Earlier this year Mike talked about the Lord’s Prayer in a sermon series for Lent. So we’re not going to go into this too much today. Instead, I’d like to reflect on the parable that Jesus tells in this passage of Luke’s Gospel.

I think that it’s quite a surprising parable. You hear people talk about pester power in advertising, where advertisements are designed to make small children nag their parents until they buy them the new toy. It sounds a bit like this is what Jesus is advocating in this parable, keep asking God until you get what you want. I don’t know about you but I feel slightly uncomfortable about this picture. Does this imply that God can be manipulated?

Maybe not.

My Spiritual director often says to me that I am too polite with God. Again this sounds like a strange thing to say but this is what she means:  God calls us into relationship and this relationship requires us to be very honest with God about every area of our life. No subject is taboo in this relationship. And we are called to be honest about our feelings, whatever they are. If we can do this then we open ourselves to be changed by God so that we may start to want what God wants, for us, for others and for creation. Especially if offer all our honesty to God and can still say, “your will be done”.  If we can’t be honest with God about our feelings then limit our communication and our relationship with God, and it’s harder for us to deal with the issues in our lives. I think that this gives us an insight into the parable from Luke. We are encouraged to pray boldly and persistently because God desires our prayers and attention to our relationship with God enables us to listen as well as to ask. We can encounter God if we are open to this relationship.

There is ancient piece of wisdom from the Christian mystical tradition which I think is relevant here. Everything good in our lives is a gift from God. Therefore the only thing that is really ours to offer God is our desire for God. Because everything else we have is God’s already.

Today we are giving thanks for Sydney and Xavier and we are praying for the lives that they will have. My prayer for these children is that as they grow they will have a deep sense of God’s presence with them and love for them. And that they will know they are accepted by God and there is nothing in their lives that they cannot share with God. And that is also my prayer for each of us here today.