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spent1004
On
the Day I Called, You Answered Me
Text:
Luke 11:1-13
Date: Pentecost 10
8/8/04 Gorillaz Feel God Inc
It
appears that a number of things we have for years taken for granted
as agreed-upon Biblical teaching have been unraveling with increasing
momentum right before our eyes in just the past few years. For instance,
the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ who said, “I am the way, and
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me” [John 14:6 (ESV)], the same echoed by the Apostle Peter when
he proclaimed, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is
no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved"
[Acts 4:12 (ESV)]. Yet how many times do you not hear the sentiment,
the “belief” spoken, that all religions are equal. They say, “when
a Muslim prays to Allah, he is praying to the one true God of Abraham,
just under a different name.” That they say even though the Islamic
religion and every other organized religion makes just as exclusive
claims as does Christianity! Finally, I've even heard a so-called
“Lutheran” university professor preach rank universalism, the idea
that everyone is going to be saved in the end anyway regardless
of what they believed or didn't believe in this life. “The big surprise”
he calls it.
Define
this a little narrower. We have always believed, taught and confessed
that “God favorably hears only the prayers of those who believe
in Jesus Christ as their savior. We reject the godless idea that
the true God favorably hears the prayers of those who do not know
Jesus.” This simply goes along with the same exclusive claim of
Christ. Yet when this is said in a discussion forum, anymore, it
gets a response like this that I saw on an Internet discussion group:
How
truly sad. What a depressing & destructive statement you believe.
That God does not "favorably" hear the earnest cries &
prayers of someone trying desperately to find the true God. Because
they haven't been taught the story of Jesus & His redeeming
work, God shuts his ears to their pleas? …Pharisee comes to mind.
That's what you are. Only those "good enough" can be part
of YOUR group. No thank you. I don't want to be associated with
you. [www.consensuslutheran.org]
That
St. Luke follows his account of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha immediately
with Jesus' teaching concerning prayer is a natural sequence when
one understands the Mary and Martha story as a picture of the proper
way to worship. The true worship of God begins with God speaking
and not us. He comes to us and speaks his Word. When the Holy Spirit
works faith in the heart through the Word of God, it naturally follows
that the believer responds in prayer. Since one cannot know the
only true God apart from the Son of God, Jesus Christ, one cannot
be certain how or whether this God even hears our cries and prayers
much less how he might answer them apart from Christ. Only in Jesus
Christ has God revealed himself as the God of mercy, grace and love
for his whole creation; the God who has harnessed his almighty power
with his love, the love displayed, ultimately, in the bloody, atoning
death of his Son on the cross for the sin of the world, for the
life of the world. John 3:16, “God so loved the world,” that is,
loved the world in this way, “that he gave his only begotten Son.”
There
are three sections in today's Gospel. The first teaches the Christian
disciple how to pray to the Father. The second shows how God desires
to give all people his grace and help. The third encourages the
Christian to be persistent in prayer. As we speak about prayer on
the basis of this text, then, please notice that the emphasis is
on God as the giver of all good things. There is no trick, no magic
word, no depth of feeling or anything else in us that makes for
so-called “powerful prayer,” as if there is prayer that lacks power!
There are plenty of religious gurus around who speak about prayer
almost as if it is a means of grace. They talk of “prayer warriors”
as if the amount of time or effort or number of words or sweat or
tears or whatever is more effective than other forms of prayer.
Then there are those who think, for some reason, that reading a
prayer that is written out is somehow less real or effective than
one that flows spontaneously from the heart, the so-called “ex corde”
or “out of the heart” prayer. You can usually tell someone is trying
to impress God (or you) with his or her sincerity or spirituality
as the words pile up, usually punctuated by the word “just,” as
in, “Lord, we just wanna praise you,” and, “let's just praise the
Lord.”
St.
Luke's account of the Lord's Prayer is shorter than the account
we have in Matthew. That's because Luke assumes you know Matthew's
fuller account and Luke is merely abbreviating it. Jesus teaches
us to speak to God by addressing him as our “Father.” The one who
has faith in Jesus is placed into the same relationship with God
that he has. By faith in Christ we become God's sons and daughters,
part of his family, the Church.
I
want you to notice how prayer, based on the way Jesus is teaching
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