July 20, 2025
Luke 11:1-13
Introduction
“Discontinued Soda Flavor Is Officially Back on Shelves and Fans Are Going Wild.” That was the headline on Parade.com earlier this week for an article announcing the return of a beloved pop. The article read, “Fans have been anxiously awaiting the return of a beloved Coca-Cola flavor— and it’s officially back on shelves—Diet Cherry Coke.” For those of you suppressing the urge to jump from your pew and rush to your favorite grocer for this savory beverage, I’m sorry to have to tell you that this limited release is currently only available at Kroger stores.
The article reads, “Diet Cherry Coke was originally introduced in 1985 and became a bestseller and favorite among Coca-Cola fans, but in 2020, the soda mysteriously disappeared from store shelves. Earlier this year, it was announced that Diet Cherry Coke would be making a comeback for a limited time after being discontinued.” This article—click bait such as it was for me—became sermon fodder not after revealing that Diet Cherry Coke was the “discontinued soda flavor” but upon reading the quotes of fan reactions to this announcement, two of which read, “Yassss God is REAL and He answers prayers!” Followed by, “Coke finally came back out with a diet version of cherry coke. I’ve prayed for times like this.”
Now I’m all for prayer of course, but Diet Cherry Coke? Really? I mean, if we’re going to pray then let us pray for something truly remarkable, truly meaningful—something that will have far reaching impact that will show the world how great God is—something like world peace, the end of hunger and homelessness, or climate change, or the Guardians winning the World Series. So yes, let us pray… just not for Diet Cherry Coke.
Move 1
Our text for today is all about prayer—specifically Jesus teaching his Disciples to pray, what it means, and what it can do. But ask any preacher and they’ll tell you it would be a lot easier to preach today’s Gospel if it weren’t for all the unanswered prayers in our lives. I’m not suggesting our prayers never get answered, I know they do. But I’ve never had anyone come to my office asking why they prayed and got exactly what they wanted. I have, however, had people want to know why they asked but were not given, why they searched but did not find, why they knocked and the door never opened. And admittedly, I’ve never had a very helpful answer. In fact, I’ve struggled with those questions myself.
I have prayed for wisdom, discernment, and clarity about my life and was just as confused as before I prayed. I prayed with everything I had when my father was diagnosed with cancer. I have prayed for people that were ill, relationships that were broken, situations that needed changing, and been left wondering if anyone was listening, if anyone was out there. And I know that has been your experience of prayer as well.
I don’t know why some prayers seem to be answered and others seem to go unanswered. I don’t have any good answers or explanations for that, but I have heard some really bad ones. “You didn’t pray hard enough.” “You don’t have enough faith.” “You were asking for the wrong thing.” “Something better is coming.” “Sometimes God says no.” “God is testing you.” “Everything happens for a reason.”
If you’ve ever been told any of these then you know how unhelpful and hurtful they are. So at the risk of adding to the list of really bad answers to unanswered prayers, let me tell you where I’ve come to in my own life with this issue. I can’t promise that it will be a good answer—because I’m not sure there is one—but maybe it will be a less bad answer.
I wonder if we have misunderstood this text and therefore misunderstood what prayer is really about. What if we are not to blame for unanswered prayer… but neither is God? What if God is neither the dispenser nor the withholder of answers to prayers? And what if, within all our prayers, God is always giving what can be?
Move 2
Now before we go much further into the whole “Let us pray” idea, I gotta ask… Who taught you to pray and what were you taught? Somewhere along the way I got the idea that to pray I had to bow my head, close my eyes, and clasp my hands. Oh, and I had to take my hat off if I was wearing one. Next, somewhere along the way I got the idea that if I was good and well behaved, believed with all my heart, and told God what I wanted, God would hear my prayer, and I would get it. Any of that sound familiar? I suspect many of us were taught or have lived with some version of that as our understanding of prayer.
Author and pastor Philip Yancy was taught this version and understanding of prayer. He writes, saying, “I sometimes think of this as soda machine theology. Put in your coins of faith and good behavior, make a selection, and get what you want.”
Rev. Yancy goes on saying, “I like soda machine theology. I like it a lot. It’s reassuring. It makes sense and it’s predictable. It works great! That is until it doesn’t, and the soda machine gives you a Dr. Pepper when you want a Coke, or worse yet, it takes your money but doesn’t dispense anything. Then what do we do? Kick the machine? Push the button again and again, harder and harder each time? Maybe we put in more money, and try again? Maybe we walk away vowing to never drink another Coke?” Finally, Yancy concludes, saying, “God is not, and never was, a divine soda machine. And prayer is not a transaction between us and God.”
