"You Asked for It"
Luke 11:5-13
Yonce Shelton, Westmoreland UCC
July 27, 2025

Someone recently asked me: What are you trying to do at Westmoreland? It gave me pause. There are a few words and ways of focusing that I return to as I think about my time here and how I hope to help. But, I have found that holding those lightly without adding too much to them, simply paying attention well, and going with the flow of how this community’s life is unfolding is allowing me to be and do in ways that feel right. It's like I actually am sticking to goals, but without usual ways of tracking and evaluation. Being open to God and you and trusting the process helps.

That makes sense to me because I feel it. The feeling of rightness and fit reduces my need to describe in detail what I am doing. I actually think it would be a bad idea to try to write a traditional action plan. That may sound strange, and may not resonate with you, but I believe that a few decades into doing spiritual and religious work, that maybe finally I am walking the talk of leading with heart – not head; of trusting that there is a different way to be and lead in spiritual community; of welcoming new ways of understanding things like effectiveness, outcomes, and success.

The question about my focus at Westmoreland also reminded me of prayer. Today’s passage may be familiar because it can provide great hope – and great frustration! “Ask, and it will be given to 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.” So simple, right? Just name what we want, keep praying and working, and God will deliver, right? Eh…

This passage addresses several aspects of prayer. What I’ll focus on is: How do we know what to ask for? How can we name something in a way that allows God to work with us to meet our deepest needs, about which we may not be fully aware?

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Asking well. Searching well. Knocking on the right doors. Easier said than done.

A couple of years ago I was in a time of discernment. At some point, I hoped, that discernment would end and a concrete step would be taken. I had been in that place before, many times over the decades, and I smiled when thinking of what I had asked for in my younger days. Most prayers in my early adulthood were that certain jobs or opportunities would open to me because they were such a good fit for my faithful path of service to God and the world. My intent was pure, but if I’m honest, my searching and knocking probably didn’t include God as much as God would have liked. I was sort of looking for God’s blessing and door opening for what I had already decided was my calling.

Now, fast forward to my most recent time of discernment. I adopted a different approach, which was to try to honor three deeper asks: 1) that I keep my ego out of it; 2) that I trust that God will use me; and 3) that I be open to deeper awareness about life that might become known during this discernment. I chuckle at that journey and how it led me here with you – which was not at all on my radar screen. I share these reflections today because all of us might benefit from exploring how to really pray. And, I share them because Katy is joining us.

Katy is near the beginning of her ministry. When we met this week I asked her to spend the next month thinking about gifts and goals for her year with us. I asked her to see if she could name how she wants to grow. In addition to developing a work plan, I hope that turns into prayer; into asking, searching, and knocking well. I hope we support that – even if we have to get up in the middle of the night if she needs loaves of bread, or help with a new kid's effort, or lend an ear because she just didn’t expect that to happen in this role!

How will she ask? And can she trust that her prayers don’t have to be perfect? Can she trust that God will keep opening doors and helping her learn which ones to knock on? That God will provide spiritual nourishment and not snakes and scorpions?

We are all called to relationship with God that helps us understand how to be part of community; how to give and receive well. That takes learning and adjustment. It may take friends beating on our doors.

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Church is changing: the universal church as well as local congregations. Needs are changing. Life is changing. We do our best to plan, adjust, and evolve in institutional and structural ways. Hopefully we don’t hold on too tight to the old days. Proactively addressing change in the church and this community should impact how we pray; how we adjust our communal and personal asking, searching, and knocking. I’m not sure we should be praying the same way we did years ago. We should pull from the wisdom and experiences of past years to be differently with God.

So, your challenge is communal and personal. What is your process of prayer for community and self? What can you pray for that needs some time and space for God to work with? What kind of searching and knocking is needed to discern where that goes? What does asking mean for this church, you, and others? And can you prepare to welcome surprises?

Summer is a good time to be curious; to wonder and ask with God; to take long meandering walks of prayer with God; to resist quick answers or outcomes.

This summer could be a time for you to consider if asking, searching, and knocking can be a little more expansive and passive. Who knows? Maybe you’ll begin to understand something so clearly and deeply that you can’t even explain it to others.

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According to Rev. Douglas John Hall, “[R]eal prayer cannot be faked. Its only prerequisites are sufficient self-knowledge to recognize the depths of our need, and enough humility to ask for help. “Ask (Really ask! Keep on asking!) and it will be given you" – and is being given you already in the asking!1

Persistence matters. Your desire and your intent and your trust matters – probably more than your finely cultivated, specific requests. If our desire is to deepen relationship with God through prayer - to enter further into mystery – then our attempts to pray right and understand the process just don’t matter as much as God’s desire to give us the good things we truly need, which we probably can’t fully articulate.

How do you start praying well, or better? You are already doing it. You are asking for it.

Amen.

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1 Feasting on the Word Lectionary Commentary