5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7 "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's shameless audacity he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (Luke 11:5-8 NIV)
Ok, show of hands, who completely expected shameless audacity to be a desirable virtue in the Bible? In Genesis Jacob had the audacity to wrestle with God and wound up with a bad limp for for his trouble. In Exodus Moses had the audacity to argue with God that he wasn't qualified to lead a rescue operation and wound up face to face with Pharaoh. And what about Jesus? Wasn't humility a hallmark Jesus modeled for his followers? Didn't Jesus rebuke Peter for shamelessly claiming he would follow him anywhere?
And yet, if we read Jesus' example allegorically (reading God into the narrative), we seem to hear Jesus saying that good prayer technique includes pestering God into submission so that we get what we want. While that presents on the surface as profoundly flawed theology, the idea is not without precedent. In Genesis 18 Abraham negotiates with God over how many righteous people it would take to spare the whole city of Sodom. Abraham keeps lowering the number until God relents. Had Abraham opened God's eyes to an error in judgment? Or, did God let Abraham walk right into a new understanding of grace?
Again, if we see Jesus' example pointing toward our relationship with God, we can come away with the idea that God can be moved to action. But, there is an important feature of the friend's midnight request. The bread wasn't really for him as much as it was for the guest who had come for a visit. We remember that in the culture of first century Palestine it would have been a humiliating faux pas to have nothing to set before a house guest. E would have had cameras in the guy's front yard catching the scandal on video. People magazine would have done an expose'. Geraldo would have investigated. Hospitality was huge. Guests were honored. To be sure, the host and the guest would be served by the bread, and, God's value on hospitality would be honored.
Prayers are honored, as well, especially prayers that ask God to do something that is completely within God's character. That is explicit in the model for prayer Jesus gives the disciples in the verses that come just before today's passage. When we pray, "Thy will be done..." we are setting up a framework for our prayers that makes God's will the filter. If God sometimes "seems" unresponsive to us, it may be because we are asking for something that God can't honor because it is contrary to his will. As we keep asking we have an opportunity to hear the request again and, perhaps, refine or retract our petition and rethink the motivation behind our request.
What are we praying for? Why are we praying for it? Can God, to the extent we can understand his will, support our request? If not, maybe we should reconsider the prayer. If it is something that reflects God's character then go for it. Keep praying. God's listening to what we are saying, and he wants us to listen to what we're saying, too.
Blessings,
Larry
This reinforces for me something I have considered in the past: that prayer is not at all for God's sake but rather for our sake. It's not a chance to illuminate to God something He'd not noticed or had forgotten. That would insinuate that we are supposed to be messengers or news reporters on the state of the planet so God (who has, according to this idea, been somewhere else than among us all day) can act accordingly. Praying for peace in the Middle East or an end to poverty or a car that we can rely on is not so that God will suddenly notice our needs and tend to them. It's so we can realize that peace and justice and capability - and loaves of bread - rely on steps we take on a daily basis. Prayer gives us space to reflect on just what you said: whether or not the fulfillment of the prayer would reflect God's character. If we don't take time to be silent about the problems we see within us and around us, we are liable to take rash steps that instead reflect our incomplete character. Prayer is a connection with the wholeness/holiness that is God. More than anything else, I think prayer is about recognizing where our own gaps are. "Audacity" means "willingness to take a bold risk." It feel dangerous to recognize a need or shortcoming. In this case, it was "shamelessly risky" to be humble enough to admit either a] we lack sufficient resources or b] we didn't prepare like we should have. "Shameless audacity" seems like an acknowledgement of our incompleteness rather than prodding God to give us something we deserve. Perhaps this reflects the culture then rather than the culture now. We see asking for something in this way as similar to asking for a raise or making a Christmas list for Santa. Maybe for those listening to Jesus, asking for bread from a neighbor would not be a greedy gesture but a completely humble one. Shameless audacity would not be using a friend as a stepladder to get a promotion or pulling out in front of someone in traffic; it would be asking that friend for help with a promotion or waving and smiling gratefully to someone who let YOU out in traffic. Maybe shameless audacity is admitting to someone who has it together that I don't have it together.
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