Richard Davenport
July 27, 2025 – Proper 12
Luke 11:1-13
People as a whole are not very good at asking for things. I feel like people usually fall into one of two broad categories when it comes to asking for things. The first is the people who ask for things they really don’t need. My own limited life experience may be partly to blame, but it feels like this problem keeps getting worse in our society.
You can see them all over town. They stand on every busy intersection and try to catch leaving every major supermarket. They stand there with their cardboard signs. Some try and look the part, shabby clothes, a milk crate to sit on, maybe even an oxygen tank. More and more these days it seems like people aren’t even going that far. They look clean and put together in respectable clothes.
They stand there and watch you as you drive by, wondering if you’re going to roll down your window and hand them something. Their signs are all hastily scribbled in marker. They ask for food, for money, or just the generic “anything helps.” Sometimes they claim to be a veteran or disabled, or both.
Do some of these people genuinely need help? Perhaps, though even then they are choosing not to avail themselves of the help provided by the community. Some even stand right in front of the signs the city has put out there telling people to text a number to donate to those very community resources.
The many who do not need help seem to have no trouble at all asking for it anyway. We seem them in all walks of life. People want accommodations, concessions, freebies. They don’t want to get things the normal way, the way everyone else does. They want all of the benefit with as little work as possible. They ask when they do not need. They prey upon the generosity of others. They do not care that what they are receiving for free has come through the work of others. Another person’s sacrifice means little as long as I get something out of it.
On the other side, you have people who are in need, sometimes desperate need, but refuse to ask for help. Pride is a temptation we all struggle with and it strikes us in different ways. Each of us has aspects of ourselves, our identity, that we hold in high esteem. It could be your intellect, your athleticism, your ability to put people at ease, to problem solve, to multitask, to whatever it is that makes you stand out.
When you’re confronted with the notion that maybe you aren’t as entirely capable as you would like to believe, it can be a tough pill to swallow. Not only will the one you ask for help know you aren’t able to handle it, but so will everyone else. You aren’t tough enough. You don’t have enough fortitude. You’ll end up being a burden on everyone around you and they’ll come to resent you for it.
Rather than suffer the ridicule and shame, you stay silent. You suffer through it, each day knowing you’ll face those struggles alone because being alone is better than the chance you might be looked down on by your friends. Better to keep your friends and loved ones in the dark than to risk losing them because they think you’re weak or lazy.
As Luther continues to expound on the nature of God’s Law, following the same ideas Jesus lays out in the Gospels, he spends a lot of time digging into the Ten Commandments in depth. He unpacks the various details of Commandments in his Large Catechism, showing how much more there is to consider than just what the simple wording of the Commandments might suggest.
In particular, he hits on the Seventh Commandment and God’s prohibition against stealing. Luther explains how stealing can take many forms and even things like laziness on the job can be stealing from others. Asking others out of laziness steals the time and possessions of others, gifts that God has given them. Stealing is closely related to coveting, thinking you are more worthy of some gift God has given than others are. If you ask for something when you know you should be doing the work yourself, chances are you’re just looking to justify theft.
Where the Seventh Commandment covers all forms of theft, the Fifth and Seventh Commandments also direct to care for our neighbors and their possessions. God’s people have been directed, time and time again, to care for those around them, especially those in the greatest need. It is not a shame to be in need. It is an opportunity for those around you to care for you, to share your burdens, to be the light of Christ in your life. It is an opportunity for you to give thanks both to them and to your loving Heavenly Father who sent them.
In these cases, our pride ends up getting in the way. We think more highly of ourselves than we ought because we look around at others and we agonize over what they might think of us. We don’t want to be a burden. We don’t want people resenting us. We don’t want people seeing us as weak or infirm. Yet, in God’s eyes, that’s where all of us fall. We are all utterly helpless, running around like ants, trying to make some sort of living before we wither away and die, and all the while finding just about every possible way to be miserable and make others miserable that we can manage. It’s the same mindset that leads people to any of the various forms of works righteousness. We can’t bear being so completely incapable that we have to rely on others. We must be able to do something, however small, for ourselves.
