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08.16.09

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ASK, SEEK, KNOCK

PSALM 25:1-15; LUKE 11:1-13

• Living In Fast Forward
• Click
• In 2006, Adam Sandler, of Saturday Night Live fame, starred in a movie entitled Click
• Sandler plays the role of a family man who is a workaholic architect obsessed with getting ahead at work
• When he comes home after a long, hard day, he tries to relax in front of the TV, but because of the multiple electronic gadgets he owns, he never seems to be able to find the right remote control
• He heads out late one night to find himself a universal remote, one device to control everything, but the only store he finds open is Bed, Bath and Beyond
• He parks the car and enters the store to look around
• He wanders through each department, finding only sheets, towels, kitchen utensils, and other accessories to beautify the home
• At the back of the store above a doorway, he sees a neon sign that flashes the word “Beyond”
• That door leads him into a massive back room where he encounters a man standing behind a counter
• He tells the man what he is looking for and asks if the store sold them
• “You’re in luck,” the man replies, “I just got a prototype of the latest thing in remote control technology.  It’s not even in the stores yet.”
• After some haggling, Sandler purchases the remote control and heads home to try it out
• What he discovers is that it is truly a “universal remote,” for with it he can not only control all of his electronic devices, he can pause, mute, and fast forward his life
• Any time he finds himself in an uncomfortable situation (like dinner with his parents, or an argument with his wife) he hits the fast forward button
• When he was too impatient to wait and see if his big promotion came through, he hit the fast forward button to see what happened
• But soon he discovers that there are consequences to fast forwarding his way through life
• Once he went forward, he could not go back
• Fast forwarding his way through life destroyed his relationship with his wife and she divorced him without him knowing it
• He missed seeing his kids grow up and missed being involved in their lives
• He fast forwarded his way through life so much that he wasn’t even present when his father passed away
• Fortunately, he wakes us to find that he’s still in Bed, Bath and Beyond
• All this was just a dream, for he had fallen asleep on a bed display
• He was given another chance to slow his life down and nurture the relationships that were important to him rather than to miss all of the important things in life
• Life In An Instant Culture
• That’s the way many of us live in the fast-paced culture of this post-modern era
• The primary value of this era in which we live is instant gratification
• Fast food pick-up windows, automated teller machines, microwave ovens, the Internet—with it’s online banking, emails and instant messaging—and cell phones with text messaging—these are the signs of the times, the hallmark of our culture
• While I’m as guilty as most people of using and sometimes enjoying the ease and convenience of all technology provides, this technology impacts us as much negatively as it does positively
• There are two primary areas of concern
• While intending to make life easier and less stressful because we don’t have to work as hard to get things done, the opposite is often the case
• Life is often more difficult and stress levels are through the roof
• That’s not the fault of the technology; rather is the fault of how we use it
• Because so many things are so much easier to do, we cram more and more into our days and ignore our need for rest and relaxation
• Convenience, while intended to make life easier, often makes life harder because we have more time to do more things
• Instead of using at least some of that free time to unwind, to spend quality time with family and friends, we fill that time with more things to do, to the point that we wear ourselves out
• The other concern is how technology negatively impacts interpersonal relationships
• It encourages us to avoid establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships with others
• As a fast food nation, family time around the dinner table is virtually nonexistent
• By eliminating trips to the bank, the post office, and other places of business, we can avoid human contact
• Emails, instant messaging, and text messaging lack the personality of a hand-written letter, a phone call, or even a face-to-face visit
• Kids watching TV or playing video games in the same room as Mom and Dad, who are surfing the Internet, isn’t quality family time
• Is it any wonder our culture is in the condition it’s in?
• We’ve forgotten how to relate to one another
• While I was serving as moderator of the Committee on Ministry in Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery, I was once involved in a rapid-fire email exchange with the moderator of the presbytery
• We were having a discussion about business for an upcoming presbytery meeting
• After about the third email back and forth, my telephone rang, and it was Tracie, the presbytery moderator
• When I answered the phone, she said, “I thought it would be better if we just talked to each other.”
• Things That Can’t Be Instant
• We rely on being able to do some things instantaneously without having to think our way through them—like breathing, for example
• Some things—like tying our shoelaces or riding a bike—are the result of skills we’ve learned so well that we can do them without fail
• Other things—like brushing our teeth and fastening our seatbelt—are habits we have developed so fully that we can do them without thinking about them
• But other parts of our life ought not to be so automatic
• Some things need our full attention, especially when it comes to relationships
• A spouse can tell the difference between an automatic “I love you” and a genuine expression of love
• Kids know the difference when parents are showing genuine interest in what’s happening in their lives
• Friends can tell the difference between a rote “How are you?” and a compassionate reaching out of soul to soul
• Sadly, many of us fast forward our way through life and miss so much of what living is all about
• Many who live life on the fast track, who seek instant gratification for their wants and desires, never have time for God
