God is Not a Vending Machine with Ears

Luke 11: 1-13

A sermon by John Thornburg

March 12, 2006/ Christ United Methodist Church, Farmers Branch

So, the disciples saw Jesus praying, and after he said his “Amen,” they went to him and said, “Lord, teach US how to pray. John [the Baptist] taught his disciples, so we want you to teach us.”

Without hesitation, Jesus began. “When you pray, say this..

Father, hallowed be your name

In other words, call God by an intimate name, Dad, and acknowledge that even someone as close as your own breath can still be far more immense, loving and powerful than you could ever imagine. That’s what we mean when we say that God is holy, or in the words of the prayer, hallowed.

Your kingdom come

In other words, if this thing we call the kingdom of God is nothing more or less than people who decide to do God’s will, then, Lord, make it so that some day soon, everyone will do your will as naturally as they tie their shoes. Why do we pray this? Because the truth is that most of do God’s will reluctantly, not naturally.

Give us each day our daily bread

In other words, to do your will, Lord, we have to eat, and because we know you want us to do your will, we’re brave enough to ask for food.

And forgive our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us

In other words, no matter how much we love you, or say we love you, there’s something terribly deep inside us that wants it our way, that believes we deserve everything we have, that believes that we know everything we need to know. So, because we’re that stubborn and selfish, we need to ask and receive forgiveness, and we need to offer it when we’ve been offended.

And do not bring us to the time of trial.

In other words, Lord, it’s so easy for us to get off track and get selfish and narrow minded and parochial, we don’t need you tempting us to get even further off track. We need you to be who you are, the ground of our confidence that life is worth living.

It’s an incredibly simple, direct prayer. No wonder we often call it the model prayer. But just in case we, like the disciples, were dozing, or got tripped up on one of the big words like ‘forgive’, Jesus then provided an executive summary. It went like this:

Ask, and it will be given to you.

Search, and you will find.

Knock, and the door will be opened for you.

Here’s where you’re supposed to say, “John, when are you going to talk about the vending machine with ears?” I have nothing against vending machines. There have been many times in my life when being able to get a soft drink or some chips turned my sour disposition rosier. So I thank the vending machine industry for seeing to my snacking needs. But the interchange with the vending machine is pretty simple. We say, “Machine, here’s the money. It’s your job to give me E5.” And it’s the machine’s job to say, “Check. Here’s your product and your change.” The problem is that too many of us treat God that way in our prayers. “God, here’s my request. If you fill it, you’re God. If you don’t, I guess you’re not.” It’s a vision of God that treats God like a 7-11 rather than like the greatest conversation partner we could ever have or ever need.

Now, back to the executive summary.

“Ask, and it will be given you.”

That’s not, “Ask for the job and you’ll get it. Ask for the Lexus and you’ll get it.” No, that’s “Ask God, “What is your will for my life?”, and in the enormity of God’s love and in the comprehensiveness of God’s view, you’ll be given direction. I don’t know how that will happen for you or how you’ll know, but you will know.

“Search, and you will find.”

That’s not “look in that drawer over there and God will have magically slipped a band of 100s in the drawer for your child’s college education.” No, that’s “Search for the one thing that you and only you can do in God’s world to make it more just or more loving because God has given you just the set of skills and hungers to do it.”

“Knock, and the door will be opened for you.”

That’s not Door #1 on “Let’s Make a Deal” with Monty Hall ready to show you that you’ve won a NEW CARRRRR... No, this kind of knocking means that you finally know who to trust in life, and it’s not Monty Hall or Howie Mandel or anyone else who opens fantasy briefcases. It’s God who opens the door and says, “I’m so glad you’ve come. I’ve got everything ready for you.” And you realize that your simple act of trust has revolutionized your life. Your prayer is simple: “God, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know that you know what you’re doing.” And in that simple prayer, you’ve turned the corner to a whole new life. You’ve given up the need to control your life and you’ve made the decision that you can actually trust the one who made you in the first place and who set everything before you that you could ever need or want.

Now, what does any of this have to do with mission, or faith promises? Just this: prayer is what gets us in alignment with the will of God, and once we have discerned the will of God for our lives, there’s a hunger inside us to get going. Today you’ll have the wonderful opportunity to make a money decision which is also a mission decision. You’ll ask, “What percentage of my income over and above my tithe is God calling me to give to this unified work of my church?” It’s a money decision because it is about dollars given to ministries. But it’s a will of God decision because it means you’ve aligned yourself with God’s will for this church; that is, that this church is being called by God beyond itself. It’s being called to give a word to those who say, “Charity begins at home.” And that word is, HOME IS BIGGER THAN YOU THINK. If we are one in Christ, as the Bible clearly claims, then we’ve got a ton of kinfolk.

Being in mission is nothing more or less than living into the big family reunion that God is calling us to have with all our kinfolk around the world. If our kinfolk don’t have food, we’ll share ours. If they’ve got songs we don’t know, we’ve got a chance to learn them. In our world, mission is always two way: we teach and we learn, we give and we get back, we love and we are loved in return. Does that make anyone here happy?

Prayer is the conversation with God that gets everything started. Mission is the blessing of living into the will of God that we heard whispered or shouted into our ear when we pray. I say, it’s time to get talking with God.