Seventeenth Sunday July 29, 2007

Genesis 18: 20 - 32 Ps 138 Col 2: 6 -14 Luke 11: 1 - 13

Ask and you will receive.

Lord teach us to pray. Today, I went to the library to get something on prayer. It was not a major library - just the one in a small religious house. There was a shelf with almost 200 books on prayer. Where do I start? So I returned to Abraham in our first reading and Jesus in the Gospels. Three qualities struck in the two accounts on prayers.

1. The first is a sense of intimacy. Abraham is speaking to God - face to face as two friends who speak to each other in a coffee shop. Now this is unusual. In the Old Testament, God was someone to be feared, not someone with whom you were intimate. In fact God was held with so much awe and reverence, that you did not even call on God’s name. You spoke about God in a roundabout way. You did not pray to God, you offered sacrifices to appease God’s anger. Yet here is Abraham bargaining with God in the same way you would haggle with a merchant in a middle eastern market.

Jesus also encourages us to speak to God with intimacy. He tells us to address God with the familiar title of Abba. It would be like a child calling his father, “Daddy”. In certain cultures and traditions, the father is obeyed and respected - intimacy is not fostered. The father lays down the law - even so far as deciding the husband for a daughter. The picture of Abraham pleading with God for the people of Sidon, and Jesus telling us to call God Abba would be difficult to grasp in such an atmosphere. However here in Toronto, a father can command a child, and the child will reply, “But Daddy,...” this type of response can only be possible with intimacy. It is such closeness that Jesus encourages when he tells the Apostles how to pray.

2. A second quality is that of persistence. Abraham asks God to spare Tyre and Sidon if there are 50 good men. But he does not stop at that. He lowers the figure from 50 to 40 down to 10! - until he knows he is pushing the envelope a little too much. But God does not reprimand Abraham as God would warn Moses, “Come no closer the ground you are standing on is holy ground.” In fact, God invites Abraham to persistency.

Jesus tells his Apostles, “Ask and you shall receive.” but Jesus does not stop there, he tells them further: Seek and you shall find, Knock and it will be opened to you. Just do not Ask, but Seek and Knock. Jesus instructs his Apostles to use all avenues when we really want something.

We have had that experience in our own life. Often we will pray for a better job, a higher salary, the winning numbers on a lottery ticket, success in exams. We want all these things, but how much? Very often it is not a persistent asking. It is wishful thinking. We will pray for these intentions, now and again. There is no regularity in praying for these things. We pray when we remember them. However there are certain things that are serious. They occupy us morning, noon and night. It is the first thing we think off when we awake, it is the last thing we can remember when we finally doze off to sleep.

a child that is sick, a marriage that is breaking up and a desire to make it work on the path of both sides, a relative that has gotten in trouble with the law.

Then we double our prayers, we E-mail our friends to pray, we light candles, we make novenas. Now that is persistency.

3. The third quality that arises from our readings today is the quality of confidence or faith. Abraham could plead with God, because

he was confident that God would listen to him.

He was confident that God had the power to accomplish what was promised.

He was confident because he knew that God loved him and wanted only good for Abraham.

Jesus speaks with the same assurance. Ask and you will definitely receive, it is not perhaps you may receive ! Jesus assured us “the Father and I are one. No one knows the Father, except the Son.” And the Son - Jesus knew that the Father would never let a prayer go unanswered. This confidence was based on his knowledge that “all things were possible with God” - and so he can tell his Disciples to Knock and they would not be shut out in the dark, in the cold and in fear.

We might be intimate with God, and we might persistent in our asking, but often we fail in our faith. In our minds we know God can do all things, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, we want to hedge our bets.

3a A man was climbing up a small hill. It was foggy and there was a thick mist all around. He missed his footing and slipped, but managed to get a grip on a small tree. He began to shout in panic. Then he heard a voice, “This is God. How may I help you.” He began praying with great fervour. “Oh thank you, God, thank you God. God, I have not been very faithful in my life. I have missed many a Sunday Mass. I have drunk too much and sworn a lot. But I promise if you get me out of this mess, I will come for Mass every Sunday, and I will quit swearing and drinking.” Like Abraham, we find our friend bargaining with God. But do you believe that I can do that for you, God asked. Yes God, yes you can. You are the All powerful and Almighty God.

Well, said, God - although you cannot see it, there is a ledge just two feet under you. Let go of the branch and you will land safely on the ledge. The man thought for a while and then shouted, “Is there anyone else up there?”

4. In our lives, we say a lot of prayers. But saying prayers is not praying. We can teach a parrot or a myna bird to repeat prayers, but they are not praying. As we pray today, we talk to God heart to heart, with a confidence that comes from a God that loves us and only wants the best for us, and with a faith that when I ask God will answer my needs.

Second story on faith.

The fields were parched and brown from lack of rain, and the crops lay wilting from thirst. People were anxious and irritable as they searched the sky for any sign of relief. Days turned into arid weeks. No rain came. The ministers of the local churches called for an hour of prayer on the town square the following Saturday. They requested that everyone bring an object of faith for inspiration. At high noon on the appointed Saturday the townspeople turned out en masse, filling the square with anxious faces and hopeful hearts. The ministers were touched to see the variety of objects clutched in prayerful hands ‑- holy books, crosses, rosaries.

When the hour ended, as if on magical command, a soft rain began to fall. Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high in gratitude and praise. From the middle of the crowd one faith symbol seemed to overshadow all the others: A small nine‑-year‑-old child had brought an umbrella.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve. I was made weak, that I might learn humble to obey.

I asked for health, that I might to great things, I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things.