Ask, Search, Knock

Sunday, July 25th, 2004
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
Luke 11:1-13

1 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." 2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." 5 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; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7 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.' 8 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. 9 "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. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 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!"

“Can I have scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast?”

Caleb usually wanders into the bedroom around 7 or 7:30, and you can pretty much bet on his asking for his favorite breakfast every day. We’ve learned that he is the one of the three kids who thrives on routine. He prefers things to be known in advance, and he expects them to go that way. He is the one most likely to point out “but, you said … so and so …” if we don’t keep exactly to the letter of what we originally planned to do on any given day.

He has his routines. He’s helped enough in the preparation of his breakfast that he can do it on his own, up to a point. When he was still going to bed with his “blankie,” he had a particular way of holding up the blanket, letting it fall open, and then bunching it up and hugging it to himself as he flopped down to be tucked in.

Yesterday morning, the scene Jesus described in the text could have been recreated in the hallway between our bedroom and the boys’ room over at the parsonage. Caleb came in, as usual, asking for his breakfast. I had stayed up until about 2:30 waiting for word from Leslie, and she had pulled in right around 4 AM, so we were both still pretty groggy when he first came in. She explained that to him, and asked him to let her sleep for a while longer and then come back. To a six year old, ‘a while longer’ means something radically different than what it means to an adult. All too soon, Caleb came walking back into the room and again asked for scrambled eggs and toast. To make a long story short, it took him about 4 tries to finally rouse his mommy and daddy out of bed to help him finish his breakfast, and the whole time, this passage was playing in my head.

I’ve heard several sermons preached on the Lord’s Prayer, and I suspect you have as well. There’s the straightforward exegetical and expository approach, breaking the prayer down into its component phrases, and how each presents a sustaining principle that should be followed in order to match the model prayer. While it was helpful to a degree, there is something in me that rebels against the … formulaic approach that presents. The notion that there is a kind of vending machine in the sky, where if you say the right phrase, in the right way, followed by the right condition, you’ll get the response you’re looking for, just doesn’t fit with the idea that God is looking for a relationship with at all.

What was so radical about Jesus to both his followers as well as his detractors was the whole manner in which he approached God – as Abba – as daddy. The leaders of the Sanhedrin knew formulas. They knew how to proscribe the practice of religion. They knew how to control what people believed and HOW they believed and practiced it – the key word being control. Relationships make all the difference. If you deal with someone on a purely functional level, there is a set protocol you go through in addressing and interacting with that person, but as you become familiar with them, get to know their name, get to know their story, about their family, their children, you begin to see the person, and less of the function.

Friday night after the game in Callao, I took the kids to Nino’s for a way-too-late supper. It was about a half hour before closing time when we walked in, and as we sat down at our table, the woman who was bussing tables came by to wipe our table clean. As she approached, I realized she was Mexican. I’d heard the hostess call her name, and I greeted her by name and we started a conversation. Within a few minutes, I’d found out she has two daughters, one who is going to start kindergarten this fall, and her husband works in Heathsville. She took the job at Nino’s because it allowed her to spend more time with her daughters during the day, but it still does not pay very much at all. She spoke about a couple of places where she’d gone to interview, and some of the things she’d heard others tell of what working there was like, and I was faced again with the reality that there is still blatant exploitation of people without a voice going on in today’s society. By the end of the meal, I’d invited her to the gathering we’ll be having at Kilmarnock next Saturday, and had built at least an initial bridge of friendship with her.

But it was in that building that I had to deal with the reality in which SHE lives – which is radically different from mine, and that is not only discomforting, it is MESSY. It is unpredictable. It is unsettling.

What do I do with this knowledge that I now have of injustice being institutionalized right here in our own community? A similar story was shared at the gathering we had at Fairport two weeks ago. I’m having to wrestle with the part of me that wants to blow a whistle as loud as I can, or strike up a protest march … and I’ve never really been one to do stuff like that … It IS unsettling.

What is Jesus telling me to do in this passage? He’s telling me that God, like this friend who, because of his friend’s persistence, finally DOES get up and give him something. ‘Whatever he needs’, the text reads. Then Jesus goes on to say “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”


There was a chorus that became popular in the late 60’s, taken directly from this passage –

Seek, and ye shall find,
Knock and the doors shall be opened,
Ask, and it shall be given
And the love comes a-tumbling’ down”

This week during vacation bible school, one of the activities every class participated in was the making of this chain you see draped around the sanctuary. As I mentioned in the beginning of the discipline of silence, the names on the links are the names of missionaries who are currently serving or who have dedicated their lives to service on the mission field. As I mentioned Friday night at the commencement exercise, these names only represent 2 months’ worth of names for those who are serving through the International Mission Board, and all the names of missionaries and their children who serve through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Even though this chain could wrap completely around the room and have some left over, it represents only a 6th of the missionaries whom we support through our giving and prayers.

The thing that Jesus made plain through his life and earthly ministry was that God is not a distant, disengaged God. God is … the theological term is immanent – PRESENT.

Last week, as I was taking communion to those of our church family who could not be here for Communion Sunday, part of the prayer was always ‘Thank you God that you have promised that wherever two or more are gathered in your name, you will be there. Thank you for your presence here today.”

I’m learning as I go as a father, sometimes not so readily, to measure my response to Hannah, Caleb and Judson’s various requests by this passage. When Jesus said,

11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 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!"

I think he was speaking as much about how we are to behave as parents as he was talking about the nature of the love of God.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

What are we willing to pray for? What are we willing to ask for? We are told to come boldly before the throne of grace. How boldly do we do that?

As we’ve been studying on Wednesday nights, the spiritual disciplines are ways to become familiar with the mind of Christ, the will of God, in a real sense, the heart of God.

When we pray, pray like this:

“Daddy, can I have scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast?”

The speech and the words may sound different, but the intent of the heart is what God hears.

Let’s pray.