Year C

Luke 11:1-13

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Faith to Persevere

You may remember seeing a number of years ago or hearing about a popular motion picture that explored the theme of faithfulness and what someone was willing to give up in order to follow God’s commandments. The 1981 movie, Chariots of Fire, recounts a true story from the 1924 summer Olympic Games which were held in Paris. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian and a member of the British team discovered that his race, the 100 meters, was to be held on Sunday. When he discovered this he withdrew from the race. To be faithful to God would mean that he could not race on Sunday. It meant more to him to live a life rooted in God, as Paul writes, than to compete and potentially win an Olympic medal.

One of his teammates, who had already won a medal, offered his spot to Liddell in the 400-meter race that was to be held on Thursday. Eric ran that race and much to everyone’s surprise he won a gold medal. He went on to serve as a missionary in China and was killed in World War II. The outward and visible sign of his faithfulness was to honor the commandment to keep the Sabbath Day holy. Our texts today affirm that God, the source of every blessing, requires our faithfulness. Faithfulness is about having our priorities straight. It is about knowing that God comes first, before all else.

But, only through the grace of God do we have the power to put God first. Like the Israelites in Hosea’s day, we are incapable of perfect faithfulness to God. Hosea a prophet, prophesied in northern Israel about 750-740 BCE, a tumultuous period involving political intrigue and violence, both domestic and international. The merging of different religious beliefs and practices, allowed other deities to compete with the one true God for Israel’s allegiance. For Hosea, both politics and religion shared a common fault-they involved “affairs” in which Israel exhibited infidelity-unfaithfulness to God. 

God tells Hosea to take a “wife of whoredom” and have children by her. His broken marriage reflects Israel’s broken relationship to God. Many theologians believe that Hosea did not actually take a “wife of whoredom,” but narrates a story that disturbs us with a challenging, perhaps even offensive metaphor for our relationship to God. Israel has been unfaithful, and God declares that Israel’s children are not God’s children. Yet, there is an ageless message that rings true from the prophet Hosea: God is always faithful, while human beings rarely are.

We resonate with the sentiments of Robert Robinson, writer of the hymn, we just sang, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The line “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love” captures our reality so well despite God’s goodness to us. This propensity to stray, to bend away from rather than toward God leaves us vulnerable to things that can draw us away from God. Materialism, the accumulation of wealth, and just plan busyness can draw us away. It’s easy to substitute something else for God, often for the very best of motives. And that means, inevitably, as it would in any relationship, that we know less and less about God and how to recognize God.

This is why Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, warns his readers against this danger and reminds them that there is no other force or personality that may compete with Christ, for Christ and only Christ, embodies “the whole fullness of God.” Being faithful to God, demands diligence in tempering our desire to acquire things and to love things in creation more than we love God our creator. Faithfulness to God requires us to be mindful about how we spend our resources, time, and energy. It seems very difficult to practice this kind of faithfulness and in fact it is impossible to be completely consistent in such practice on our own. However, Paul reminds us that through the saving work of Christ we are released from the power of sin and we have the assurance of God’s steadfast forgiving love toward us. Though we may stumble, we are not left to our failures. God is ever more faithful than we are.

Luke today depicts Jesus encouraging his disciples of God’s faithfulness and teaching them how to remain faithful to God through prayer and action. The disciples have watched Jesus on many occasions taking time from his busy ministry to pray and reconnect with God. He needed to pray, to listen to God, to remain faithful. This prompts the disciples to ask Jesus to teach them to pray. What the disciples receive is first a model prayer, then a parable that stresses the character of God, and finally reassurance that, as their heavenly Father, God answers the prayers of God’s children and grants to them the Holy Spirit for help. This is an important moment for the disciples. They learned this prayer together and began to recite it together.

This is still true of churches around the world today. In many different languages, the Lord’s Prayer is said by millions of people each Sunday and every day.  It is a prayer that continues to unite the people of God and above all it helps us to answer the question, “What is God like?” God is as a father and sustainer; giver of good things. God is as a friend who will arise even at midnight to help a friend. Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is shorter than Matthew’s version and probably closer to the original words of Jesus. What Jesus is doing is teaching us how to pray, not what to pray for. He is inviting us to enter into a relationship that will help us know and love God with our soul, heart, mind, and body, so that we love what God loves.

This gospel ends with a repetition of the theme: that we never ask, seek, knock in vain, for God is not reluctant or hesitant. We can always expect to be heard, to be attended to; but we may not expect all that we ask to be answered as we would like. Yet, we should never give up. Faith and discipleship require persistence, which includes more than simply asking. The continual knocking of the beggar would have disturbed the whole household, but he would not be silent. This kind of persistence requires first to ask, then to search, and finally to knock.  Asking how to pray is only the beginning. Letting prayer inform our searching and action brings us closer to God’s will and grace in our lives.

Faithfulness is following the path, informed by prayer, God sets before us with our action, not just with our words; always praying for God to bring the fullness of God’s reign to fruition. These verses affirm God’s commitment, God’s faithfulness to accomplish this, and those who pray as Jesus taught should expect that God intends to use them as a means toward doing so. For prayer is rooted in the kindliness and generosity of God, making it possible for even unworthy, stumbling disciples to offer prayers for their journey. What they receive is the Spirit, the ultimate resource for mission. This source helps us to persevere, to run the race in faith to keep God’s commandments.