July 28 — Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Listen to this sermon HERE.


When my brother puts me on hold, when I’m talking with him on the phone, if I have to wait longer than 10 or 20 seconds, I hang up.  Patience?  Don’t have it, there.

Maybe this says more about me and my relationship with my brother (actually is a good one), than it does about our overall culture, but I have this sneaking suspicion that I’m not the only one who wants what I want...NOW.

In a recent review of company slogans, immediacy and instant satisfaction were dominant themes.  “Have it your way,” Burger King says.  Results, answers, what I want, right NOW — this is how you sell things.

And when we don’t get it NOW, we’re done with you.  We’re done with your conversation, we’re done with your business, with your restaurant, we’re done with your church, we’re done with you because you couldn’t give me what I wanted and quickly.

I wonder if this happens as we relate to God also…

“Here’s what I want God...”  And we make our list of demands as if we’re sitting at the drive-thru.  [pause] And as we pull around life’s next corner, what happens if we don’t get it, as we just ordered it from God...and get it quickly?  [pause]

I’ve heard stories like this from people who have given up on the church, given up on God.  Maybe you’ve been tempted to leave, because you didn’t get what you wanted.  This is part of who are, who we’ve become... 

But today Christ teaches us to pray…(the prayer we say every Sunday).  What’s interesting, is that Christ teaches to pray for the things we need over and over: Daily bread (as opposed to the biggies).  
Jesus teaches us to ask that God gives us this day our daily bread (which is lots of things, acc. to Luther = bread, shelter, breath, even peace, hope, the ability to trust God...all of these are daily bread).  

Now daily bread:  for most of us in this place, we might think, we pretty much have got those covered on our own.  Most of us can get our own food, and our own shelter and transportation, and even our own joy and hope.  It’s easy to forget to ask God for those daily things, for our daily bread.  

But by praying for them, each time we pray, which is what Jesus says (“When you pray, say this…”), by praying for these daily needs, we are remembering that God is the one who provides us with everything.  And there is a religious experience that happens when we admit that.  We give ourselves back to God, when we pray, “You know what?  Even my daily needs today: I am completely indebted to you, Gracious God!  Please provide me with what I need for tomorrow.”  This is at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer.     

And we go back and offer this prayer over and over.  It’s a totally different kind of ask, than the one we do at the drive-thru.  We aren’t admitting that by ordering a hamburger at a restaurant, we couldn’t live and move and have our being.  We aren’t remembering all the things that that the hamburger joint has done for us, in our ordering another burger.  But by asking God to give and forgive us, we are coming back to remembering that without God’s love and grace, we couldn’t exist.  That is God’s daily bread, given freely to you and me.  In praying for it, we are remembering that God has been providing it all along, and will continue giving us enough.

And in making the ask over and over again, we are staying connected.  We are staying connected with the One who never hangs up or gives up on us.  

Jesus teaches us to keep asking, keep pleading, keep coming back, keep connected?  (That’s Jesus’ illustration of the knocking.)  Are we willing to stay, to show up over and over again?

There are church members out there who get upset and disappear after the first (or last) thing happens that they don’t like.  Much like any of us who walk out of a restaurant if the service is terrible, and never come back.  And then there are church members who — we have now idea — if they are/have been upset or not.  They just keep showing up, over and over and over.  They are a reminder to me of God’s grace, and the Lord’s Prayer.  They don’t hang up, they keep pleading with God and staying connected to their sometimes broken, sometimes wonderful community.  “Stay with me,” Jesus says.  That’s how you pray.

“Keep pleading.  Keep asking.  Keep knocking.  Never hang up.  Never give up,” Jesus says. 

When was the last time you pleaded and pleaded, and even argued with God, like Abraham did?  I’m more likely to treat God like my brother on phone, and if God puts me on hold for too long...click.      

But Jesus invites us to stay with the One who never leaves us.

This is not so much about annoying God with the same ad nauseam request, like our kids can really annoy us — “I want it, I want it.  Why, why?  Why?”  Rather it’s about staying, about not giving up.  Prayer is about showing up.  Persistence is being present, answering the door, even at the most ungodly hour.  Sticking with it, through thick and thin.  

A sports analogy I heard recently (lean toward baseball):  “Football is an affair, but baseball is a marriage.”  Not just fireworks prayers once a week, but 9 slow innings every day.  Jesus teaches us that prayer is about showing up:  being with God, who is with us, through thick and thin.

We tend to pray for others.  But Jesus teaches us here to pray for ourselves.  ...to pray that we can stick...that we not lose track; that we not stop trusting that God will provide enough; and that we not forget that God has been providing enough; that we not stop opening ourselves to God’s forgiveness; and that we not stop hearing God’s call to go now and forgive others.  

How’s all that sound for a sermon?  Pretty churchy?  Pretty nice?
Let me slap this ancient, powerful prayer into a real world example (and I encourage you to do the same during the week—or let’s talk about it together—but here’s my example):  Last night, actually this morning, at 2am, a sheriff knocked on our door and informed us that someone had broken into my car.    [pause]

Now how do I pray, Lord?  (my old iPod was stolen, my bluetooth, and some important wires to connect those devices)

I use these little things all the time, so dealing with that is a decent inconvenience...not to mention losing sleep, not to mention the sense of violation that happens when you get robbed.  Talk about trespasses.  We had a trespasser last night.  

So now how do I pray now, Lord? 

"Lord, teach us to pray."

Let’s put some flesh on this prayer.  (And my car being broken into is just one case study, but it snaps us into the present.)  Jesus teaches us in Luke to pray like this, “Our Father, hallowed be your name.”  In other words, God is here with us right now, even as my car is being broken into.  Luke’s version leaves out “who art in heaven”, emphasizing God is right here with us.  “Your kingdom come.”  Luther reminds us that we don’t will God’s kingdom to arrive, it’s already here.  This petition is to say, “Help us put on different glasses so that we can see your kingdom here with us...even as our cars are being broken into.”  “Give today our daily bread.”  You’ve given us everything we need, God, even as our cars are being broken into, you’ve kept us safe this far along the way.  “Forgive us this day, as we forgive others.”  This is how Christ teaches us to pray.  This is how we should pray, even when our cars get broken into.  We are forgiven, sisters and brother in Christ, for all the ways that we have fallen short.  Thanks be to God for that.  “Now, God, help us to go and forgive.  Help us to stay with you, as you have always, always stayed with us.  Thank you, for not giving up on us.”  AMEN.