Luke 11:1-13
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost | 27 07 25 | A Sermon on Luke 11:1-13 | by David H. Brooks |
Luke 11:1-13
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3Give us each day our daily bread,
4and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
5And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles
ALL DISTRACTIONS ASIDE…
You may recall that in last week’s sermon I talked about distractions, about being yanked in several directions at once, about how our eyes struggle to stay focused on our Lord. I finished that sermon by saying that the whole point of service, or ministry, is to highlight and focus on the one needful thing: Jesus himself. We can be and frequently are distracted in the church by our ministry busyness, forgetting that the reason for all that we do, all our actions and activities are so that Jesus can be seen, both by ourselves and others.
It is for that reason—the question of distraction—that I think that Luke puts this story about Jesus teaching his disciples a prayer right on the heels of the story of Martha and Mary.
“And in a place where Jesus had just concluded praying, one of his disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray, as [the Baptizer] taught his disciples.”
Luke begins his account of the origin of what we call the Lord’s Prayer with two important points. The first is that the “place” is unnamed. We don’t know where Jesus and the disciples were. It could have been anywhere. What Luke is emphasizing here is that prayer is not limited to a particular place, or a particular time. Prayer is not reserved for holy spaces; it is not mean only for special moments. Prayer can (should?!) happen everywhere and in every time, because as we move through daily life, we need what psychologists would recognize as redirection, a clear move to refocus attention and energy from one object or situation to another. As sinful men and women, we prefer our attention to be on ourselves; prayer, among its other salutary effects, redirects our vision, helps us pay attention to that which we are paying attention, and redirects us toward God.
The second thing I want us to notice is that prayer is something that must be taught. We have a capacity for prayer in the same fashion as we have a capacity for speech, or reading, or running; but developing that capacity requires both training and practice. Prayer is not extemporaneous, unstructured action, but grows from imitation and habit. A life of prayer is just that: a life, with all that life brings. And if you’re thinking right now that your prayer life is on life support, then I have good news for you.
The prayer that Jesus gives the disciples is meant to be habitual or regularly practiced, and it is meant to imitated or copied. It is not just meant for the special place/special time of a church worship service, but is meant for regular use. Luther encouraged its use when you first wake up and when you hit the hay, every day. But this prayer that is a gift from our Lord gives us guidance in how our prayer might flow:
…when you pray, say…
FATHER—and we being happily redirected, for you or I cannot say that God is a father to me without remembering that Jesus is a brother to me; and if Jesus is my brother, then everyone whom Jesus has claimed as his own is my brother or sister. I am not the center of the universe, and if I am going to pray in faith to the one Jesus tells me can be called Father, then my faith should also wrap itself around all those others and their needs.
MAKE YOUR NAME HOLY; MAY YOUR KINGDOM COME—and here is the need to not be pulled to-and-fro, to recognize that, in our cultivated distractions, we are likely to both miss the emergence, the appearing of the kingdom that is found among the least, the little and the last; that is as intimate as your own breath; that is discovered only as we walk with Jesus. We cannot demand that God sanctify or consecrate our plans and purposes—we can only ask that we be found in his.
GIVE US BREAD SUFFICIENT FOR THE DAY—our English smooths out what is an odd sentence, but, given the focus of our model prayer, what is implied is that we pray that the Father would give us day by day what we truly need for life. That might be physical food, but it might also be (or include) something else entirely. Above all, we who belong to Christ know that we need Christ, the true bread of life, and living day by day cannot be blessed without our Lord’s presence to us and for us. It is a reminder that every action in daily living—making a meal, driving a car, answering an email, reading a book, on and on and on—cannot proceed without God’s providential care, and we should remember above all that nothing we have really comes because of our own might or ability.
PUT ASIDE OUR SINS AGAINST YOU, FOR WE ALSO PUT ASIDE THE SINS OTHERS COMMIT AGAINST US – recall to mind the words of Jesus: pray for your enemies, for those who persecute you. If part of the life of prayer is to be aware that I am not alone, but am privileged to pray for brothers and sisters, then logically I am also privileged to pray for those who hate me, or whom I hate.
AND DO NOT PUT US TO THE TEST—here, our model prayer has us acknowledge two things: first, we are weak, not strong; second, God tests—it is Satan that tempts. On the field of battle, every soldier discovers very quickly that war is a stern test of the person, both in terms of skill and knowledge but also character and strength. We pray, not standing on our righteousness or strength of our spiritual arms, but asking that God, that mighty fortress, would stand for us.
Lastly, Jesus interprets his own prayer and gives us a real reason to pray: God hears! If a friend would finally succumb to our constant nagging, how much more will our Father, who wants to give us the Kingdom with its righteousness, move quickly to answer the prayers of his faithful ones. Jesus is telling us that faithful assertiveness, boldness in prayer and confidence in the results, prayer with purpose and without distractions, is his aim for us. It does not matter where. It does not matter when. Pray to the one Jesus taught you to call Father. He will hear. And in your praying, and in his hearing, he will draw you into the very heart of his kingdom, where all prayers are truly answered. Amen.
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©Rev. David H. Brooks
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Durham, North Carolina, USA