Being Without Shame – Luke 11:1-13

A text – Luke 11:1-13

11 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ² So he said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, may your name be revered as holy.
    May your kingdom come.
³     Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴     And forgive us our sins,
        for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

⁵ And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

⁹ “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹ Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? ¹² Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? ¹³ If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

A reflection:

This passage of Luke is all about prayer. All of Luke’s gospel emphasizes Jesus’s need for times of prayer for restrengthening and refreshment. So his words to his disciples on that subject not only give them an actual prayer they can say, but also a clue to their relationship with God, with whom they will be in prayer, and the reason a life of prayer is important for a follower of Jesus.

We have the Lord’s prayer (a little leaner version than in Matthew’s gospel). But let’s look at the two bits that follow it. The first is about asking for things at inconvenient times. Is any human being a good enough friend to respond to requests at midnight?  But if you keep asking, will s/he do it? According to one bible scholar I have read, the word persistence might actually be translated shamelessness. In other words, we need have no shame going to God, our parent, our creator, and asking for what we need. When you think of it that way, Jesus wants his followers never to be ashamed to pray to their creator for what they need: daily bread, forgiveness and the strength to forgive others, and safety from trials and temptations. Never be ashamed of being God’s creation, just as a little kid is not ashamed to be a little kid and ask his parent for something.

The second is more about the parent-child relationship. Jesus is trying to convince his disciples that they are in fact forever on a journey of life and need to rely on their creator, their heavenly parent, to help them. If we continually pray for help from a God we shamelessly trust as a generous parent, we will receive that help and then pray prayers of thanks, over and over again. When you get anxious, just remember you are the beloved child of a generous heavenly parent who is glad to bless you and whom you are delighted to thank. That may be, in fact, the whole life of prayer.

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for being our loving creator parent, and for everything you have given us for as long as we can remember. Help us not to forget that you desire our communication with you, our relaxing into our relationship with you and without shame asking for what we need and thanking you for it. Amen.