Praying as Jesus Prayed: Proper 12

"One of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray.'" (Luke 11:1)

When I was a child, I asked my parents for something. I don't remember what it was, but it must have been really important; because I remember being rather upset when, after my repeated pleas, they finally said, "You need that like you need a hole in the head!" My begging had come to nothing. But smart-aleck that I was, I still knew how to get the last word. For weeks afterward, I would occasionally cry out, "I want a hole in the head!"

You might also call me "shameless." And that's also what you really should call the "persistent" friend in Jesus's parable. Last week, we heard of the importance of showing hospitality. That's what's going on in this parable. Your neighbor needs bread for his friend who has just shown up at his door with no warning. Of course, it's midnight, and who wants to get up from a good night's sleep; and wake up the rest of your family in your small house while you light a candle and make noise looking for food? So you say, "C'mon. Can't they wait to eat till morning?" But those travelers have been walking all day and half the night. They're hungry, and their host can't let them down. So, he keeps knocking, and knocking, and knocking. Then he starts shouting. And now the rest of the neighborhood is being woken up. At first, they're yelling at the host to shut up. But that guy is shameless. And soon, the neighbors are yelling at you to get up and give the guy what he wants.

It is much more than "persistence" that Jesus is talking about here when he says, "Ask, and it will be given you…knock, and it will be opened to you." The attitude toward prayer that Jesus seems to commend here isn't "persistence;" it's "shamelessness. We should take every desire, every fear, every hope, every wish, every resentment, and get in God's face about it, and not get out of his face until God answers our prayer.

Does that sound like the most mature approach to prayer on our part? For that matter, how does God sound in all this: like a grumpy, tired old man that you have to bug until he finally pays attention to you? Is this really how prayer is supposed to work? Well, maybe sometimes that's where we are. Maybe sometimes we're so sad, so grief-stricken, or so angry, that all we can say to God is: "How dare you let this happen. I want to know why, and I demand an answer from you." And maybe we have to say that, day after day. Maybe, that's the only prayer to God that we can make: a shameless request and search for an answer to our grief and our anger.

Of course, was God's Son any less shameless when he threw himself to the ground and pleaded, "Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me"? And note how our Gospel began today: "He was praying in a certain place." The Gospels tell us what Jesus did and said. Hey don't try to analyze his inner being that way modern biographies do. So, we really don't know how the mind of God's son, incarnated as a human being, worked. Clearly, he was able to discern God's will in a way that we can't even imagine. But was it some sort of telepathic communication where God's thoughts just flowed into Jesus's brain? Then why did even Jesus Christ need to go to certain quiet places, so that a quiet space in his mind and heart could be opened, so that he could hear God's voice amid all the distractions of this world? Why did even Jesus beg for another answer to his prayer that dark Thursday night in Gethsemane?

When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, he's not setting himself on a lofty pedestal of serene contemplation that is unreachable for us. If we have to start at the level of shameless pestering or fist-shaking, know that we are praying as Jesus prayed, at least once. When we struggle to make the time and space to be in silence, know that we are praying as Jesus did, much more than once. So, to reach the top of the ladder of praying as Jesus prayed is not impossible. Jesus is with us at the baby steps of shamelessness. And as we begin to go deeper, we might begin to ask a different question than why did God let this happen. We might begin to ask, why am I so angry or sad or fearful? What is it that really pushes my button, and why? Sometimes, the first step to praying as Jesus prayed is to look at ourselves. If prayer is communication with God, sometimes it may be necessary to communicate with ourselves first.

Having reached that step of the ladder, we are even closer to praying as Jesus prayed. For in that communication with ourselves, we find more understanding. And in that understanding, we will find that there is less of our grief, our fear and anger. And there is more room in our hearts for the hopes and griefs of others. And when we have made that room, then we will be able to pray in the words that Jesus has taught us in today's Gospel, "Father…your kingdom come." A kingdom in which all people are fed in their bodies and souls with the love of God.

Never be ashamed of your anger or your sadness. Shamelessly bring your complaints before God. Do not fear to examine those darker emotions; for with that examination comes understanding, and an open heart to the kingdom of God, and all our brothers and sisters in that kingdom. Lord, teach us to pray.