Proper 12 :: Genesis 18:20 – 32 / Psalm 85 / Colossians 2:6 – 15 / Luke 11:1 – 13
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, July 24, 2022.
“PRAYER: CHANGING GOD OR
CHANGING US?”
(Homily texts: Genesis 18:20 - 32 & Luke 11:1 – 13)
We
have two well-chosen readings before us this morning, both of which have to do
with prayer. Our Genesis reading relates Abraham’s intercession on behalf of
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In our Gospel reading, we read of Jesus’
teaching about God’s generosity, the assurance that God answers prayer, and the
need we have to do our part in seeking God’s will in prayer.
As
we look at these two readings, we might ask ourselves: Does prayer change God’s
mind, or does prayer change us?
For
an answer, let’s look, first, at our account in Genesis.
We
find Abraham interceding on behalf of the two wicked cities, Sodom and
Gomorrah. He begins by asking God if he will destroy the city, sweeping away
the righteous within it along with the wicked. He then begins by asking if God
will destroy the city if fifty righteous are found there. God agrees, if fifty
can be found, He won’t destroy the city. Abraham then begins to work the numbers
of righteous down until he asks God if only ten righteous are found, would the
cities be destroyed. God gives the assurance that if ten are found, the cities
will be spared.
We
know the rest of the story and how things turn out….the cities are enormously
wicked, so wicked, in fact, that not even ten righteous are found there. They
are both destroyed.
Now,
if we put ourselves in Abraham’s situation, it’s possible that we can see that
he might have come to the conclusion that the cities were so wicked that not
even ten righteous were found there. Abraham, in the process, of offering lower
and lower numbers of potential righteous persons, may have engaged in a
reflection on the reality of the situation in Sodom and in Gomorrah.
If
so, then it is Abraham whose perspective is changed.
Now,
turning to our Gospel text, the Lord encourages us to be persistent in our
prayer requests. “Ask, search, knock,” He says.
These
three words suggest that we have work to do in our prayer life with God. It
won’t do, quite likely, to blithely mouth our petitions to the Lord, then walk
away expecting that everything we’ve asked for will automatically be given to
us.
In
the process of asking, of searching, and of knocking, we ourselves might be
changed. Our perspective, like that of Abraham’s, might undergo refinement and
change.
In
the final analysis, we would do well to keep in mind that God already knows our
needs and our requests. But in offering those things to God, we, ourselves,
fulfill our part of the transaction by remembering to present those needs to
God, and we must prepare ourselves for the strong possibility that our own
perspectives will be changed as a result of the struggle to seek God’s will.
A
collect in our Prayer Book addresses our spiritual condition quite well. It
reads like this:
“Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, who knowest our necessities before
we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion, we beseech thee, upon our
infirmities, and those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for
our blindness we cannot ask, mercifully give us for the worthiness of thy Son
Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.” (The
Collect for Proper 11, Book of Common
Prayer, 1979, page 179)
