Knock, Knock
by Pat Edmonds on July 28, 2019
based on Luke 11:1-13
Knock, knock
Who’s there?
Ketchup
Ketchup who?
Ketchup with ya soon.
Knock, knock
Who’s there?
Cargo
Cargo who?
Cargo beep, beep
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
A little boy.
A little boy who?
A little boy who can’t reach the doorbell”
I’m sure if you have children or grandchildren the age of mine you have been subjected to many ”Knock, knock” jokes – probably too many! Someone gave my grandson a whole book full of “Knock, Knock” jokes and we were sure whenever we saw him we would be subjected to a few. The thing about “Knock, knock” jokes is that if you don’t go “Knock, knock” nothing happens. No one answers.
In today’s scripture Jesus tells his disciples that if they knock on heaven’s door it will be opened for them. If they talk to God, that is if they pray, if they seek him, they will find him. God will give them the things they need each day. But you need to knock, you have to look, you have to ask, before anything can happen. Jesus says when we do this; when we talk to God; when we turn to God in prayer, that God will answer. All we have to do is come to God and speak to God each day. It is in prayer, in conversation with God, that we best hear the word of God and receive that which we need to live as the children of God.
In today’s gospel reading we find Jesus praying. When he is finished one of his disciples says, “Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.”
At first this seems a strange request – TEACH us to pray. Surely they knew how to pray! They had been there and done that, with John, with the village rabbis, in the synagogues and temples. As good Jews they had learned to pray at the Sabbath table. They would have recited the prayers of the Passover and called upon God during Yom Kipper and the Feast of the Tabernacles. At home each day, at every meal, surely there was a table blessing, a prayer of thanksgiving that the disciples like most of us, learned to say. So why? Why this request to Jesus?
After watching Jesus, after being impressed by his wisdom and power, his love, they ask him to teach them how to pray. Jesus had the appearance and the substance of God’s power about him and the disciples sensed that. They asked a person who was very close to God, who was in touch with God, to teach them how to pray.
Prayers learned by heart, prayers taught to us by tradition and prayers used in formal worship events are good things. But the prayers that arise from the heart that is connected to God are another. The Christian life is fuelled by prayer. It is made strong by our contact with God each day. Yet very few people ever show the desire and hunger of the disciples and ask “Teach us to pray.”
Jesus answers the request of the disciple, and shows his disciples a MODEL of prayer. The Lord’s Prayer, as we know it and say it, is only a model – an example of what prayer is like. When we learn the Lord’s Prayer by rote, we don’t know everything we need to know about prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is a form of prayer for disciples, for followers of Jesus, for the family of God. It is a form of prayer, not THE PRAYER or the ONLY PRAYER, nor even all prayers rolled into one. It is an example of how we as followers of Jesus MIGHT pray to God.
Often things we know by rote wane in importance and/or meaning. We often say the words without looking at them or thinking about what we are saying.
So today, let’s take a closer look at a very familiar prayer.
The first two statements in the prayer establish its foundation and orientation. God is addressed as holy or hallowed, that is, set apart from the world. The words of prayer then proclaim the great hope that God’s will, God’s way of being and God’s desire, will be present in the world. The next statements ask God to provide for three basic human needs – sustaining of the world by provision of food, restoration of individuals and communities by forgiveness, and protection of the world. We can imagine that when these three things are fully achieved; then God’s reign will have come indeed.
Jesus moves on to describe further to whom we are praying. Jesus employs two striking images to underline the certainty of God’s response to prayer. The first image is of a neighbor who refuses to provide hospitality. This would have seemed absurd to those first hearing the story because of the hospitality customs in first-century Middle Eastern cultures. Hospitality was a social requirement and often essential to sustaining health and wholeness for one another in the community. The second image of a parent giving a child snakes and scorpions seems even more bizarre. It is assumed that even the least suitable of parents will provide basic care for a child.
