WEB DEVOTIONAL FOR WEEK OF JULY 25, 2010

SCRIPTURE TEXT: LUKE 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."  ²He said to them, "When you pray, say:

            Father, hallowed be your name.

            Your kingdom come.

  ³Give us each day our daily bread.

  ⁴And forgive us our sins,

            for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

            And do not bring us to the time of trial."

  ⁵And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;  ⁶for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.'  ⁷And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.'  ⁸I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

             ⁹So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.  ¹¹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?  ¹²Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?  ¹³If 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!"

In case you were wondering where the Lord's Prayer came from, now you see it from the gospel in Luke! You can also see that what prompted Jesus to offer this prayer is that the disciples asked their rabbi to teach them to pray. So from that moment, that question, Christians (as diverse as we are!) have been praying this very prayer over and over for two millennia.

I don't know that I have ever actually asked anybody to teach me how to pray and I don't think anyone has asked me to teach them to pray – at least not that directly. It seems that the Christian's prayer life is something we are always seeking to strengthen, learn about, even agonize over. In my experience as a pastor, it has seemed to me that one's prayer life is something like one's blood pressure. It's used as an indicator of spiritual health among us. If someone says they never pray, either because they don't have time or don't believe it's effective, we consider them spiritually suspect.

I think we disciples get too wrapped up in the types of prayer and the techniques of prayer. I'm increasingly confident that the when, and how, and what of prayer are not nearly as important as our relationship to God who is our prayer partner.

Those of us who have been schooled in the story of Martin Luther remember that in his early years as a monk, Martin was forever seeking techniques and disciplines that would make God happy with him. He would beat himself up (literally), he would stay awake and pray all night, he would fast until he developed chronic illnesses. And for all this discipline and sacrifice, he found himself no closer to God. In fact, the chasm he could not cross in all his efforts was to get beyond his deep-seated fear that the only certainty in faith was God's judgment.

Martin's mentor in the church suggested that he quit these crazy disciplines and take up another discipline – actually reading the Bible for himself, something he had yet to do.  In turning toward Scripture, Luther discovered many treasures that he passed on to us. One such treasure was the teaching of Jesus we find here in Luke. Here we find not just the recorded Lord's Prayer, but some other teachings by Jesus about the God to whom we pray – what is this God like?

Jesus says, through these parables about the friend at midnight and the gifts of parents, that God is gracious and good and anxious to bring about the Kingdom of peace in the world. The God to whom we pray has an exciting dream for the world: that all things will be made right, that peace and justice will reign, and all people of the earth will be blessed.  This is God's dream and it is the mission we share with our God.

The techniques and disciplines of prayer won't seem meaningful or effective if we don't first have a deep relationship with and a wide confidence in the God who is our prayer partner. The secret to a meaningful prayer life is not its creativity or even its regularity, but its depth. When we have an intimate, trusting relationship with God – like an old married couple – even the simplest, stumbling prayer, is understood with sighs too deep for words.

For Reflection: Imagine that someone asked you to teach them to pray. Wow, what would you say? No fair telling them to ask somebody else, they asked you!

For Prayer: Write/speak your own:_________________________.