8th Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 11:1-13
Genesis 18:20-32
"A Dialogue with God"
Charles Spurgeon the famous British preacher told the following story concerning the power of prayer in one’s life. As Spurgeon was walking down the sidewalk he heard a young man swearing and using God’s name in vain. Walking up to the man, he touched the man on the arm and said, "Can you pray as well as you can swear?"
The young man laughed and with a superior air declared that he never indulged in anything so useless as praying. Holding up a coin of considerable worth, Mr. Spurgeon said, "I will give you this coin if you will promise me never to pray."
Irreverently, the young man grabbed the coin thrust it in his pocket and went of chuckling to himself. As the day wore on, however, he began to feel uneasy. Never to pray?? Never?? Perhaps he had made a bad bargain, for he might want to call upon God some day if he should come to an urgent need. The more he thought of it, the more he became convinced that he had sold something very precious. He arrived home that evening and told his wife of the transaction and she was horrified.
"It is true we don’t pray?" she said, "but some day we may want to."
Talking it over a bit more the worried couple decided to see if they could find the one who had given the coin and had extracted such a promise.
Mr. Spurgeon, who had been hoping for just such a reaction was soon located. Seeing their interest, he began to talk with them about Christ and soon had two new converts.
This story raise some questions for us this morning. Has prayer become such a taken for granted part of our Christian life, that we forget the great worth it truly is? Would you sell your privilege to pray for a valuable coin? After these questions have been asked, we can still ask more about prayer. Is prayer only used when we went to extract something from God? Is prayer used only like an ambulance in an emergency? Do you see Cod as someone whom you can bargain with when it comes to a prayer request?
As you can tell by now, this sermon and our lessons from the Hebrew scriptures and from Luke’s gospel concern prayer. Now as we talk about prayer this morning, it could take hours, even days to exhaust, to answer, to think about all the different parts of prayer. We aren’t going to do that rest assured. But what I would like to do, is to look at this parable concerning prayer in our gospel lesson and look at Abraham as an example of how someone ought to pray.
We need to set the scene to understand this lesson to its fullest. Jesus was alone praying as was his custom, when one of his disciples comes to him and asks him to teach them to pray. Jesus then teaches them what has become known to us as the Lord’s prayer. Notice this version in Luke’s gospel is different than the one in Matthew’s but taken together they form the Lord’s Prayer as we have come to know it.
But notice, Jesus doesn’t stop with this prayer. He goes on to tell them the parable about the man who needed some bread for a late night guest. Somehow Jesus knew that the disciples as they heard this prayer would latch on to this idea of daily bread. This parable is more than a parable about being persistent in prayer, but it is according to the commentator Lenski, it is an encouragement, a strong encouragement to pray period.
Let nothing deter us from prayer, and the encouragement lies in the implied promise that in prayer one will receive an answer even as Jesus states explicitly in verse 9, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you." These three verbs should be taken together. Our asking should he at once a seeking and both at once a knocking and also the reverse: when you ask, seek, and when you seek, go and knock. The promise is, it shall be given to you. The heart of the parable lies in that promise, it shall be given to you. It shall be given to you, and then Jesus goes on to explain that if a father would want to give good gifts to his son when he ask, then truly the heavenly father will give good gifts to those who ask, seek and knock.
But notice the outcome of prayer for Jesus?? Notice where he ends up this discussion about prayer, Jesus ends this discussion concerning prayer with the Holy Spirit. Because for Jesus prayer was and is a relationship, a dialogue, a communication, a personal contact with God, with God’s person hood, with God himself in the Holy Spirit. Jesus begins speaking about a nightly visitor, about bread, about common things, he ends up with gift of most worth, God himself through the spirit. What is thrust into our hearts and hands as we seek and knock and ask at the door of God is nothing else than God himself through the Holy Spirit. What more could we hope and dream for, but to have the spirit of God dwelling in our hearts.
