The Upload
Posted on Jul 22, 2016 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
In our Gospel text this week, Luke 11:1-13, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and Jesus offers them what we call the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus doesn’t stop there, though; he goes on to say that prayer is something we should do over and over again. Then he says, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (11:10). Jesus said, address God in prayer, ask for what you need, do it a lot, and if you do this, God will grant you what you need.
I pray a lot. I pray for things like healing, peace in our communities and around the world, I pray for specific people who ask me to pray for them and with them, I pray at meals, even when I am in restaurants, giving thanks for the food and those who have prepared it. I pray long prayers and short prayers. I pray prayers that I have memorized and I pray without knowing what I will offer next. I pray alone and I pray with others. Like I said, I pray a lot.
But sometimes, I wonder why I pray at all. As I noted last week, I am troubled by all the violence in the world. This week, once again, a police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty. Why hasn’t God answered my prayer for peace? I am also troubled with all the illness and disease in the world. My sister, who just this week turned 60, is dealing with cancer and I have been praying that God will heal her; yet, as the most recent scan showed, she still has cancer. As we heard from our music director, Heather, in her letter, last week the kids in the play about Sampson (which was awesome, by the way!) learned of a young boy who died from Leukemia. Why wasn’t he healed when his family prayed for healing?
My guess is that you have these same questions about prayer. Why doesn’t God answer our prayers? Oh, there are many answers that have been given, like God always answers, but sometimes the answer is no. But, to be honest, answers like this seem to trivialize the importance of our prayers, and I don’t think Jesus would offer such an explanation. No, the more I think about this issue, the more I realize that all too often we have come to see God more like Santa Claus, or the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny. We see God as the one who watches over us and then gives us things.
But that is not the God of scripture or the God that Jesus calls “Father.” No, the simple truth is when Jesus speaks of prayer he is not talking of a passive way of asking for things. When Jesus prayed, he prayed boldly and often, and he knew that God would answer his prayer, because he knew that God would continue to send his Spirit upon him that would empower him to be the answer to his prayers. In other words, when Jesus prayed for peace, he went and got involved with those who dealt with violence and he offered himself as part of the solution. When he prayed for healing, he became part of the solution. Jesus was willing to stand up and make change happen.
What Jesus literally says in our story for this week is not that God will be like Santa and give us all the stuff we want; no, instead, what God will do in our persistent prayer is give us the gift of the Holy Spirit (11:13), and in doing so we will be empowered to go and make our prayers reality.
I can’t take cancer from my sister (or anyone), but I can call her, text her, visit her, and let her know she is not alone in this battle. I can’t stop all violence, but I can stand up and try to find ways to get guns off the streets. I can get involved and try to find ways to bring sustainable help into communities that are poverty stricken and filled with violence. For my prayers to be answered, I have to be part of the solution.
What Jesus is saying to us this week is the world is not centered on us and our own wants, but it is about God and God’s kingdom. If we really do desire God’s Kingdom to come, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, then we ought to be willing to let God turn the world upside down from what we know now. We best be ready to help flip this world into a new reality.
Have a blessed and holy week!
Shalom,
Pr. Dave