South United Methodist Church

July 29, 2007

Rev. Krista Atwood

Scripture: 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!" 

Sermon: Who’s There?

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. These are probably the most familiar words we hear in church on Sunday. Well, that and, “We have a few announcements this morning…” It wouldn’t be church without announcements and the Lord’s Prayer.

Now, we know why the announcements are important, right? But why is the Lord’s Prayer so essential to our worship? Why do we pray it every single Sunday? Why has it become a staple of our service? And why does it not feel like church without it? Early in my first year in my first church the District Superintendent came to our worship service. Now, I probably don’t have to tell you that I was more than a little bit intimidated. Somehow, in my nervousness, and without even noticing, I skipped over a portion of the liturgy. Everyone was very kind, including the District Superintendent… so much so that I didn’t even realize what I had done until a very sweet woman came through the line, shook my hand, and said, “That was all fine, but you forgot the Lord’s Prayer.”

Maybe I can take solace in the fact that some theologians think that, as Christians, we have misconstrued the intent of Jesus’ prayer, reciting it word for word instead of understanding it as a model for all our prayers. Pray in this way….. It is interesting that in our Scripture lesson the disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray,” not “Teach us a prayer.”

It’s as if the disciples notice how Jesus lives his life and see that Jesus is praying all the time and decide that it must be pretty important. They want to experience some of what Jesus is experiencing so they ask, “How do you do that… Teach us to pray.” And Jesus responds, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Now, I say recite word for word, but the truth is that the version of the Lord’s Prayer that we find in Luke is a little different than Matthew’s more familiar version, the one taught to us by our parents and Sunday school teachers. Luke’s version is a little plainer, simpler, less poetic. Matthew’s embellishes a little bit more. Yet they both get the basics down. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

On reason we may cite for reciting the Lord’s Prayer is comfort. The familiar words of Jesus, the familiar words from our childhood, sustain us through the difficult times. I know there have been times in my experience, sitting at the bedside of one who is ill, hoping to offer a bit of comfort to a family, when the words of the Lord’s Prayer are the only ones that seem appropriate. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Yet if we really pay attention, the words of the Lord’s Prayer aren’t very comforting at all, are they? At least not in a conventional sense. We are to pray not for our own will, but for God’s. For food not to last for a lifetime, but for today. For the strength to face not just our own sins, but to forgive the sins of those who have hurt us. None of this is easy stuff. In fact, it almost seems outrageous. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

And not only does the prayer seem outrageous, but so does Jesus’ follow-up teaching. He tells the disciples a story about a man who is roused out of bed in the middle of the night because his persistent (some might say obnoxious) neighbor won’t leave him alone… keeps banging on the door asking for some bread to feed a visitor who has come into town. And to this Jesus says, "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.”

Outrageous. We know it’s outrageous, don’t we? You and I ~ everyone here ~ we know it’s outrageous. Ridiculous, even. If all we had to do was ask, every eight year old girl would have a pony (I’m still waiting for mine) and every boy would have his own dirt bike. Every illness would be healed and every hungry child would be fed. Swords would become plowshares and spears pruning hooks and peace would spread throughout all the earth. For who of us here today has not prayed fervently just to be disappointed? It’s as if we have knocked only to have the door slammed in our face. No “just a second” or “who’s there?” We may wonder, with all our knocking, if anyone is there at all.

And we’ve all heard the explanations, too, haven’t we? The rationalizations. Well you didn’t pray hard enough. Your faith must not have been strong enough. That doesn’t help much when we’ve just lost our job or we’re burying a loved one or our child has just been diagnosed with cancer.

But rationalizations don’t work with prayer, do they? They can’t work with prayer because prayer ~ as with all things of faith ~ is a mystery. In fact, we often forget how this passage ends. As this teaching comes to an end, Jesus asks his disciples, “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?” He then concludes, “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!"

The Holy Spirit. We know, during this Pentecost season, that there is nothing more outrageous than the Holy Spirit. Maybe when Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you” he is not saying that our every prayer will be answered, like God is some genie in the sky, but rather, when we pray the Holy Spirit is with us. The Holy Spirit ~ our comforter, our advocate, our guide ~ the one who sustains us through the mystery. St. Teresa of Avilla seemed to understand this when she said to, “…pray with holy daring.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really care that some theologians out there think that we have misused the Lord’s Prayer. I love to pray it ~ alone, but especially as a community. Last week you saw the slide show from our time at Youth 2007. When all the eight thousand youth in the Coliseum prayed the Lord’s Prayer it was an incredibly moving experience. The young people of our denomination praying together, Your kingdom come, your will be done. That gave me hope…. Hope that, though all our prayers may not be answered, Jesus presence continues to be with us day by day through the gift of the Holy Spirit. If eight thousand United Methodist youth praying the Lord’s Prayer in one voice isn’t holy daring I don’t know what is.

As Jana Childers puts it, “Little by little, and here and there, and now and then, the kingdom of God is breaking ~ through the efforts of those who ask.” We can see it when new visions spring up in dry places. When forgiveness is offered instead of revenge. When war is not seen as the only alternative. When the joy of abundance, rather than the fear of scarcity leads the way. The Lord’s Prayer is a radical prayer. It is outrageous. It is absolutely outrageous, but that it what makes it so great. Beyond words, even.

Knock, knock. Who’s there? All of us. All of us who? All of us who have ever been bold enough to pray along with Jesus, Our Father. When we knock, unlike the sleeping neighbor Jesus doesn’t say ‘Go Away!’ He doesn’t say, ‘Don’t bother me.’ He doesn’t even say, ‘Who’s there?’ He just says, ‘Welcome.’ We may not get exactly what we want ~ we will have times of struggle and grief ~ but through our knocking, our asking, our seeking we become part of the community of the faithful, bound together by the Holy Spirit, who are seeking the kingdom of God.


So how, then, do we pray? As one pastor answered this question, “We pray like Jesus prayed. And we keep on praying. And we pray together.” To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray like Jesus prayed. To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray as he taught us, not out of rote memorization, but boldly, daring, out of our hope for the world. To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray, Our Father. We can pray it twice on Sunday, can’t we? Our Father, who are in heaven…………………