Sunday, July 24, 2022

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 18:(17-19) 20-33
Psalm 138
Colossians 2:6-15 [16-19]
Luke 11:1-13

Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me. Your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.

The disciples watched Jesus. They were with Him for about three years and saw Him do amazing things. They watched as He interacted with other people, as He provided healing and forgiveness. They watched as Jesus lived out His relationship with His Father. They watched Him pray and they asked Him to teach them to pray. He sat with them and gave them an outline of prayer that they could use.

We use that prayer today, particularly when we are praying in communion with others because it gives us common words and unifies us. It is a good way to teach our children to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is not the only way we can approach our Father, but it is a good place to start. We can even use the outline and add our own words and ideas. Jesus encouraged us with this prayer to honor and worship God, to seek His will, to ask Him to provide all we need, to forgive us and to give us the mercy to forgive others, and to help us remain faithful to Him, worshipping Him with a doxology of praise and thanksgiving for His grace.

But prayer can be more than an established prayer or an outline of certain ideas. In conversations about prayer, I’ve heard many people talk about how they talk to God all day long as if He is walking beside us. I do the same, for sure, especially when I’m driving my car or doing busy work around the house. It is good to be prayerful throughout our day. God is always with us, so it makes sense to have conversations in those moments when our hands our moving, but our mind is not engaged. Some of my best conversations with God have happened at the kitchen sink or behind the wheel. Those prayers are often for safety, but those are also quiet moments when I think about the world and my neighbor. I’m reminded of the sick every time I pass a hospital. I pray when I see emergency vehicles and school buses. A trip to the grocery store can be an awesome adventure in intercession as I see the needs of so many in the passing world. It is good to pray this way. A walk through my neighborhood brings to mind friends and family not only in the houses on my street but also those far away. God is with us and He has a way of reminding us in those quiet moments about the needs of our neighbors so that we will talk to Him about them. Jesus certainly lived a life of walking with His Father, and the disciples saw how close He was to God.

But is this enough? Is it enough to be in constant conversation with God, knowing that He is right beside us the whole way? While there are some people who find time away from the hustle and bustle of the world to spend time in quiet prayer and contemplation, most people pray on the go. We are too busy, and we think that it is enough to recognize God’s daily presence in our lives and talk to Him as a friend who never leaves our side. We think it is ok to raise up a million prayers at the spur of every moment during our day. And yet, Jesus, who was God in flesh and never far from His Father, managed to find time alone to pray. He knew He needed that time to focus solely and completely on the work of prayer. He knew that He had to stop doing so that He could not only speak to God but could also hear what He has to say. Why do we think we can pray any better than Jesus?

If it is enough to be in constant conversation with the God who walks with us, why did the disciples, who truly did constantly walk and talk with Immanuel, ask Him to “teach us to pray.” Jesus knew, and the disciples knew, that a powerful prayer life was more than conversation with a friend who is by our side. It is a time to stop, to worship, to praise, to thank, to intercede, to listen, to contemplate God’s Word. We might be able to do all that at the kitchen sink or behind the wheel of our automobile, but is that really the kind of relationship we want to build with our Father? Doesn’t He deserve our undivided attention for at least a few minutes of our day?

And so we are encouraged to set aside time specifically for prayer. Make an appointment. Establish a place. Turn off any distractions. Use tools that help you keep focused. I make two different types of prayer beads that I sell or give away, but prayer beads are just one type of tool that we can use during our prayer time to help us. I don’t know about you, but I have to admit that my mind often wanders when I’m praying. I begin focused and with a list of things I want to talk about with God, and I get a good start until I hear the ticking clock or the phone rings. I remember that I need to make a shopping list for later that afternoon and remind myself that I need to buy milk. I think about my kids and say a prayer for them, but then I think about how I haven’t heard from them in a few days. I hear a siren in the distance, and I wonder what’s going on. Something reminds me that I need to go to the post office. You see how it goes? Does any of this happen to you?

There may be no way of avoiding some of these mind wanderings, but we can use all the tools available to us to help keep us focused. It is said that the more of your body you get involved in any activity, the better you are able to focus and to retain what you’ve experienced. This is as true about prayer as it is any other activity. This is why prayer altars include candles and incense, beads, music, icons. Engaging all our senses helps us keep our focus on the task at hand: prayer.

And so, I encourage people to use something like prayer beads to enhance their prayer life. Of course, there are many who do not want to use such tools because they’ve seen others who have used them in a way that has no value. They become a crutch; the prayers become rote. That is not the fault of the beads; it is the person praying who must use these tools properly.

