Our New Testament Lesson

Rev. Dr. Tom Blair Second Presbyterian Church, Baltimore
Let us share a moment of silence- for the souls of those murdered in
Charleston…
The Rev. Depayne Middleton Doctor
Cynthia Hurd
Susie Jackson
Ethel Lance
The Rev. Clementa Pinckney
Tywanza Sanders
The Rev. Dr. Daniel Simmons Sr.
The Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
Myra Thompson
… Amen.
Our New Testament Lesson:
“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?
Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil,
There are no limits attached, neither to when, where, who or how.
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To all who ask, they will receive; everyone who seeks, finds, everyone who knocks, has that door swinging open.
The foundation for Jesus' claim is his certainty that God hears everyone who prays.
The two illustrations he shares are taken from everyday Jewish life. Bread and fish are basic foods, everyday sustenance. Stones and snakes are also everyday objects, nothing really special for back then. Stones and snakes might even look a little like bread and fish, or at least they can appear to be similar. But one can’t be substituted for the other; it just won’t do.
Jesus' fake food argument was a common Jewish style of making a point.
The stone and snake examples are a "how much more" argument —in duplicate, for a double rhetorical effect. If even earthly parents know not to give their children fake food, how much more does God know what we need as nourishment to thrive.
Jesus' words for us to trust makes prayer much more than an extraneous option; it makes what we ask for in prayer real, tangible, viable- it brings our most honest wants- those we are really wiling to lay out before God- right out to the
We say: ‘Well, not every prayer we pray is answered, at least not exactly in the way we expect. God gives gifts and they are spiritual gifts, available to all who have open hearts to receive them.’ (Gifts maybe hidden to the eye, but not to the readied soul.)
Or, we say, ‘God does things on God's time, not ours, and our prayers will be answered, just not necessarily when we asked for them to be answered.’
Or we say: ‘Well, it must be our fault: We didn't pray hard enough, or long enough, or with the right words or the right attitudes—or something. God answers every prayer if we can only figure out the right way to pray.’
All these ways of softening the text may have some truth and might be helpful, but they also, in some measure, misrepresent Jesus’ words. The "everyone" at the beginning is unequivocal and absolutely inclusive: Everyone who prays receives.
There is, of course, a context to Jesus' words— another bit of evidence, as some say,