Luke 11:1-13

11 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

² He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
³ Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴ Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation….

⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

The townfolk knew this would happen when the Temperance Bay, Maine, village council lifted the laws banning the sale of alcohol within the town limits. A dive bar called "Blue Law Lounge" opened across the street from the Baptist Church. The pastor implored his congregants to pray for its demise. A week later, the lightning struck the bar and burned it to the ground. Next Sunday, Deacon Obidiah Crumble, long known to be an opponent of drinking, gin rummy, chewing gum, and tattoos, spoke during the Joys and Concerns. He rejoiced that God had spoken and hoped the town council would take note and repent of their actions. Many applauded, and everyone gave glory to God.

By Wednesday, the pastor had received word that the owner of the Blue Law Lounge was suing the church, claiming that the prayers had destroyed his business. All the Temperance Bay townsfolk turned out for the court hearing, where the church adamantly denied accountability for what they called an act of God. After hearing both sides, the stumped judge summed up the case, "It appears to me the issue is that the bar owner believes in the power of prayer, while the church does not."

Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will open." But a great promise comes with a responsibility to use the gift with wisdom and compassion in our hearts. Many cultures have tales of being careful with your wishes. King Midas wished that everything he touched would turn to gold, which ultimately led to the tragedy of turning his beloved daughter into a golden statue. Aesop's fables tell the story of a dog content with a bone, until he sees his reflection in the water and thinks it is a dog with a bigger bone. When he jumps into the water to get it, he drops his bone and loses it.

In some ways, prayer is easy and natural. As Anne Lamott wrote, there are three simple prayers: "Help, Thanks, Wow!" But because we are human, our prayers can get tangled in ego, bias, and short-sightedness. How do we pray well?

Our text from Luke 11 begins with the disciples noticing that Jesus often goes off by himself to pray. He does this before all critical moments, taking a 40-day retreat in the wilderness before gathering disciples, or atop Mount Horeb, which leads to the Transfiguration, the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest, and numerous quiet times alone. The disciples discerned that prayer guided Jesus and was a source of wisdom and direction, so naturally they wanted to learn this discipline, this secret, for themselves.

So, Jesus instructs the disciples with a prayer blueprint. You likely noticed Luke's version is the stripped-down version. The five simple thoughts follow traditional rabbinical teachings, with a few little twists of Jesus' theology.

Father, hallowed be thy name," begins with awe, as it is a more intimate address of God. God is referred to as a Father only three times in the Hebrew scriptures, often metaphorically rather than as a proper name. God is called "Yahweh" 6,000 times in the Old Testament, which is usually translated into English as "Lord." But Yahweh comes from Moses encountering the burning bush and asking God's name. God answers, "I am who I am." It would be fair to translate "Yahweh" as the one beyond names, and later Judaism would not say or write the full name of God. It's part of why I chafe at the use of the English "Lord," which makes God much like a glorified English landowner rather than the unnamable source of all that is.

Jesus' first line holds together a paradox. The most holy, sacred, and hallowed one is also intimate as a parent. The One beyond names wants a familiar relationship with us. God is transcendent beyond all our categories and yet intimate; therefore, we can address even our basic needs and questions to God.

Line two urges the prayer, "Thy Kingdom come." This rich theme permeates Luke's Gospel. Jesus frequently says the Kingdom is drawing near. It isn't just something to hope for in a utopian future, but is rising like leaven in the dough; it is like the tiny mustard seed that will grow into a massive plant. The Kingdom is also like a great banquet where all are welcome. It is where the lost, if found, the prodigal son comes home. The blind see, the lame walk, the poor receive good news. To pray "thy kingdom come" is to recognize where God's love is already present, changing lives, and to commit to making God's hope a reality. Jesus reminds the disciples that their prayers are grounded in a greater reality of God's hopeful presence in the here and now, and its ultimate growth.

Give us our daily bread. The context for praying for our basic needs is likely the story of gathering manna in the wilderness. Moses instructed the Israelites to go out each day and collect a sticky substance from the tamarisk plant, which became their daily sustenance. It was nutritious and abundant, but you could not stockpile it. Asking for daily bread is not a prayer for prosperity, but an acknowledgement that the daily provision is an abundance, a gift of the earth, and something that should be available to everyone in a just world of God's Kingdom.

Next, Jesus acknowledges that as humans, we make mistakes. We need grace and forgiveness; otherwise, we get stuck in a cycle of guilt and shame. Likewise, we need to maintain an attitude of forgiveness towards others so that we can be restored. The prayer is simple but living it out is complicated. We struggle to believe we are forgiven; we wonder what might be too much to forgive. We would like some assurance that the harm will not be repeated. These questions are challenging, so we need daily prayer to discern how to live them.

Finally, Jesus teaches us to pray for wisdom and strength in the face of trials and testing—a recognition of our vulnerability and our need for divine help to avoid being overwhelmed. We don’t pray because we expect to avoid hardship altogether, but because we trust that God will walk with us through it. “Lead us not into temptation” is not a request for a charmed life, but a plea for clarity when things get confusing, and for courage when the easy path looks tempting but false.

I was taught to go to God with my challenges. As verse two of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" says,

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

As a teenager, I was struggling with a decision. The actual issue is lost, but likely some teenage trial over who I should ask out on a date, or whether I was practicing basketball enough, were the kind of anxieties that ruled my world then. I had heard the story of St. Francis, who prayed to God and said he would allow his Bible to fall open, and he would do whatever the page indicated. He landed upon, "Go sell all you have and come and follow me," so he lived a life of renouncing worldly possessions. I lifted my deep concerns to God and prayed. To help God out, I asked a "yes or no" question, and figured that if the Bible fell open to the Old Testament, the answer would be "no," and the New Testament would be "yes." I balanced my Bible like a referee tossing a jump ball—and let it go. And the Bible fell on its side with a thud. No page. No sign. Just silence—and then, I laughed. Perhaps that moment was God's gentle way of saying, "You don't need magic. You just need wisdom, and you get that by making choices."

Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened." That's not a formula. It's an invitation. Asking takes vulnerability. Seeking requires persistence. Knocking demands courage, especially when we're not sure what waits on the other side. And the truth is, sometimes we ask and don't get what we expected. Sometimes we seek and feel more lost. Sometimes we knock, and nothing seems to open.

That's where faith comes in, not the kind that guarantees results, but the kind that keeps the conversation with God alive. The door opens not to the answers we control, but to the relationship we are invited into.

So let us keep asking with humility, seeking with hope, and knocking with trust; not because we expect lightning to strike, but because we believe in the God who listens. Lord, teach us to pray.


Amen.