A Knock at Midnight: The Power of Persistent Prayer and The Church's Role in a Darkening World
The Parable of the Friend at Midnight
Taken from Luke 11:5-8, the parable describes a man whose friend arrives at midnight, requiring three loaves of bread. The man's neighbor, initially reluctant due to the late hour and his children being in bed, eventually helps "because of his importunity" (persistence).
Main Point of the Parable: The power of persistent prayer.
Secondary Facets: Beyond the main point, the parable offers an outline and guide for dealing with contemporary national and global problems, and the role of the church.
Midnight in Our World Today
The speaker posits that it is "midnight in our world today," characterizing the current era as one of deep darkness.
Midnight in the Social Order:
Highlighted by the Vietnam War: A "futile, bloody, costly war" on Asian soil where "rice fields… are being burned at will," "innocent peasants and little children being burned with napalm," and "fine young men of our country dying in mounting numbers."
Nations are engaged in a "bitter and tragic contest for supremacy."
Danger: Failure to change course could lead modern weapons to "conspire to bring an untimely death to the human family on this globe."
Quotation: The late President Kennedy's warning: "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind."
Midnight in the Psychological Order:
People are "more worried, more frustrated, more bewildered today than in any period of human history."
"Clouds of anxiety are floating in our mental skies," and "psychopathic wards of our hospitals are full."
Popular Psychologists: Psychoanalysts delving into the subconscious.
Popular Books in Psychology: Examples include Man Against Himself, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, and The Neurotic Personality of Our Times.
Bestsellers in Religion: Titles like Peace of Mind and Peace of Soul indicate a deepseated quest for inner peace.
Popular Preachers: Often deliver "nice little soothing sermons on how to be happy, how to relax, how to keep your blood pressure down."
Retranslation of the Gospel: "Go ye into all the world and keep your blood pressure down, and lo, I will make you a well adjusted personality," signifying a diminished focus on core spiritual tenets.
Midnight in the Moral Order:
Midnight is a time when "all colors lose their distinctiveness" and "everything becomes merely a dirty shade of gray." This metaphor extends to a moral relativism where "there's nothing absolutely right, nothing absolutely wrong."
Prevalent Philosophy: "Everybody is doing it, so it must be alright."
Survival Theory: Replaced Darwinian "survival of the fittest" with the "survival of the slickest."
"The Eleventh Commandment": "Thou shall not get caught." This philosophy dictates that actions are acceptable as long as one avoids detection.
Examples of Moral Laxity: It's acceptable to "lie with a bit of finesse," to "exploit and laugh" but in a "dignified" manner, making theft appear as "embezzlement," and to "hate" by dressing it "in the garments of love." The focus is on "just get by." This "tragic moral laxity" and "chains of conformity" are seen as destructive.
A Threefold Midnight: The world currently stands in a threefold midnight: social, psychological, and moral.
The Knock at Midnight: The Search for Spiritual Bread
Just as the man in the parable sought "physical bread," people in today's world are searching for three loaves of spiritual bread:
The Bread of Faith:
Many have lost faith in themselves, their neighbors, and God.
Reflects the cry: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." (Mark 9:24)
The Bread of Hope:
When hope is lost, people feel they have "nothing to look forward to," leading to dying of spirit.
Young people become cynical, losing hope in a future that may involve "going to the battlefield."
Literary References: Shakespeare's "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing" and Schopenhauer's view that "life is an endless pain with a painful end." Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem is cited, describing life as "a crushed a grin and a calling to sleep in, a minute for smiling and an hour to weep in, a pint of joy for a peck of trouble, and never to laugh but the moans come double."
The Bread of Love:
There is "too much hatred around"; the primary need is to learn how to love.
Interracial Love: In America, both white and black individuals must love each other due to a "single, dominant destiny."
Addressing Injustice: White individuals must understand the poverty and slum conditions that create problems, acknowledging that the federal government has sufficient money to address these issues.
Permanence of Black Americans: "We are in America, and we are here to stay." There are at least Negroes in America (census figures indicate plus those uncounted).
Response to Oppression: Black individuals must not respond to oppression with new tyranny; the goal is "the freedom of the whole human race" and a society where "all men will live together as brothers," respecting human dignity and worth.
Jesus' Command: The essential word is "love."
The Church's Disappointment
The man initially left the knocker disappointed; similarly, the church has "often left men and women disappointed at the greatest hour of need."
Westminster Abbey Example: The Church of England failed to take a significant stand against colonialism, dominating over of God's children, leading the speaker to reflect that "the church can die as a result of the judgment of God" by refusing to oppose evil.
White Preachers: Often fail to speak out against racial injustice.
Fervor of the Early Church: A call to return to the early Christians' commitment, who famously refused to fight in wars and faced persecution (e.g., being thrown to lions, taken to the chopping block).
Negro Churches: Also criticized for leaving men disappointed at midnight, categorized into two types:
"Freezes up" Church: Characterized by dignity, sermons as "nice little essay[s]" preached by fear-driven preachers, choirs afraid to sing spirituals due to shame of their "African" heritage. These churches boast about professional members (doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen) as if others "don't count." The emphasis is on "muscle allergy" (social status) rather than spirituality, with "more religion in their hands and feet than… in their hearts and souls." Pastors rely on "voice, on volume, not content," leading to people leaving without understanding the sermon (e.g., "I don't know what he said, but he preached this morning").
Dangers of these churches: People "play with God," religion becomes irrelevant emotionalism, reflecting a "zeal of God, but not according to knowledge" (Romans 10:2).
God's Message to the Church: Both black and white churches are told, "Our people are hungry. They're in need of prayer. Don't play with me and don't play with them. They come at midnight seeking bread." God will not hear "beautiful answer[s]," "eloquent sermons," or "powerful prayers" if the church's "hands are full of blood." Instead, God demands: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24). The requirement is to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God" (Micah 6:8).
The Power of Importunity and The Coming of Morning
Importunity: The man in the parable kept knocking, demonstrating "persistence, perseverance," or "keep on keeping on." He persisted because he knew there was "bread in that house."
The Church's Role: The church has the "bread of life," and its job is to "keep it fresh."
Who Will Seek the Bread?: Disillusioned young people, those who tried to drown guilt in nightclubs, excessive drink, or promiscuity but found no answer. They will eventually come seeking the bread of faith and hope.
Fresh Bread of Life: The bread must be fresh enough to convey that "death is not a blind alley that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door that leads men into life eternal," echoing Romans 8:38-39: "Neither death nor life… shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Hope for Morning: Despite the present darkness, the speaker reassures that "morning will come." Life's pendulum swings between darkness and light, midnight and morning.
Slave Foreparents' Wisdom: Their "beautiful sorrow songs" acknowledged the "midnight surrounding their days" (e.g., "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See, nobody knows the dream"). Yet, they also sang with the hope of morning.
Jeremiah's Question: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" (Jeremiah 8:22), raised in the face of inequity, suffering of the good, and prosperity of the evil.
Perseverance: Slave forefathers confronted life's problems, facing "sizzling heat," "rawhide of the overseer," and "long rows of cotton," yet held onto hope. The speaker personally admits to feeling discouraged at times.