Pastor Randy Blankschaen
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Pensacola, FL
9th Sunday After Pentecost 2010 (July 25)
Luke 11:1-13
Let’s get right to this. Jesus calls us evil. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children . . .” We’re evil. We’re sinners. What right have we to pray? Abraham knows this as he pleads with the Lord, seeking protection for his nephew Lot. Abraham knew God’s justice. He knew that God’s mercy had kept him from punishing all mankind earlier and he knew that the time was coming for Sodom and Gomorrah to be punished for their wickedness. But what if 50, what if 45, 40, 30, 20, even 10? For God would surely not sweep away the just with the unjust.
Abraham lived and lives by faith in God. He knew what made a man “just” or “righteous” in God’s sight. He knew that it was God’s gracious action that made him just. Just look at how he prays: “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes . . . Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak.” I have undertaken to speak to the Lord; let not the Lord be angry.
Who thinks about prayer like this at all? Come on, we view it as a right. We think of prayer as something anyone can do at anytime and in any manner. But truly, prayer isn’t a right. We sinners have no right to speak to the Lord. We can’t stand in God’s holy presence. We can’t ask him for a thing. Prayer isn’t our native tongue at all; self-centered sin in actions, thoughts, and words, that’s our colloquial language. High-holy talk before God’s heavenly throne is absolutely foreign to you and to me who were conceived in sin. The weight of our sin is very very heavy. Prayer isn’t a right for us sinners.
Prayer’s a gift. For who can call God Father except those who have been baptized into Christ Jesus? You’ve been buried with Christ Jesus in baptism and also raised with him through faith. And this is the powerful working of God. We were dead in our trespasses, but Christ cancelled this debt by his death upon the cross. He nailed our debt to the cross. The laundry list of your sins (lengthier than a child’s list for Santa Claus), that sin-list says – You have had other Gods. As if the devil’s accusations weren’t enough, God’s own word accuses you of sin. Why have you not loved God, who has provided for your life and salvation? Why have you not loved your neighbor? But God’s great and final word of Gospel tells you beaten down sinner that your great debt is seen paid for on that cross. Look at it. See the cost of your sin. See what your baptism has joined you to and be confident that Christ Jesus has paid-in-full your debt. He suffered in your place.
Abraham lived by such faith which clung to the promises of God and saw God as the giver of all good gifts. God’s gives good gifts. He gives you a blessed gift – prayer. When the disciples ask to be taught to pray, Jesus, The Lord, doesn’t remain silent, but instructs them and gives them a God-pleasing prayer. He gives this gift to you, his children by baptism into the Son.
Baptism gives you a status before God. Galatians 3:27 - For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. | The Father sees you as he sees the Son – holy and righteous. And so you boldly make your prayer known to God as you speak to him in the words he gives you. Abraham, even in faith, knew that it was only by grace that God would hear his prayer and so he continues in humility to say that he’s only dust and ashes. He knows prayer’s a gift.
But remember who you’re baptized into and pray. Ask, seek, and knock. Normally we hear those words and think about what we have to do. We have to ask. We have to seek. We have to knock. If we don’t get to it, then God won’t act. No. Look at the way God taught us to pray – all of those petitions in the Lord’s Prayer are already done and given–God’s name is already holy in itself; God’s kingdom comes even without our prayer; God gives daily bread even to all evil people. We pray for forgiveness because we know that if God were to look on our sins, our prayers couldn’t be before him. We’re not worthy of the Lord’s Prayer or the things that it asks for. We ask for help to forgive others because our sinful nature doesn’t want to forgive others but rather harbor resentment. We pray for God’s protection from the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh.
God gives. Ask, seek, knock. Go ahead and do these things. But instead of focusing on how many times we pray, we should read the second section of our Gospel rightly. We read this whole midnight request as a rude interruption to a friend’s peaceful sleep. Not so. If you look at the end of verse 7, it’s a question. Jesus expects an answer that any good friend wouldn’t make an excuse but gladly do this for his friend. Our me-centered culture has reinterpreted the intention of this text. A country-song goes – You find out who your friends are. A friend doesn’t think – what’s in it for me or it’s way too far? They just get there fast. That’s the issue in this text. Verse 8 – Even if the friend wouldn’t get up out of friendship, which is unheard of, the friend would get up because he would be shamed if he didn’t. Most of the time we read this as if the man inside will only act because the guy outside kept up a racket. Yes, God urges us to be persistent in prayer, but there’s more to it. It’s the friend-inside who has a character and reputation as a good man and to give food to the petitioner. It would bring him shame and dishonor if he didn’t provide. He would be no good man and no good friend and people would know about it.
God has promised to give you the gifts of salvation. Jesus Christ promised his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, who would make them wise unto salvation. The gift of the Holy Spirit results in the gift of faith, for left to ourselves we can’t choose God or come to him, but the Holy Spirit must draw us to the Father through the Son. This happens through means- the means of baptism, especially. Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. | Baptism gives you the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. God’s word promises this and who’s anyone to think otherwise? Does it make human sense that water and word can give you the Holy Spirit? Shouldn’t there be some more flash and pizzazz? [TONE!] Why worry and fight over these logical queries? Why not simply trust in the word of God that says so.
Ask. Seek. Knock. But, have confidence because you’re asking the one who Gives, Finds, and Opens. If we sinful people give good gifts to our children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit? Soon we pray together. We pray as dear children ask their dear Father, knowing that God is ready, willing, and will not be shamed by withholding the gifts of life and salvation from his children. The one we ask is able to give and he will. The gifts Christ freely gives are before you. What a friend you have in Jesus, who bore your griefs and sins to his death on the cross, and you remember and proclaim that death as you receive the gift of his body and blood for your forgiveness. What a friend. Amen.
