God is a person, not a thing!

Luke 11:5-13

5 Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, 6 ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ 8 But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. 9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead?

 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Food for thought!

Yesterday, Jesus taught us to call God a person, the Father. What Jesus is teaching us is to personalize God. Why is this important? Because for many of us God is a thing, a power or a force. Just that. We depersonalize God by generalizing him — God as an idea, God as a force, God as a dogma. But since we can’t love an idea or a force or a dogma, we effectively end up respecting God but not love him, because we cannot love a thing; we can only love a person.

So what Jesus did yesterday and today, is to immerse us in a way of language that keeps us thoroughly and absolutely personal in our approach to God, which is to say, in our prayers. What Jesus is doing since yesterday, is to teach us what he does: deal with God as a person, and not as a thing. Thus, the name Father.

Jesus tells this story to get us immediately and personally present to our God in the same way that he does. God is not a thing but a person: "Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. 11 If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? 12 If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? 13 As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing--you're at least decent to your own children. And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?"

Prayer is about one friend talking to another friend. By the way, did you notice the word friend? The term “friend” is used to refer to each person in the story: the friend in bed who is being asked for the bread (v. 5), the friend who arrives hungry at midnight (v. 6), and the friend who asks for the bread (v. 8). Everyone in the story is designated “friend.” Three friends. Just as none of us is indifferent to fathers and friends, so does our heavenly Father.

What this means is that prayer can be learned only in the vocabulary and grammar of personal relationship: Father! Friend! It can never be a matter of getting the right words in the right order. It can never be a matter of good behavior or proper disposition or skillful manipulation. It can never be a matter of acquiring some information about God or getting in touch with myself. It is a relationship, exclusively and unendingly personal.

Jesus concludes his teaching on prayer with this: “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 whose who ask him!” (Luke 11: 13). Holy Spirit? We thought we were asking for bread for ourselves and for our friend. We thought we were asking for a fish and eggs. And we were. We are. But by introducing the term “Holy Spirit” into the conversation, Jesus anchors our understanding of the words and ways of God in the details of each and every hour of each and every day. Holy Spirit is God’s way of being personally with us in all our listening and speaking and acting. God is in all the particulars of our lives and our friends’ and neighbors’ lives. God is comprehensively and personally present.

(Further reading, Peterson, Eugene (2010-03-18). The Word Made Flesh (p. 55). Hachette Littlehampton. Kindle Edition.)