Prayer according to Jesus in this parable is more than a list of demands, it is more than communicating ones hurts, pains and problems to God. Prayer is a relationship with God himself. Prayer is a personal contact with God. Prayer is a matter of continuous intercourse with God. Prayer is a constant dialogue with the Spirit of God in our hearts
Prayer is inspired, elicited and engaged by the Spirit of God. Prayer is our spirit and God’s spirit working together as Paul says to cry Abba Father. Prayer is a relationship between two people who want to get to know each other better. As I engage in prayer, I come to know God better and he comes to know me as I am with my failures, my hurts, my joys, my excitement, all that is me. So, now you can see why Jesus goes on to tell this parable about the nightly visitor, because he knew the disciples and us would see prayer in a limited form of extracting something from God, instead of its broad form as a personal relationship with none other than God himself through the Holy spirit.
The end to prayer is more than an answer to a specific request from God, but the end of prayer is a dialogue, a communications, an interaction between myself and God almighty. Prayer is trusting in that interaction, prayer is trusting that God will deal with me as He has come to reveal himself through his son Jesus Christ. Prayer is my communicating to God about my personal self, and then letting his mercy, his love, his compassion act upon my life, So prayer then becomes a dialogue between two friends, a dialogue between two people who care for each other, an exchange between two people who trust in each other to respond in a caring, loving compassionate way.
Prayer can be seen as a force, a movement in ones life as it is described in the following poem:
"Dust devils skip along the parched and barren river bed.
A tropic sun reigns supreme in a bright cerulean sky.
The shrunken stream fights a losing battle with the drying wind.
Only on the western rim along the distant mountains rest two small mounds of summer clouds
"Darkness comes with scant relief, and in the breathless stillness . . ,
Night prowlers roam from far to cross the still warm stones and drink at the brackish flow.
Suddenly there come a strange uneasiness... A trembling of earth and air, sensed rather than heard or felt;
Then a distant rumble that becomes a roar, a crescendo of sound as the flash flood fill from rim to rim the riverbed so recently ruled by drought;
Refreshing rain has fallen in those distant mountains!!
New life has reached the valley !
My heart is parched and dry. The enemy would shrink my soul with drought and dark despair
Only scant relief is found in prayer; the Word seems dry . and mute.
I have no might I’m overcome, I know not what to do
Suddenly there comes a slight feeling of relief, a shallow sight of hope, a stirring of memories of the mercies of the Lord
And then, ah then, He floods my soul from rim to rim, with fellowship renewed, prayer revitalized and blessing from his word.
Intercessors have been before the Throne in that distant homeland!
New life has reached my valley!!!!
Janet Gerow
Can you sense the relationship, the excitement, the awe, the personal feelings of this exchange between the Lord and the one who prays. Prayer is like our dry river beds being filled with much needed rain. Prayer is the means by which I receive the strength from God himself to live my life. Prayer is the means by which I communicate with the one who gives the water of life, the living water which restores, refreshes, and renews my entire being. It is only in this give and take relationship, this personal relationship with God that my life and your life can take on the image of God and the promise of salvation for eternity.
Now that we have seen what prayer is like, let us turn briefly to our lesson from the Old Testament. Here is a fine example of the kind of relationship one might have with God.
Abraham haggles with God. We know, of course, that there is no haggling with God, but we sometimes do not seem to realize that Abraham’s haggling is not in search of a better deal, but the attitude of a man who has found himself at home with God in prayer. Abraham is so comfortable in his relationship with God that he can feel free to let the inner longings, the questions of his soul reach God. Abraham knows God well enough, knows his justice, knows his mercy, that he is willing to share with God his concern about a few of the believers who might perish because of the sins of the many. And God responds to Abraham. He says for the sake of 10 righteous people, the city would be saved. God and Abraham understood each other because they had a relationship, they had personal contact, they communicated with each other on a very personal level.
Prayer is my Spirit and God’s spirit coming together in a relationship that lets me bring my inner self into the presence of God where He will accept me as I am and receive me with his mercy and love.
In a "Peanuts" comic strip, Charlie Brown is kneeling by his bed. The caption is "Security is knowing you are not alone."
Amen
