Sermon: Asking, Searching, and Knocking

Delivered at Monaghan United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on July 24, 2016

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Asking, Searching, and Knocking

Audio Version

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!"

Luke 11:1-13 (NRSV)

When You don't move the mountains I'm needing You to move

When You don't part the waters I wish I could walk through

When You don't give the answers as I cry out to You

I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!

From "Trust in You" by Lauren Daigle

One day several years ago, my coworker and her husband were heading home after a vacation out west.  They were scheduled to take two connecting flights with an hour-long layover in between.  Unfortunately, the first of their flights was delayed for an hour, and, as Murphy's Law would have it, when they landed they had to make their way from one end of the airport to the other.  When they reached the gate for their connecting flight, they were informed that the flight was already closed.  To make matters worse, it happened to be the last available flight to their destination that day.

Unwilling to wait until morning for another flight, my coworker's husband had an idea.  While the employee at the gate wasn't looking, they sneaked into the jetway and ran to the airplane.  The airplane's door was closed, so my coworker's husband started banging on it.  My coworker was afraid that she and her husband would be arrested, and she had good reason to be nervous, since airport security had been ramped up following the terrorist attacks of 2001.  When the flight attendant opened the door, she escorted my coworker and her husband back to the gate, and the flight was reopened for them.  Their audacity gave them the opportunity to board, and the delay they caused bought time so that other people who were affected by the first flight's delay could reach the gate and board as well.  The people who had already boarded were annoyed by the delay, but the flight landed at its destination a mere fifteen minutes behind schedule.

I would not recommend that anyone attempt to do what my coworker and her husband did, but, to borrow an expression from Jesus, I think it could be said that they knocked and the door was opened for them.

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that, one day, Jesus retreats to a secluded place to pray, as He often does.  Once Jesus is finished praying, one of the disciples asks Him to teach them how to pray.  A rabbi's disciples dedicated their lives to becoming just like their teacher.  It was said that they sought to follow him closely enough to end up covered in the dust he kicked up as he walked.¹  The disciples have seen Jesus pray countless times since they left everything to follow Him, so naturally they want Him to teach them how to pray, in the same way that John the Baptist and other teachers taught their disciples to pray.²  Jesus then teaches them a very simple prayer that is a shortened version of the prayer Christians around the world still pray regularly nearly two thousand years later, a prayer we commonly call the Lord's Prayer.

We begin this prayer by turning our focus to God.  We address God as "Father" and then proclaim God's holiness, saying, "Hallowed be your name."  We then pray for God to reign on the earth, saying, "Your kingdom come."  With the remainder of the prayer, we place the entirety of our lives into God's hands.  We ask God to provide for our needs for the present as we pray, "Give us each day our daily bread."  We offer up to God our regrets from the past as we pray, "Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us."  Finally, we give to God our anxieties about the future as we pray, "Do not bring us to the time of trial."³

With this prayer, Jesus has taught the Disciples what to pray, but He has yet to teach them how to pray.  He goes on to tell them a parable that places them in the shoes of a man who receives an unexpected visitor in the dead of the night.  They live in a culture in which hospitality is, in the words of one scholar, a "sacred duty,"⁴ but unfortunately the unprepared host has no food to offer his guest who is doubtlessly hungry from his journey.  Desperate, he goes to his neighbor's house and knocks on the door, begging for a few loaves of bread.  In that day and time, doors were kept open during the day, meaning that one could come and go as one pleased, but, at night, when the door was locked, one knew not to knock unless there was an emergency.  Furthermore, knocking on the door would wake the entire household, since the whole family slept in the same room.⁵

Naturally, the neighbor responds, "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."  The man is persistent: unwilling to take "no" for an answer, he continues to knock.  Eventually, the neighbor opens the door and agrees to help him, not to be charitable or neighborly, but rather to get him off of his back so that he and his family can go back to sleep.

Jesus ends the parable, saying,
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.
I feel that I cannot speak about this teaching without addressing the proverbial elephant that enters the room whenever we hear it.  I'm referring, of course, to the painful reality that most of us, if not all of us, have asked for things we have not received, searched for things we have not found, and knocked on doors that have not opened.

