As some of you will know, I have been developing a web site containing essays on science and religion. (www.glencora.plus.com if you want to try it out.) About a month ago, I decided I ought to do something on sex – after all it seems to be occupying Anglicans rather a lot these days. So after going through the evolutionary aspects of sex, it was necessary to go through the biblical passages and I am just about in the middle of Genesis having got past Sodom and Gomorrah. At this point, I found it was my turn to preach this Sunday and I looked at the readings and there it was, Abraham bargaining with the angels before they destroy the cities of the plain. So I had done some of my bible study before preparing this sermon – perhaps God could see I was not going to make it in time!
The book of Genesis is easily misinterpreted, so I hope I shall not mislead you, as Paul says in the second reading, through philosophy and empty deceit. The defining story for the Israelites was, of course, the Exodus for it was that which made them a nation. It is rather like the Pilgrim Fathers to the Americans, a bit of history which lies at the heart of their identity. And Genesis is actually a sort of introduction to this story. If it were being written today, I suppose it would be called a “prequel” and might indeed have taken its final form after the other books of the Law. So Genesis should be understood as a highly interpreted story rather than a record of events. This is not to say that the historical background is in any sense false, but I think it would be pointless to look a particular person called Abraham, any more than one called Odysseus. Now if you read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in this light, you will see that it is not about sex so much as being about judgement and prayer and it is the prayer aspect that we are concerned with today.
Now how is this story about prayer? Well, most of the first reading is written as a negotiation between God and Abraham in which Abraham beats down God to a promise that the city would not be destroyed if there were 10 just people in it, having started at a figure of 50. I can’t help but be amused – the Jewish way of treating prayer as a negotiation says something about the national character, but nevertheless, it is a prayer for the city. The important thing is that the angels have no intention of destroying the cities if there are any just men in it – they have come to rescue Lot, the one just man. Prayer in this case is not about Abraham changing God’s mind, but rather of his gaining an understanding of God, an understanding which is necessarily more than somewhat incomplete.
This idea of prayer as wrestling with God recurs in the bible. For those of you who know your old testament there is Jacob wrestling with the angel at the brook Jabbok and we all know of Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. So one aspect of prayer is about learning to look at our problems in the way that God looks at them and instantly you can begin to see why prayer is so hard. It’s a matter of shedding our prejudices, our self interest and our short sightedness and looking at things with God’s eyes.
And that is what we should try to do in this service. We have gone through our prayers of penitence in which we compare our behaviour with what God requires. Our intercessions should also be based on looking at the world and trying to see how it falls short of the kingdom of God, and what we can do about it. And the hymns and praise should be motivated by similar thoughts. God does not need to be told how great He is: He knows that, it is part of His nature. When we join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we are not changing God, we are changing ourselves and gradually appreciating just what it means for God to be alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of all things.
So prayer is about changing ourselves as much as about changing the world. So how do we reconcile that with our wonderful gospel reading, “Ask and it shall be given you; search and you will find”? It sounds a bit miserable to say that we can ask for anything, but then qualify it by saying it’s got to be according to God’s will. It’s a bit like saying you can do anything you like – but then qualifying it by saying I have got to agree with it first. It is no good if the only thing we can do is what God has laid down for us.
Well, we obviously can’t expect a prayer for God’s help in robbing a bank to be successful: there are limits, but within those limits there is a whole world of opportunity. God does not programme our lives or lay down how we should solve our problems, but working with God makes available tremendous power. If you really seek to look at the world with God’s eyes and if you really put your heart where your mouth is there is no limit to what you can do. You know that saying, “you don’t get anywhere by being reasonable”, don’t you? The world is changed by unreasonable people, by people with a vision who are committed to what they believe and who, by following the will of God, are working with God. After praying, the world is changed. Let’s not bother too much about whether it is God who has been moved by prayer or ourselves who finally understand what to do, but the world has changed and things can happen that would not have happened without it. “Ask and it will be given to you, Seek and you shall find.”
But it’s hard work isn’t it? The problems of this world are not easily solved and we can’t necessarily get our heads round them, certainly not in one go. But if you persist, something will happen and that is the message of these two little parables of Jesus. As Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous prayer says, that something may be serenity, to accept what cannot be changed; or it may be the courage to change what can be changed; but it is by prayer that we gain the wisdom to know the difference. Prayer is a dangerous activity: you are not doing it properly unless you are prepared to undertake something afterwards.
So how do you pray? I don’t think it necessarily means getting down on your knees or holding your hands up or doing anything physical in particular, although anything which helps you to concentrate and stop your mind wandering is a good thing. Prayer is a dialogue, between you and God. It is not something external. We are often praying when we are not aware of it and often not praying when we are down on our knees. Prayer is something that goes on within us. But if prayer is a dialogue, it has to be heart to heart. It is no good telling God what you think He wants to hear: you ask for what is at the top of your heart. If you have a sick child, you start by praying that they may be cured. Let’s have no messing about, you are not praying because you think you ought to, but you are praying to bring about some change in the world and you had better be clear about what that is. You can’t actually beat our Lord’s prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread”. It’s plain and simple, we know where we are. But it doesn’t mean we don’t go out and sow crops. Asking for something doesn’t mean sitting back and waiting for it to happen. And “Forgive us our trespasses” – clear enough, but here the action is written down as well: “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Prayer is dangerous, because it must lead to change. But it is part of being a Christian, a follower of one who was often at prayer. And as disciples of Christ let us end with the one prayer we can always use: “Lord, teach us to pray.”