The Lord’s Prayer is another tool we can use in our prayer life. Like the prayer beads, many refuse to use the prayer because it has become too familiar. “I’d rather speak to God from my heart.” They don’t want their prayers to be heartless. Sadly, the Lord’s Prayer can become rote. It can become heartless. It can become empty words without understanding. This is not a problem with the words Jesus taught us, but with our own focus and attention on the conversation.

The Lord’s Prayer can become a heartless repetition of the same old thing. Many feel it is better to pray from the heart, sharing with God the immediate needs and praise as they appear. It is good to be spontaneous. Like calling a friend out of the blue to wish them well or say a good word, those impulsive moments are wonderful opportunities to draw deeper into the heart of God. However, reciting a beloved prayer that is memorized from birth is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, how many times do we spontaneously confess our sinfulness to God and ask for His mercy? We are pretty good at asking God for everything that we need for our physical well-being and the well-being of others. We are even pretty good at praising God when things are going well for us. We fail in that we do not look to God to keep us from evil or ask His forgiveness when we fail.

The Lord’s Prayer brings us to our knees and reminds us that prayer is more than simply asking for stuff. We begin by praising God, but not just any God, a personal and intimate Father in heaven. We recognize that even God’s name is holy, as God is holy and that He deserves our worship. We are humbled by the fact that this God who is like a Father is also the Creator and Redeemer of the world. We ask that this world become all that God has created it to be, that His kingdom be visible and manifest in all that we do and say. We ask for the things that we need like food, shelter, clothing but we are reminded that we only need things for this day, not for tomorrow. We confess that we are sinners in need of a Savior asking for the forgiveness that comes from Christ even while we recognize that we need God’s help in offering forgiveness to those who have sinned against us. We ask God to be with us, to guide us, to teach us the paths of righteousness.

Jesus follows this lesson with a story of persistence. Now, we can take this to mean that we should keep asking for God’s blessings, over and over again until He provides what we are asking. Yet, I wonder if we can look at this in a slightly different way. What if persistence means saying the same prayer over and over again? Using the words of the prayer which Jesus taught, not only regularly but daily, God hears and answers. There are some things that we ask that God cannot or will not give us, not because it is out of His ability to do so, but because it is out of line with what He knows we need. How many of us ask for things that are simply not good for us? God has something better. Though He does listen to our specific prayers and desires, sometimes He has a different answer than we would like to hear. Sometimes He says, “Wait.” Sometimes He says, “No.” But when He does not provide what we want, He provides more than we could ever imagine. But He encourages us to keep asking. Perhaps the right time is not now, but will be later.

The Lord’s Prayer may seem to limit our prayers, but the reality is that it opens us up to even bigger and better things. By seeking God’s will, rather than asking God to satisfy ours, we find a greater freedom and a bigger kingdom than we could ever imagine.

Persistence also means boldness. Jesus encourages us to ask even if it seems impossible.

Boldness is what we see in today’s Old Testament passage. Last week we heard the beginning of this encounter between God and Abraham. After serving the LORD and the angels dinner, the Lord wondered if He should reveal to Abraham what was on His mind. He had heard the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah; He was going there to see firsthand the sins of the city. Their sins were great enough to warrant God’s attention. God revealed his plan to Abraham, inviting Abraham to intercede for the sake of the cities.

Abraham knew that his nephew Lot was in that city, and though he had most likely heard the stories about Sodom and Gomorrah’s sinfulness, he also knew that there are at least a few people that did not deserve to be destroyed. “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?”

There are unintended consequences that come with our prayers. We may have every reason to ask God to sweep away our enemies. We’ve been hurt; we have suffered. We know that God will take vengeance on those who harm His people. The psalms are filled with imprecatory prayers. We want to ask Him to deal with them, and perhaps God will answer that prayer. However, we do not always know how our desires will impact others. Even our enemies have families. They have spouses and children. They have people who rely on them. They have daily responsibilities. They have debts that need to be paid. Wiping our enemies off the face of the earth might solve one problem, but how will it destroy the lives of innocents?

And so, we are cautioned when praying for justice to ask, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?” Abraham was not trying to make a deal with God, or test the waters, or brazenly diminish the need for justice. He wanted to understand the boundaries of God’s justice and the limits of His mercy. “Will you spare the cities for fifty? For forty? For thirty?” What impudence!

God heard the plea of Abraham. We might be shocked at Abraham’s boldness in dealing with this situation with God. Yet, we have seen in this story that God is a friend to Abraham and that God has invited Abraham into this situation. God sought Abraham’s council and agreed that if there could be found even ten righteous men in the city, He would not destroy it.

Ten were not found to be righteous. Only Lot, Lot’s wife and his daughters were found righteous. Even the sons-in-law, those promised to his daughters, thought that Lot was kidding when he predicted the destruction of the cities. He tried to get them to repent, to respond to God’s cry for justice. They refused and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were lost. However, God is forever merciful. Though He could not save the cities for the sake of the few, He did save the few before He destroyed the cities. God’s justice prevailed, but so did His mercy.

