Our Special Friend at Midnight

 Luke 11:1-13 7-24-16

 

On his final trip to Jerusalem,

Jesus is teaching his disciples about ministry.

And the 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

but it’s just about the same.

 

Jesus prayer is more of an outline than a 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’s beauty is in its simplicity.

 

I struggled to find anything interesting to say

about this prayer because it’s so familiar to us,

It’s almost a part of us.

 

But what I got stuck on was the second part.

The first part is about what Jesus taught the disciples to pray

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.

 

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. But so many never do.

Or 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 or they end in death.

 

For thousands of years, Christians have prayed for

justice, but once one problem is solved,

it seems like another springs up somewhere.

And countless people have prayed for peace.

People around the world have been praying for the

people of Ukraine and Gaza and Syria and for the wars

and violence there to end, but still they keep going.

 

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 asked for an egg,

and it feels like God gave us a scorpion.

  

And to suggest the 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 kind of 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.

 

It’s always important to remember the question that was asked,

and this question was “how do we pray?”

The basic answer Jesus gives is “all the time.”

 

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

for a friend of mine has arrived and I have nothing to give them.”

 

So do you often knock on people’s doors at midnight?

If you did have to knock on a door at midnight,

you think it would be about a fire, or a medical issue, right?

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, 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 all my problems—

big and small – 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, right?

And that is the best gift of prayer.

 

So many of us only wait to pray until

we experience those terrible crisis situations.

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 ongoing 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 one of THOSE friends?

Who only come to you when they need something?

 

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,

some of the older prisoners created a rabbinic court of law

and the purpose was to indict God.

They were mad at God for not saving them.

 

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,'”

And so they all went and prayed.

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.

40 Nights
Jorge Cocco Santangelo

 

And, in the end, prayer changes us.

It doesn’t always make the situation different,

it makes us different.
It effects our beliefs and our actions.

Prayer is us, making that space,

and inviting the Spirit in to work on us.

 

Pope Francis said,

“you pray for the hungry,

and then you feed them.

This is how prayer works.”

 

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,

 

Martha, Martha, Martha

Luke 10: 38-42   
July 20, 2025

 

Does anyone here relate to Martha?

Are any of you here do-ers?

Do you like to get things done and be productive?

Do you like to keep yourself busy doing things?

One Thing
Mollie Walker Freeman

Do you like to make and complete a to do list?

Do you enjoy taking care of
people and being a good host?

Do you like serving others with helpful tasks?

Making a difference? getting that check list done?

In other words, turning your faith into action in solid and real ways?

Good.

 

Some pastor somewhere is going to say that

this story is telling you that you should stop that

and be more contemplative and spend your time in prayer.

But I’m not.

And not just because the church would collapse

without all the helpful people that are here.

It’s more than that.

 

If you’re a “Martha” your service is valued, and necessary.

God needs our work and tasks.

I don’t think Jesus was at Martha’s house to

scold her for being so busy and task oriented.

 

We serve a God and a Messiah who was incarnational.

Whose love wasn’t just an airy fairy kind of statement of love.

It was real, it was solid and practical.

The Word became flesh and lived among us

and our words are expected to become flesh too.

 

We say that love is not just feelings or sentiment.

Love is shown in day in, day out actions.

Making meals, giving hugs, taking out the garbage.

We just got finished with Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan.

Being a neighbor is stopping to help, tending wounds,

and lifting someone out of the dirt.

It’s not just saying “God loves you, but I’m going

to hear a lecture on Jesus, so I don’t have time for your problem.”

So Martha putting together an olive and cheese platter

and sweeping the floor was not just idle busy work,

it was her way of showing her love and respect for a special guest.

 

It was also very much her job and duty,

and not completely a choice she made.

In Martha’s time, women were not expected

to sit and talk to guests.

They were expected to be up and doing stuff,

making the meal, getting what guests needed, cleaning up.

 

Martha is doing exactly what is expected of her.

She is filling the role that women had filled for almost ever.

 

And frankly, we’re not too far away from that mindset.

