Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
July 24, 2016, Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas
Sermon Text: Luke 11:1-13
Sermon Theme: “God’s Door Is Always Open”
(Sources: Brokhoff, Series C, Preaching Workbook; Emphasis Online Commentaries; Emphasis Online Illustrations; Westminster Dictionary of the Bible; Footnotes from the Life Application Study Bible; What Luther Says, Compiled by Ewald Plass; original ideas; Anderson’s Cycle C Preaching Workbook; “Six Reasons Prayers Are Not Answered” by David Wilkerson)
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many smaller churches have only four Elders, and they don’t always agree on things, so they have to take a vote to make a decision. In one such church, there was an Elder who always cast his one-against-three losing vote no matter what the issue seemed to be.
After a number of years of always having to give in to the majority vote, this Elder brought up an issue he felt very strongly about and was sure he was right in God’s eyes. Knowing that the other three would vote against him and believing that God was on his side of this particular proposal, he decided bold action was needed. So when the negative vote came from the other three, he prayed aloud in front of them, “O Lord, I know in my heart that I am right and they are wrong. Please show us a sign now, so that they will understand that I know your ways.”
At that very moment, a storm cloud moved across the sky, rumbled, and then disappeared. The outvoted Elder said, “See, a sign from God! Now you will have to believe me!”
But the other three disagreed, saying that storm clouds just suddenly form on hot summer days.
So the lone Elder prayed aloud again, “O Lord, I need a bigger sign to show them that I am right and they are wrong. Please, God, give me a bigger sign.” This time four storm clouds appeared out of nowhere and rushed toward each other to form one big cloud. Then a bolt of lightning came down and knocked down a tree ten feet away from the window near where they were sitting.
“See, I told you I was right,” said the lone Elder. Reluctantly, the other three said, “OK, we’ll agree with you that God thinks you are right. But that only makes the vote 3 to 2.” As if God’s will was only one vote.
In our sermon text from Luke, Jesus gives his disciples a two-part reply to their request, ‘Teach us to pray,’ — one is a model or example of prayer, and the other is a parable. In the model and the parable Jesus focuses on three aspects of prayer, — ONE, its content, TWO, our persistence, and THREE, God’s faithfulness. Continue reading