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2001
6th May (pm) - A Christian's Heavenly Father
Matthew 7:7-12

Not for the first time in the Sermon on the Mount, we find Jesus talking about one part of life and faith which we find quite difficult - the topic of Praying!

We've already looked at the part in ch.6 where Jesus taught his disciples the Lord's Prayer - the part that is repeated in Luke 11 which we read together - and when we read it a few weeks ago in the Sermon on the mount we gave some attention to Jesus' warnings that when we pray it should never be for show - like some of the religious people in his day, and never as a mere mumbo jumbo of words that we go over without thinking about what we're saying - like some of pagans whom Jesus said 'keep on babbling.'

Now the topic of praying comes up in the Sermon again for us, in very well known words - Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened ......... which, like me, you may have once learnt off by heart in S. School or in primary school RE - without necessarily understanding them too well!

So tonight, our task is to try

to unpack what these familiar words actually say and

to understand what they really mean for our faith and our lives.

Maybe it is just the way my brain works, but I find it helpful to offer you a number of key words or headings.

The first heading is this: The Imperatives in what Jesus says about praying. An imperative is a command - Shut the door is an imperative, even if I maybe add the word, Please.

Unless the tone of my voice makes it sound like a more gentle request, it is to be taken as a command - an imperative. Now a little lesson in Biblical Greek from a preacher who has forgotten a lot of what he learnt, but who hopefully understands enough to explain something important!

In the Biblical Greek, it did not depend on the tone of the voice - there was a special form of the verb which made it clear that it was a command - Ask, Seek, Knock - Do it! And go on asking, seeking and knocking - there were actually 2 forms of the imperative verb - one of them meant that you should do something there and then - a once -off, the other that should always do it and keep on doing it - and in our passage this is what it means - Ask, seek and knock, and keep on doing so

And we can be sure that we are right about this point when we read the part of Luke, as we did, where he includes this teaching, because he puts in the little story about the man who keeps on knocking his neighbour's door to borrow a loaf, even though the neighbour doesn't answer for a long time - keep on knocking!

As we think about this, we need to be very, very clear about what it doesn't mean - Jesus, most definitely, does not mean that God is like that grumpy neighbour who has to be badgered into getting up and coming down to the door - whose arm has to be twisted and whose help has to be squeezed out of him - after all, when we read the part which includes the Lord's Prayer, Jesus said that our heavenly Father knows and cares about what we need before we ask him!

So why does Jesus tell us to be people who go on asking, seeking and knocking?

If it is nothing to do with twisting God's arm, then maybe it is something to do with us! Maybe the right way of understanding and applying this first point is to say that our persistence in praying, our perseverance in asking, seeking and knocking is a good test of our faith - it is a way of showing that we really do believe that God matters, that he is like a heavenly Father, and that what is right and good in life really does come from him. So the asking, seeking and knocking is to test our faith, our sense of trust and dependance on God, our sincerity and desire - rather than testing God's willingness or twisting his arm.

And maybe therein lies the problem - so often you and feel very self sufficient and independent in life - we don't feel much true need for God's help - we feel that we can manage pretty well be ourselves - we are not willing to take the time or to put in the effort of bringing our lives and our needs to God for life is doing all right - except maybe for very superficial, formalised praying in church or at bedtime ..... or at times of emergency and exceptional problems in our lives.

So maybe this first heading - the Imperatives or commands to be people who keep on praying - is meant to challenge us about whether we really are people who bring our lives and our concerns and our situations and needs to God with a sense of faith and dependence on him as heavenly Father - for there is no doubt, as Jesus says about his willingness to hear us. your Father in heaven will good gifts to those who ask him.

The second heading is this: The Inclusiveness in what Jesus says about praying. For everyone who asks receives ........Everyone is a very inclusive word for Jesus to use - and yet he seems to use it very clearly and without any strings attached - everyone means everyone! There is no-one, no matter who they are, or where they are coming from in life, whose prayer will not be heard by God. I suppose this ties in with what Jesus said earlier in the Sermon about God causing the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sending rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Whoever we are, God is ready and willing to hear and respond to the prayers that come from our hearts.

Of course, I suppose that we have to say that if are in earnest about asking and seeking and knocking on God's door, then surely we ought to be willing to think seriously about God, as well as just asking him to provide for some immediate need in our lives - surely most people would recognise the bare-facedness of asking god for his love and help, but being unwilling to make any real time or place for God himself. Mind you, it never ceases to amaze me the number of times i come across people in hospital or at home who in the midst of some illness or difficulty very much want to be led in prayer for God's help and hope - but who when the crisis is over seem to forget very, very quickly indeed!

Jesus' words about praying are utterly inclusive - they are for everyone, and God is very patient and very gracious, even when we have forgotten and neglected him a lot.

But sometimes we exclude ourselves from any kind of meaningful praying because we persist in deeply ingrained sinfulness and resistance to God's ways - when we do that it is very difficult to see how we could ask, seek or knock - just as Isaiah warned the people of his day that in the midst of their and empty and meaningless religious ceremonies and rituals, they couldn't expect God to do what they asked: When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. (Isaiah 1:15)

We always need to be careful that we are not simply trying 'to use God' while wanting to continue living in clear unfaithfulness and willful disobedience!

