For Sunday, July 28th

Hello Friends,

Welcome back to Prepared Hearts, the Wacousta Community UMC online Bible study. Lectionary texts for this week include: Hosea 1:2-10, Psalm 85, Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19), and Luke 11:1-13. I’ll be preaching from Luke. The NRSV translation is below, followed by some starter thoughts.

Luke 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

“So I say to you, Ask, 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, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If 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!”

STARTER THOUGHTS

There’s a lot going on in this short passage. First, Jesus answers his disciples’ question about how to pray and then follows it up with a story about persistence. Finally, he reiterates the nature of our relationship with God as one like that of a child and parent.

In the middle of it all, we have a very popular line of scripture: “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” It’s really pretty text, so it often gets plucked out and put on posters, bookmarks, etc. However, when it stands alone, it makes God sound less like our sovereign Creator and more like our own personal Santa Claus, who if we ask long enough, will give us what we want. How do we move beyond a “Santa Claus” understanding of God? What’s the real purpose of prayer after all?

When I read this scripture, the first question that comes to my mind is: what about those times when we are persistent in prayer and knock and knock and nothing seems to happen? How do we make sense of receiving the exact opposite of what we have asked for?

This teaching asks us to be explorers in faith: search, ask, knock. Jesus challenges us not to have the answers, but to seek them out from the Lord. This runs counter to what we are experiencing now in what’s often called the “information age.” We watch television shows that explain how everything from copper piping to bubble gum gets made. If we have a question, Google is right there to give us an abundance of answers. We’ve grown accustomed to getting answers, and I don’t know about you, but I like answers. In the midst of a culture of answers, how can we cultivate a spirit that is at peace with the process of searching and asking? Does the church convey an attitude of exploration or do we present ourselves as if we already have all the answers?

Jesus shares a prayer in this text that later gets expanded upon and becomes part of the church’s common language as the Lord’s Prayer. When you pray, “Your Kingdom come,” what is it that you imagine? If things were on earth as they are in heaven, what would be different? What would be the same?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and reflections!