Proper 12c 2025; 27 July
Gen. 18:20-32; Luke 11:1-13
WHEN YOU PRAY
Prayer.
Where to go with that?
We are all beginners.
That is something that comes up pretty quickly when studying and living the life of prayer.
The other thing that comes up is that prayer opens the proverbial can of worms, a Pandora’s Box that lets loose the divine breath not only into our lives but into this world, unsettling and re- sorting things.
We open a door asking for help for this day and what we get is that our hearts are opened wide to the pain of the world, the glory of the world, and the heart stopping silence of the holy.
“That didn’t go the way I expected”, is another way of saying Amen.
Years ago I came down with an illness and I was really struggling. I went for a run and I was just letting my rage out and throwing it at God. I go running early in the morning and I usually have the downtown mostly to myself, for years and years. On this day an elderly man was struggling out of a wheel chair into a car. As I went by he said, “I wish I could do that.”
A few minutes later there was an elderly woman with a walker on the sidewalk. As I went by she said, “I wish I could do that.”
And then a third time, a mile down the road, a man missing his legs at the knees, was sitting in the wheel chair, and he said, guess what, as I ran by.
At this point I was pretty exasperated, “OK! OK! I get it! Jesus! Sheesh.”
Then, a paralyzed man in a lawn tractor came barreling down the side walk, I jumped into the road to get out of the way, and ran next to him pulling a lever to stop him, and he then with a stiff arm and a sideways glance pushed my hand out of the way and kept on flying down the sidewalk, jumped the curb and then shot across McDuffie street and disappeared into the early morning mist.
I just stood there, terrified and laughing. I was quiet after that. For a very long time.
Amen indeed. That didn’t go the way I expected.
(Maybe I had a bad batch of insulin…)
Prayer. Where to go after that?
In the Genesis lesson we see Abraham bartering with God to spare two cities that had fallen into rampant cruelty. Abraham talks God down…for a time.
I think it goes both ways, it seems like God is always talking me down, luring me into thanksgiving and praise and silence.
“Teach us to pray,” and we are given Luke’s shorter version of the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew has the longer version of the prayer that we are so familiar with.
Each line reveals who God is, each line is also a different way to say yes to God, a different way for God to invade our lives and run us off the sidewalk.
There is holiness.
There is another kingdom.
There is enough for this day, one day at a time.
There is forgiveness and freedom.
There is deliverance.
Each line is evidence of God. Each line is a revealing of who God is. We see the shape of the God into whose image we are being conformed.
God prays.
Jesus is that prayer, the opening of God’s heart to us.
That we may be one.
We’re just getting started.
Prayer.
It changes everything.
How many ways can I say yes?