Christians often respond to instances of seemingly unanswered prayer by making excuses for God or by blaming the one who was praying.  For example, if you told me a story of unanswered prayer in your life, I could tell you that what you requested actually was not good for you or that it was not part of God's perfect will.  I could tell you that you did not pray correctly or that you did not pray sincerely enough or persistently enough.  I could tell you that you did not have enough faith or that there is sin in your life for which you have not repented.  The fact of the matter is that it is irresponsible for people to flippantly say such things, for no one truly knows the state of anyone else's heart, nor can anyone comprehend the mind of God.  I think that maybe people say such things not to help other people move past their disappointment, but rather to reassure themselves that prayer still works, when they have heard a story that might give them a reason to doubt.

To be honest, I cringe a little bit whenever I hear someone say that "prayer works."  I'm not saying that I think that prayer is ineffectual, but this cliché statement makes me wonder what function people think prayer is supposed to have in our lives.  Is prayer merely a means of getting God to do what we want God to do?  Using words or rituals to get the Divine to do our bidding is not prayer – that's called magic.  I agree that prayer works, but I don't think it works like a vending machine, or like a magic lamp with a genie trapped inside, or like a letter to Santa Claus with a promise to be good.  Brian Zahnd, one of my favorite Christian thinkers, writes, "The primary purpose of prayer is not to get God to do what you want him to do, but to be properly formed.  We are formed as Christian people as we pray Christian prayers."⁶

Consider how we might be formed as disciples of Jesus Christ by regularly praying the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray.  This prayer reminds us of God's holiness, and it teaches us us to seek the Kingdom of God.  The prayer keeps our pride in check by reminding us that we are ultimately dependent on God for the provision of our needs.  It reminds us that we need forgiveness and grace from God and demands that we, as recipients of God's forgiveness and grace, extend forgiveness and grace to those who have wronged us.  It reminds us that we trust in God for protection in the midst of difficult times.  I would urge you to consider, for a centering practice, praying the Lord's Prayer slowly every morning, meditating on each phrase as you say it.⁷

Lois Tverberg, in her book Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, suggests that the way we pray reveals what we believe about God.  She writes, "The faith we're supposed to have is not in the outcome [of prayer], but in God himself.  God wants us to be absolutely convinced of his love for us and of his power and desire to take care of us."⁸  Consider how Jesus teaches us to address God in prayer – as Father.  Jesus asks the 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?"  These are ridiculous questions: no parent, except for maybe a complete sociopath, is sick enough give a hungry child a venomous creature like a snake or a scorpion.  Jesus 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!"  God is a loving parent who is more than happy to give us the greatest of gifts.

Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel writes, "There is something which is far greater than my desire to pray, namely, God's desire that I pray...  Unless it is the will of God that I pray, unless God desires our prayer, how ludicrous is all my praying."⁹  Not only does God listen to us when we pray, God actually wants us to pray.  I would suggest that Jesus' exhortation to ask that we may receive, to search that we may find, and to knock that the door may be opened is not a promise that God will do whatever we ask God to do, but rather an invitation to approach God with any longing or concern that might be on our hearts, with the full confidence that God loves us and cares about our needs.  In the words of one early Christian theologian, "Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."¹⁰

So what are we to make of the parable Jesus told His disciples?  Are we to surmise that God must be nagged into submission like the grumpy neighbor?

Many of the parables teach us directly what God is like.  They teach us that God is like a shepherd who goes out of his way to find a lost sheep, like a woman who turns her house upside down to find a lost coin, and like a father who welcomes a wayward son home with a party.¹¹  Other parables are meant to teach us about God in a more indirect way.  With the Parable of the Friend at Night, Jesus is using a rhetorical device called kal val'homer, in which something small – like a human neighbor or parent – is contrasted with something much greater – like God.¹²  Basically, Jesus reasons that, if a grumpy neighbor can be provoked to help in the middle of the night and if even flawed human parents know how to treat their children, then we can rest assured that God, our divine parent who is by nature love itself, will do right by us.

Though the parable is not meant to teach us that God is like the grumpy neighbor, perhaps it is meant to teach us that we should pray to God like the one trying to get the grumpy neighbor's attention.  Perhaps Jesus is teaching us to pray with what the Jewish people call chutzpah.  Chutzpah is a Yiddish word that describes an almost obnoxious form of audacity, the very type of audacity that kept the man in the parable banging on his neighbor's door until his neighbor helped him.  Elsewhere in the Gospels, chutzpah is what we see in the pesky Syrophoenician woman who refuses to leave Jesus alone until He heals her daughter.^{13 14}  Heschel writes, "One cannot pray unless he has faith in his own ability to accost the infinite, merciful, eternal God."¹⁵

