Easter 6 May 26, 2019 The Sunday of Prayer
Easter 6
John 16:23-33
May 26, 2019
“Knocking on the Door”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There are three big reasons why Christians such as you and me don’t pray like we should. There are more than three reasons why people don’t pray. But in my experience these are three of the biggest. One is that we don’t have the time for it. Another is that we don’t know what to say. Those two are very common. They’re also very easy to deal with. I’ll save them for the end and deal with them with no problem.
But the third reason we don’t pray will take a little more time. And it will take a little more thought from you. Because it’s not as obvious as the other two. A reason that you and I often don’t pray is simply because we don’t know how we’ll be received. We don’t know how God will take our prayer. When you knock on God’s door, will He open the door smiling and happy to see you? Or will He open the door with a loaded shotgun?
This image of knocking on the door comes right from Jesus. That’s a way that He Himself describes prayer. When He says, “Ask and it will be given to you,” which, of course, is prayer, then He immediately adds, “Seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” So prayer is knocking on the door. Not only that, but He also tells the parable of the friend who comes at midnight asking for bread. He’s knocking on your door in the middle of the night because he has a guest and doesn’t have bread to serve. So you are to knock on God’s door for your bread also.
These words, “Our Father who art in heaven,” those words are knocking on the door words. Or “Dear Lord” – that’s knocking on the door. Or “Heavenly Father” or “dear Jesus” or “Almighty God”. All of those words are knocking on the door words.
And the reason that you and I often don’t knock on the door, why we don’t pray, is because we don’t know how God will take our prayers. We don’t know how He’ll answer the door. Is He angry with me? Frustrated that I’m back again begging Him for forgiveness? Is He disgusted with me? Does He even know who I am because I haven’t prayed in so long? Does He think I’m an idiot? Not worth His time? Is He mad because He can tell my heart isn’t completely in my knocking on the door?
The story of Esther is helpful here. Esther was scared to knock on the King’s door as well. Scared of how she would be received. Esther was Jewish and living in the lands of Persia. Her parents had died and her older cousin Mordecai was taking care of her. They were descended from the Jews who had been moved during the Babylonian Captivity. So they were outsiders.
When the king of Persia got upset with his wife, Queen Vashti, he decided to find a new queen. Esther was one of the virgins brought before him and he delighted in her and made her queen. However, he wasn’t aware of her Jewish heritage. One of the king’s advisors, Haman, hated the Jews and asked the King to have them all murdered on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. Without knowing his own wife, Queen Esther, was Jewish he went along with Haman’s plan and decreed that all the Jews would be killed.
Now here’s Esther’s conundrum. Her cousin Mordecai tells her that she must go in and talk to the King and plead for her people. But she tells Mordecai, “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”
She must knock on the king’s door and she doesn’t know how he’ll answer. Will He receive her kindly and grant her request? Or will he be angry and kill her? That was her very real situation.
Is that our situation when we knock on God’s door in prayer? Every time you say, “Dear Lord,” or “Our Father who art in heaven,” is it a do-or-die situation? Is it up in the air whether God will raise His golden scepter to you or have you killed in anger?
No, it’s not. You know what Esther did before she went in to the King? She prayed. Not just a little bit. For three whole days. Three days she and all the Jews in Persia fasted and prayed. Because they knew one door was already open to them—the door to their Father in heaven. And He heard their prayers and He answered them.
You are not Queen Esther going before the King of Persia wondering if you’ll do or die. You are a son or daughter asking Dad for help. The reason we pray is because we’re forgiven. If we weren’t, we’d never pray. We’d be far too scared to ever knock on God’s door. But prayer comes out of justification. It comes out of salvation and forgiveness and Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Because we have all this mercy and grace from God, we’re not scared to knock on His door and ask for whatever we need. We know that He will answer kindly.
Another way to simply say this is that we pray in Jesus’ name. Praying in Jesus’ name means the door is already opened to us. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.” Those are strong words. In John 10 Jesus says He is the door. When we knock on that door, “Dear Lord,” or “Heavenly Father,” we know that Jesus is standing there beside us as our Mediator ready to bring our prayer with His prayer to His Father in heaven.
