Gospel: Luke 11:1-13
28 July 2019
Our Gospel reading gives us Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer. It is a bit shorter than the version in Matthew. The longer prayer has some elaboration, perhaps as a result of being used in early Christian worship. (By the way, the Lord’s Prayer we say together at the Eucharist more resembles Matthew’s longer version.) What we have in Luke is probably closer to an oral tradition of Jesus’ sayings, a source available to Luke and Matthew but not, apparently, to Mark where we find no version of this prayer. Even so, Jesus is noted as a person of prayer in all four Gospels. In the context of the Season After Pentecost when the focus is on Christian living, the Gospel reading clearly points us to prayer as a way of life and a source of strength for those who follow Jesus.
We heard today that some of Jesus’ disciples, who had previously followed John the Baptist, recalled that John had talked about prayer. These disciples began to wonder if Jesus would teach them about prayer as well. In a way, of course, Jesus had already been teaching them about prayer. He used what educators know today as one of the most effective instructional techniques in a teacher’s toolkit: the strategy known as modeling. The disciples observed that Jesus took the time to pray even at the height of his public ministry. Sometimes Jesus would remove himself to a deserted place in order to pray, but they knew what he was doing. The disciples came to know that prayer was a priority in his spirituality. Luke tells us, for example, that Jesus spent an entire night in prayer before choosing the twelve he called apostles (Luke 6:12). Eventually, we arrive at the point in today’s Gospel, when the disciples ask Jesus to help them more directly with the practice of prayer.
The subject of prayer could fill books, but I’m going to limit myself to three points that jump off the page for me. First, Jesus models the practice of prayer by addressing his words to one called “Father.” Jesus’ instruction for us to use this term implies that, in prayer, we are speaking as adopted sons and daughters of God. I am reminded of the prologue of John’s Gospel where we find the words: “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”
In addressing this prayer to “Father,” Jesus reminds us, from the start, that we are not praying to someone out there, beyond our time and place, who may or may not hear us...something akin to placing a message in a bottle thrown into the ocean. Instead, our prayer is like a conversation with one near to us. At any point along the journey of faith, and especially in times of stress, God may seem distant to us as we pray. The Christian life holds the promise of growth in faith including our consciousness of God’s presence. Jesus models for us prayer as a way to practice the presence of God even when we’re not feeling it, so to speak. Our Presiding Bishop, The Most Reverend Michael Curry, joyfully preaches that the Christian Life is about the transformative power of God’s Love. Prayer helps open our hearts to this Love, and, as a vehicle for God’s Love, prayer changes our lives in powerful ways.
A second point that arrests my attention is that the Lord’s Prayer itself has different types of prayer within it. Jesus’ begins with what we often call “adoration.” When we say to God, “hallowed be your name” we are not asking for anything. It is a statement intended to praise God, to worship God by ascribing holiness. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus instructs us to begin with praise...to enter into a spirit of worship before moving on to other types of prayer.
We next see that Jesus asks for something. This type of prayer is known as “petition.” I suppose that the first thing “petition” brings to mind is that it asks God to take care of our own needs. But, the way Jesus models it, we are instructed first to ask that God’s will be done before we turn to personal requests. Jesus does this when he prays: “Your kingdom come.” In Jesus of Nazareth, the Kingdom of God was established in power and beginning. But it has not been realized in all of its fullness. The completion of God’s will for our world is rightfully placed at the top of any list of petitions.
Jesus continues his model with prayers for daily bread, for the forgiveness of sins, and for protection from temptation. There are yet other types of prayer, well known and accepted in Christian spirituality, that are not included in this brief model. “Thanksgiving” and “intercession,” for example, are not found here but are found elsewhere in Luke. For example, after Jesus heals ten lepers, the one who returns to Jesus to give thanks is told “Your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19). And, Jesus demonstrates intercession even from the cross when he prays, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (luke 23:34). The Lord’s Prayer is meant to be instructive but not necessarily encyclopedic with regard to the possible kinds of prayer; however, it is arguably the best way to begin and grow a life-changing practice of prayer.
The third, and final, point I wanted to make from our Gospel reading is the call to be persistent in our prayers. Jesus uses the story of the “Friend at Midnight” as a kind of contrast. In this story, there is a friend who comes knocking at the door in the middle of the night because he needs some bread to serve a guest. But you have already barred the door and are in bed with your children. You tell this needy friend that you are not going to help tonight; it’s just too late! But, it doesn’t end there. The friend does not retreat; he keeps knocking. He’s obviously not going away until you give him some bread for his guest...and, thanks to this audacious persistence, you finally, if begrudgingly, get up and give him some bread.
Life shows us that persistence works. We learn that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, the ones who persevere are most likely to achieve their goals; it doesn’t matter how talented you are, if you give up, what you were working on is not happening. Jesus stories usually make a single point, and this one teaches, “If persistence helps you get what you need in this fallen world, then think about how much more your heavenly Father, who loves you as a child, will respond to your being steadfast in prayer.”
We are taught in scripture that God knows our needs before we ask. What we think we need, what we think is best, what we want when we want it, may not be what we need from God’s perspective. Jesus knows what we most need from both the divine and the human perspectives, so he teaches us to ask for the Holy Spirit. Jesus knows that we need the very life of God to dwell in us, to empower us, to give us spiritual wisdom, to inspire us to live one day at a time with the gifts we have been given. In the end, what we need, to live fully, is to know and trust the transformative power of God’s love.
Jesus encourages us to make our petitions known to God and to be persistent in our prayers. I am convinced that prayer changes lives; being persistent in prayer, having some consistency in place and time, trying different types of prayer, being intentional about prayer...thinking beforehand about what and whom we will include, all of these efforts help open us to the transformative power of God’s Love. Of course, let’s not forget about prayers written by others...we do have a Book of Common prayer, after all, that is a treasure trove for our use. I think it safe to say that there is no one right way to pray; perhaps, there are as many ways as there are people. But, when we need a place to start, when words fail us, when we are unsure, know this: Jesus has given a model of prayer that is always there for us. AMEN.
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