• It’s not that they don’t believe in God, they’re just too busy to nurture the relationship
• Any meaningful relationship requires time and effort, and unless we invest ourselves in it fully, it will be weak and shallow at best
• In any relationship, we get out of it what we put into it—whether it’s with our parents, our siblings, our spouse, our children, our friends—it’s even true with God
• If God seems distant and removed, it’s likely because we have not done our part to build a strong relationship
• Clicking With God
• The Disciples’ Request
• It was obvious to the disciples that Jesus had something they didn’t have—there was something about him that was uniquely different
• He had a strong sense of confidence, inner strength, and peace, even in the most difficult situations
• Time and again, they went with Jesus as he withdrew to a quiet place to pray, and after each of those retreats, they saw how Jesus was refreshed, renewed, and reinvigorated
• They perceived that the difference between Jesus and themselves was that Jesus had a deeply personal and intimate relationship with God, developed and renewed through the time Jesus spent with God in prayer
• In their desire to have what Jesus had, to be as much like him as possible, they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray
• Wanting to share with them the kind of relationship he had with God, Jesus taught them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer
• It was common practice for teachers to compose a prayer for their students to recite—even John the Baptist did that for his followers
• But Jesus’ disciples were looking for more than a prayer they could recite from memory; they wanted to know how to talk to God personally in a deeply intimate way
• Understanding their desire for intimacy with God, Jesus gave them a pattern for prayer to help them develop their relationship with God
• Jesus never intended this prayer to be memorized and recited mindlessly as a way of seeking instant gratification from God
• Jesus’ Model for Prayer
• That Jesus chose the word “Father” to begin his teaching on how to pray shows that Jesus believed that prayer was the means of developing a personal relationship with God
• God was considered the “Father” of the people of Israel, but at no time did any Israelite dare to address God as “Father” until Jesus came into the world
• God was too holy and too distant to be involved in the personal lives of people
• But Jesus showed them that their understanding of God was wrong
• God is not distant, but very close at hand—in fact, the Aramaic word for “Father” is roughly equivalent to our word “Daddy”
• As any good daddy will provide for the needs of his children, so God will give the best of God’s self to the children God loves
• In the context of this family relationship, we can openly and honestly talk to God
• We can praise God for who God is
• We can seek to understand God’s will for our lives so that we might do our part to bring the full realm of God into the world
• We can seek from God those things we need on a daily basis—food for the soul as well as for the body
• We can find forgiveness for our sins and ask for God’s help so that we might forgive others
• We can draw upon a source of strength greater than our own as we face the trials and temptations of human life
• Each of our life’s circumstances is different because each of us are different, yet God cares about each of us personally and wants to develop a relationship with us
• Jesus didn’t give us this prayer as a means of seeking instant gratification from God
• He gave us a pattern for developing a deeply intimate and personal relationship
• This is only a pattern for prayer—the words of prayer must come from the heart
• Building Relationship
• In the parable following this prayer and the teaching following the parable, Jesus shows us that God is concerned about our every need and we can speak to God at any time
• Relationships grow as we talk with one another and listen to one another, as we spend time together daily
• Notice the depth of the relationship David had with God as evidenced in his prayer in Psalm 25
• All the elements Jesus taught his disciples are there, but the words are David’s words
• David praises God for who God is; he seeks to understand God’s will so that he might advance God’s work; he talks to God about his needs, about what’s on his heart and mind; he seeks God’s forgiveness and asks for strength for the trials he faces
• David knew he could talk freely with God because he took the time to develop a relationship
• There was no formality, no ritualistic language—David talked to God as friend to friend
• What Jesus taught his disciples is that a relationship with God is possible, but in order for that relationship to develop, we have to invest the time
• In our instant gratification culture, even we who are Christians are guilty
• A quick and mindless recitation of the Lord’s Prayer is often a substitute for truly heartfelt prayer
• It’s quick and it’s easy, and we can do it without making a commitment to the relationship
• And still we expect that God will give us anything and everything we want without us having to give anything in return
• We have corrupted Jesus’ words about asking, seeking, and knocking into a mantra for self-gratification, and we use this prayer to try to hide our selfishness
• Jesus’ words about asking, seeking, and knocking doesn’t give us the right to ask for and expect whatever we want from God
• God is not that capricious to cow-tow to our every whim
• This is not a formula for instant self-gratification in the guise of faith
• It is a blessing that comes from developing a deep and abiding relationship with God
• The linchpin in this passage is the phrase “your kingdom come”
• Matthew adds the words, “your will be done” in his version of this prayer
• When the kingdom of God is the focus of our life, then we can ask and receive, seek and find, knock and have the door opened, because what we seek will not be things to gratify ourselves but to glorify God
• In healthy relationships, the needs of the other are more important than the needs of self
• We can’t fast forward our way through life or faith
• We risk losing more than we gain if we do
• Developing a deeply personal relationship with God is the key to developing deeply personal relationships wit others, and the true blessings of life come through relationship