"Anaideia = Importunity",July 25, 2010

Hosea 1
Luke 11:1-13

Do people still pray? When? Why, for What and How do we pray? Years ago, I received a letter from one of the children of the Church asking the difference between Prayer to God and a Letter to Santa with his Christmas list. Whether we pray, when, for What, and How we pray, are an important set of questions, because we live in a time where at least theoretically many believe we could meet all of our own needs. Prayer is not Wish Fulfillment; Not Magic incantation of knowing the right words and the right times, and the right God to ask; like a Disney character singing “Hacunna Mattatah”, or Harry Potter pointing and shouting “Excrutius!”

Twenty Centuries ago, religions had evolved to the reciting of prescribed prayers routinely throughout each day, and each week, every season of the year. The prayers had become so routine, that believers could name a few of the key phrases, and provided you had stopped from everything else you were doing, pronouncing “GRACE” at mealtime, “PEACE” before sleep, or “THANKS” throughout the day, seemed to suffice. So it was, that John the Baptist taught his followers the memorization of full prayers, that they would have in their repertoire for when times came.

In some ways, this has happened here, for at every Baptism, we name “There is a Family of Birth and there is a Family of Faith and this day this family has chosen You!” At Communion, we recite, “This is the Body of Christ broken for you.” Just as at every Marriage there is a reminder to Pray to God when you awake to find the other, when you are in the midst of work to stop and realize how blessed you are, at the end of the day to ask the other what is on their mind, because marriage does not give us the ability to read one another's mind, but responsibility for each other. And at Memorials we pray beginning with a prayer “Eternal and ever present God, even now in the shadow of death our first word to Thee is of thanks for Thine un-numbered mercies.” In part because there prayers had become so routine, and life itself so mundane, we began a few years ago reclaiming poetry in prayer, the careful selection of words and images to elicit feelings and circumstance and relationships of faith.

Jesus was observed to be praying and was asked “Teach us to pray.” But instead of a formula for what words to say, rather than ordering at what hours, how to bow and kneel and in which direction to face, the prayer Jesus taught focuses on the identity and relationship of the believer to God. Rather than opening our mouths for a gush of emotions. Rather than knowing which words to say. Jesus began by naming that daily life is common, and God Almighty is Holy, so our prayers to God lift up our human needs as being holy, as being worthy for God to care about. Not bringing the Divine down from Heaven, but claiming our holiness by our collective sharing as The Church saying “OUR”, and the personal intimacy and commitment of our relationship with God by naming God “FATHER”, and that this is not profane or sinful or our wish fulfillment, because we begin “Hallowed be Thy Name.” “Thy Kingdom come!”

There is a beauty to the Bible, the Old Testament written in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek and Aramaic, translated into every human language. There are a series of problems in translation, especially at this point in the text, which require we use our hearts and minds and soul and strength. For the remainder of the prayer deals with BREAD, FORGIVENESS and TEMPTATION, but “GIVE US EACH DAY OUR DAILY BREAD” is awkward syntax, different from Matthew's Gospel of “Give us THIS day”, and as this is The Word of God we cannot throw out sections that are strange to us, but instead we have to ask WHY? The difficulty here, is that in Luke's Aramaic “the BREAD” is in reference to both our “Daily Needs”, as well as “The Body of Christ” and a “Foretaste of Heaven” all simultaneously. As we pray for Daily Bread, we identify ourselves as beggars, human creatures in need of what sustains human life. But that sustenance is not gluten, that sustenance is Christ, and we know that when this life is over, where we lived, what car we drove, whether we had been to Bermuda, and our Net Worth will be meaningless to us, all that will matter is Christ.

However, according to Luke, Jesus then explained our relationship to God, in praying for our Basic Need for Forgiveness, Freedom from Temptation, and praying for Bread, by use of a parable. Again, Luke plays with the syntax of words, in this parable with “Friend”, “Neighbor” and “Guest.” MOST BASIC to human relationships of any culture are OBLIGATIONS of HOSTING STRANGERS and of AVOIDING SHAME. The Setting of this Parable is that a Guest arrives at your home after the lights have been put out and everyone gone to bed. You get up to greet your guest, recognizing that they have not eaten and that you do not have the most basic element for feeding them. To send them away would be inappropriate, would bring shame on your reputation, just as to send them to bed without supper, let alone the most basic part of a meal would not be serving as a host. So you go to your Neighbor, thereby you become the Guest arriving at a Neighbor's home after the lights have been put out and they have gone to bed, and you are asking them to rise up, to allow you receive the Bread, which you then can give to your friend who has come to your home.

Which is a lovely illustration, of who we are in relation to God and to our neighbor, and our basic needs. EXCEPT that in the middle of this parable is the explanation: “Yet, because of his importunity, the neighbor will rise and give whatever is needed.” What is importunity?

I got out my Greek English Bible and discovered the word in Greek was “ANAIDEIA”, which only occurs here in all of Scripture. So consulted other translations of the Bible finding the words SHAMELESS and PERSISTENCE. So because of the Shameless Persistence of those in need to help others in need, the neighbor will rise to respond. Our role in PRAYER is being SHAMELESSLY PERSISTENT for the needs of others.

All of which seems to help us with the context of the Story of Hosea. There are few books of prophecy in all of Scripture as universally disliked as Hosea.Where Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos and Micah all offer prophecy as human mouth-pieces for God to the Nation, even to foreign nations, Hosea embodies the prophecy within the sacred relationship of marriage. Hosea names the reality of abuse and adultery and divorce. The book opens with a command from God to “Go, marry yourself to one who cannot be committed,” to one who lusts after and sells themselves for what they want, who willfully destroys and degrades themselves with no concern for others especially their spouse. While Hosea was preached in a time and culture focused on the male ego, the same command could be given to a woman or man today: The relationship of God to God's people is like marrying yourself to one who can never be committed. While they recite the vows, and claim relationship, they will continue to seek anything and everything else. And God SHAMELESSLY PERSISTS, no matter what.

According to Scripture, there is no such thing as UNANSWERED PRAYER, either God changes the circumstance, or God gives us the power to face the circumstance and make a difference. Adoniram Judson described on his deathbed, that all his life, he never earnestly sincerely prayed for anything but that it came true. Adoniram Judson was the first Baptist Missionary from the United States, back roughly at the time this congregation was being established. Oddly, Judson prayed for permission to enter India, that was denied him, though he was given entrance to Burma where he spent his life's work. He prayed for his wife's life, though he eventually buried both his wife and their two children. Judson prayed for release from the prison of King Ava, where he lay for three long months, chained in filth. While others may view his life as a tragedy, Judson perceived his every prayer had been heard and answered, for he never felt alone, always guided, upheld, reinforced, doors had opened through the very trials he sought to avoid. The deepest desires of his life were accomplished not in his ways, but beyond his doing.

So this morning I entreat and implore you to live lives of SHAMELESS PERSISTENCE, pray for the needs of others.