In my last church one of the major objections of opening

up their child-care center in 1980 was that, in doing so,

the church was encouraging women to work outside the home.

 

In Martha’s time and beyond, women did all the home

stuff so that men could run the business or go to work,

and also so the men could be the spiritual guides for the family.

 

The man was to attend and participate

in the prayer services, he was to go and spend

the afternoon at the synagogue and listen to the teachers,

and contemplate God’s will for everyone

and then come home and teach his family.

The men were the ones who were supposed to sit at the teacher’s feet.

The men were disciples, the women were supposed to

tend to their homes so that the men could do that.

 

So then we come to Martha’s home.

And it’s referred to as Martha’s home, which is very interesting.

and she’s doing exactly what is expected of her.

She’s doing the “right thing”.

She’s filling her duties, she’s earning her keep

She’s doing what is necessary to keep the system running.

 

 

It’s Mary who is changing up the equation.

Mary is not doing, she’s just sitting and listening.

She probably looks lazy and presumptuous by a lot of

people’s standards those days.

Certainly, she’s not doing what was typical for a woman to do.

 

So Martha demands that she help.

But I think that Marthat’s actually got this under control.

What I think Martha mostly wants is for

her sister to come back and be normal again.

She wants Mary to fill her expected role.

And she wants Jesus to back her up on this.

“Jesus, are you just going to let her be crazy like this?

You’re the teacher, tell her to get back to what she should be doing.”

And the first hearers of this story would probably have been with Martha.

Mary is acting weird. Jesus, tell her to stop it.

 

But Jesus won’t. Jesus actually says that

Mary has made a good choice.

This is exactly what Mary should be doing.

This is exactly what women should be doing.

And maybe Martha could do that sometimes too.

Come and sit at Jesus feet and hear words of

love and forgiveness and not worry about the world,

not worry about the world’s expectations,

or about the role that she’s supposed to fill.

 

I don’t think this story from Luke’s gospel

is a statement from Jesus about how the church

should be weighed towards worship and learning

instead of hospitality and service to the outside world.

Although some preachers have tried to do that.

 

And I don’t think that Jesus is scolding the doers of the world,

the social workers, the service project people,

the habitat for humanity, or food pantry people,

the Sunday school teacher, or anyone who is moved

to do the work that needs to be done

this is not Jesus telling everyone to just sit down

and pray and read the bible.

And I don’t think the world is divided into Marthas and Marys

We’re not divided into busy workers and contemplative thinkers

and this is not Jesus saying “yay” for the Marys of the world

and “nay” to the Martha’s.

I think the truth is that we’re all Marthas and Marys.

 

We all have that Martha side of us.

We are driven by our need to fill our role

We live under the pressure of what the world

wants and needs us to do, at home, at work, at church,

in our communities.

 

We stress about our to-do list and get frustrated and distracted.

We set out to accomplish what the world expects us to accomplish,

and when it doesn’t happen, we get filled with anxiety,

and self-doubt and we wonder whether

we are worthy of Jesus company.

 

But also have that Mary inside us.

That part that often needs to be coaxed out.

To be reassured to be told that

just sitting and being is good enough.

 

Sometimes when we’re the one who is running distracted,

Jesus reminds us “Martha, Martha.

You’re trying to do too much.

I don’t need you to do everything.

Your presence with me is enough.”

 

Jesus reminds all of us at times,

it is enough to just sit at Jesus feet,

and hear the word of God --

 

The word that says that we are loved

not for what we do and accomplish,

but just because we are God’s.

 

It is enough, sometimes, just to sit and be with Jesus.

 

 

Go And Do Likewise

 “Luke 10:25-37    July 13, 2025 Rev. June Wilkins

 

The parable of the Good Samaritan only shows up in the gospel of Luke

and it is one of the most familiar of Jesus’ parables

It’s so familiar that the term “Good Samaritan” 

is a cliché in our language. There’s “Good Samaritan hospitals” 

There’s “good Samaritan laws”.  Even someone who’s never heard of this story –

or even the bible– knows what a “good Samaritan” is.

