Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (C)

July 27, 2025

Text: Luke 11:1-13

            Why are we so reluctant to pray? 

            Why are we so reluctant, when our Lord Himself teaches us to pray, and gives us the very words to say, the Lord’s Prayer?  The greatest, perfect, all-encompassing prayer?  The prayer our Father loves to hear, and promises to answer?  The prayer Jesus prays with us and for us?  The prayer that speaks to us, as much as it speaks to God, because it is the very Word of God’s Son?

            Why are we so reluctant, when we know how it is among sinful, fallen, frail human friends and neighbors?  Even they respond to our petitions, whether willingly, or reluctantly, whether out of friendship, or perhaps due to our impudence (a word that means “offensively bold,” “shameless” in the making of the request).  If that is true of them, how much more so of our loving and all-merciful God, our Father in heaven?

            Why are we so reluctant, when our Lord promises us that if we ask, it will be given; that when we seek, we will find; that when we knock, it will be opened to us?  After all, we are blood-bought, baptized children of our heavenly Father.  What earthly father, if his son asks for something good, will instead give him something bad?  (Oh, it happens.  I know it happens, but I also know… and you do, too… that that isn’t the rule.  Even most earthly fathers would give their very lives for the sake of their children.)  If even earthly fathers, who are evil… sinful, fallen… know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will the heavenly Father… … Well, we expect Jesus to say, “give good things to those who ask him,” and that is true enough.  That is the way Jesus says it in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 (v. 11; ESV).  But here in Luke, in our Holy Gospel, He says, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13; emphasis added).  And that is an incredible Promise, because, first of all, you have but to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, and you have Him.  With all His gifts.  Calling you by the Gospel.  Enlightening you by His Word and Sacraments.  Sanctifying and keeping you with Jesus Christ in the true faith.  Counseling you.  Consoling you.  Advocating for you.  Tending you.  Working in you. 

            And secondly, and relatedly, you know what He is doing for your prayers?  It is what St. Paul teaches us in Romans 8: “we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (v. 26).  That is, the Spirit takes our weak and paltry prayers, and makes them what they ought to be as He brings them before the throne of God.  Our words can’t even begin to express the petitions His groans deliver to our Father. 

            Why are we so reluctant, then?  Laziness, undoubtedly.  The deadly sin of sloth.  Prayer takes effort, at least as a daily habit, a discipline, and old Adam convinces us it just isn’t worth the trouble. 

            Pride, certainly.  I’ll talk to God in a crisis, or when things really get tough.  But, for the most part, I’m doing fine on my own.  I have things, more or less, together and under control.  I can handle it. 

            On the other hand, fear.  What if I don’t do it right?  What if I say the wrong thing?  And He probably doesn’t want to hear from me, anyway.  Who am I to speak to the God of the universe?

            Then, in a strange combination of pride and fear, despair.  I’m too sinful.  God won’t listen to me.  My sins are too big for His mercy.  I know, He loves everybody… everybody else, that is.  But not me.  (It’s this bizarre arrogance that says my sins are even bigger than God can handle!)

            And then, I think it’s simply that we’re just extraordinarily dense.  I mean, I know what a gift prayer is.  I know things go better when I speak with my heavenly Father about the people I love and the things that concern me.  But I just forget.  As many of you know, I’m no stranger to insomnia, and it’s usually because my brain won’t turn off.  Especially the negative cycle.  The worry cycle.  I should know better, but I actually think that if I don’t worry about something obsessively, and solve every problem in my life (and yours) at 2 am, the whole world’s going to fall apart.  Do you ever have that?  It’s a tremendous lack of faith, isn’t it?  It really puts me in the place of God.  And the thing is, I know that, most of the time, if I simply commend it all to God and pray the Lord’s Prayer (you know, the one Jesus gives us, word for word, here in our Holy Gospel), I can usually fall asleep in peace.  But do you think I do that?  Hours I lay there, until it dawns on me.  “Oh, yeah.  I should pray.”  Dense. 

