Pastor Sarah R. Cordray

Grace/Gloria Dei Lutheran

July 25, 2010

Luke 11.1-13

Knock, Knock

Who’s There?

Jesus is always there for you!

Sid was a feisty one! Every time I traveled to the nursing home in Cedar Rapids, where he lived, I always had to chase Sid around. All I wanted to do was to bring to him Holy Communion and serve him the bread and the wine. But every time I got all set up, got Sid next to me, and then began the words of institution, “In the night in which he was betrayed…,” off he went! It didn’t matter that Sid could no longer walk. He had wheels and fast wheels at that. He could wheel himself away faster than I could reach out and grab! This is what would happen every month I went down to visit him. I was at a loss of how to give him communion…that was until one day I changed my strategy. Why I did it I’m not sure, but during one visit when he took off, I started to pray, “Our Father, who art in Heaven. Hallowed be your name…” By the time I reached Your Kingdom, Sid had stopped in his tracks. He was praying. He was saying every word with me. Sid may not have been able to tell me what he did that morning or tell me about his family, but he could pray every single word of the Lord’s Prayer. After we said Amen together, Sid for the first time stayed still and received the bread and the wine. He received Holy Communion. Something about the Lord’s Prayer stopped him in his taking off and reminded him of what he was there for…to be fed and nourished by the Lord…to be connected with the one who has always been connected to him.

We all have a little bit of Sid in us! We’re always on the go taking off before the Lord can catch us! But something about the Lord’s Prayer always stops us in our tracks reminding us of whose we are and who we are with God. Even when we’ve forgotten in our golden years or have sped by to quickly to remember, the words of the Lord’s Prayer calls us back into relationship with our Father who intimately loves us and says, “Talk to me, ask, persist, insist.”

In fact, many of the verbs in the Lord’s Prayer are commands. They are imperatives commanding the action to be done… “Let it be holy. Let it come. Give. Forgive. Lead us not.” What does it mean for us to command…to persist and insist with God? Does it mean we’ll get everything we want? Does it mean that God is like our vending machine?

When we pray this prayer, is it like putting coins into a vending machine, making our selection, pushing the right button and then waiting for God to spit out exactly what we want? God is NOT a vending machine; God is our Father, our Heavenly Father and prayer is not pushing the right button; it is our relationship of trust knowing that God is with you always. Prayer is the presence of God that changes you. Prayer is what Jesus did himself before his baptism, before selecting the twelve, before he is transfigured, before he was betrayed, and it’s what he is doing when the disciples ask him to teach them to pray. Prayer is so important to Jesus that Jesus taught this prayer so that we could continually come back to God together to remember…to stop in our tracks and knock on a door that will always be opened even when you knock in the middle of the night.

Knock no matter what time of the day or night it is. Knock and insist and persist knowing that you can trust God to get up and open the door! Just like children who make their requests known to their parents…who persist and insist and refused to be ignored. Just like the friend who finally gets up with his friend shamelessly knocking on his door, Jesus tells us that God will get up and give us what we need.

Notice two things as Jesus tells us the story of the two friends: first, we are given what we need and second, the door is opened to us. First Luke was very careful to point out that the friend was given what he needed not what he wants. There is a difference between what we need and what we want. We may want that boat, that beautiful home, a better salary or income, but we are given what we need for life…for living. Yet what happens when we pray for a need of a loved one to be healed and they are not? What happens when we pray for a need for a grandparent or spouse to survive a disease and they soon die? We need their love. We need our family and loved ones. Why God heals some, saves some, and allows others to die, I simply do not know. Why God doesn’t seem to answer some prayers and does answer others, I do not know. But what I do know is that God wants us to come to God in prayer to trust him and believe that no matter what happens, which is our second point, we trust that God will always have that door open to us, so that we may be with God through it all.

As Jesus taught us this prayer, Jesus knew that we need another to open the doors in this life especially as we go through those harder days…especially when it is a life and death matter. Ultimately, Jesus knew that we are not able to save ourselves and travel on our paths without the relationship of God’s love. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he did not give words that are a strategy for success. They were not words of “You can do better!” “Better luck next time!” “Welcome to the real world.” Rather Jesus gave words of life that point to a God who will answer when you ask, who will be found when you seek, and who will open the door when you knock. Jesus point to a God, our Father who is with you wherever you go even when at first it seems that the doors of this life can be shut and you feel locked out.

A few years ago, I was quickly reminded what it felt like to be locked out, especially when someone else was holding the keys to the door. After a dinner out at a restaurant to celebrate Mother’s Day, my husband Nick remained inside the restaurant to square away the bill when Nathanial, our almost two-year-old, and I started out to the car to get belted in for the journey home. Trying to entertain our then two-year-old son, I let him carry the keys to the car…the keys which also had attached the automatic lock and unlock buttons. Being a little tired and warn down from the day and not thinking so clearly, I belted my son in his car seat while the keys still remained in his hands. Then just going through the motions and just by habit, I shut the door! It was then I heard the dreaded “CLICK,” meaning all the doors were locked with my two-year old holding the keys on the inside of the car with me on the outside. It didn’t help that Nathanial was laughing as he thought it was the funniest thing ever to keep pressing the lock button. For me it was a moment of utter dependence…dependence on another for the door to be opened. Fortunately after a quick little drop of the keys into his seat, my son then grabbed in the right spot of the unlock button and finally unlocked all the doors. Incredibly relieved, I was reminded what it means to depend on another to open the door because when we rely on ourselves, we find ourselves locked out!

Why is it that we so often rely on ourselves? Why is it that we want to open our own doors? Why is it that we do not want to ask for help? The disciples teach us too a great lesson. They ask for help! So often the disciples are seen as not getting it and confused about what Jesus is doing, but not here. Here the disciples are teaching us how to knock. Here the disciples ask for help and they get it. “Teach us to pray Jesus.”

Teach us to pray dear Lord. When we are just wheeling away going as fast as we can, stop us in our tracks with words that are ingrained into our very being. Whether we have forgotten or have been too busy to stop, open that door again that Jesus opened through the cross so that we may forever be with you.

Knock, Knock…Who’s there?...It’s not a joke! Jesus IS always there for you! Pray! Pray always!

And all of God’s people say, “Amen!”