It’s someone who does something good for a stranger in need.

 

And that is usually our understanding of this parable too.

Be nice to strangers. That’s the whole thing. 

No need to go on with the sermon, right?

 

But does Jesus ever just give a nice story with a swell easily

Wrapped up moral, does he? Of course not.

 

Especially not to a lawyer who it says is trying to test Jesus.

Now when it says lawyer,  

it’s not exactly like we understand lawyers today.

Back in Jesus’ day, Jewish lawyers were those people who

understood and interpreted the law of Moses.

They were religious leaders too.

 

The question this lawyer asks doesn’t seem too outrageous.

It’s a question that we all want to know the answer to:

“What do we have to do to inherit eternal life?” And we know lawyers

don’t ask questions unless they already know the answers.

Jesus knows that this man knows the answer. 

He works with the law every day. The lawyer has studied and interpreted it.

It’s an answer that he has heard since he was a boy.

So Jesus throws the question back to him.

“What’s written in the law, lawyer?”

 

And the lawyer says it:

“Love the lord your God with all your heart soul strength and mind

and love your neighbor has yourself.”

 

And Jesus says, Sure that’s perfect. 

 

And I’m sure if the lawyer had left it at that,

we probably wouldn’t have heard about this story

But the lawyer doesn’t leave it at that. 

 

It says that the man wanted to justify himself.

In other words, he wanted to make sure that he had

already done what was necessary to inherit eternal life.

He wanted to check it off his list.

He wanted to go away knowing that he was

secure and had earned it already.

 

This shouldn’t be foreign to us, we do it all the time.

Just read the bible for a little while and see how you do it in your head.

 

So the man asks the question to justify himself,

“Who is my neighbor?”

The man was hoping that Jesus would answer with something like:

“Your family, your friends, the people who live next door,

those who are culturally similar, the people you like,

the people who don’t make you feel uncomfortable,

That is your neighbor”

The lawyer would have loved for Jesus to tell him that.

Then he would have been able to justify himself.

 

But Jesus doesn’t let him do that.

Jesus never lets us do that.

Jesus is always turning things on their heads.

 

In response, Jesus tells the story of a traveler

on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

This was a notoriously dangerous road. The listeners knew that

someone was bound to get in trouble on this road.

And the story does not disappoint.

And the traveler is robbed and beaten up and

left on the side of the road half dead.

 

Then Jesus says that a Levite and a Priest go by.

As you might know, Levites and priests

are the Jewish religious leaders the dedicated temple workers,

the ones that everyone looks up to and assumed

will follow the law and ways of God.

 

But when they come across this other guy in the road who needs help, 

they both cross to the other side of the road to avoid him.

Now we don’t know why. Maybe they were in a rush.

Maybe they were afraid, it was a bad neighborhood after all.

Some say it’s because they were going to the temple in Jerusalem

and didn’t want to defile themselves.

I don’t think it matters, actually.

There could be countless reasons why they didn’t stop.

Think of all the various reasons that you or I have given ourselves

for not helping a stranger who needed our help.

The point is, the church people did not help.

So two people have passed by this injured traveler.

 

Now everyone knows, since the beginning of time,

that all stories happen in threes.

And then here’s where Jesus delivers the whammy.

 

If the first two guys fell through,

then everyone knew the last would be the hero of the story.

So the people listening are ready for the hero to come in.

And that hero was a Samaritan.

 

Samaritans were hated by Israelites.

They were originally Israelites, but years ago had stayed behind

in a gentile land and married gentiles. 

So in some people’s eyes, they were unholy and unpure. 

They were looked down on by Jewish people,

They were seen as second-class citizens.

They were the butt of Israelite’s jokes.

Samaritans were actually the people that the apostles, James and John

offered to destroy by commanding fire come from heaven

a couple of weeks ago.

 

Most Jewish people didn’t include Samaritans

in the scope of God’s favor.

For a Jewish person to call someone a Samaritan was an insult.

 

And yet that is how Jesus’ story goes, The Samaritan comes near,

the Samaritan is moved with pity. The Samaritan helps the man,

 takes care of him and saves his life. 

