Pentecost 9 - Year C

Well, what a doozy of a Sunday for Father St John to be poorly and say... do you think you could preach this week Jan....... I am very sorry you are not well St John, naturally. But of course, it being all about me, I can share with you that earlier in the week when I looked at the readings, in the very safe place (I thought) of not having to preach, I thought.... thank God, literally, that it's not me unpacking the horror of Hosea, the very dense ‘what on earth is he talking about' words of Paul, and the absolute incongruence of Christ's image of what prayer is about. Well, thank you God, it is me, and I can only say that it confirms my theology and experience of God's sense of humour.

Which is actually at the heart of the dilemma of the readings today. There is, on the one hand, the absolute seriousness of Paul's words to the church in Colossa, talking about the "elemental spirits of the universe". And there is Jesus, not being too serious at all as he explains what is prayer to his disciples. You may not image Jesus as someone with a sense of humour, but it seems to me there is an element of fun to his teaching we hear today.

You see, I have this image of Jesus, who responds at first seriously to his friends when they ask him "Lord, teach us to pray". He gives them the prayer that has become indeed the most well known of all prayers, the "Our Father" prayer, the Lord's prayer. And you can imagine his friends receiving this very seriously, nodding wisely, and perhaps thinking, "ok, that's it, we've nailed it now, we just have to say those words."

You have to feel for Jesus with that lot of disciples. Perhaps he sighed, as he looked around at them, (with love I do not deny) as he thought "they don't get it ...........again." So he told them a story, as is his want, to convey not the theory or even framework of prayer, but the attitude of prayer. That is, the attitude of approach to God. And he does so with a lively story that would appeal to their sense of humour, you hope, of actually daring to treat God in this way.....
"Suppose one of you has a friend...." he says. And the story unfolds of a dilemma one friend has to solve (no bread for the unexpected visitor) and how naturally you would go and ask a friend to help. That friend doesn't want to be disturbed though, everyone is in bed for the night, so he doesn't want his whole family to be disturbed, and so go away! because if you keep knocking the dog is sure to wake up and if the dog wakes up we will all wake up and then it will be chaos........

Well, the friend won't go away because his need is great and real and he has the expectation that friends help each other in these sort of situations. It is a rightful expectation says Jesus. But, even more significantly, friendship or not, that person's need is met because he keeps knocking on that door. He keeps hopeful in the expectation that indeed his need will be met.

So it is to be with your relationship with God, our Father, says Jesus. "Ask, and it will given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you." Well and good. Well and good.

Reality check.
I didn't get a bike for my sixth birthday; I had to wait until I was eight years old.
I didn't have that boy in Grade 10 ask me to the dance, and wow, that took a lot of prayer time.
Green house gases haven't stopped.
We obviously didn't have enough protective prayer cover over our children that prevented our eldest son suffering a serious bike accident.
Child trafficking still happens.
I couldn't save my father from brain cancer, nor my mother from her grief.
And so it goes. And so it goes.

We ask, and it is not given.
We search, and we do not find.
We knock and the door jolly well stays locked and closed.

What's that I hear? Ah. Jesus sighing, shaking his head. Ready to tell the story again.........

Persistence in prayer, persistence in prayer.... and - key insight - we will be given what we need. And that is, what we need in the eyes of God, and in the will of God. It is that gift, that response, that we need to trust; that God's love is so great that God knows exactly what we do need.
The American theologian Reinhold Neibuhr was preaching for a vacationing pastor in New England during the Second World War. Following the sermon Niebuhr prayed a brief little prayer, something he scribbled down in the study before he came into the sanctuary. Afterwards, a worshipper approached Niebuhr telling him how much that prayer had meant. Niebuhr, thinking nothing of it, pulled out of his Bible the little scrap of paper and gave it to him. The next year that worshipper used that prayer in Christmas cards. Others picked it up and used it and reused it until it has become doubtlessly one of the best known prayers around the world. As soon as I speak the words, you will recognize it.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
Just a few words scratched out on a summer morning, but the right words make such a difference. Perhaps Niebuhr was preaching on this very reading! Later, after the prayer was so widely published, Niebuhr himself was not even sure whether he had composed it himself or remembered it from somewhere else. Was it his? Someone else's? To whom does a prayer belong? It's our prayer. The act of praying gives it to us.

That is the gift of today's Gospel; that prayer itself is possible for everyone, is gifted to us all. That a living relationship with Creator God is available for everyone. And not only that; God does not give up on anyone, even when we give up on God. You thought I was going to totally ignore Hosea today - and how tempting that would be! But, surprise, surprise, it is the most apt Hebrew Scripture to accompany Christ's teaching. Because here is God, utterly at God's most long suffering extreme with the people of Israel, and calling the prophet Hosea in his obedience to take a whore wife, and to name their children with the symbolic names of God's relationship with his people - that is, Jezreel means "God sows" (and the punishment is coming); Lo-ruhamah means "not pitied"; and Lo-ammi means "not my people". In a nutshell, the covenant of God and people is seemingly over.

And then that wonderful word, that wonderful loving breakthrough..... "Yet". Even God cannot deny relationship. Even God cannot deny the creator love for all that God has made. God is long suffering; but it is long suffering love. Therefore the cries, the prayers, of God's people will always be heard and the asking, the searching and the knocking will always be responded to. God cannot help Godself. To prove it, at the point of utmost despair, the ultimate act of abandonment and breaking of covenant was turned into a selfless act of love on a wooden cross. We hear Paul call that action today "God made you alive together with him". Wow.

That is what prayer is. Persistence to get to the point where that's how we know God - alive together with him. If we follow that right through, then the ideal will be that you and I and God are praying the same prayer together. It will be a complete binding with the Holy Spirit. We will be identifying the same needs, the same priorities of action in this world, and have the mutual understanding of God's unfolding will for God's world.

What a day that will be! and how do we get there.... we keep praying. Persistently and always. In our own way, straight from the heart, using other's prayers if they help us, and holding fast to the prayer Jesus himself did give us.

Our Father in heaven. May your will be done. Amen.