Luke 11

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Markings

Luke 11 by verses:

Luke 11:1-13

Luke 11:1-13 by verse:

General References

Thomas R. Haney, Today’s Spirituality, p. 84
Imaging the Word, Vol. 1, p. 242-245

Luke 11:1-4

John Dominic Crossan, “The Lord’s Prayer,” The Historical Jesus, p. 293-295
H. E. Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer, p. 38 f.

Luke 11:5-8

Ashley Beavers, “How Can We Pray in an Age of Science?,” Science & Christian Faith, p. 27-31
Frederick Buechner, “The Breaking of Silence,” The Magnificent Defeat, p. 124-130 George A. Buttrick, “The God Who Answers Prayer,” The Parables of Jesus, p. 166-175

“The God Who Answers Prayer”

… we must earn our toil in honest toil of spirit and hand. Those who win the reward do not begrudge the toil.

H. E. Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer, p. 200 f.
Justo L. González, When Christ Lives in Us, p. 30 ff.

When Christ Lives in Us

… the disciple is caught between two friends.  One is a traveler who has arrived, apparently unexpectedly, late at night.  The other is a neighbor who is already asleep, with the door locked, in bed with his family.  One has no bread and is counting on the disciple’s hospitality.  The other has bread, but the disciple must abuse his hospitality in order to get it for his friend.

… Jesus tells the disciples that they are Friend B (the one who received unexpected company), it is equally clear that God is Friend C (the one who gets out of bed because Friend B brings his need to him).  But note that Friend B does not go to C to ask for bread for himself, and he does not ask C to get out of bed because of a personal whim.  He dares to go to C, and even disturb him in the middle of the night, because he needs bread for Friend A.
When you look at it this way, the parable does not say, as we often think, that if we want something badly enough and keep asking God for it, God will give it.

Joachim Jeremias,”The Friend Asked for Help at Night,” Rediscovering the Parables, p. 124 ff.
Christina Rossetti, “Despised and Rejected,” Goblin Market and Other Poems, p. 59
William Safire, The First Dissident, p. 87 f.

The First Dissident

… skeptics can read Job’s God as saying this: “There are things you do not know but I fix no penalty for asking or even making a nuisance of yourself by demanding—and while some mysteries may never be solved, you can never tell what I’ll let you find out if you keep pushing. (p. 87)

Modesty and reverence are fine human traits, and befit a philosophy that accepts the inaccessibility of wisdom and the unknowability of God. (p. 88)

John Shea, The God who Fell from Heaven, p. 11

The God who Fell from Heaven

An alternate interpretation … identifies the cause of God with the widow and the friend outside and ourselves with the unjust judge and the reluctant homeowner. This understanding reverses our understanding of prayer. Prayer is not the verbal entreaty of a reluctant God, but the way we relate and respond to a pursuing God.

Geza Vermes, The Changing Faces of Jesus, p. 264

The Changing Faces of Jesus

Simeon ben Shetah sent a message to him [Honi]: “If you had not been Honi, I would have excommunicated you. But what can I do with you? You pester God, yet he performs your will, like a son who pesters his father and obtains from him what he wants.” (mTaanit 3:8)

Luke 11:9-13

Ashley Beavers, “How Can We Pray in an Age of Science?,” Science & Christian Faith, p. 27-31
Frederick Buechner, “The Breaking of Silence,” The Magnificent Defeat, p. 124-130

“The Breaking of Silence”

… the answer that he gives, I think, is himself. If we go to him for anything else, he may send us away empty or he may not. But if we go to him for himself, I believe that we go away always with this deepest of all our hungers filled.

George A. Buttrick, “The God Who Answers Prayer,” The Parables of Jesus, p. 166-175
Walker Percy, The Message in the Bottle, p. 144

The Message in the Bottle

To be a castaway is to search for news from across the seas. … it means that one searches nevertheless and that one lives in hope that such a message will come and that one knows that the message will not be a piece of knowledge or a piece of island news but news from across the seas.

J. Barrie Shepherd, “Asking and Receiving,” Seeing with the Soul, p. 78-82
Helmut Thielicke, “How We Learn to Speak with God,” How to Believe Again, p. 90-100
Marilyn von Waldner, “A New Song,” What Return Can I Make?

“A New Song”

(Refrain)
And I say:
Ask and you will receive.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and it will be opened to you.
And I say:
The Lord will give you His mind,
The Lord will show you the way.
The Lord will make you His light.

Luke 11:14-23

J. Barrie Shepherd, “Cross Purposes,” Seeing with the Soul, p. 83-87

Luke 11:24-26

Denise Levertov, “Three Meditations,” The Jacob’s Ladder, p. 33

“Three Meditations”

to sing of death
as before
and life, while he
has it, energy

being in him a singing,
a beating of gongs, efficacious
to drive away devils,
response to

the wonder that
as before
shows a double face,

to be
what he is
being his virtue

filling his whole space
so no devil
may enter.

Richard Rohr, Falling Upward, p. 61

Falling Upward

I do not think you should get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you. Otherwise, it will only return in new forms, as Jesus says of the “unclean spirit” that returns to the house all “swept and tidied” …

Luke 11:27-28

John Dominic Crossan, The Essential Jesus, p. 41, 149f.
John Dominic Crossan, “Against the Patriarchal Family,” The Historical Jesus, p. 299

Luke 11:29-32

John Dominic Crossan, “Parables and the Temporality of the Kingdom,” In Parables, p. 6 f.

“Parables and the Temporality of the Kingdom”

… these latter stages [Luke 11:30-32 (Stage 2) and Matthew 12:41-42 (Stage 3)] seek to move Jesus’ radical denial back toward Judaism and its interest in signs.

Luke 11:33-36
Luke 11:37-54

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