Day of the Church Year: 7th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Passage: Luke 11:1-13
Probably ten years ago, I remember detailing to a friend the worries of my heart, the complex problems I could not resolve. I remember asking: What should I do? How do I solve this? My friend, also a Jesus-follower, asked: Have you prayed about it? It was the perfect face-palm moment. Because I hadn’t! It hadn’t even occurred to me to pray! I went and prayed immediately. And of course, a solution emerged.
Similarly, towards the end of our recent soul journey to Holden Village, after waiting three hours at the boat dock, the boat taking us from the Holden boat dock to the small town of Chelan, Washington finally arrived. Its lateness meant, after our boat ride, we missed the particular city bus meant to bring us from Chelan to Wenatchee, a larger city where we would stay the night. We heaved our luggage to the bus stop and investigated the bus schedule. Another bus would come soon, it told us. We waited...and waited. That part of Washington was under a heat warning that day with temperatures in the upper 90s. We discovered places of shade and sat down. I could feel our remaining energy drain from us. Finally, I called out: Friends, let’s gather and pray. Everyone wearily walked into my general vicinity, and I asked for a volunteer to keep their eyes open during the prayer in case our bus arrived. I believe Hannah volunteered. I began praying: “Gracious God, we are tired, and we pray for the bus, that it would come soon.” Literally, right at that moment, Hannah cried out, “It’s the bus!” We gratefully entered the air conditioned bus, sat down, and learned that our bus driver was in training and thus driving slower than his experienced co-workers.
Likewise, just a couple days ago, someone was telling me about their housing search. In this tight housing market, locating an apartment in her price range was challenging enough, without geographically restricting her search. However, she really wanted to be in a particular neighborhood so that her daughter could walk to school. She told me that, each day, she prayed very specifically that she would find an apartment in that particular neighborhood. And lo and behold, she discovered an apartment right across the street from the school, an apartment in which she and her daughter are now living.
Today, Jesus teaches the disciples to pray-what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. He teaches the disciples to call out to God in their need. He teaches the disciples that God responds to prayer like a loving parent or thoughtful friend. Jesus instructs them: Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
We could probably all tell stories about times we prayed and God responded in the way we hoped. But Jesus’ teaching leads me to wonder: What about those times I have asked and the solution or desire or need has not been fulfilled? What about the times I have searched and not found, the times I have knocked and the door has not been opened? What about the times when it appears that God does not respond? There is much suffering in our world. Certainly, we are asking, searching, knocking. What about that?
In my wondering, one thing I think about is that scene from the movie Bruce Almighty. If you haven’t seen it, Bruce, played by Jim Carey, complains bitterly to God, so God decides to bestow all of God’s power on Bruce. God, played by Morgan Freeman, takes a vacation. At first, Bruce is delighted. Look at everything he can do! All the power he has! The way he can benefit his own life! After a while, though, the shine of being God dulls, and practical problems emerge. In one scene, Bruce has to figure out how to answer prayers. After trying various strategies for managing millions of prayers that constantly accumulate, he decides to streamline prayers into emails and responds to all of them at the same time. “Yes” is his answer to every prayer. Chaos ensues for many people win the lottery, each receiving $12. Weather patterns shift, and strange tides cause “natural” disasters. Athletic events end in ties because everyone prayed for their team to win.
In this humorous way, “Bruce Almighty” helps us consider the impact of our needs and desires upon others. If God were to answer all prayers in the ways for which we hoped, life would be far from perfect—not just for us but for all creation. Sometimes, when we pray for things, we get in our own way, creating our own stumbling blocks even as God continues to work in our lives. And sometimes, we pray for outcomes or events about which we do not know all the relevant details. In fact, even when we pray for our own lives, sometimes, we don’t know what’s best for us. But God does. God knows what’s best for us and best for the world. And we can only assume that God provides in ways that truly benefit us and all creation.
Still, we cry out to God for healing, for comfort, for peace. For what possible reason would God fail to answer our prayers as we hope in these situations?
I don’t know.
What I do know is that, when Jesus teaches the disciples about prayer, he assures them of a loving reception. He instructs the disciples to call God abba, an Aramaic word best translated as “daddy.” Jesus illustrates the grace of God with a little story about a friend who gets up in the middle of the night to provide bread for another friend. He reminds the disciples that, if an earthly father cares for his children in the most mundane ways, how much more does our heavenly father care for us? I don’t know why God appears to answer some prayers and not others, but I trust that God loves us.
Perhaps God answers in ways we don’t understand, in ways we cannot yet perceive, in ways we’ll look back and see and go: Oh, yeah, yeah, I get it now. Then again, perhaps not. But, just as Jesus instructs, we go ahead and ask and search and knock anyway. Even if we can’t understand everything about prayer, we trust that God hears us. Even when we can’t understand what God does or why, we trust that God our abba, our friend, our heavenly father loves us. Even with our questions, we call out to God in whose kingdom and power and glory we rest. For that we can say: Thanks be to God! Amen.