            But more than anything else, I think, our reluctance betrays a negligence in hearing God’s Word and living in His gifts.  You know, prayer is not just us talking to God.  It actually starts with God speaking to us in His Holy Word.  And in that sense, prayer is a two-way conversation.  We learn to speak by listening to our heavenly Father.  Like infants who learn to speak by listening to, and imitating, their parents.  And His Word gives us faith in Him, to know that He loves us, and wants to hear us, and answers us, and always gives what is best for us.  Apart from His Word, we don’t have that faith, so why would we ask Him anything?  See, our faith can only be strong and active as the Spirit comes to us in the Word of our Father, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in the holy Sacraments (the visible Word). 

            The Spirit… How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?  So… ask Him.  Ask, and you will receive.  Father, grant me Your Holy Spirit, that I may pray, and believe, and so receive.  The Holy Spirit will give you to pray the prayer of the Lord Jesus, on the sure and certain ground of His death on the cross for your sins, and His justifying and life-giving resurrection.  Out with pride.  Away with fear and despair.  New life animating your body, soul, mind, and spirit.  Overcoming laziness and sloth.  Sharpening you where you were dull.  Cutting through the density.  The Spirit will give you to ask for good and godly things.  For yourself, and for your neighbor.  To commend all things to Him.  Always to seek His good and gracious will, for you, and for all.  Always to knock upon His fatherly heart, seeking His mercy and help and grace in Christ Jesus, the Savior.  Knowing that He will open His heart to you, and pour forth His gifts.  Knowing that He will open His Kingdom to you.  That He already has in the riven side of the crucified Son of God. 

            With Promises like those our Lord gives us in this Gospel, why on earth are we so reluctant to pray?  Repent of that.  We ought to commend everything to God in prayer.  Absolutely everything.  Corporately, in the prayer of the Church, praying for the sick and the suffering, the grieving; for the welfare of our congregation, and for the whole Church of God; for our nation; for the world; and for all of our concerns (a building for worship, for example).  And in our individual and family prayers (and you should pray individually, and as families… set aside the time).  Pray formally, as a matter of routine.  And then pray constantly throughout the day.  Pray before you go to work or school in the morning.  Pray for God’s blessing and protection, for you and your loved ones.  Pray that you do good work, that glorifies God, and benefits your neighbor.  Pray for those you know who are in need of God’s help (well, that list is endless, but at least hit some highlights).  Pray for your family.  Never stop praying for your family.  What are the things that are bothering you?  Pray about those things.  Pray for God’s mercy against all the misery in this world (I often pray through the headlines… otherwise the news just buries me in despondency, but prayer commends these things to the only One who can do anything about it all).  Pray before a trip.  Pray before each task.  Pray for each appointment, and for the people with whom you’ll interact.  Why not pray before you have that conversation, or send that email?  If you don’t already, gather the family to pray before each meal.  I have a suspicion that gift is falling by the wayside in too many Chrisian homes.  Whatever the thing is, just pray.  Commend it to God.  Ask His help.  Ask His blessing. 

            And see, it’s not just some drudgery, another obligation to fulfill.  I mean, it is commanded.  You should do this.  If you need to hear this as Law, hear it.  Repent of your indolence in prayer.  But that’s not why you’re doing it.  You’re doing it because of the Gospel Promises Jesus makes to you today.  When you pray, say this prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, because it covers everything you could possibly need to pray about, and your Father… your Father!  God is your Father!... your Father loves to hear it.  Ask, and God will give it.  Seek, and God will give you to find it.  Knock, and God will open up.  Maybe not in the way you wanted… Better, in fact.  Best.  Because He knows. 

            That is why you are praying.  Because God has spoken His prayer into you.  Because He’s breathed into you His Spirit.  Because He is your Father.  Because you are in Christ, His Son (Baptism).  Because Christ, His Son, is in you (the Word, the Supper).

            Why are we so reluctant to pray?  No more of that.  Here, our Lord teaches us just what to say.  Repeat after Him.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.