Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year C

(Readings: Genesis 18:20-32; Psalm 138:1-8; Colossians 2:12-14: Luke 11:1-13)

         What is it you pray for? Do you have confidence that God will hear your prayer? Do you trust that when you call on God you will be answered?

          I remember that a retreat director once described the four different kinds of prayer in four simple words: "Thanks", "Wow", "Sorry", "Please". Four different kinds of prayer - but doesn’t it seem like we focus so much on the last – Please?

          And there’s nothing wrong with that – if we have a relationship with God, we are bound to ask our friend for something. It is the give and take of any relationship.

          Look at Abraham – how bold he was in bargaining with God. Each time that God agreed to lower the threshold, Abraham asked for more – and each time God agreed again.

          And we bargain with God too, sometimes, don’t we? There is the story of the man who went Christmas shopping at the mall when the parking lot was full and on perhaps the worst weather day of the year – the kind of day when the snow was blowing horizontally and the ice keeps gathering on your windshield – on the inside! And as he was looking for a parking space, he began making promises to God – “if you show me a space, I’ll start going to Church again every week, and I’ll begin giving money to the poor, and I won’t be such a grump to the people I work with…” and at that a space right by the door opened up and the man said, “Nevermind, God – I’ve got this!”

          How often do we look at prayer like that – like it’s some kind of deal that we’re making with God? Or how often do we see prayer as some sort of heavenly candy machine – as long as we put in the right amount of prayer we will get candy dropped in our lap.

          And so we ask God for all kinds of things – at least I do, don’t you? And why not; Jesus tells us in today’s gospel to ask, and seek and to knock, to ask for our daily bread - and that covers a lot of territory! Over the years, I’ve prayed to find a job, or prayed that my father-in-law be healed from cancer, or prayed that my kids arrive home safely – and you better believe that I was storming heaven with prayer when I was in the middle of my heart attack!

          But as I get older and reflect on my prayer life, I have come to realize that behind so many of the things that I have prayed for has been a gnawing fear of losing the people I love and the things I have become attached to. And then I compare that to what Jesus instructs his disciples to pray for: what we need just for today; to pray for forgiveness and to be able to forgive all the debts that others owe us; and to pray that we might be saved from the test that we would surely fail.

          Most of all, by calling God “Father”, “Abba”, “Daddy”, and recognizing God’s name as holy, and calling for the coming of God’s kingdom, Jesus is instructing us to pray in a climate of trust and love. And this, I believe, is the point of why Jesus instructs us to ask, and seek, and knock.

          All of our asking, and seeking and knocking don’t make God more attentive – God already knows what we need before we even utter a word. Instead, our prayer makes us more receptive. When we ask for anything for ourselves or for another, we become mindful of how much we need and how needy we all are – and perhaps we become more compassionate and more understanding, and more willing to do something about all the needs we see around us. The effectiveness of prayer is found in the change it effects in us, not in God. Prayer may not change the situations for which we pray, but frequently we change in the praying. Prayer may not change things for you, but it sure changes you for things.

          When we ask and seek and knock, in one way or another we are opening ourselves to God’s will. When we put ourselves in God’s presence and ask and seek and knock, we acknowledge that we are not in control, that there is something greater than us, and that it is God’s will that we are seeking. And when we have the grace to discover God’s will, we then ask for the courage and the strength to do it. That is the gift of the Spirit that Jesus promises we will receive.

          During the next week, in all of your prayers, be as bold as Abraham, and as courageous as Jesus taught us to be. And then, in your conversation with God, wait with patience, and humility, and faith – and ask to be given the Spirit in order to be an instrument of God’s will to bring the kingdom to earth.