PROPER 12, YEAR C

July 24, 2022

Christ Church, Woodbury, N. J.

 

 

Genesis 18:20-33

Luke 11:1-13

In today’s Collect, we ask God to increase and multiply upon us his mercy … so that passing through things temporal we finally lose not the things eternal. And God’s mercy is indeed a key theme running through today’s Scripture readings.

 

The Old Testament reading from Genesis links the divine mercy to the theology of the faithful remnant. We heard last week how the Lord appeared in the guise of three men to Abraham and Sarah by the oaks of Mamre. Today, after receiving Abraham’s hospitality, the three start on their way towards the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to investigate the reports of their sin and immorality.

 

Fearing for the life of his nephew Lot who dwells in Sodom, Abraham pleads with the Lord: Suppose there are fifty righteous people in the city. Far be it from the Lord to destroy the righteous along with the wicked. Will the Lord not spare the city for the sake of the fifty righteous within it? When the Lord answers yes, Abraham keeps going, lowering the number down to 45, 40, 30, 20, and finally ten. Each time the Lord answers in the affirmative, concluding, “For the sake of the ten, I will not destroy it.”

 

This exchange is often described as evoking the image of two people haggling over an item’s price in a Middle Eastern bazaar. But it’s not at all clear whether Abraham succeeds in persuading the Lord to do anything he wouldn’t do anyway. It could well be that even if Abraham never intercedes on Sodom’s behalf, the Lord would still spare the city for the sake of ten righteous people found within it. 

 

Abraham seems to understand at some level that God is not a God who destroys the righteous on account of the wicked, but rather a God who spares the wicked on account of the righteous. Such is the depth of God’s mercy—that he accepts the righteousness of a faithful remnant on behalf of a larger community that is neither faithful nor righteous.

 

This theme recurs repeatedly throughout the Scriptures. Observant Jews are called to be the faithful remnant within Israel; Israel is called to be the faithful remnant among the nations. And it finds its ultimate fulfillment on the cross, where God the Father accepts the self-offering of Jesus, the one truly righteous man who’s ever lived, for the salvation of a sinful and fallen world.

 

This idea of the faithful remnant applies no less to the life of parish communities. Since my arrival here at the beginning of June, I’ve heard more than a few parishioners lament the good old days before the pandemic when the church could be so packed on Sunday mornings that it was difficult to find a seat. That all changed in March 2020. But it could be that the smaller congregations attending these days comprise those who’ve heard and responded to the call to be the faithful remnant of parishioners on whose account God will make Christ Church not merely survive but also thrive and flourish. So, whenever we’re tempted to despair because of diminished numbers, we can hold on to that thought: our calling is to be the faithful remnant that God is using to fulfill his purposes for this parish and for the wider Church, community, and world.

 

To return to the readings, however, even if God would spare the city on account of ten righteous people anyway, Abraham is still in no way wrong to make his prayer to the Lord. And so we see the Lord bearing with Abraham’s prayer, patiently answering all his questions—because, at bottom, God is delighted whenever we reach out to him with our hearts’ deepest desires.

 

This theme stands out in today’s Gospel reading. Our Lord exhorts both his original disciples and us: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” In other words, be bold in your prayers. Don’t hold anything back.

 

It’s important not to overlook the humor in many of our Lord’s sayings. For it’s a mistake to think of Jesus as always being serious and solemn. So, in today’s Gospel, he gives his disciples two tongue-in-cheek illustrations of the importance of perseverance in prayer.

 

When you go to your friend’s house at midnight asking for three loaves to entertain an unexpected guest, even if your friend won’t get up because he’s your friend, nonetheless, because of your importunity, he will get up and attend to your request to make you go away and stop disturbing his sleep. The dictionary definition of importunity, by the way, is “persistence to the point of annoyance.” And, our Lord is saying, we need to be that persistent in our prayers.

 

But then, to correct any impression that God is like someone we need to pester to the point of distraction to give us what we want, Jesus offers another example. God is like a loving father who delights in giving good gifts to his children. “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”

 

The kicker comes in the form of a classic a fortiori argument made at the listeners’ expense: “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!” For many years I puzzled over why Jesus brings in the Holy Spirit at this point. But this year it finally occurred to me that herein lies the ultimate fulfillment of the disciples’ initial request: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John [the Baptist] taught his disciples.” For it’s the Holy Spirit alone who teaches us to pray for the right things in the right way. We can neither ask for nor receive any greater gift. And so, today, as we prepare for our congregational discernment conversation, we pray above all for the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us through all our deliberations and decisions into the glorious future that God has in store for us and for all whom he loves.