“Knock, Knock, Knocking on Heaven’s Door” July 28, 2013 Luke 11:1-13

Pastor Roger Dykstra Calvary Lutheran Church Grand Forks, ND

Last week Pastor Kristen talked about the story of Mary and Martha, and Jesus’ message for those of us who (just like

Martha) are too distracted from the really important things because of how busy we are with all kinds of other things

that ultimately aren’t that important, and so it is important that we learn to be less busy all the time and spend more

time attending to our spiritual selves and our relationship with our Father in heaven, which isn’t limited to but would

certainly include time spent in prayer, which, of course, is something probably all of us think sounds great except that

most all of us would also say we’re not “great” at doing it, right? (I mean, we’ve made those New Year’s resolutions

and Lenten resolutions and given prayer a try but, well… ’nuff said, right?)

Jesus was great at doing it.

So one of them (speaking for all of them, and for most if not all of us) said to him, “Lord… teach us to pray!”

And Jesus responds by teaching them a good portion of what we’ve come to know as “The Lord’s Prayer,” and in

doing so teaches them and us a lot about prayer, including teaching us a whole lot in the very first word of the prayer,

when he said, “When you pray, say Father.’”

-I am so sorry (angry sometimes!) that some human fathers (unlike the father I had, who wasn’t perfect but was very

good) but some human fathers, blatantly sinfully, have made it almost impossible for their sons and daughters to

hear the gifts and the promises that are so wrapped into that word, “Father.”

(Scholars say the word Jesus probably actually used was the Aramaic word “Abba” which many scholars then

go on to point out was an informal word – a word used around the house – and so today could probably more

accurately be translated, ‘When you pray, say ‘Dad” – or even “Daddy.’”)

Now of course none of us on this earth had or have a perfect father.

-But what Jesus is saying here is that the best prayers begin by remembering that you in fact do have a perfect

father – a father who never gets it wrong or abuses trust – and that father is your father, your Abba, your “dad,” in

heaven.

The first thing Jesus teaches us about prayer in this very first word of this prayer?

-Prayer is not trying to get the attention of a distant and almighty God awesome with awesomeness which our over-

used anymore word “awesome” can’t even begin to describe, a God who is certainly too awesome to be bothered

by the likes of you!

-No…prayer is a conversation with an awesome God whose attention you don’t need to capture because you already

have it; his attention is already on you, because he’s that perfect parent, and perfectly he loves you and he never

doesn’t want to hear from you.

-Not every prayer needs literally to begin with the word “Father.”

As busy as he was, he always found time, made time, carved out blocks of time away

from the busy-ness to spend time in prayer with his father. Which I’m sure is why he

was so very attuned to the will of the Father, and was also why, though things around

him were often busy with busy-ness you and I can’t even imagine, and though his

life, in the end, would get to be “as hard as hell,” (literally!) his soul was never

distracted with busy-ness and his heart was ever a place of peace.

In our gospel reading for today – which immediately follows the story of Mary and

Martha – Jesus was doing what he so often did. “He was praying,” and after he was

finished one of his disciples asked him a question which once again reveals that these

first disciples of his were a lot like us because what the question reveals is that they too

believed prayer was important but they wished they were better at it; they wished they

could pray like Jesus did.

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-But every prayer that is a prayer Jesus would teach you to pray does begin remembering that you are praying to

One who loves you.

-Does the God you pray to love you?

-Jesus says, begin every prayer you pray remembering that the answer to that question is, “Oh my

goodness, yes!!”

Then, Jesus says, to this One who loves you, say “hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,” and – not here but

on another occasion – he also added, “your will be done,” all of which above all mean that the purpose of prayer is not

that we be lifted up and glorified and exalted as God is changed and changes things according to our oftentimes self-

centered desires, but rather that God be lifted up and glorified and exalted as we – and all – are changed by God’s

always not just wise but also loving desires.

-A mother sent her fifth grader up to bed, and then in a few minutes went to make sure he was actually getting in bed.

When she stuck her head into his room, she saw that he was praying. Listening, she heard him praying over and

over again. "Let it be Tokyo! Please dear God, let it be Tokyo!"

-When he finished his prayers, she asked him, "What did you mean, ‘Let it be Tokyo’?"

-"Oh," the boy said, "we had a geography test today and I was praying that God would make Tokyo the

capital of France."

The prayer Jesus teaches is not a magical or manipulative attempt to get God to do what we want, but rather an

opening of our hearts and an offering of ourselves to do – and to be – what God wants.

-“Hallowed be your name...Your kingdom come…Your will be done,” is what Jesus taught us to pray.

Then, he said, now, he said, ask for something for yourself, but look what he tells us to ask for: “our daily bread.”

-“Bread,” it’s important to realize, means everything that we need in life; it does not mean every single thing that

we ever “want” in life.

-Blessed is the one knows the difference between “wants” and “needs.”

-Blessed is the one who knows his need for the bread of God’s Word and God’s promises which feed not our

hungry bellies but our hungry souls.

-Blessed is the one who knows that some of the things the world keeps trying to convince her she “needs”

she’d be just fine without.

-And blessed is the one who knows that having what I need and forgetting about some of those “wants,” I

might just find myself with some resources available to help someone else have something he or she truly

does need, which is also part of this prayer, given the fact that Jesus did not teach me to pray “Give me this

day my daily bread,” but “give us this day our daily bread.”

And then, Jesus says, pray to be forgiven, but also to be forgiving.

-The kingdoms of this world are most often advanced by threats or force which overpower and compel.

-The kingdom of heaven, on the other hand (which we’ve already prayed will come!) is advanced by grace and

mercy which forgive and welcome.

-Forgive us, we pray, that we might be welcomed to your kingdom…but too, we pray, help us to forgive, that

we might advance your kingdom.

