Asking, Requesting, Pleading,
Bargaining, Negotiating
A little bit of all the above runs through our scripture readings this weekend. Abraham is quite the negotiator with God on behalf of the people of Sodom. Their communal sin is so great that God comes down from Heaven to check the authenticity of their wayward behavior. This is similar to the risk of coming down that God took in becoming human in Jesus Christ. However, in this Genesis story God speaks intimately and personally only with Abraham, who not only talks God down from destroying Sodom because of 50 innocent people, all the way down to 10. He also mixes the fate of guilty and innocent, and Sodom is saved from God’s wrath, similar to the way God becoming human has saved the human race — guilty and innocent both.
This negotiating led to what Paul says to the Colossians in the second reading: “…having forgiven us all our transgressions; obliterating the bond against us.” I suggest that God obliterates any bond that separates us from Him and each other.
The Gospel from Luke tells us how the disciples plead with Jesus for teaching on prayer. His response is the all too familiar Lord’s Prayer that contains a string of requests:
• Thy kingdom come
• Thy will be done
• Give us today’s bread
• Forgive us as we forgive
• Lead us away from temptation
• Deliver us from evil
The passage goes on to include more pleading:
• A friend pleading for a loan (as well as a loaf) of bread at an inconvenient hour
• The friend continuing after being denied and eventually getting his request because his persistence supersedes the untimely hour and friendship bonds
It goes even farther to extol the importance of asking, seeking and knocking, essential but certainly not inclusive of the many types and styles of prayer.
It then goes still even farther, putting us in the role of parent responding to the requests of our children, like God responding to our requests. What parent would give their child something dangerous if they ask for something innocent.
The ultimate lesson is that God responds to our pleading, asking, requesting and, even sometimes, to our negotiating in the same way.
Let’s not let our prayer be dominated by requests to God, but let’s also not be afraid to ask, particularly like Abraham, on behalf of others. Let’s continually request a melding between God’s Kingdom and ours. Let’s only ask for the things we need daily and not get too greedy.
Perhaps the most important requests we can make are to be forgiven as we forgive, because that requires significant self-reflection. And, most importantly, let’s request God’s will be done. In the midst of so many challenges, tragedies and mysteries in our world today God’s will seems hard to find sometimes.
I have gotten to a point in my life where I really have only one request, and that is to accept and understand God’s will, which is sometimes a very tall order.
A Little Bit about Work
Work is not only a pervasive part of our culture, it is equally pervasive in scripture. I have strongly contended that our good work, whether we realize it or not, continues God’s good work. For prayerful but not literal consideration, this work was begun in creation. See Ecclesiastes 3:9 and following, asking us what advantage we have from our work connected with the timelessness that God has placed in our hearts, considering from beginning to end, the WORK which God has done.
Ministry Spotlight
I believe there is a teacher in all of us, particularly in the ways of faith. Our Family and Teen Faith ministries are always in need of Catechists. Right now we have a particular need for Teen Catechists. Now this may scare some of you, but the resources that Dr. Peg and her staff give you, and the structure of our formation program, will support you. You already have what you need, life experience and your own experiences of faith. Make a real difference in the life of our young people – be a Catechist. Contact Dr. Peg Hanrahan at phanrahan@holyfamilyparish.org or by phone through our main office.