Trust in the goodness and mercy of God that you know, and live heart-to-heart with God, speaking your mind, listening, and expecting God to answer and change you and your life.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 17 C
Texts: Genesis 18:20-32; Luke 11:1-13

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Abraham trusted God. That’s the heart of this story.

There’s no question Sodom was a city of great sin and evil. Abraham likely agrees with God’s assessment of the city. And yet he stands face-to-face with God and begs for their lives, for mercy.

Abraham only knows goodness and mercy and justice because he knows God, because he learned them from God. And now, amazingly, he’s the one to remind God of God’s own values and goodness. Because he trusts in the very nature and truth about God.

The people of Israel’s understanding of God needed to catch up to Abraham.

When they looked back at their entry into the promised land, something archaeologists are pretty sure was a gradual event, they described it as a great conquest, whole cities burned to the ground in God’s name, every living thing killed. The Hebrews were like everyone else. If your god was worth anything, it would destroy your enemies.

But as they considered Abraham’s talk with God here, a crack appears in that understanding. In the end, they interpret the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as usual, that God destroyed the cities and their wickedness. Except they remember that their ancestor argued that God’s true nature, God’s true justice, was different. They start to think maybe it isn’t God’s justice to destroy, but to offer mercy.

By Jonah’s story, that crack is wide open. There’s another an evil city, but now God demands the right to mercy. Jonah wants God to be a proper god and wipe them out. But now Israel knows what Abraham did, God’s true nature is mercy and love, not vengeance.

And the God revealed in the face of Jesus embodies that love.

Everything Abraham knew, now Jesus reveals in his life, teaching, mercy, death, and resurrection.

A few chapters earlier in Luke’s Gospel, as Jesus and the disciples traveled, they weren’t welcomed in a Samaritan village because Jesus was a Jew. James and John wanted to call fire down from heaven on that poor little town. Jesus rebuked them. Abraham’s vision is reality: this isn’t God’s way.

At Gethsemane what Abraham understood becomes truly clear. God’s response to wickedness and evil is to take it on and bear it. God’s final answer to Abraham’s plea is revealed: I will not destroy, I will forgive by taking on death myself. In this, I will bring life. At the cross we see God is a just and loving God who shows mercy, not vengeance. A God you can trust.

And now you’re ready to hear Jesus teach you to pray. There are three things.

Ask, Jesus says, and you will receive. “Ask” can trap you, if you have a limited view of prayer, God as divine vending machine. It’s what most people think prayer is. Jesus says asking is good, he encourages it. But Jesus instantly refocuses by saying God’s answer to every ask is the Holy Spirit. Whether you pray for the health of others, the pain of the world, your own struggles, God’s answer is “I am with you.” And since God’s answer to your asking is giving you the Spirit, your answer will also likely include “go, with my strength, to be my grace in that situation you are praying for.”

“Search and you will find” is maybe the most important of the three. When was the last time you thought of prayer as “searching”? But Jesus is clear: search for God and you will find God. If your search is for meaning, purpose, guidance, hope, direction, you’ll find that. God’s Spirit is yours. If you’re searching for where God is in this broken, frightening world, you’ll find God, and hope. You’ll find God is never on the side of hate, or exclusion, or oppression, or violence. God is always on the side of love, and restoration, and mercy. And when you search, you’re on a journey, with the loving Spirit of God at your side, encouraging, strengthening, giving wisdom, comforting, laughing, crying.

And please “knock” on God’s door, Jesus says. It will always be opened to you, and you’ll rediscover that God is living inside you in love and grace. God’s door is the door into your own heart, where you join to the life of the Triune God through the grace of the Spirit.

It’s all about trust, Abraham shows.

Abraham models a beautiful way of living with God, trusting God to speak your mind, even to challenge or criticize, but also receiving God’s strength and grace and promise. Just remember to leave space in your prayer for your listening, too. God will have things to say!

Because God’s way is goodness and mercy and love. And when you trust that core nature of God, when you search for God constantly, the Spirit will change your heart fully, transform your understanding of God’s nature even more, and the world, and help you hear how you will bear God and God’s love in the world. And even be God’s answer to the prayer of someone else.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen