Knocking and Praying Like You Mean It
Luke 18:1-8
October 21, 2007

In this morning’s text from Luke’s gospel, Jesus answers a simple question from folks who have suffered in following him. These are good folks, folks who have persisted in believing that God is good, God is capable, and God answers prayers. Their question to Jesus isn’t complicated: How long, O Lord. How long until we get some peace, some lifting of the burden, some rest from the journey?

Jesus answer seems odd to me. Does it seem odd to you? I don’t know if we are meant to laugh or cry or get embarassed when Jesus compares our prayers to those of a widow badgering an unjust judge. We all know folks like that widow. Folks who – althoug we feel their pain – annoy and embarrass us in their refusal to accept “no” for an answer. The widow in the story is entirely dependent on some man with judicial authority to decide whether he cares even to listen to her. So she nags, she pesters, she makes a huge nuisance of herself.

Do you see yourself in the widow? I like to think I don’t. Is Jesus recommending that we pester God and make a pain of ourselves? Well, yes! Jesus is having a laugh at our expense. But there’s no doubt that he is saying that prayer begins when you need and you care as much as the widow does. A well-known African American preacher once said that prayer begins when you’ve knocked until your knuckles are bloody. Hmmm.

What about the judge? Jesus is comparing God to a lazy, indifferent, unjust judge? Or maybe he’s just saying out loud what most of us have been worrying about. Because haven’t you, at one time or another, wondered whether God really cares enough to act on behalf of God’s people? I know I have.

At the very least, Jesus is saying that when prayer gets real we begin to see answers. Maybe not all at once. Maybe not quite how we expect them to come. Maybe asking more of us than we might wish. But answers. Answers that make a difference in our world.

We’re not done. Jesus tacks on one last question. When the answers come, will we be ready? We talk and we complain about knocking on God’s door and whether that door ever opens, but Jesus asks whether, when God knocks, will we open the door to our hearts?

So what I’m talking about here isknocking on the door like you mean it and what comes when the doors start to open.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in my office late one afternoon, when Paula Moore, our youth director brought a young man into my office. I hadn’t seen him before that I was aware of. Big pants, billowing satiny shirt over a white t-shirt. Something shiny on a necklace around his neck. Hat crooked on his head. Big kid. Tall. Could be scary looking if you suddenly met him coming out of the shadows in the parking lot.

Paula sat him down and told me this young man needs a prayer. As the story tumbled out, he does need a prayer. He’s what – sixteen? Father in jail, mother dead. Saw his sister gang-banged; he couldn’t do anything about it. In school he he’s got what are called “anger issues,” but he’s trying to stay out of gangs, trying to stay away from drugs. God knows how.

He’s got cut marks up and down his forearm, where he’s tried to slash himself and kill himself. The prayer he needs is to get through another day without trying to kill himself or somebody else. That’s his prayer. One day without doing violence to himself or somebody else. There’s a prayer for you!

Tell me if that prayer is not knocking on the door until your knuckles are bloody? That’s the thing, you see. Sure I prayed with him. I prayed hard and long with one hand on his shoulder and one on the back of his head, but I was also praying, God, could you just please show us right now a sign that something good is going to come of this?

Please?

Have you ever prayed like this, hard and long, asking Jesus to just open the door a smidgeon and give you a clue?

I cried that afternoon. Wouldn’t you?

You know, somebody once said to me, Peter, when you’re looking for answers and not getting any answers, maybe you’re asking the wrong question.

Oh. Well?

The person went on. Instead of asking for a sign, can you ask what’s in God’s heart?

Oh, well, now that’s different, isn’t it? You see, I’m pretty sure that it breaks God’s heart to see a young man beg not to do violence to himself and others. It breaks God’s heart that people like me are scared of that young man. Breaks God’s heart that he’s got the label “anger issues” on him at school. The sight of slash marks on his forearm, breaks God’s heart.

Here’s another thing. It breaks God’s heart to see people like me be helpless. That doesn’t have to be. If I am looking for signs, maybe the answer is: I am the sign I am looking for, I am the sign God is looking for!

Oh, well now! If you put it that way.... I cannot control or fix that young man’s life. But I can not avoid him. I can not run away from him. I can continue to invite him to a safe place where he can meet God. I can check in on him and remind him that he is worth checking in on.

Tell me. What might happen for that young man if I accept the invitation to be a sign that the time for slash marks is over and God answers prayers?

That’s how God opens the door, how the blind see and the crippled walk and the helpless learn to preach good news! When we ask for signs, God answers: Go ahead, you be a sign!

Here’s my message. I get mad at Jesus sometimes. I want him to make it right. I want him to explain the hard stuff. You know what? I can knock on that door all day long and not get answers, no matter how much I want answers and explanations. At the end of the day I have to acknowledge, explanations are not how Jesus works.

Jesus just wants to give me his heart. His heart sometimes called grace. The grace to be open. The grace not to give up. The grace to realize it’s not all up to me. By myself, without the courage and strength and freedom of Jesus, I am nothing and can do nothing. But with him, I’m not helpless. That’s grace. The grace to laugh when things are hard and to cry when there are no good and easy answers. The grace to speak up and tell the truth. The grace to do my part. The grace to knock on the door until my knuckles are bloody. It’s all grace!

Do you know – are you fully aware – that you can ask for grace and you will be given it? If you think you can beat on the door and get explanations and justifications, God bless you, don’t let me stop you.

But if it’s grace you’re after, all you have to do is ask. Try this prayer: Jesus, give me a piece of your heart. Signs of whatever you need will start breaking out all around you. Courage and strength. Rest and renewal. Reconciliation and forgiveness. Justice and peace. Signs. Signs that you are not helpless. Signs that Jesus believes he can do his work beginning with you.

So, when you’ve been knocking and praying like you mean it because you don’t know what else to do, don’t forget the last question Jesus leaves us with: I am coming, he says. I can do my work in you. But when I come and knock on your door, will you open your heart?

Amen