Like the man in the parable, we pray with chutzpah, as if we are desperately "knock, knock, knockin' on Heaven's door."¹⁶  We pray like Jacob who grappled with God all night, saying, "I won't let you go until you bless me."¹⁷  We pray audaciously, shamelessly, persistently, and patiently.  We ask until we receive; we search until we find; and we knock until the door is opened.  If we are unwilling to pray in this way, then maybe we aren't very desperate for God's help.  Maybe we didn't really want what we thought we wanted or need what we thought we needed.  In the words of one thinker, "In every other sphere the goal must reached by energizing, persistent effort; should not that be so in the greatest of all strivings?"¹⁸

Still, I wonder if there are times when we actually need the asking, the searching, and the knocking more than we need whatever motivated us to start asking, searching, and knocking in the first place.  Perhaps, there are times when we ask until we no longer need to receive, search until we no longer need to find, and knock until we no longer need the door to be opened.  Or perhaps there are times when we ask until we receive what we did not know we needed, search until we find what we were not expecting, and knock until a door we did not previously notice opens.  Perhaps, in the words of the great theologians Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "You can't always get what you want, but, if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need."¹⁹

Philosopher Peter Rollins tells a story about a mother whose child tragically dies at only a few month of age.  Unable to accept her loss, she wraps up her child's body and carries it with her.  She seeks out physicians, faith healers, shamans, and holy men and women of all kinds, desperate to find someone who is able to bring her child back to life.  Eventually the woman hears rumors of one saintly individual who lives atop a mountain, who is reportedly powerful enough to raise the dead.  She climbs the mountain, finds this holy man, and begs him to bring her child back to life.  He tells her that he can indeed raise her child back to life, but he needs her to first bring him one thing – a handful of mustard seeds from a household that has never experienced the pain of loss.  She immediately climbs down the mountain and begins her search in the town below.

The woman does not find a household that has never been touched by loss, but as she knocks on doors, searches for help, and asks people about their experiences, she is drawn into their stories of loss.  Slowly she comes to terms with her own grief, and eventually she is able to lay her child to rest.²⁰  She did not find what she wanted, but she did find the healing she needed.

Biblical scholar William Barclay offers us six guidelines for prayer.  First, pray knowing that God is the one who truly knows what is best for us.  Second, pray knowing that God sees the bigger picture.  Third, pray with absolute sincerity.  If you cannot pray sincerely for what you know you need, then pray that God will give you the desire for what you know you need.  Fourth, pray in detail: don't be vague.  Fifth, pray with a readiness to cooperate with God in the matter.  For example, if you pray that God will help you pass a test, then you need to do your best to prepare for the test.  Sixth, pray that God's will is done, remembering that God is loving and wise.²¹

St. Paul writes,
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.²²
Whatever anxiety or longing happens to be on your heart, offer it up to God in prayer.  At the same time, remember that we pray about such things not to get God to do what we want, but to place them into God's capable hands, trusting in God regardless of what happens.  Pray knowing that God wants to hear our prayers.  Pray knowing that God loves us and cares about our needs.  May God give us patience, boldness, and even chutzpah, as we continue to ask, search, and knock.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Rob Bell.  Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith.  2005, Zondervan.  p. 130
2. William Barclay.  The Gospel of Luke, Revised Edition.  1975, Westminster Press.  p. 143
3. Barclay, p. 143-144
4. William Barclay.  The Parables of Jesus.  1990, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 113
5. The Parables of Jesus, pp. 113-114
6. Brian Zahnd.  "You Are What You Pray."  brianzahnd.com, 05/27/13.
7. I found this practice in A Disciple's Path Daily Workbook by Justin LaRosa and James Harnish.  2012, Abingdon Press.  p. 34
8. Lois Tverberg.  Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewish Words of Jesus Can Change Your Life.  2012, Zondervan.  pp. 124-125
9. Abraham Joshua Heschel.  Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity.  1996, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  p. 107
10. Hebrews 4:16 (NRSV)
11. Luke 15
12. Tverberg, p. 120
13. Mark 7:24-30
14. Tverberg, p. 117
15. Heschel, p. 107
16. From "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan
17. Genesis 32:22-32 (CEB)
18. The Parables of Jesus, p. 116
19. From "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones
20. Peter Rollins.  Insurrection: To Believe is Human, to Doubt, Divine.  2011, Howard Books.  pp. 163-164
21. The Parables of Jesus,  pp. 117-118
22. Philippians 4:6-7 (NRSV)

The photograph of the door was taken by Nino Narozauli and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.