at night.

We pray sometimes because there is nothing left to do.

We pray even though we don’t always feel like it.

Sometimes we pray just because it is time to pray.

 

I’m guessing the biggest difference between the prayer that

John the Baptist taught his disciples and the one that Jesus taught,

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 that one we can trust with all our problems.

All our hopes and dreams and disappointments.

The one that we can go to at any hour of the day or night.

God is our special friend at midnight,

 

Let’s pray to God now:

Gracious God, our heavenly father, and mother, and friend.

We thank you for always being there for us.

For knowing our faults, our troubles, our mistakes and sins

and loving us always anyway.

We thank you for the gift of prayer,

the prayers that we share in private

the prayer that we share together with others.

We thank you that we can knock on

your door at midnight and always get an answer. Amen.