In America today, knocking on someone’s door is truly a courageous act. We just don’t hardly do that anymore, do we? Because we’re all a bunch of grumps. We don’t want anybody coming to our door and taking up our precious time. No wonder we’re all scared to knock on God’s door. This is partly why we love texting and email so much. You don’t have to worry as much about how you’ll be received. It’s very non-confrontational. If they don’t want to talk to you, they just won’t respond to your text or email. But if you actually have to go to someone’s house and knock on their door, or if you actually have to dial their number and talk to them, then you’ve got that fear of, “How will they receive me?”
God doesn’t do text message or emails. He doesn’t have patience for those weaker forms of communication. He does mouth to ear. That’s how He communicates. You knock on His door and He listens to you. That’s it. You ask. He answers. He loves you. You’re His son. His daughter. You don’t need special permission. You ask. He answers.
Luther says it so well in the Catechism. Our Father who art in heaven. What does this mean? With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.
Knock on the door. It’s open to you in Jesus’ name.
Then I told you I’d answer two other objections fairly quickly. The first is, “I can’t find the time to pray.” This one is easily fixed. We always find time for things we think are important. It’s that simple. There are 168 hours in every week. Take out your 56 hours each week that you sleep. Eight hours a day which is what your body needs generally to be the most productive. Then take out your work or school time. With travel time we’ll say 50 hours a week. Now we’ve got 62 hours left. Take out your meals, about two hours a day, 14 hours total. Now we’re left with 48 hours. 48 hours! If you take out the most important things—working, sleeping, and eating—you still have 48 hours left! That’s a lot of time. That averages out to seven hours a day. Now out of that seven extra hours that you have every day when you’re not sleeping, working, or eating, do you think you can spare fifteen to thirty minutes to pray?
I’m a pastor. Part of my job is to pray. I’m paid to pray. But even my prayers only take a half hour. There are better pastors than me who pray longer than that. But I’m just giving you an idea. 30 minutes. In that time I can pray the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, read all my Scripture readings for the day, read my Confessions for the day, recite part of the Catechism, and then pray for my whole prayer list which is fairly lengthy. Your prayers may very well only take fifteen minutes. You have that time. I’ve already told you that you have seven hours to play with every day when you’re not working, sleeping, or eating. You have the time. That’s not an issue.
The other objection is that you don’t know what to say. Very true. But this is also easy to deal with. You need a plan for what you will say. Very simple. Plan out what you will say in your prayers and you won’t have to wonder about it. On the back of the insert this morning I’ve give you a sample prayer list. If you don’t already have a prayer list, take that one and adapt it for your situation. This basic structure will work for everyone. You start with the invocation, Lord’s Prayer, and Creed. Then your prayers simply move from the closest to you to the furthest away. So first you pray for yourself, confess your sins, give thanks to God, ask for help in your vocations. (So, for instance, I pray for God’s help to be a faithful son, husband, father, and pastor.) Then you pray for the next people closest to you—your family and friends. Then you pray for the next closest, your church family. Finally, you pray for your nation and leaders as we’re told to do today in 1 Timothy chapter 2.
I hope that helps. And I hope you keep knocking on God’s door every day. He won’t be angry to see you. He want you to knock often. And because you’re His son or daughter praying in Jesus’ name, you know He will answer gladly.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Insert included in Bulletin
Sample Prayer List
This
isn’t an exhaustive list. It’s just a template to get you started.
You will think of other prayers you want to add.
- “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
- Lord’s Prayer
- Apostles’ Creed
- (Optional) Luther’s morning or evening prayer
- Personal Prayers
- (Confession) – ask for forgiveness for particular sins on your heart and ask for the Spirit’s help to overcome
- (Your Vocations) – ask for help to be a good son/daughter, husband/wife, mother/father, _________________
- (Thanksgiving) – thank God for His blessings
- Prayers for Others (commend them by name to God)
- Husband/Wife
- Children (Grandchildren)
- Parents
- Sisters/Brothers/Nieces/Nephews
- Friends & Neighbors in Need
- Prayers for Church
- For those in need at church
- For your pastor
- ___________________
- Prayers for Nation
- For President ______________
- For peace and justice in our land
- For an end to _______________
- Conclusion – “through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”