a homily for Proper 12C
Text: Luke 11:1-13

The Lord Praying

They have left the house of Mary and Martha and it says 

Jesus 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.”

Jesus was praying, and he is asked to teach the disciples to pray just like John the Baptizer who taught his disciples the way to pray.

They’ve been at this quite a while by this point. Had Jesus never taught them? Had Jesus never showed them how? If this were true, then Jesus is a lousy teacher, right? You’d think prayer would be the subject of his Following Me 101 class. We take it for that. But it clearly wasn’t. At least, they didn’t think it was.

Jesus’s followers seem to expect Him to lay it out for them. To teach tutorials. Maybe YouTube videos.

Today, we’re going to talk about prayer. I’ve developed this four-step system for prayer that is based on the four P’s…

Jesus often shows rather than tells. He gives them illustrations and demonstrations. As disciples, their work is not to sit in desks while a teacher throws facts at them to memorize; they are to follow Him and do what He does. When Jesus prays, they are to pray. And the opening line says that Jesus was praying. That’s what His disciples should have been doing.

But instead, they ask how.

And what they get is not a prayer form. Not something to regurgitate back at the teacher to receive an A on the report card.

He shows them by praying for the transformation of the world and then tells them a story.

Not-so-personal Prayer

As Christians, we’re tempted to think about this as the institution of the Lord’s Prayer. To speak to our own personal experiences of struggle, of need, of loss, of depression in which all we had was this prayer we say each week, this prayer using old language that makes a certain plain sense, but is obscured by strange, obtuse words like “temptation” and “trespass” that obscure the prayer rather open it up to us.

We are also likely to ignore the teaching that comes after it in the story Jesus tells. The teaching that seems to be about working hard and never giving up. That GOD is out there somewhere and that if we pray hard enough, and keep our nose clean, the very persistence of our prayer will bring divine help.

This ignores the fact that Jesus rejects this idea throughout the gospels. But here strangely seems to justify it. Until the very next line in which Jesus speaks to GOD’s generosity, given whenever, and perpetually.

Like the disciples, we go to Jesus and the Scripture to learn how to pray and instead of telling us individually how to pray in a particular moment, His response is global and communal and perpetual. We pray for the transformation of the world. We pray for GOD’s justice rather than our own. We pray that we will all be fed every single day. And we, like the guy in bed, are invited to give; and we are just so grumpy about it.

Without Shame

As usual, we are in danger of ignoring the context of this part of the story. If you remember back three weeks ago, back in Luke 10, when Jesus sent His people out into the 70 nations, this is what it said when they got back:

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.

He has given them the “authority to tread on snakes and scorpions…and nothing will hurt you.” Then in this part he refers to giving snakes and scorpions to children—the very things that will not hurt the disciples. He is asking, therefore, not “who would give something dangerous to a child, but who would give something dangerous to a child that is not dangerous to them?

This is also in the midst of talking about neighborliness (“Who is my neighbor?”). Everyone is neighbor to us. Give and receive generously and without anger.

So Jesus tells the story of the man who goes to a friend for help. The friend is grumpy and tired and won’t help. Then Jesus says:

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.

I find this strange since the man shows no persistence. This word, persistence is anaideia in Greek, which is better translated as “shamelessness”. In the literature of the time, anaideia is a negative attribute. But Jesus has placed the negative action in the hands of the one trying to do good—to show generosity, neighborliness. He is actually without shame in trying to do good. While the grumpy dude in the house is refusing to show common generosity.

Praying Together

Rather than speaking to prayer in the direct way we take it for, Jesus has given us four pieces to meld together what prayer looks like to His followers:

1. Calling for the transformation of the world.
2. Seeking to do good despite the grumpiness of others.
3. Generosity is not only refraining from evil, but sharing in good things.
4. GOD’s gift is the presence of the Holy Spirit with us.

That is how Jesus demonstrates how to pray. It is not clear cut and simple. It is not like Google’s motto: “Don’t be evil.” It is not “pray this particular way three times a day”.

It is about something else. It is about living a certain way. It is about living prayerfully and as a community that itself lives prayerfully. We say together Our Father. Not My Father. We seek GOD’s way to replace our way. We seek to make certain that we are all fed every single day.

We do this, not because GOD is a genie in the sky who gives us infinite wishes, but because this whole enterprise, this whole Jesus-following-thing is about living a good life together, in the way GOD means good. Being an embodiment of perpetual prayer together and wherever we may go.

It isn’t kindness or hospitality as we know it. It is partnership with a GOD who keeps inviting us in, who keeps calling us to join in the fun, to come and dance. With whom, through our usual grumpy eyes, we are perpetually disappointed. We expect a Sky Genie and instead we get GOD. A GOD who is with us. Who joins us. Who compels us. Who shares with us.

A GOD who doesn’t see prayer as an action or something we do. Something our brain has to think about. But something alive and active within us. Something expressing our hopes for our friends and neighbors and all those suffering around us. Something that expresses outward the sense of pain we feel in witnessing to their suffering. Something that goes far beyond ourselves and our needs and our situation, but speaks to our hope for the future and our joy in bettering the very human condition. Anything less isn’t prayer.

Jesus shows us prayer is tied up in what we long for the world and we pray in making that vision a reality.