Community Church Sermons

Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, Year C – July 29, 2001

"Ask! Seek! Knock!”

Luke 11:1-13

I like the story about the little boy who had his sights set on a brand new bicycle. Sitting there in the window of the local bike store, it literally sparkled and had all the bells and whistles. How badly the little boy wanted that bike.

Now, he didn’t have any money. And his parents had told him, “No.” So the little boy figured his only chance at getting that sparkling new red bike in the shop window was through prayer. And so he prayed.

”Lord, I WANT that bike! Lord, I NEED that bike! Lord, if you get me that bike, I’ll do whatever you want – even become a missionary.”

But pray as much as he did, the bike did not come. So one night, when all the lights in the house were out, the little boy crept out of his room, tiptoed into the living room, and from his mother’s china cabinet, carefully extracted a beautiful porcelain figurine of the Virgin Mary. Tenderly carrying the piece back to his bedroom, the little boy gently laid it in a shoebox. He covered it with a handkerchief, and put the lid on the box. Then he tied the whole package securely with a shoestring. Then he went over to his bed and the little boy prayerfully knelt down at its side. He slid the box containing the Virgin Mary under the bed – and covered it up with several towels and pillows. Then, he folded his little hands and bowed his little head, and prayed this little prayer, “Lord, if you ever want to see your mother again…”

Now I like that story because I see myself in there! Maybe you see yourself, too. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed for a red bicycle, but I’ve found myself on occasion praying for all sorts of interesting things.

“God, don’t let it rain today- you know we have that picnic! Lord, help Buddy get that job! Jesus, I need you to provide me a front row parking space here at the mall! Lord, you know I didn’t get a chance to study, but let me pass this exam anyways!” How well I remember a Lady Vol basketball game a few years ago during the NCAA regional tournament over in Nashville. Our Lady Vols were behind late in the second half. North Carolina looked like they were going to pull off a major upset. And in the middle of all the cheering – all the yelling – all the screaming – I realized that one of our intrepid church members seated a row or two in front of me was trying to get my attention. I leaned closer. She said, “Marty…PRAY!”

So I did. And we won!

Actually that’s not entirely true. We did win. But I didn’t pray.

Although I have to admit that sometimes I do pray for things like my favorite team. “Lord, help her make this free throw!” Or, better yet, “Lord make her MISS this free throw!” I was reading an article the other day where a fellow was reflecting on his high school football career. He remembered how, just before the team would take the field on Friday night, the coach would gather all the guys in a circle and they would pray the Lord’s Prayer. And as soon as they said, “Amen!” they followed up with, “Okay, let’s go kill those guys!!!”

Prayer. For many of us, prayer is a desperate attempt to turn life our way. And some of our prayers are over matters deeply important to us. “Lord, don’t let it be cancer. Don’t let my grandfather die. Provide me the money! Make my husband change!”

In fact, prayer is one of those things that leads some people to devote themselves to God, while at the same time, leading others to give up on God altogether. And the difference between these two destinations seems so often to hinge on whether or not we got what we wanted when we prayed.

In today’s Gospel lesson, the disciples of Jesus are about to move from one world of prayer to another. They are about to inch away from the world of self-serving, me-centered prayer that I believe almost always leads to disappointment with God, into a new world of prayer which serves neighbor instead of self, and is centered not on me, but on God.

The disciples are impressed by the fact that, when Jesus prays, his prayers are answered, and answered with great power. And they want to learn to pray in a similar fashion. And so they ask Jesus to teach them. And he says, “When you pray, pray something like this: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.”

Now, we all recognize this as the earliest – probably the original - version of what we call the Lord’s Prayer. And over the centuries, we have added some lines and polished up that prayer, and – in the Protestant tradition – added the ending for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. And with these slight adjustments, we have made the Lord’s Prayer a traditional part of the worship liturgy in many churches.

And yet, as familiar as we are with this most familiar of all prayers, most of us manage to miss its power. Remember that the disciples wanted to learn to pray because they saw the power of prayer in Jesus’ life. When Jesus prayed, things happened! When Jesus prayed, answers came! When Jesus prayed, God responded! Not sometimes, but ALL the time. Not on SOME days, but EVERY day!

“Lord teach US to pray like that!” the disciples begged. Wouldn’t you like to discover such prayer-power in your life?

And so Jesus taught them. “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.”

I find it rather interesting that, when people talk about receiving answers to prayer in their life, it is almost never in response to praying the Lord’s Prayer. It’s almost always some prayer of another kind. A personal petition of one’s own. A desperate plea for help in the heat of a difficult moment. A repetition of a prayer like the prayer of Jabez. A novena offered over a period of time. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone report that, when they prayed the Lord’s Prayer in the service at Tellico Village Community Church that morning, the earth shook and the heavens were opened and life was changed.

And yet, Jesus tells us that the way to powerful prayer is found when we when we pray like this: “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.”

Obviously, Jesus does not intend this pattern of prayer to be a mere ritual. Clearly, Jesus sees it as an actual process of power. And when he concludes the teaching in verse 9, he does so with a remarkable guarantee: Ask, and it WILL be given to you, seek and you WILL find, knock and the door WILL be opened! And then, if there is still any doubt about how serious Jesus is about this way of prayer he says in verse 10: “For EVERYONE who asks RECEIVES; and EVERYONE who seeks FINDS, and to EVERYONE who knocks the door WILL BE OPENED!

