Sunday 28 July 2019 - Ordinary 17

Possible Theme: Prayer or The God to Whom We Pray is Kind or Stick with Christ

Sentence: How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13).

Collect:

Father, we hallow your name

For you are worthy of our praise;

Your kindness and mercy give us confidence to pray

“Your kingdom come”;

So we ask and keep on asking that you will provide

Everything we need for life in your kingdom

In the power of the Holy Spirit

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Readings “Related”

Genesis 18:20-32
Psalm 138
Colossians 2:6-15
Luke 11:1-13

Comments:

Genesis 18:20-32

Don’t get stuck on “Sodom and Gomorrah” as a theme for this reading. It “relates” to the gospel reading because the latter is about prayer and in Genesis 18:20-32, Abraham is an intercessor.

What happens? Abraham's nephew, Lot, lives in Sodom and Abraham is concerned that the three visiting men will destroy Sodom, and Lot with it. So Abraham addresses the Lord (seemingly, putting 18:16, 22, 33 and 19:1 together, one of the three) and does so in a manipulative manner.

He asks the Lord if he will really sweep away the city if fifty righteous people are found within it. The Lord says that he will not, rather he will forgive the city. But Abraham’s “fifty” is a bargaining ploy. He beats the Lord down to ten (though no reader will be fooled as to whether the Lord is being manipulated or not). Ten (presumably) is the size of Lot’s household. In the end, Genesis 19 tells us that only four actually survived the devastation of Sodom, and then Lot’s wife disobeyed instructions and paid for that with her life.

What then does the passage say to us about prayer? Surely we are not meant to learn from it that prayer might be a manipulative tool in our hands to get God to do what we want!

No, what we learn from the passage is that God is open to requests which draw from him his characteristic work, which is showing mercy. The downward count, from fifty to ten, does not show us how to manipulate God but how kind God is: on the smallest pretext God will be merciful.

There is something else to mention. Abraham’s concern is that the righteous in Sodom might be destroyed as the wicked are punished. He appeals to God’s character in order to avert unfair disaster for those righteous: “Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?” (18:25).

That is a good question to bring to a number of issues. Nothing to do with the other readings today, but the key to understanding hell lies in this question. You may need to think about why for a few moments.

Psalm 138

What kind of God do we serve, in daily life and in liturgy? What do we have to give thanks for? This psalm answers these questions: a God of steadfast love and faithfulness who has ‘exalted [his] name and [his] word above everything’ (v. 2); a God who answers the prayer of the psalmist and increases the strength of his soul (v. 3); a God whose glory is great and words impressive (v. 4-5); a God who looks for the “lowly” and cares little for the “haughty” (v. 6); when the psalmist walks in the midst of trouble, God preserves him from the wrath of his enemies and delivers him from trouble (v. 7); and, finally, “the Lord will fulfil his purpose for me” and the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever (v. 8).

We serve and worship a great and wonderful God!

Colossians 2:6-15

Why has Paul written Colossians? If all were well and going to remain well with the church in Colossae, it is scarcely conceivable that he would have made the effort. In fact, Paul is concerned that either something is wrong or about to go wrong for this church.

His most urgent concern is that the Colossians might move on from Christ as the centre of their faith and life. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him,” (2:6). They have started well. They must not now stumble. What they especially need to avoid is being captured by some other claim to truth which is actually an “empty deceit” (2:8).

So Paul warns them and then pretty much goes over similar ground (2:8-15) as in chapter 1 (especially verses 15-23 – indeed 1:23 is a precursor to 2:6-7). Paul must have been very concerned for the Colossians.

What Paul is saying, in summary terms, is that Christ is all the Colossians need, Christ is supreme and in need of no supplementary or complementary figure, and on the cross Christ has achieved all things necessary for forgiveness from the past and making people alive for a new future.

Luke 11:1-13

There is a lot here and there is no need to comment on many matters which will be well-known to the preacher and congregation. A challenge with this passage is to expound what it says with freshness. But one way to do that could be to draw people to the importance of prayer about any and every situation in life: that is a fresh truth for most of us because … we forget to pray, we avoid praying, we allow busyness to clutter up our days and distract out nights.

The passage is suggestive of several sermons. Just preach one of them!

One sermon could be on the Lord’s Prayer. Luke offers a shorter and slightly simpler form of the Matthean version. It appeals to God as Father to bring his kingdom into being, a kingdom in which its citizens have food to eat, forgiveness of sins (and who forgive sins) and protection from trial.

Another sermon could be on perseverance and persistence in prayer.

A third possible sermon could be on the Father to whom we pray. The last verse of the passage challenges and inspires us to believe that the Father to whom we pray is kind and generous, like a good human father only much more so.

There is then a Postscript: if, for whatever reason, some situations require persistence in prayer, it is not because God is mean and tight-fisted. Look back to what is said above re God and Sodom and Abraham's prayer strategy: God wills to be merciful.