Scripture Reading: Luke 10:38-42
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Ask, Seek, Knock
Sermon by James Huenink
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you." These words are well known, familiar teaching of Jesus in the middle of what Jesus is doing to teach us about prayer. And I think it encapsulates one of the challenges that we have in prayer, finding a balance between the two sections that Jesus is giving us about how our prayer life works with God's plan and Providence over all creation.
Because we have a couple of promises that God gives us regarding prayer. First, we get a promise that he listens to us, that our prayer does things and he responds to it. Second, we get a promise that God is in charge. He rules over all things, has a plan for all creation and knows what will happen already. And we ask, how do these two things exist with one another? Our prayers do things. God listens to them and responds. God has a plan for all creation. I think our passage today talks a little bit about both of those things, and right in the middle is this passage: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you."
The Persistent Neighbor
The first section tells a story that says, basically, bother God until he gives you what you ask for, right? He gives us a story about a man who comes to a house at midnight, he knocks on the door and says, "I've got a friend who's coming over and I don't have any food. Give me some food so I can be a good host." And the guy on the inside does what most of us would do, and says, "Get off my lawn." He says, "Don't bother me. The door's shut. My children are in bed with me, and I cannot get up and do anything." But the man keeps pounding and knocking on the door—at least that's what's implied, right? It's because of his impudence, because he is continually knocking, continually bothering that the man who is in bed gets up and grumbles and goes to the cabinet, pulls out the loaf of white bread and hands it over to the guy and says, "Fine, go away now."
Now, of course, we know that God isn't like that. God isn't the guy who says, "The door is locked. I'm asleep. Don't bother me." But Jesus uses another parable that's actually very similar to talk about something like this—the parable of the persistent widow. In Luke chapter 18, he tells a parable of a widow who goes to an unrighteous judge who refuses to give her justice, and what she does is she just keeps bothering him. She's a widow. She doesn't have anything else to do, and she shows up outside his courtroom every day, until he just gets so tired of her that he finally gives her justice.
What a fascinating way of talking about God. We've got the jerk who won't just get up and do his job as a neighbor. We have the judge who doesn't care about righteousness or good but wants the lady off his front porch and out of his courtroom. Even they will do good things when they're forced to—what about God? God is not an unrighteous judge. God is not a terrible neighbor. He is a good and loving father.
Our Father Who Listens
In fact, when Jesus tells us in the Lord's Prayer to address our Father as Father, he is teaching us that God sees us as His children, someone who promises to listen to us as a loving father listens to his loving children. He promises to hear us the way a good father always listens to his children, and he promises to do that, not because we deserve it, but because we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, our Savior, who makes us children by His death and resurrection and by our adoption into His family through baptism.
God promises to listen to every single prayer. He promises to hear and think and respond and react to every single prayer. And in fact, he tells you to keep at it if he does not answer the way you want right away. He says, "Keep doing it. You may be there at his door, pounding on the door at midnight." And he says, "Keep bringing it on. I want to hear more."
You may be thinking you've got a thing that is just—well, I mean, God's busy running all of creation. He can't be bothered with what I want to say. No. This message here tells us, keep at it, keep pounding on the door. God wants to hear you every day no matter what, and he promises to listen and hear your prayer and give you an answer for everything no matter how small or how big. He will listen to you all because of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
And I want you to know that when you don't feel worthy, maybe when you don't feel like he hears, you remember that you're not—he doesn't listen because you're an extra good Christian. He doesn't listen because you have a great prayer or maybe you wrote out something beautiful. He listens because Jesus paid the price for your sin, because He shed His holy, precious blood and died on a cross, and because Jesus says your prayers are important—that's why God listens. Which means that every time you come as a poor, miserable sinner to God, he listens, for the sake of Christ.
Jesus says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you." God promises to hear your prayer.
God's Good Gifts
But then there's the other side too, isn't there? God has a plan, a purpose, something set out for all creation. What is my prayer in all of that? Well, Jesus says something else here. He says, "What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish, give him a serpent? Or, if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"
I think this is a fascinating passage. Jesus is telling the disciples and us that our good father will never switch out a good gift for a bad one. What he's saying is, if you ask for a fish—and I guess a fish is a good thing here—if you ask for a fish, he will not give you an egg. If you ask for an egg, he will not give you a scorpion. God does not give bad gifts when you need good, and I think part of this is understanding that when you ask for things that you shouldn't have, when you ask for a bad gift, God may not say yes. He may say no. He may follow his own divine plan for your life.
How many of us have asked that we would have a bajillion dollars? Maybe you didn't say a bajillion. Maybe you didn't say win the lottery. But we know that sometimes having too much money is actually worse than having not enough. How many people have won the lottery, gotten their $500 million and ended up poorer after they got the money than when they started? Lots. It happens over and over and over again. How many people ask for something that they would love to have, and they get it and it ruins their life?
If you had a good and loving father and you asked for a thing that would ruin your life, would you like him to say no? I think so. That's what parents do for their children all the time. They point up at the stove where the flame is going and the pan is hot, and they're like, "Give me, give me, give me." And we don't say, "Oh, here, of course." And I think what God is saying here, what Jesus is helping us to see, is that when we ask God for things, his plan is often better. He will not substitute the egg he already wants to give you for the scorpion that you ask for. He wants to give you what he knows is best.
And I think that is really comforting, that we have a father who is not like earthly parents who just give in sometimes, because the kid is screaming too much—"Fine. You can watch the iPad." He will give us what is best for us, because He loves us.
God's Ultimate Plan
And the amazing thing about God's plan is that it leads us all not to the happiness that we want right now, but resurrection and eternal life in Christ. And that when we pray and we don't get what we want, we know that we have a good father who will send his son on the last day to raise you from the dead and give you eternal life, and that every single decision he makes from now until that day is so that you will get there. Which means every time something bad happens, every time his plan doesn't make sense, it's one step on the way to resurrection. It's one step to eternity with Christ. We just have to trust our Heavenly Father.
"Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find; knock and it will be open to you." This passage sits in between these two difficult teachings. On one hand, we have bother God until he gives you what you want, and on the other hand, it's trust God when He says no. We don't really understand whether they fit together and how—we just say, "Okay, God, I'll do what you say here and trust what you do here."
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
But there is one promise in this passage that Jesus gives us where he says, "I will never say no." "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"
See, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift that God always says yes to. He offers the Holy Spirit to all who search for the Holy Spirit, and we know that he says yes to them, because the Holy Spirit is always available through the means of grace. We don't have to beg God for the Holy Spirit, knock on his door and pound on it and say, "God, get out of bed." The Holy Spirit is always available. We don't have to beg God and say, "God, I hope it's your will. Please make it your will that the Holy Spirit will come to me," because the Holy Spirit is always available right here, in this place where you hear the word of God. The Holy Spirit is always working when you receive the absolution. The Holy Spirit is always working when you receive Christ's body and drink his blood. The Spirit is working on you, and he is here every Sunday at 10am sharp for you.
This wonderful promise is that The Holy Spirit comes down to you on schedule at the right time, and for us good Germans at 10 and one second, he is here because God promises that through the means of grace, the Holy Spirit always works. That is the gift that God gives without measure, over and over, overflowing down to you, so that you will always have faith, so that you will always be connected to Christ.
"Ask and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you" in Jesus' name. Amen.
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