Letter Home

Luke 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

‘So I say to you, 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. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 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 those who ask him!’

Dear Father,

It is still hard for me to believe that I can talk to you using the name ‘Father’. What a blessed name that is! After what seems like eons of believing we were separated from you and isolated from our home, the name ‘Father’ speaks relief and peace to my heart. I can’t begin to tell you how profoundly grateful I am – how grateful we all are – for our brother Jesus. Until we met him, none of us knew that we had totally forgotten who you really are. We had forgotten your face and we had forgotten what home looks like. Before Jesus, I would have said that none of us ever knew these things at all but now, every time he speaks to us I feel this familiarity stirring inside as if I always knew there was something more.

Jesus says he is like you and there is something in me that recognizes the truth of this. In fact, having him here is like home has come to us. It’s difficult to explain because so much of the time all of us are trying to grasp exactly who he is and what his words mean but late at night, when we’re sleeping under the silent stars, I look up at the heavens and I’m overwhelmed with the sense that ‘out there’ has become ‘in here’. Then I look over to where Jesus is lying and see that he is awake too. He’ll turn his head and gaze at me with a knowing smile. In that moment I know the Kingdom of God has truly come to us and Jesus knows what I’m sensing. Imagine … your Kingdom vibrating and alive in the middle of a scrubby desert. It’s not ‘out there’ anymore, not somewhere unreachable and inconceivable, but here and now. It has come. It has come! 

If I had to explain to someone what this Kingdom is, the only word I could give it is Love. But it’s not love in any sense that I knew it before Jesus came. He has shown to us dimensions of love we could never have comprehended on our own.  Looking back I can see how any love I had for anyone or anything was more of a reaching for someone or something to fill up the emptiness inside. I gave a little love but only to try to receive something I was missing. I loved you but it was a love filled with rituals that were designed to deliver me from evil, keep me safe and keep me on your good side. There was an underlying anxiety about my love for you. But the love that Jesus shows us has turned my whole idea of love upside down. I watch him and I can see that he is entirely filled with the knowledge that he is loved by you. He’s so complete within you that it is intriguing just to observe him. Even in simply walking down a road he exudes the joy of being completely loved. Evil cannot touch him. Even when evil is challenging him and sneering in his face, the core of him remains solid and at peace.

Then he tells us we are loved in exactly the same way and all we have to do is believe it. “Everything I have is yours,” he says over and over. “All you need to do is ask. Would you give your children a snake if they asked for fish? Of course not! Our Father just wants to give you everything he has given to me. Ask for it. Seek it out continually. Don’t settle for less than what is your inheritance and has always been yours. Don’t decide you’re not worth it, good enough or not important enough. Speak to the one who is the Father of us all and ask for the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who will lead you and open you up to who you really are and all that is yours. Never stop asking or seeking.” It is obvious that he badly wants us to experience the same love that he is immersed in.

The love he shows us is overwhelming. It’s not just because it is astonishing to believe that we could be loved so deeply and so strongly but also because it’s clearly a love that cannot flourish where anger, hatred or resentment are welcomed in and entertained. It has always been a matter of pride with our people to hold on to the wrongs done to us. To us it’s always been “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and we have no problem remembering every single eye and tooth that has suffered injury, personally and as a nation. But it became clear to me one night under those peaceable, silent and humble stars that your love cannot co-exist with anger or resentment. Where there is one, the other is not. Simple. If we choose to harbor even tiny seeds of resentment, we have chosen against love. When love is chosen, evil cannot prevail.

And when we choose love, we choose a different world. We choose your kingdom and our choice makes your Kingdom present in power, truth and healing right in that moment of choosing. Why would we ever choose to lurk in the dark places of resentment and anger when we could be alive in the brightness of the Kingdom? Still, before I know it, I often find myself chewing on thoughts of those who have wished me ill or done me harm. Then I realize what I’m doing. I kick myself and feel like such a failure until Jesus comes to me in my pain and says, “Peace. Just let it all go. Ask and the Kingdom will come back to you. The more you choose the Kingdom, ask for it and experience its light, the less you will find yourself choosing evil. Take it one day at a time and in every moment of each day turn to our Father and ask for the bread of the Kingdom. This is the filling bread of love, forgiveness and grace. This is the food that you need right now. Don’t ask for this bread for tomorrow and don’t worry about tomorrow. The Father doesn’t require that you are able perceive all the trials and evils that tomorrow might bring so you can pray for all of those like the pagans do. He doesn’t require you to make any projections, not even about your own failures and limitations. The only moment that the Father cares about is this moment right now. Where are you right now? What are you choosing…right now?”

My Father…my holy and gracious Father. Right now I choose you. You are my heaven and you are here right now. I choose you in this moment. I choose your love. I ask for the Spirit of Light to give me the power to fully believe how much I am loved and to give me the strength to love my brothers and sisters the same way you love me. I want to be capable of loving like Jesus who loves to the degree of how much he is loved.

Father, through my relationship with you, form me into one who makes the Kingdom of Love present and real to this weary hurting world. Father, fill all of us with your Spirit. Make us the same as your son – make us as lights that shine in the darkness so the darkness can never overcome us. Make us shine with your grace and truth.

As you will, so let it be. Amen and amen.

Your son,

John