We might not have the opportunity or need to pray for the deliverance of cities, but God calls us into a relationship with Himself and invites us to intercede for those whom His mercy is the only salvation. We can boldly approach God with the question of where to draw the line between justice and mercy. We will discover that God knew all along the state of those for whom justice has been promised. It might seem shocking that justice would include the destruction of two cities and all the people within, including children, animals and other apparently innocent people. Yet, we do not know what God knows or see all that God sees. Sometimes mercy means ending the self-destruction of wickedness.

Abraham approached God humbly. He knew he was nothing. He knew he was just dust and ashes. But he knew God would listen. “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more.” Unfortunately for Sodom and Gomorrah, the LORD did not find even ten righteous people in the cities. He helped Lot and his family escape and then sent the brimstone to burn it to the ground. In this story we see how God is willing to listen to our prayers and perhaps even change His mind if we are bold enough to ask.

In the parable Jesus told the disciples we are reminded how important hospitality was in those days. “Imagine that visitors arrive at your door in the middle of the night and you have nothing to give them.” The people who were listening would have identified with this story. Jesus continued, “So, you go to your neighbor and knock on his door, begging for something to give your guests because you don’t even have a loaf of bread in your house.” He told them that even though the neighbor would not get up to give you a loaf of bread because you are his friend, he would do so because you are bold enough to interrupt his sleep.

In this Jesus is saying, “Go ahead. Be cheeky. Call God Daddy and seek His grace. It’s ok. God will answer the door.” As we continue through this Pentecost season, learning what it means to follow Jesus, we are reminded that prayer is a vital part of our relationship with God, and that God has promised to listen to our prayers. He has given us the Lord’s Prayer to help us develop a pattern of conversation with Him. Like Abraham, God reveals His plans to us and invites us to intercede with Him for the sake of others. We might even change His mind if we are bold enough to ask.

“I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.” This is a statement of promise, but also responsibility. Do we curse our neighbors because of their sins because we know that God will deal with them? Or do we, like Abraham, consider those who may be destroyed and beg God for mercy on their behalf? If we use the Lord’s Prayer as the foundation of our prayer life, our prayers will be focused on doing what is good and right and true, not what will satisfy our fleshly desires. The more we pray His words, the more our prayers will line up with His will.

God knows what is right. Jesus made one more point in the Gospel lesson. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” God has promised to give us good gifts; He will always give us what we need most.

Today’s lessons are simultaneously lessons in boldness and humility. It might seem strange to put those two together since they seem to be so far apart. When one is bold, he or she seems presumptuous, stepping out in confidence that gives the impression of pride. There is an assertiveness that is not present in someone who is humble. Humility is exactly the opposite, a meekness that shows no pride or arrogance. Yet, boldness is not always a negative trait and humility is not always true.

Paul reminds us in today’s epistle to keep Jesus Christ as the center of our spiritual and religious life. It is too easy to get caught up in the philosophies of men or to lose sight of Jesus as we follow their words. It is easy to get caught up in using the prayer tools in all the wrong ways. Yet, with Christ as our focus, we can take advantage of these earthly gifts to keep us connected to our divine Father and Lord. We have been buried with Him and by His grace we can triumph over anything or anyone that would lead us astray.

The Bible is given to us by God to draw us ever nearer to Him, to guide us in the right way and to build our lives on a solid foundation. Just as the disciples watched Jesus as they walked with Him, we can watch Him as we spend time in the scriptures, learning how to live lives of faithful obedience and lives full of all sorts of prayer. The greater gift is the Holy Spirit, whom God gives to help us keep our hearts on Jesus.

There are so many ways we can pray, and Jesus gives us a strong foundation with the Lord’s Prayer as we grow in our faith and discipleship. It is good to pray throughout the day as we go about our work, but the psalmist understands our need to pray without distraction. When we focus our hearts, minds and bodies on God, we are more likely to hear His voice and recognize with great joy the touch of His hand. We’ll learn to pray rightly so that we’ll ask His will not our own. It doesn’t matter what helps us focus; we will see and hear and experience Him fully as we use our senses, hearts, and minds with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The psalmist wrote, “In the day that I called, you answered me. You encouraged me with strength in my soul.” With these words, the writer recognized the incredible grace of God in this world. He does answer our prayers. He does the right thing. He searches the truth and accomplishes what is best for His Kingdom. He has taught us to ask, to be persistent, to be cheeky. He encourages us to seek and to knock and has promised that He’ll be there to open the door. As the psalmist writes, “Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever.” His love endures forever, and He will complete His work in our lives. His love is forever, He won’t let us down.