In making this point about the inclusiveness of this invitation to ask and seek and knock, I suppose we also need to remind ourselves that while God pours out his fatherly love and goodness upon all of us in so many ways, it is those people who have come to trust him properly through faith in Jesus as Saviour who are really able to know him and trust him as a Father, and to enjoy all the reassurances and sense of safety in the Father's love - that's what the apostle, Paul, tells us in Rom.8 where he speaks about those who have come to understand and accept for themselves the love and forgiveness and hope of God that comes through trusting in and submitting to Christ in faith, being able to call God, Abba - Father in the sense of Dad - a trust that is close and personal and sure in a deep down, humble way. That is surely the kind of real relationship of faith that you and I need - to which we are invited - the relationship in which we really learn to ask, seek and knock.

The third heading for tonight is this: The Illustrations in what Jesus says about praying.

We know these illustrations almost too well - we hardly stop to think about them. Which of you if your son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake?

These are not random illustrations that Jesus chooses - the point of them is that the thing substituted is outwardly rather like the thing asked for:

- a round stone would not look unlike the little loaves/rolls of bread that would have been eaten.

- the snake might look a bit like a fish but would certainly not be edible and might even be dangerous.

Not even fallible, sinful human parents would mock their children by giving them useless or dangerous substitutes for what they needed and had asked for - how much more can we trust our heavenly Father, says Jesus, to give us what is good, what is absolutely best.

As we think about this section, it's good to notice how Jesus gives us a bit of positive encouragement - he tells us that usually know how to care about and provide for our children's needs - there is something good about most people - and I think that it is good if we can learn to look for the things that we can commend in others, to be encouragers and reinforcers if we possibly can, rather than always being negative and critical.

However, even in giving this positive encouragement, Jesus makes it very clear that even in people who know how to give good gifts to their children, and to do all sorts of other good things, there is an inescapable reality that is not so good - a problem of evil, of sin, of wrongness in our ways with God and with other people: If you them, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts ...

Jesus works on the assumption that the problem is there in all of us - just as everyone is encouraged to pray, so everyone of us is assumed to have evil in our hearts and lives - Jesus doesn't take time to spell it out, he simply takes it for granted!

Maybe we find it a bit harder to take that for granted and to accept it - we would rather put the basic emphasis on the good side of us and hope that it outweighs the down side.

However Jesus puts the basic emphasis on the down side - even though we are like that, he says, it doesn't stop us doing good things at times. especially for our families.

That seems very realistic and accurate to me - it reminds me that because we are essentially and intrinsically evil, we all need God's essential mercy and forgiveness if we are to have his real hope in our hearts - the mercy and forgiveness which is only found through humbly trusting in Christ who died for us and for our sins.

There is a second point that comes out of this section - Jesus' promise that the Father only gives good gifts to his children is a reminder that when we ask, seek and knock, we must not necessarily expect to receive what we want and think would be good. This is a hard lesson to learn and a hard point to accept - especially when we feel very clear and sure about what we think should happen in any particular situation - sometimes it seems so obvious to us what would be good - sometimes when we ask, seek, knock the answers do not seem to come or do not seem to be anything like what we would want - especially when the needs and the circumstances are very serious like health, family etc. Maybe it is as we learn to trust in God as our heavenly Father through a true faith in Jesus, that we will be able to believe and accept a bit more that God is hearing and answering our prayers, with the most immense goodness and love and wisdom - even when the answers seem absent or from our point of view, unfair or unhelpful. This is a desperately hard matter to cope with sometimes, even for the most faithful Christian - it is wrong to suggest that it is easy once you understand. However when we know through Jesus that god is our Father, we can begin to trust that his answers are always best - that he will not cause his child a needless tear.

 

One final heading to help us summarily this passage: The Implications of what Jesus says about praying.

In this section about praying, vs.12 sticks out a wee bit, almost as if it were out of place - Jesus' golden rule: Do to others what you would have them do to you....

Maybe this verse applies to more than this section, but surely this section about the Father's loving and listening ear, has implications for how we live and behave towards other people - that if we trust in a God who listens to us with love and treats us far better than we deserve, then as his people that should be our way with others - that they ought to know that we are people to whom they can turn when they have genuine need, that we are people from whom they will receive any help or support that we can offer - we are to be like the heavenly Father in whom we have put our trust and to whom we look for constant help and protecting care.

It doesn't come naturally to do unto others as we want them to do unto us - it's a big challenge - maybe it's meant to drive us to be people who pray for help to live in this way!

 

So the Imperatives, the Inclusiveness, the Illustrations, the Implications .... in what Jesus says about praying.

There can be no doubt that he wants us to be people who pray - that is indisputable! Probably very few of us would claim that we are good at praying - really being people of prayer, more so than simply being people who are able to put a prayer together for some situation or occasion in church or at an organisation - it's is actually easier to learn to do that than to be a real person of prayer.

We all have a long way to go and much to learn -but we should surely, at the very least, be people for whom the Father in heaven might write on our school report Tries Hard at learning to pray, but where he would probably also write Needs to Do Better.

I think that applies to all of us:

- Isn't there a lot of room for us to be people who depend more on god in our everyday lives and who express that dependence in our personal prayers - instead of feeling that much of the time we can manage pretty well by ourselves.

- Isn't there a real need for us to learn to pray together, so that we can be an encouragement and help to each other in this business of praying. Sometimes we feel frightened and intimidated by the thought of meeting in a group for prayer - let me encourage you not to be frightened by the idea - there is no pressure on anyone, and there is real encouragement for everyone - it would be good for the rest of us to have you, it would be good for you to join us, and it would be good for the people and the Christian work for which we pray in such groups.

And, after all, Jesus didn't leave praying as an optional extra for special people - he gave us a command - keep on asking, seeking, knocking!