The Right Kind of Pest

Did you know that Jesus tells us to be pests? It's true -- and it has to do with prayer! If you're curious about that, read my sermon!

Let’s go to the local grocery store, shall we? I have to pick up a few things and I thought you might like to come along with me. It’s recently been renovated; and now it's a big, fancy store that sells furniture and clothing, and even offers wine tastings! But one thing hasn’t changed a bit. The checkout lines still have big displays of candy bars just in case your sweet tooth needs a quick fix. Of course, those candy bars always tempt the kiddos who are shopping with their parents. And sure enough, there’s one right now throwing a fit in the checkout line. She looks to be about four years old; and all her mother wants to do is pay for her cart full of groceries and go home. But little miss is making that mighty difficult. She’s screaming and throwing herself on the floor because she wants a candy bar. She’s screaming over and over, “KitKat bar! KitKat bar! KitKat bar!” Her mom is mortified, but she’s holding her ground. No KitKat bar for her little one today.

I invited you along to witness this all-too-familiar scene because Jesus describes something very similar in his teaching about prayer that I read from the gospel of Luke just a few minutes ago (Luke 11:1-13). It involved a man who had an unexpected visitor drop by late at night. Jesus doesn’t tell us who he was, so let’s imagine that it was an old friend who had been bumped from an overbooked airline flight. Instead of sleeping in the terminal, he took a cab to his friend’s house where he figured he could crash on the couch. And he was hungry! He’d missed dinner before his flight; and that little bag of peanuts didn’t fill up even a corner of his growling stomach! But when his host looked in the fridge, it was as empty as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. His two teenaged boys had polished off everything edible. They’d even put the peanut butter jar back in the cupboard empty! The friend said not to worry; he could make it till McDonald’s opened in the morning. But his host wouldn’t hear of it! He wasn’t about to let his old friend go to bed hungry! But it was so late that even the Dairy Mart down the street was closed. So he went next door to ask for a glass of milk and a peanut butter sandwich. The only trouble was, his neighbor was sound asleep; and he didn’t take too kindly to the doorbell ringing at 1 a.m. He hollered down from his bedroom window to go away. He had to get up at 4 a.m. and he needed his sleep! But the doorbell kept on ringing. That host eventually got the peanut butter sandwich and the glass of milk (together with a few choice words). He pestered and pestered his neighbor until that neighbor gave him what he wanted just to get rid of him!

That’s how persistent Jesus says we should be in our prayers. We should pester God like that host pestered his neighbor for a peanut butter sandwich. Jesus tells us to pray and pray and pray… and then pray some more! If God won’t answer the phone, then we should pound on the front door. If an email doesn’t get any result, then we should send a text message. If the doorbell isn’t working, then we should try throwing some pebbles at the window. Jesus tells us that we should do everything that we can possibly do to get God to respond to us! When we pray, we’re allowed to be pests.

But you may be wondering: why is it OK for us to pester God in prayer, but not OK for a child to pester her mom in the checkout line? What’s the difference between a praying Christian and a child throwing a tantrum? When a little one throws a tantrum, it’s a one-way conversation. That child doesn’t want to hear anything from her mom except “yes.” It’s all about the child, who wants what she wants when she wants it! Hopefully, prayer is more of a conversation than that, a two-way conversation with God in which we ask and God responds to what we have to say. Now, it’s true that sometimes we pray tantrum prayers; because sometimes that kind of prayer is all that we can manage. We are in such a panic that we can’t really listen to God responding to us. We’re suffering, or we’re grieving, or we’re angry – or maybe all three – and if we pray at all, all we can say to God is “Help!” or “Why?” And that’s OK. The good news is that God is a big boy. God can handle that kind of prayer. God knows that sometimes we just have to let it all out to be able to move on. But if we’re stuck in prayers like those – if they are all that we can offer up – maybe we need to think about why we are praying in the first place. Are we only praying so that we get our own way; or are we honestly trying to connect with God so that our will is closer to God’s will? Prayer, at its best, is real communication with God. As we pray, we should be listening for God’s response to us and open to being changed ourselves in the process!

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say that as you pray, you ask God to put a big hole in your front yard. That’s a simple enough request. And as you pray, you are really listening for what God has to say about that. It seems to me that a couple of things might happen. That hole might magically appear right in the middle of the yard. Or your neighbor might come over with a brand-new shovel just itching to try it out. Hey, your prayer has been answered! But it doesn’t always work that way, does it? Maybe the hole doesn’t appear. Instead, as you pray, you might come to realize that you’re asking God to put the hole in the wrong place. It would really be better for that hole to be in the side yard. So, you change your prayer. Or you might realize that a hole in the front yard really isn’t a good idea – at least, not right now. So, you pray for God to show you some alternatives. And there is one response that we are all afraid to hear – God just might hand you a shovel and tell you to get to work! Let’s face it, we tend to ask God for things that we can do ourselves. Prayer really does change things. And many times, we are the ones who are changed!

So go ahead and be a pest. Pray and pray and pray some more. Pray for what you honestly want, not for what you think you should want. And as you pray, listen to what God has to say to you. Prayer really does change the world! But many times that change begins only when we allow God to change us!