St
Luke’s,
I doubt that there is any part of
the Bible that’s better known than the Lord’s Prayer. There might be a few
hiccups over which version and the odd line gets missed, but in general pretty
much anyone who has ever had anything to do with the Church or a boarding
school knows it – which probably explains why so few of us pay it much
attention.
Today’s gospel reading brings us
to the last of three vignettes Luke offers focused on the life of a disciple.
In the Good Samaritan we find the disciple called to ‘go and do likewise’ – to
treat all as a neighbour, no matter who they are. In the story of Martha and
Mary the disciple is described as someone who assumes the disciple’s position –
who sits at the feet of the Master, listening and learning – and today we hear
Jesus’ teaching on the life of the disciple as a life of prayer.
Prayer has always been big
business for the Church. From day one I doubt that any other topic within our
faith has had so much written and said about it. Go to any Christian bookshop
or theological library and you’ll find literally thousands of books and
articles and DVDs and who knows what else, all focused on prayer, which isn’t
surprising really.
Prayer has always been a central
and yet slightly mysterious part of faith. And it’s natural that we mere
mortals, unable to see God or fully grasp what God’s all about, want to know as
much as we can about how to communicate with this Source of All Being whom we
worship and honour every week. But still it seems a bit strange to me that
entire forests should have to die, whole bookshelves should have to overflow,
hours upon hours of reading and studying should have to go on, when Jesus
summed up his own teaching on prayer in just three words - ask, search, knock.
The story is basic enough; Jesus
is responding to a simple request from his disciple, Lord, teach us to pray. John,
like all rabbis, had taught his disciples to pray, so Jesus’ disciples wanted
him to do likewise and Jesus responds with those well known words we call The
Lord’s Prayer. Much time could and should be spent looking at what this prayer
actually says, however, there’s too much here to cover in one sermon, so we’ll
take the Lord’s Prayer as read for now, but I want to come back to a bit of it
later because it’s central to what Jesus is saying here.
So Jesus teaches them this prayer
but then goes on to tell them more. Just knowing the prayer, he says, isn’t
enough. It’s all very well mouthing the words, but the prayer to have meaning,
to have substance, we need to have some idea of what it is we’re praying for
and how and both those things will depend largely on our understanding of just
who – or what - it is that we’re praying to.
This is a key part of our reading
this morning. If we understand the God we pray to as an angry God who judges us
and needs us to appease him, that will shape how we pray and what we pray for.
If we understand the God we pray to as a distant God, unknowable and
unapproachable, that will shape how we pray and what we pray for. If we
understand the God we pray to as our buddy whom we can high five and call
‘mate’, that will shape how we pray and what we pray for. Knowing who you’re
praying to, Jesus says, is the key to prayer, and he illustrates that point
with the Parable of the Persistent Friend.
This story bothers me at times. At
first glance it seems to say that if you ask for something often enough, you’ll
get it. It’s like what kids do when they want something. ‘Can I have it?’ ‘No’,
‘Can I have it?’ ‘No’ – how long does it take before we crack and say yes? Is
that really what we mean by prayer? I get somewhat suspicious when I see some
of these prayer marathons advertised. We’re going to spend 24 hours praying
constantly for something or other. Do we really think that God will say yes if
we nag enough? Don't get me wrong, I think many prayer vigils are a good thing,
mainly because they help us focus on
the matter at hand. But I don’t believe God’s response will be any faster or
more positive just because we ask more often or because there are more of us
asking for it.
So if that’s not what this story
says, what is? As is so often the case, context is crucial here. The central
character is the man who receives an unexpected guest late at night. According
to his culture it’s essential that this guest be offered a meal, but there’s no
food in the house, so he goes to a friend’s house to borrow some. But the
friend is in bed. Jesus’ listeners would have known what this meant. In ancient
What makes a parable a parable is
the surprise at the end. A parable is a story that seeks to change the way we
think about things by offering an unexpected outcome to a normal situation. But
in this case the outcome is completely predictable, so to understand the parable
– indeed, to even make it a parable – we need to look at what Jesus goes on to
say next.
Having told this story of the man
who rouses his friend in the middle of the night, Jesus goes on to say, ‘If you
think that was a good friend, wait until you meet God!’ Everything the man had
to persist to get his friend to do, Jesus says, God does straight away. The
persistent friend had to beg to be leant some bread, but Jesus tells us all we
need do is ask. The persistent friend might well have been left looking at a
locked door all night, but Jesus says knock and it will be opened. And then he
reminds us of that opening word in his prayer - Father. Such a difficult word
so often, but it’s not really the word that matters here it’s what the word
implies – a close, intimate, loving relationship. God is like a father, and
what father would refuse to give his children what they most needed? That’s
what God is like.
But that’s not all God is like.
There’s a tension here that we need to recognise. While on the one hand God is
this loving, caring father, on the other hand God is still God, and there is a
hint of the unknowable and the untouchable about that. “Our Father in heaven.”
God is like a father, but God is also beyond everything we’ve experienced and
known. God will give us what we need, but this is still the God who’s ways so
often aren’t our ways and who’s priorities are not those we might usually
expect. A disciple of mine, Jesus implies, recognises this and knows that it’s
not just about praying, it’s also about what we pray for.
Your kingdom come. Give us our
daily bread. Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to
us. How often do we think about what we’re really saying in the Lord’s Prayer? Do
we really want God’s kingdom to come? A kingdom that every single example
offered in scripture tells us will turn our view of reality on its head. Are we
prepared to settle for just our daily bread? This brings to mind the wandering
Israelites in the desert, receiving enough manna from heaven for just the one
day, no more, no less. Those of us who have brought up to always have something
aside for a rainy day might want to think twice before we pray that line, and
as for the next, do we really realise how contingent that prayer is? Forgive us
our sins as we forgive others. We might just as well say, if we don’t forgive
others, please don't forgive us.
The prayer may be simple and
straight forward, but in offering it to his disciples us Jesus says this is
what following me involves, not just accepting it, but wanting it, praying for
it – this lifestyle radically different than what you’re used to, vastly
different to what might be considered normal, that’s what you’re praying for
here. And that must surely be the point we have to keep in mind when we
consider Jesus’ summing up of the lesson. Ask, search, knock. Contrary to what
some may think, nowhere here does Jesus say ask for anything. If we learn
anything from a close examination of the gospels it’s that no one word, saying,
story or action of Jesus can be taken in isolation from the rest. It’s only
when we look at the big picture that we get an overall idea of what he was on
about. And that big picture is consistently about radically changing our point
of view. It’s about understanding that the way of God is not the way that we
would consider normal. It’s about recognising that the abundant life we find in
Christ is dependant on accepting death.
Unlike any of the stacks of books
you’ll find on the subject, Jesus sums up his lesson on prayer with just three
words - ask, search, knock. Like so much of what Jesus gives us, however, this
is not some magic formula we can memorise and abracadabra we’re done. As usual,
Jesus leaves us with some homework. Ask and you’ll receive, search and you’ll
find, knock and the door will be opened. But first, spend time discovering what
to ask and search for, and which doors to knock on. Discovering the what of
asking, searching and knocking is another whole lesson in prayer itself. It’s a
lesson about listening rather than talking, reflecting rather than requesting
and sitting with rather than moving on. But it’s also a lesson we don’t have
time to dwell on right now.
Ask, search, knock. Three little words that raise a lifetime
worth of questions. May God be with us in our asking. Amen.