Persistent Pestering Prayer?

 Luke 11:1-13

Jesus 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."  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 indebted to us.

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

And 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; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And 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.' I 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.

"So 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. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give 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!”

Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad… Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom.  Is this lesson saying badgering God makes God do what we want?  Can we… the created… MAKE God… the Creator… do what we want?  Is this saying that while God is all powerful, all present, and all knowing… there is this God level kryptonite that we humans can wield… called persistent pestering prayer that God is powerless to resist?  Yeah, I don’t think so either.  So if PERSISTENCE isn’t what this parable is really all about, then what is it about?  I think what’s going on here is a “lost in translation” moment where the people who translated scripture into English used “persistence” when a much better word to use here would have been SHAMELESSNESS.

This little parable is meant to remind us that NONE of us can MAKE God get out of bed to open the door and none of us can MAKE God give us what we want no matter how much badgering, annoying, or praying we do.  But what DOES work is realizing, accepting, and confessing the truth, “God, I am completely lost without you.” “God, there is literally nothing I can do apart from you.” “God, without you, I’m dying here.” 

You see, it’s only when we are finally willing to DIE to the idea that we can “make God give it to us” or “we’ve earned it” or “we deserve it” or “we can win it” ... and finally give up the delusion that we are in control… it’s only when we stop and confess, “God, without You… We are DEAD!… It’s only then, in the DEATH of the me, myself and I, that we finally find ourselves in a spot where we are able to receive the gifts from God that have always been ours.  Those gifts are a life of “enough”… Enough peace, enough food, enough shelter, safety, dignity, purpose, and joy.

I know a lot of people have come to believe that dying to me, myself, and I is only something we do right before our own funerals.  They believe that peace, purpose, joy and the rest can only happen in the sweet by and by.  But with this parable, Jesus was trying to tell the disciples… those back then and us right now… that we weren’t created to just wait around until we die so that we can finally start to really live.  We were meant to live life right now!  And the way to do that is to die right now to things like pride, hatred, greed, fear, and all the horrible things that ooze out from those things.  Then, in the shamelessness of the death of our obsession with the person in our mirror, we will find that we are free to finally look around and discover that we have been raised up to a new and abundant life filled with love, generosity, compassion, peace, kindness and courage right now!  It is in prying ourselves away from our ego in the mirror that we can really see the gift of life we’ve been given... A gift we've been given to live to the fullest in each and every moment of the here and now.

That’s why Jesus taught the disciples to pray the way Jesus did.  He told them to pray like this:  God, You are amazing!  Transform the world from the way it is, into the way you created it to be and as that is happening, turn me to see the vision of what the world is becoming in You.  

Give me what I need each day… food, shelter, love, compassion, kindness, empathy, purpose, and dignity so I don’t get distracted… get sucked back into my mirror worship where I'll lose sight of your vision for the world by something toward the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy like an empty belly. 

Help me to die to the idea that I am alone… that my life is only about me, myself and I.  Help me instead to live for my neighbors, showing them, simply with the way I live my day in, day out life, how caring for others fills me and all of creation with abundant life!  

And help me not to be pulled back down into the world’s swirling toilet of lies.  Lies that are based in fear and scarcity that spiral inevitably down into the sewer of inequality, violence, dishonesty, and scapegoating.  All of which are vain attempts to quell our fears.  

Instead, give me strength and courage to live right into the face of this world, bearing the torch of your love, compassion, forgiveness, inclusion, hope, and peace so that we might experience for ourselves and at the same time also model for the world, a way to have an abundant, meaning, and purpose-filled life, eternally surrounded by your never ending, unconditional, grace and love in each and every moment I've been given. Amen… and Amen.