Proper 12C (Luke 11:1-13)  07/25/2010

Jeremy Taylor, the 17^th century Anglican bishop and theologian wrote in a letter, “Pray frequently and effectually; I had rather your prayers should be often than long.”[i] This morning we hear Jesus teaching his friends a lesson about prayer. Prayer is one of our most powerful and personal connections to God. Prayer is the conversational connection that nourishes and strengthens our relationship with God. And if we seek relationship with God, or anyone else for that matter, we need to be in regular conversation.

More than 30 years ago, a young man sat among a group of his peers and celebrated his college graduation: a day that recognizes the culmination of many hours of hard work and a day that celebrates the graduate’s relationship with others – family, friends, and professors. After throwing his cap in the air and receiving the congratulations of his family, the young man searched for his favorite college professor. He found his professor and thanked him for his wisdom and his friendship throughout his college years. The professor was fond of the young man and asked him if he would please stay in touch throughout the years ahead – and the young man promised that he would stay in touch. The young man then began his journey in the world, searching for all the success the world had to offer him. As the days after his college graduation turned to months and the months turned to years, he finally achieved the success he sought, but he never did keep the promise he made to his old college professor. He drifted away from him, pulled by the strong current of the pressing cares of the world…until one day when he heard his professor’s name on a late night television show.[ii]

As Jesus taught his disciples in the months before his final journey to Jerusalem, he understood that like the young college graduate, the disciples would soon face the challenges of the world in a new way (without Jesus by their side) and their commitment to be in relationship with Christ would also require a new way of thinking, a new way of being in relationship with Jesus. The author of Luke’s Gospel account recorded more than 10 occasions where Jesus was either off on his own praying or was instructing his disciples of the importance of prayer in their lives. Our Gospel reading this morning is one of those occasions and is actually a collection of 4 short lessons on prayer, the first being a simple statement that Jesus was praying in a certain place. We hear that Jesus’ prayer life was an example to his disciples and the influence of this is demonstrated by a question from one of his disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And Jesus replies to his disciple’s question with 3 important elements of prayer.

The first lesson we hear is that we can pray according to prayers handed down to us from those who have journeyed the road we travel today. Jesus gives his friends the words of the prayer we know as the Lord’s Prayers. To pray according to known and ancient prayers would be familiar to Jesus’ disciples, as many faithful Jews of Jesus’ time would have memorized all 150 Psalms and several other parts of Scripture. To pray according to established prayers is also an important and rich tradition within our own Anglican Church heritage. The Book of Common Prayer contains several thoughtful prayers for many different occasions. Although we use the Prayer Book every Sunday as we come together to pray as a community, there is a particular power and a sense of connection to both God and to each other if we use the Prayer Book throughout the week to pray the same prayers, each from our own personal space.

The second lesson we hear is presented to us in the form of a short and funny parable. And the lesson of the story is that persistence will eventually pay-off…and there is a significant amount of persistence in this story. There is persistence in the journey to arrive at your friend’s house at midnight, persistence to ask for dinner at midnight, more persistence to go out in the night to obtain 3 loaves of bread, and even more persistence to continue to knock on your neighbor’s door until he gets up from his bed to give you some bread. Persistence in prayer is the foundation of our relationship with God and is a key element of the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us each day our daily bread.” Prayer connects us to God; prayer nourishes and strengthens us in our journey through life, but like a good meal we must return to the table to remain nourished.

The final lesson we hear from Jesus is that through prayer, God invites us to share a deeply personal relationship; to share our hopes and dreams, our challenges and fears. “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” (Lk 11:9) We are reassured by these comforting words from Jesus, but many of us know the world to appear more complicated than this hopeful promise, especially for those who have prayed for something and have felt the sting of an illusive answer. [The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted an extensive survey in 2008 on religious life in America and their research on prayer among Christians in the Mainline Churches showed that more than 75% of the people surveyed said they prayed daily or weekly. But when asked the frequency of receiving answers to their prayers, less than half of the people responded that they felt their prayers were answered in some manner.[iii]] We might share in the wonder of hearing our prayers answered and the struggle to hear God’s answer with clarity. Yet, God’s certain answer is the promise we hear from Jesus this morning, and regardless of how difficult this promise can sometimes appear to be in its fulfillment, Jesus calls us to remain persistent in our prayers to God. God seeks to hear everything that is in our heart and mind, to lift our burdens and give us strength. For only if we continue to be in relationship with God can we be open to the answers that God provides.

After many years of being absent from the life of his old college professor, the name “Morrie Schwartz” pierced the late night air of Mitch Albom’s house. He sat before his television and by the end of the news program he was up to date on the recent challenges faced by his forgotten friend and mentor. Not long after that eventful evening, Mitch Albom found himself standing outside Morrie’s house and the professor welcomed him back: “‘my old friend,’ he whispered, ‘you’ve come back at last.’”[iv] In the weeks that followed, Mitch visited Morrie every Tuesday and the rekindled relationship and conversation shared by the two friends formed the basis for Albom’s bestselling book, Tuesdays with Morrie. The book captures the wit and wisdom of Morrie Schwartz as he faced the final challenges of his life, but the book also points toward all that was missing between the two men for so many years. The story is a contemporary example of the lesson we hear from Jesus this morning: if we are to be in relationship with God or with others, we need to be persistent in our desire to be present. Our relationship with God is nourished through prayer and our persistence in prayer is transformative to our lives. As the apostle Paul proclaimed to the Thessalonians, “pray without ceasing…for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess 5:17-18)  AMEN.

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[i] Jeremy Taylor, in “Anglicanism: The thought and practice of the Church of England,” eds More and Cross, (London: SPCK, 1957), 615.

[ii] Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie, (New York: Doubleday, 1997), 3-4, 14-17.

[iii] The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Comparison surveys, accessed 07-22-2010; http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons#

[iv] Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie, 28.