There is no doubt here. There are no unanswered prayers here. This is prayer that works first time, every time. If you want to discover the power of prayer as Jesus experienced it – prayer which is answered and with power – take up this way of prayer.

So what is it that we are missing about the Lord’s Prayer that makes it such a non-factor in most of our lives? And what might we discover about it today that will help us experience the power of prayer like Jesus did?

Well, I think the answer to both those questions is context. What most of us miss about the Lord’s Prayer is its context. What we need to discover for the Lord’s Prayer to become effective in our lives is its context.

Luke uses three beautiful stories to set up this teaching prayer. The first story is about Jesus sending out of seventy-two of his followers to preach the good news of the kingdom to people, and to heal their illnesses, and to cast out demons. The second story is the story of the Good Samaritan in which an outcast becomes the hero by loving his neighbor in the form of a stranger. And the third story is about Mary and Martha, and Martha’s need to learn to sometimes let go of always doing so that she can be about the job of being a friend.

And, you see, that’s what the Lord’s Prayer expresses so well – it is a prayer for power to bring wholeness to others – a prayer for power to love your neighbor as yourself – a prayer for power to be the friend you need to be to some other person!

And when you ask for such power – power to make others whole, power to love your neighbor, power to be the friend you need to be – it WILL BE GIVEN! And when you seek the way to make others whole, and to love your neighbor, and to be a friend – YOU WILL FIND IT! And when you knock on the door, hoping to find the way to bring God’s love to others, and to care for your neighbor, and to be the friend you need to be, THE DOOR WILL BE OPENED!

The context of the Lord’s Prayer is not about how to get yourself a shiny red bike, but about how to fulfill your calling as a Christian!!!

It is about praying every day for the power to love! And, in that regard, Jesus sums it up by saying, “Ask…seek…knock!”

Several weeks ago, I received a cryptic telephone message asking me if I would speak to a group called CITI Ministries during our Annual Conference this past week in Albuquerque. But I was puzzled by the last part of the message that said something about “married priests”. Why would anyone want me to speak to their group about married priests?

It was then that I learned that CITI Ministries is an association of married Roman Catholic priests. They have recently joined our International Council of Community Churches. They wanted to hear about how to start local Community Churches. I thought that sounded great. So I called their office in Framingham, Massachusetts.

No one was there to take my call, but a pleasant message on the answering machine invited me to leave a message. And, it said, if I wanted to find out more about the group, I could visit their web site at – are you ready for this? – www.rentapriest.com! So I went to the web site.

And there, I discovered three things. First, a graphic image of a beautiful painting of the Last Supper. It was similar to DaVinci’s famous painting, but different in one important regard. Seated around the Passover table with Jesus and the disciples were – the disciples’ wives – and their children! It was lovely! And it probably more accurately depicts the Passover Meal shared by Jesus and his friends.

The second thing I discovered there at www.rentapriest.com is that, even during this time when the Catholic Church has a tremendous shortage of priests (there are over 5,000 parishes in the United States alone with no resident priest), there is an average of over 400 priests per state who are unassigned to parishes because they are married. And even though the Church would accept the conversion of a married Protestant minister and allow him to serve as a priest, the same standard does not apply to those who marry from within the priesthood. This, despite the fact that the married priesthood was how it was for the first thousand years of church history.

Then the third thing I learned. CITI Ministries - which stands for “Celibacy Is The Issue” – was started by a Roman Catholic laywoman by the name of Louise Haggett. And here’s how it started: Louise’s mother was confined to a nursing home in Maine, and despite all her efforts, was unable to find a priest who was available to come and visit her mother during the time of her dying. Louise, being a good daughter, could not let it rest. She prayed. She asked. She sought. She knocked. Louise did research. And she made phone calls. And, as she did, Louise soon discovered that all around her, there were married Roman Catholic priests who were more than willing to help out. And when she asked, they did. They took care of Louise’s mom through the end of her life.

Louise and her husband were manufacturer’s representatives and that year received a large bonus from one of the companies they represent. Dick took his share and joined the local country club. Louise took hers and created CITI Ministries, using her marketing background to come up with the concept of www.rentapriest.com. The jingle is intended to be a humorous attention-getter, but its purpose is very serious: to enable people who need the services of a priest to find them, and to develop a way for gifted, called and ordained priests to recover their ministries. And all over the country, this movement of the Holy Spirit is going on. And these married priests – and their wives – are discovering that there are tens of thousands of disaffected Catholics and others out there who need them. And as these priests care for them in Jesus’ name, small communities of faith are forming. And they want to become Community Churches – like us!

In Albuquerque, I met several of these men and their families. How proud I am to call them brothers. And I also met this incredible ball of energy named Louise Haggett – and her husband – who have helped to change thousands of lives through asking God for the resources to make whole people who would otherwise be left on the fringes of life – through seeking God’s help in loving neighbor as self – and through knocking on door after door after door to find practical ways to become true friends to those in need.

Louise is a living example of the Lord’s Prayer.

And you can be one too! You can go this week and do the same.

Pray that God will show you the way to fulfill your calling as a Christian in the real world.

As Jesus put it, “Ask. Seek. Knock.”

These are prayers that are always answered. Thanks be to God!