Whether we are asking and expecting things that we don’t need at all and would end up being harmful to us spiritually, or whether we are afraid to ask because our reputation might suffer, we have a problems with asking. Like so many other things we do, walking the fine line between one excess and another ends up being too hard for us to manage and we fall off repeatedly, sometimes not even bothering to try and get back on the line at all.
When the disciples ask Jesus about prayer, it isn’t as though prayer is exactly a new thing. People have been praying to God since the very beginning. Prayer doesn’t have to be asking God for anything, but often that’s what we’re doing, simply because there are many things in life that only God can deal with.
It feels a little odd, I think, for the disciples to want to know more about prayer. Do they think they need to learn the right words to use? In other religions, that’s what the rituals and spells are for. Your god or goddess may only respond to your request if you use the precise words that gain their attention or that will properly channel the power of the elements or whatever the case may be. But that’s not what the disciples are after. It’s only very rarely that God mandates his people use any particular wording when talking to him. One of the few examples was when the Israelites brought a portion of their very first harvest in the Promised Land to him. They were given something to say as they brought their offering. But, it wasn’t because they expected anything from God. No, they had already received a great blessing from God. That’s why they had an offering to begin with. The message wasn’t for God, but for the people, as a reminder of what they had been given.
John the Baptist has been teaching his followers ever since he began his own ministry, preparing the way for Christ. We don’t get a lot of the content of John’s teachings. We only hear the bits and pieces and come up as he interacts with Jesus. From what the disciples say, it sounds as though John has been teaching his followers about prayer and Jesus’ disciples want to hear what he has to say. Jesus shares with them what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. It still isn’t a magic spell. It doesn’t force God to do anything. As with just about everything God does, the message, the lesson Jesus gives isn’t on the surface. God isn’t worried about the words. He is concerned about the attitude behind them.
Are you coming to God with the expectation that he will fulfill every dream and fantasy you might have? Are you requesting that God give you all of the things you think you are owed because of what you’ve done? Are you thinking God should pay attention to you because you’re more special than others around you, more deserving, more worthy? If so, then the Lord’s Prayer puts your requests into perspective. God comes first. God comes first, not just now, but always. God comes first, not just in your life, but all lives, in all things. God is the almighty creator of all that exists and he is not beholden to anyone, much less a lowly, rebellious sinner like you. Jesus speaks to those who ask out of their own laziness and selfish desire to freeload and tells them that their lack of humility will not get the kind of response they expect.
At the same time, Jesus explains why God responds to this prayer or any prayer. It isn’t because he has to. The only thing that can motivate God to do anything for any of us sinners is love, the love a Father has for his children, wayward and rebellious though they may be. He loves his children and he wants to see his sons and daughters grow up to be good, mature, loving men and women. That means he must care for them, teach them, protect them, and give them to the good things they need to grow.
If you refuse to ask God for help, because you think you can’t be a burden, they you fail to understand what God’s love means. No son or daughter can do what dad does, and no one expects them to. They aren’t adults. They’re children, with all of the limitations that children have. If you think God will be offended by your request for help, that he or others will think less of you, then you are telling God you are the adult and you don’t need his services anymore.
Your life is not a burden to God. God comes to earth, becomes a human, to live the life of broken humanity. God knows exactly what you are capable of, and what you are not capable of. He made you. He made you each, individual and unique, and he made you with love. He did not think your eternal life a burden too big to bear. He comes to earth to shoulder the burden of your sin and carry it up the mountain to the cross. Compared to that, your daily needs are tiny and easily managed by the creator of all things.
Remember the Lord’s Prayer, not because it’s the only prayer that works, but because it reminds you of who you are and who you are talking to. You are speaking to your Heavenly Father, who loves you more than anything else in this world. He may not give you everything your heart desires and you shouldn’t expect him to. He will give you what he deems best for you, because that is what a Father does for his children. He does it, not because you deserve it, but only on the basis of his love for you. Don’t be afraid to come to your Father in prayer. He loves hearing from his children, because he loves t