I don’t believe Jesus ever intended “ask, search, and knock” as a blank check on God’s answers to prayer. Jesus’ instructions to ask, search, and knock is all part of his teaching us how to pray—specifically through what we have come to call the Lord’s Prayer. We are to be persistent in aligning our lives to the hallowing of God’s name, giving existence to God’s kingdom in our life and relationships, opening ourselves to the gift and sufficiency of this day, freely receiving forgiveness and freely giving forgiveness.
When Jesus teaches about asking, searching, and knocking he is not teaching a technique or magic formula for getting whatever we want. He is describing a certain posture, a way of standing before God, exposed and responsive to a holy and life-giving spirit.
And with this perspective, prayer takes on a completely different purpose, which makes prayer more about what we do than what God does. And when prayer is more about what we do than what God does, our words and actions offered in response to the insistence and calling of God in our lives become are our truest prayer.
Move 3
Prayer life has become transactional in our culture today. But that is not what God intended for a life of prayer. We are not to think of prayer as asking God to do things for us, rather prayer is the way we stay open to the future that is coming to us; the coming of the kingdom, the coming of daily bread, the coming of forgiveness—the coming of “the can be” that we know God is always working towards.
There is always something good coming to us and we dare not miss it. We must stay open to the future because there is a sense in which the future is always better, not because it necessary will be, but because it can be. That “can be” is the faith and hope in our prayer. That’s the thread we hold onto when our life is unraveling. When we haven’t got a prayer, we pray for the coming of our future. The “can be” means we do not give up when the sands of life are shifting under our feet. The “can be” means we do not give up when our life comes unhinged, when we are overwhelmed when we come to the limits of our ability, when it looks like this day is as good as it gets and all there will ever be.
Philip Yancy further says, “Prayer keeps the present from closing in upon itself and from closing in all around us. Prayer opens the present moment to the possibility of something new, the chance of something different, something that will transform the present into something else.”
Conclusion
I don’t know if any of this is a less bad answer, but I know this. There has never been a pop machine that gave me life. Pop machine theology has only left me asking, searching, and knocking for something more. But I will admit, I am still tempted to go back to it because darn it… it would be just so incredible if we could simply put in our coins of good deeds, or our “IOU” bargain coins, and get it to spit out exactly what we want. But pop machine theology is about as reliable as a pop machine.
So what would it be like for us to walk away from the pop machine prayers of our lives? What would it be like to not spend so much energy, time, and prayer trying to control or determine our future? What if we simply lived open and ready to say yes to the future, to the possibility of life and more life? What if we simply prayed for God to meet us where we are, keep us mindful that God is with us always, and with open hearts that are asking, seeking, and knocking, to take us into the future that can be? I doubt those responses to our prayers would ever include Diet Cherry Coke.
But I am certain God’s responses would always include a vision of a future filled with what can be. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, July 20, 2025
Gracious and loving God, our heavenly parent, hallowed is your name. We pray for your kingdom to come, that your will is done, on earth as it is in heaven, and in our hearts as it is in the heart of your Son, our Savior Jesus.
Holy God, we don’t intend for our prayers to be transactional—like coins we lift to you with the hope and even expectation that you will then dispense the precise order and flavor we requested. We don’t mean for our prayers of “give us this day our daily bread” to sound like a demand for what you should surely give. And we certainly don’t propose that you forgive us our sins but let us slide when we fail to forgive those who have sinned against us.
So help us see what can be Lord, when we pray as you have taught us. Help us to see that those words we pray as the Lord’s Prayer are also words you pray for us—a prayer that is a call in our lives to be led, an insistence to follow, an invitation to ask, search, and knock—all while knowing a faithful response can and will come.
Holy God, your Son never guaranteed the outcome we pray for would be delivered. He never promised prayer would undo the past or offer an escape from life or the circumstances of our lives. But Jesus did promise prayer would keep us open to the future—because where there is a future, whether it is an hour, a day, a month, or years and years, there is the possibility of life and more life. And that is what Jesus is promising in today’s Gospel. And it’s what we all want and need. We want and need the possibility of life and more life. So lead us to this life and more life by leading us away from the temptation to think of prayer as a transaction and you as a divine pop machine.
May you hear now the prayers of our hearts, lifted to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the one who taught us to pray truly and faithfully, praying, “Our…”