The message to the disciples and to all hearers of this text, including us, is that God’s goodness exceeds that of any earthly neighbor or parent. God will always hear and respond to our prayers – not because we are worthy or have the right formula, or say the right words – but because it is God’s nature to be generous and loving.
The magic of prayer, if we can call it that, is not in the particular words we use in our prayer, nor even the particular things we pray about, but the relationship into which we enter when we pray to God in all things and about all things.
When we present everything that concerns us and everything that delights us to God, we are sharing with God who we are and what we are. That builds between God and ourselves the intimacy that allows the new life that God wants to give us and our world to come about. Just as spending time together in a marriage, speaking and listening, expressing our fears and hopes, our desires and wants, helps make the marriage a true marriage. Our partners help us where help is needed, rejoicing when we rejoice, weeping when we weep, and sharing with us all that they are.
As in human relationships sorrows shared are sorrows divided and joys shared are joys multiplied, so it is in the divine-human relationship – but even more so. For God is greater than we are and is fully able to help those who call upon him. God is ready and willing to lift us up when we are cast down and bless us when we hold forth our hands in trust and thanksgiving.
God is like the neighbor who is close enough to pester us at the worst time or like the parent who wants what’s best for the children. God is the one we spend time with as a child spends time with his friends and parents. It is a simple time; a time of praise, of thanksgiving, of asking for forgiveness, of expressing hopes and dreams.
God answers prayer, not always as we want or when we want, and gives no magical solutions to our problems but God does answer.
I am reminded of an old story about the man who was marooned on the roof of his house during a flood. He prayed for God to rescue him. Later that day a man came by in a canoe and offered him a ride. The man refused. He continued to pray to God to rescue him. The next day a motorboat appeared. The people in it offered to take him off the roof. Again the man refused. He prayed to God to rescue him. A rescue helicopter flew overhead. The man waved it off. He prayed to God to rescue him. Finally God answered him. God’s voice thundered down from the sky, “Who do you think sent the canoe, the motorboat and the helicopter?”
Often God answers our prayers through other people. Twelve years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer I was going through a very difficult time. I was scheduled to travel to Newfoundland to join in the celebration of the 45th Anniversary of UCW. I went but felt I had an enormous cloud hanging over me and certainly didn’t feel much like celebrating. But during the week’s celebration I met by chance several other women who, like me, had been diagnosed with cancer, had undergone treatment and were alive and well. Spending time with these survivors was just what I needed. I was also very fortunate to room for two weeks with a wonderful, upbeat woman, a nurse by profession. Her cheery yet realistic outlook on life caused the cloud hanging over me to gradually dissolve and I came home feeling like a different person – a woman ready to face my diagnosis head-on, ready to be a survivor rather than a victim.
In 2016 I was again diagnosed with cancer. The prayers of family, friends, members of the congregations I serve and the wider church helped me weather this storm as well. The dozens of cards, e-mails and phone calls were such an important part of my healing, physically, mentally and spiritually. God has answered their prayers and mine as I stand here today, feeling very well, able to be engaged once again in my usual activities. I stand here filled with gratitude for all the doctors and researchers who persevered to find a cure for this particular kind of leukemia, for the care I received at one of the top 5 cancer centres in the world and most of all for the prayers that have been answered through these people.
Sometimes God answers simply by listening when we share – as a father listens to his daughter tell him about her day or as a mother listens when her son tells of his frustration and anger about how things are going at school or at work. God is a friend who understands us, holds us and reassures.
Lord, teach us to pray.
Teach us as Jesus taught his disciples. Teach us to be connected to God when we are afraid and when we are full of courage.
Teach us to be connected when we are weeping and when we are laughing.
Teach us to be connected when we are in need and when we have much to give.
Lord, teach us to pray.
Teach us to turn to God as a child turns to his parents in trust and confidence that he will be heard and helped and encouraged and loved.
Lord, teach us to pray. Amen