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.” 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!” (Luke 11:1-13 NRSV)

Lord, teach us to pray.
What a wonderful request!
Lord, teach us to pray,
What an un-selfish thing to ask for.
Lord, teach us to pray,
as John taught his Disciples.
Prayer,
What is it?
On the outside it’s a rather silly looking activity, really.
I mean, all our lives we learn that communication
takes place when we talk with others.
when we look at them
and they look at us
and we can observe their reactions when we speak
and they can see us when they respond.

Communication is, naturally, a very active enterprise
It is an action, not a thing.

We communicate, converse, relate.
Why, then, do we so very often think of prayer as a THING.

Think about it.
Look in your bulletins.
Written prayers.
Words,
written down,
convening meaning, yes
but not really conversing.

So often we look upon a prayer as a thing,
not a conversation
not a relationship.
Indeed,
Some how, some way, we’ve come to view prayer
as something unusual,
So unusual,
so different from normal communication
that we -- myself included -- pray with our eyes closed!
and often in weird, physical configurations.

Dr. Gene Scott once said, half-way joking
that he wanted the seeing-eye-dog franchise in heaven:
When Christians get there they’ll all be going around
with their eyes closed
trying to find God.

Now, don’t misunderstand me...
There’s nothing wrong with closing your eyes while in prayer
nor is there really anything wrong with kneeling
Indeed, these strange ways of approaching conversation with God--
closing our eyes
kneeling or bowing, etc.
are physical reminders to us
that we are indeed talking with God
with the creator of the universe
before whom we simply cannot stand on our own.

Still, I cannot help but be struck at how strange we are when we pray.
And how we sometimes forget
that prayer is more than just a bunch of words
strung together in order to sound pretty.

In fact, it’s quite an audacious proposition when you think about it.
Here we are, mortal human beings -- finite, limited, flawed and imperfect --
and, yet, we are so bold as to believe
that we can be in some sort of communication
with the Almighty One
The maker of heaven and earth?
It is such an outlandish thought, really, that I
might be tempted to disbelieve it
if I didn’t also know that is is so very true.

And, it is remarkable that the disciples knew to whom they had to go
if they were going to be able to pray.

Who better than Jesus, the Son of God,
to ask about how we are to pray?

Who better, indeed, than God Himself?

How are we to pray?
Why are we to pray?
And what are we to pray for?

These are the questions the disciples needed answering:
and so do we.

Would yhou pray with me now?

Gracious God, move among us this day so that we may always know that we are never alone; and speak to us so that we may always hear, understand, and remember -- give us your word by which you mold and shape our living; in Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

Ask, and it shall be given unto you
Seek, and ye shall find,
knock, and the door shall be opened ...
Pretty tall promises,
don’t you think?
Every sermon, I ask for some pretty tall things too --

Move among us, Lord---
I don’t know about you, but i want Him here---
I continually need reminding that I am not alone
Speak to each us---
I know that, without God’s word, I’m lost.

According to Jesus,
and the pattern of prayer he laid down for the disciples,
what we’ve just prayed for is true:
God IS moving among us
God IS speaking to us
Can you hear him?
Shhhhhhh!
Listen!

“Ask and it shall be given unto you.”
I would be willing to bet that
This is one of the most misunderstood promises is all of the Bible.
I am often asked “Greg, if I pray for a Cadillac, will I get one?”
“Greg, if I pray to win a million dollars,
will I win it?”
“Will I get?”
“Will I get?”

The whole idea of praying to GET something reminds me of one of my favorite,
though somewhat cynical
stories
about what Praying might look like to an alien.

ET comes down to earth, on a Mission to find out what humans believe
about God and things religious.
So he comes down and goes to several different Churches
and makes some observations based upon what most Christians
do in their religious life
regarding the nature of God.
He is picked up by his flying saucer,
and as he meets with his commanding officer,
his report goes something like this:

”Humans conceive of God as a gigantic EAR up in heaven,
attached to a Great Vending Machine.
And the object of human religion
of prayer
is to make the ear reverberate in just such a fashion
that it causes the vending machine to deposit
whatever they’re praying for
right into their laps.

God is not a big ear, up in the sky.
God does not operate a vending machine, filled with goodies for our delight.
The question which we sometimes ask of our prayers...
“Will I get?”
is the wrong question altogether.
The world would have us focus on the self.
The world would have me direct my attention on ME.

God would have us focus on HIM.
not our ourselves.
God would have us focus on HIM ... and upon others.
We don’t pray to GET
We don’t pray to receive THINGS ....
We pray that God might use us
We pray FOR others
We pray because we want to give ourselves to God.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
--Amen