Luke 11:1-13 (Pentecost 7C)
St. John, Galveston 7/27/25
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    Luke’s Gospel is filled with assurances of gifts that are ours in Christ Jesus. In chapter 10, which is just before the reading for this morning, we  heard about several of those gifts. Jesus sent out the seventy disciples, two by two, to go into the various towns to preach the good news of His coming into the world. The disciples returned excited over the things they were able to do. As they said to Jesus, “even the demons are subject to us in your name.” that they were able to do miraculous things in His name. The greater gift God had given them was not in their ability to exercise divine power. Rather, it was in the promise of life that Jesus gave them. “I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you (Jesus said). Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Who else, besides Jesus, can make such a promise and keep it.

    In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we are tempted to see ourselves as one of the two men that passed the wounded man by on the other side of the road, the priest or the Levite. Thus, the Samaritan produces a sense of guilt within us. I should be more like the Samaritan than the Priest, or the Levite, we think. In the end though, we find God in the parable, in the person of the Good Samaritan and we find ourselves in the parable in the person of the man who was beaten and left on the side of the road for dead. As such, Jesus has picked YOU up and tended to YOUR wounds with the soothing balm of the Gospel of His forgiveness and grace. He has put you in a safe place, His church, where whatever debt is accumulated by YOU is charged to HIM.

    Finally, in the story of Mary and Martha, Jesus commended Mary, who sat at His feet to listen to Him teach. She chose the good portion that would not be taken away from her. We relate to Martha though, who wanted to make sure that everything was taken care of in order to receive such an honored guest as Jesus. The story though, is ultimately about Jesus, who came to Martha’s house, even as He came into the world, not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as ransom for many. And so, week after week we gather in this place and Jesus comes to us in His word and in bread and wine, His body and blood, to serve us with words of grace and forgiveness.

    The gifts of God that Luke writes about don’t end in chapter 10 of His Gospel. In this morning’s reading, the asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. It isn’t a given, you know, that we are naturally endowed with the knowledge of how to speak to God. What shall I say to Him? How shall I say it? Will He be pleased with my prayer, or will my prayer anger Him? How shall speak to God?

    Jesus gave His disciples what we now call, The Lord’s Prayer. Perhaps the most astounding and memorable part of the prayer is how it begins. To a people who were unaccustomed to referring to God by name, considering His name too holy to even be spoken, Jesus said, when you pray, say, “Our Father who art in heaven…” That, my friends, is an amazing gift afforded to you and me in Christ Jesus. You speak to God as your Father. Indeed, as the apostle John wrote elsewhere, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” This is a gift given to you, not by birthright, but by your new birth in the water of Holy Baptism, wherein Jesus said to you, “you are my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.”

    Even though we have been given The Lord’s Prayer, prayer, in a general sense remains a bit difficult for us. Our old nature is responsible for that difficulty. We sometimes suspect and worry that God’s will for us may not ultimately be for our good. Jesus dealt with that fear by making a logical argument, if you will. In the argument, He compares the lesser with he greater. We are to conclude that if the lesser is true, how much more must the greater be true.

    “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Do you see what Jesus did in the analogy? Do you see His point? If a sinful father doesn’t give gifts to his children that contrary to his child’s well-being, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good gifts to you?

    And so, when you pray, know that your Heavenly Father always gives you what is best for you and for your salvation. As the Scriptures tell us elsewhere, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.” So, God not only doesn’t work evil in your life. He doesn’t possess the nature to work evil in your life.

    From my perspective, the most intriguing part of this morning’s reading from Luke’s Gospel, is the way in which it ends. “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” What’s intriguing about it is that, to this point in chapters 10 and 11, there was only one mention of the Holy Spirit. It was way back in verse 21 of chapter 10. “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

You are the little children to whom Jesus has been revealed. Thus, Martin Franzmann, a Lutheran pastor who often been referred to as the American Luther, penned these words in his great hymn “Thy Strong Word.”

“God the Father, Light creator,
To Thee laud and honor be.
To Thee, Light of Light begotten,
Praise be sung eternally.
Holy Spirit, light-revealer,
Glory, glory be to Thee.
Mortals, angels, now and ever 
Praise the holy Trinity.”

    The Holy Spirit has revealed to you all good things in the Divine. Your faith in Christ Jesus is worked by the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray the Father to continue to bless you with His Spirit that you would know the immeasurable greatness of the gifts that He has bestowed on you in Christ Jesus. The promise is given. Indeed, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see (says Jesus)! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +