People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: Waiting by the Door ~ 7th Sunday after Pentecost '19 Yr C

For Sunday, July 28, 2019 ~ Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, Readings: Genesis 18:20-32, Psalm 138, Colossians 2:16-15, (16-19), Luke 11:1-13

…Abraham remained standing near the Lord…and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”

[Genesis 18:22b, 23b]

When I called, you answered me; you increased my strength within me. [Psalm 138:4]

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition...and not according to Christ. [Colossians 2:8]

I tell you…at least because of his [friends’s] persistence, he will get up and give [his friend] whatever he needs. "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened for you. [Luke 11:8-10]

Persistence is the theme for this week’s group of assigned readings. Perseverance will be rewarded. The most astonishing example, I believe, is in Abraham’s diplomatic, if bold, questioning of God about God’s plans for the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham knew his nephew Lot, a decent man, had settled in Sodom and with all the concern of a loving uncle, he begins asking if God’s intentions are to sweep away the righteous with the wicked? In a deliberate but respectful tone he asks first if there are fifty righteous, then 45, 30, until he gets God to agree not to destroy the city if 10 righteous are found. Makes me wonder what the rest of Abraham’s day was like.

Paul chimes in with the reminder that we who have received Christ must continue being rooted in him and established in the faith. We are particularly instructed, in his persistent way, not to be taken captive through philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition…not according to Christ. As Paul says, we were made alive together when God forgave us our trespasses, erasing our tarnished records. Luke begins with the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray and he gives them a framework to follow that we use to this day, including the reminder to ask for forgiveness and to forgive others.

Jesus, as he often does, follows with a story. This parable of persistence may make many of us in western culture a bit squirmy and even silently (or worse) judgmental. A friend who would knock at midnight and be told to go away only to continue until the door is opened and the request fulfilled is at the very least, we might say, annoying or even rude. But the code of hospitality and community is so strong in other cultures that despite the inconvenience, one asks and the other aids. Some of our own discomfort with this story is far less about ourselves being awakened late by a friend in need but rather because asking for help for ourselves seems quite antithetical to the “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” mindset. For some, asking for help connotes weakness and fear of being perceived as inadequate by others. Yet knowing when and how to ask for help is a marker of personal strength, even spiritual maturity.

Jesus explains and reinforces the expectation of God that we are to continually Ask of, Search for, and Knock on God's eternal door to be given, to find, and to have opened to us all that God offers. It isn't difficult once you get started. The Psalmist knows the answer will come and our strength is increased by calling on God. Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us, "That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed but that our power to do is increased." So, we have learned from Abraham how to ask, and from Paul that we already have the forgiveness we seek. Jesus has opened us to persistence in prayer with the faith that God is always just there, waiting to open the door.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ O God, Faithful and Loving, restore our wandering hearts to the certainty of Your mercy and truth, that in the darkness and the light of this mortal life, we will persevere in faith, being filled with the substance that is Christ within us.

Most Patient Lord

RESPONSE: We find our strength in You

~ O God, Faithful and Loving, infuse the rulers and authorities of this World, this Nation, and this Community, with the wisdom not to sweep away the righteous with the wicked. Release them from the temporal captivity of a philosophy or empty deceit that is only according to human thinking, not according to Christ. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Most Patient Lord