And, Jesus said, pray, “do not bring us to the time of trial,” more familiarly translated as “lead us not into

temptation,” to which on another occasion he added, “when life does bring us to times of trial and temptation, go with

us to them and see us through him, i.e. “deliver us from evil.”

-Among other things, this prayer reminds us that in a broken world where the kingdom of God is not yet fully

established, the follower of Jesus is not someone who just sails through life with no tough times, but rather the

one who knows his need for – and knows God’s promise of – strength that is more than just our strength for the

tough times.

Put all of that together and what we see is that in his response to the request, “teach us to pray” (in case the problem

we have with prayer is that we can’t think of what to say!)

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Jesus gives us words to say in prayer, and words which teach us much about all of our prayers.

But he doesn’t stop there. Because why?

-Because sometimes (and most of us have been there and some of us maybe are there even now!) sometimes our

difficulty with prayer isn’t that we don’t know the words to use, but rather that we’re not sure whether or not

any words we use – any prayers we pray – will actually make any difference.

-Indeed, some of us, very, very, painfully, can think of times when we’ve prayed and prayed and prayed and

prayed (prayed, for example) for the cancer to go away from our loved one…but it didn’t…and he died…

-And for us - us who painfully remember times when we feel like we’ve gotten “burned” praying, or maybe for

others of us who are modern and sophisticated and not altogether sure anymore we can believe in prayer – for us,

the request “teach us to pray” isn’t a request for words…it’s a request for faith.

-‘Cause we know words…we’re just not altogether sure they’re worth saying.

I want to tell you (I wish this wasn’t true, but it is true!) I personally am not a good enough pray-er or a strong enough

believer or a smart enough thinker fully to address even just my questions about prayer, much less address every

single one of yours, and so I’m not even gonna try to do that. What I do want to do is offer just a few closing

observations based on the rest of the things Jesus in our text for this morning does say – and promise.

A first thing…In that almost humorous story Jesus tells about the man who keeps nagging his neighbor until finally

the neighbor gets out of bed and gives him what he needs, the clear point he’s making is that one important thing

about prayer is persistence – keeping at prayer even when you can’t see that it’s doing any good, except that unlike

the neighbor in the parable who needs to be nagged into submission, the reason for persistent prayer is not to nag God

into submission!

-William McGill puts it this way: “The value of persistent prayer is not that God will finally hear us but that we

will finally hear God."

-Like when we pray “God be with me today.”

-You know what? God is with you every day – whether you pray for it or not! For he promised, “I am with you

always.”

-Do we keep on praying a prayer like “God be with me” in order to keep on remembering that promise?

-William McGill again: “The value of persistent prayer is not that God will hear us but that we will finally hear

God.”

A second observation. “Ask,” Jesus says, “and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will

be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives....”

-There is a beautiful promise here, but…looking at it closely this week, it occurred to me that it maybe isn’t

necessarily exactly the promise I always used to think it was; because Jesus doesn’t here say “Ask and you will

receive exactly what you ask for;” he says, rather, “Ask and you will receive.”

A third observation – related to the last one…”If a child asks for something good,” Jesus says, “a loving father won’t

respond by giving her something bad.” But how about the flip side of that? If a child thinks she’s asking for

something good but it’s actually not good or not good for her or not good for her right at this moment, he won’t give

that to her either! A loving parent hears everything a child asks for, but that doesn’t mean a loving parent gives his or

her child everything she asks for.

A loving and good parent only gives his or her child what is loving and good, and if that parent is perfect and loving –

as Jesus promises our Father in heaven is – he will never give her something that’s not loving and good. Which means

if something “bad” is given to us, then what? Well…then one of two things: either

(1) God’s not the one who gave it to us – ‘cause God is good and never gives what is bad…Or what??

(2) Or it means that we need to re-understand that there’s a huge difference between something that’s actually bad

and something that is perhaps hard, and even painful, but good for us or good for others.

Which leads to Jesus’ closing words, which I’m kind of embarrassed to say I’ve never before realized how much he is

saying in them. I’m talking about Luke 11:13: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your

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children, how much more will the heavenly Father give…” Give what? “Give the Holy Spirit to those who ask…"

-God doesn’t give every single thing to us when we ask any more than a loving mother gives everything single thing

to her son that he asks for!

-But God does, Jesus says, every single time, “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

And what does the Holy Spirit do? Oh my, talk about answers to prayer!

-Do you know what (according to I Corinthians 12)1 is the first work of the Holy Spirit? To give us faith – faith in

the promises of the one we’re praying to!

-And do you know what (according to I Corinthians 13) is another work of the Holy Spirit? To give us hope –

not “wishful thinking” but “sure and certain hope” – that though all things in this sin-broken world surely and

certainly aren’t right now exactly the way we or God want them to be, all things will be – all things will be –

“good” in the end.

-And do you know what (also according to I Corinthians 13) is another work and the greatest work of the Holy

Spirit? Love.

-Love which is always the good and gracious will of God, for God is Love!

-Love which always reaches to embrace us, even midst things that aren’t good.

-And love which is always, always, always at work for good and also always, always, always leading and

empowering us lovingly to be at work for good whether times, for now, are bad or good.

Faith…Hope…and above all, Love…Love with us always, and love seeking to become us – always.

I think, in telling us that God gives the Holy Spirit to all who pray, what Jesus might be telling us is that faith, and

hope, and love, finally, are “the final answer” – and the best answer – to every single prayer we’ll ever pray.

Let us pray…“Father…in things we understand, and in things we don’t understand, give us your Holy Spirit and her

gifts for all to whom she comes. Give us – give all of us, always – faith, and hope, and love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

1 I Corinthians 12:3