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 to 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!’
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In 2014 I had the immense privilege of travelling to Israel on the Three Bishop’s (of Manchester Diocese) Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There we spent over a week travelling around all the famous sites, Galilee, Nazareth, Jericho, Bethlehem and of course Jerusalem, where you can go to the mount of olives. This is where Jesus spent some of his time teaching, and indeed we can see that in our passage this morning.
Located there is a church called the ‘church of the Pater Noster. Or the ‘Our Father’ as our Roman brothers and sisters call it. The church of the ‘our father,’ the Lord’s Prayer. There in the cloister you will find over 100 plaques with the Lord’s Prayer written in 100 different languages and dialects. A couple we were on the trip with were overcome with sheer joy when they found that their native language was on one of the plaques with joy when they found
When we went in, our whole group, and members of another group said the Lord’s Prayer together, some in English and others in different languages.
I remember the feeling, it felt like a holy moment, a special moment, a moment that no doubt has been repeated in hundreds of languages by millions of people throughout the world and for two thousand years since Jesus taught it to his disciples. This is the bedrock of Christian prayer. A prayer that we can pray when all other prayers go out of our heads and when we simply lack the words to say to God, we can still say this prayer. I remember saying it in primary school when I was just four or five years old.
Our Father in heaven. No doubt you’ll know that the way that Jesus spoke of his Heavenly Father was to use the word ‘abba’ or ‘daddy’ like a child who runs to their father with arms outstretched shouting ‘daddy‘ and runs into his arms and is picked up and given a big squeeze. That’s the kind of prayer that a four or a five year or even an older child can say without feeling embarrassed. Yet Jesus seems to want all of his followers to pray like this, no matter our age.
When do we lose that? that child like faith in him? Why is it that we find it hard to see our Heavenly Father in this way.
I’ve said this before I know, but our image of God as Father really matters here; and the relationship. If our relationship (or lack there of) with our fathers was difficult, then we are likely to project that onto God. If we never knew our fathers, or if some bad things happened, it is tempting to think that God is the same way. If we never experienced love or generous from or parents, how can we, really expect them from God.
But if ever we’re tempted to think of God as an evil and domineering figure or a tyrant, this passage does well to remind us of the way our Heavenly Father truly is;
‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to 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!’
God is a parent, and a parent knows (or in 99% of cases anyhow) how to give good gifts to their children, they know how to be kind and generous to their children, they know what it means to sacrifice for their children. So if we know how to do good things for our children then how much more, how much more will God give good things to his children, to all of us, If we ask him?
Sometimes it is tempting to think ‘well, I don’t have to pray, because God is eternal and he knows everything so why should we ask? And why should we persist in asking, as the friend does when he’s knocking on the door. And Jesus himself says ‘ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opener…’ these phrases is in the present continuous tense. So there is a sense of a persistence in asking, be asking, be seeking, be knocking. Why though? Why does God not just see our needs and sort them?
In the chronicles of Narnia series, Aslan the lion is a figure of immense wonder. Last week I quoted from the Magician’s Nephew, and I’m doing to do so again. In it, a boy called Digoru and a girl named Polly have been given a task to do by Aslan, to go far away to obtain a magic apple and bring it back to him. And they ride on a flying horse called Flense. Now, Part way through the adventure, they realise that they don’t have any food to eat. Well actually, Flense the horse does as he can eat the grass on the ground, which he does with gusto.
“Come on, you two. Don’t be shy. There’s plenty for us all.”
“But we can’t eat grass,” said Digory.
“H’m, h’m,” said Fledge, speaking with his mouth full. “Well – h’m – don’t know quite what you’ll do then. Very good grass too.”
Polly and Digory stared at one another in dismay. “Well, I do think someone might have arranged about our meals,” said Digory.
“I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said Fledge.
“Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly. “I’ve no doubt he would,” said the Horse (still with his mouth full). “But I’ve a sort of idea he likes to be asked.”
“I’ve a sort of idea he likes to be asked.”
C S Lewis says so well in such a lovely way things that would take great thinkers pages and pages to write and explain and in a much less interesting way, when you read that, you think ‘yes, yes Aslan would like to be asked, of course he would!’ God wants that relationship with us. When things are hard, he wants us to go to our dad and ask him for help. ‘How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ In other gospels the words are ‘give good things to those who ask him’ God likes to be asked, because this is about relationship, it’s always been about relationship. A relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Now when we see things in that way, when we see that the Christian faith is not about religion, but it’s about trust, a deep trust in our Heavenly Father, things change. Prayer becomes a joy, and not a duty, because we’re taking with our Father, our Daddy. And if also reminds us, that all of us are important, our needs and our wants matter to God. He cares about us and about what happens to us. I remember speaking to a child about prayer once, and they said that they didn’t pray for themselves and the things they they need as it’s a ‘selfish’ thing to do. I quashed it quickly, and said that ‘you should pray for yourself, as you are just as important as everybody else!’
And now it’s time for a confession. It’s good for ministers to confess to their congregations. There are some things that I find it too hard to pray as there is too much hurt, or because it is too difficult, we all have those things…
But, a encouragement., when we pray this prayer. Let’s Pray it with meaning. The temptation with familiar prayers is to say them by rote. And don’t get me wrong, familiarity with prayers is a good and wonderful thing. Sometimes we get so used to saying it that it just washes over us. And sometimes that’s right, sometimes that’s fine. But sometimes it’s also true to that we forget the important truths they the prayer expresses; we can go to God with our issues, because he is our Good, good Father. Even if it’s just to be held by him in our struggles. We can go to him to receive his comfort and his peace, and we can ask him for help with those struggles. He will always help us, not always in the way we’d expect or we’d like, but he will always help us. as any good dad, as any good parent, would.
Amen