Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 25, 2010 - Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13]And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Trying to preach about prayer is a bit like trying to pour the ocean in a tea cup! The subject is vast compared with the amount of time and attention-span available! Yet, the vastness of the material is an indicator of the importance of the subject and the variety of views! The Old Testament and Gospel scriptures for today offer us a number of images to think about, and I will add one from my own wall! The first image is of Abraham bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah! One can imagine God's own amusement at Abraham trying to negotiate down to even ten good people when God knows Abraham is not going to find ten! Still, it is comforting to know that even the presence of a little good might be enough to keep God interested! We might consider calling attention to that bit of good when we pray! The next image, perhaps the most important one, is that of Jesus praying!!! Isn't he divine? Why should he have to pray? Well, he's also human and his relationship to his Father is what keeps him going despite all his trials. Keeping that relationship strong is absolutely necessary! He teaches us the prayer that describes that relationship. The image of the neighbor knocking and seeking shows a "pro-active" attitude about prayer, somewhat like Abraham's earlier. I have a painting on my wall by an artist from Memphis, TN, who heard me describe a boy who goes out into the field and picks up a rock and throws it at God in anger, hoping to hit God! The boy might be enraged at God, but he is also engaged with God. We can come with anything to God! There's no harm in taking the initiative, even when we know that God's providence will also be at work when we have nothing to say! All of this merely scratches the surface of the subject, but the images are important. We can learn a lot from simply considering what our image of God is like and how we relate to our understanding of God. That will tell us a lot about how we pray! AMEN
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