The Samaritan is the one who fulfills the law to love your neighbor as yourself. 

The Samaritan is the one who acts like a neighbor. 

And is also the one that the hearers of the story should be like, 

should emulate, should aspire to be like.

A shocker to all that lawyer, and the disciples

and all the other people hearing this story.

 

For Christians, this story might be rephrased:

A person was beaten up and left for dead,

A great pastor crosses to the other side of the street to avoid them,

and a beloved church member crosses to the other side 

to avoid them, just then – and then we can fill in the blank ourselves -- 

whoever we look down on, whoever we  would never

imagine would be the helpful one in the story,

whatever group you think is ruining America,

whoever we might consider asking fire to come down

from heaven and obliterate.

 

THAT person is moved with pity

and comes over to help the one in the road.

 

Last week there were horrible floods in Texas that killed many people.  

One of the first groups of outside people who came to help

were volunteer firefighters sent from Acuña, Mexico.

From Mexico, with all the horrible, inflammatory, 

Fire Fighters from Acuña, Mexico
Who came to help after the floods in Texas

and racist things said about Mexico, and Mexicans and Latinos in general,

by our president, and actually 

by the Governor of Texas too,

and the hostile way that many people of our

country have echoed those terrible sentiments,

Mexico still sent volunteers 

to help the people of Texas.

 

This really is the good Samaritan story in real time.

Who is my neighbor? The one who showed us mercy.

Mexico is our neighbor.

And our neighbor is not just someone who we pity and feel sorry for.

A neighbor is someone who serves us too.

A neighbor is someone who an teach us and we can learn from.

 

And this is how this is a super-clever story on Jesus part.

Jesus could have easily made the Samaritan the person that

was beaten up and left on the road for dead

And then the moral would be to help that person.

That is often the position that we put people who

are oppressed, hated, or outcast when we’re trying to include them.

 

While most of us pride ourselves on not hating people

of other races, classes, and cultures

a lot of us will still look down on people in another way

we see them as hopeless and helpless, not as advanced as us.

We see them as always needing assistance.

Like they will never become full people without our good guidance.

They just need to learn to be like us.

This is how many caring but privileged people think.

“Just learn our way. Poor, poor Samaritan. And you won’t be so sad.”

 

But no. Jesus takes the Samaritan, the hated one,

and puts him in the role of the one who helps

The one who is to be admired, emulated, imitated, learned from.

The Samaritan is the helper, the hero.

Jesus tells the lawyer, “Go and do likewise.” Go and be like him.

Find your eternal life in that whole arrangement.

 

Remember, the original question was

“What must I do to gain eternal life?”

And here is another layer to this amazing story.

Jesus is saying with this story that our salvation will not

be found with the religious leaders, or religious institutions.

 

Our salvation will be found in the outsider,

the one who is despised,

looked down on, and the butt of rude jokes.

Our salvation is found in the one that we make the other –

whoever that may be at the time.

 

And our neighbor is not just there to feel sorry for

and to have pity on, our neighbor is there

to teach us, to emulate, to learn from, and partner with.

That’s the new system Jesus has ordained.

 

In other words, for the people of God,

Salvation is found outside the usual places.

 

All this with a simple story about a man who gets robbed.

 

Jesus tells this man that we cannot put a box or limits on God’s love. 

God will be working wherever God is needed, 

God will be on the dangerous roads, in the streets of the city, in another country.

 

God will even work through those that we have labeled as unholy,

or unworthy, despised and hated, or poor and pitied.

God will work through people outside the Judeo Christian Faith.

And, on occasion, God will even work in and through us,

the people of Christ’s church

 

Jesus is our neighbor. Jesus has shown us love and mercy.

Jesus has rescued us, cleaned our wounds,

taken us to a safe place, and paid for our protection.

Jesus was the one who was despised and looked down on,

and he was crucified for it.

 

Jesus has shown us how to be neighbors to each other,

by being our neighbor first.

 

And Jesus’ love and mercy

is what moves us to go and do likewise.