Sunday17C 24th July 2022
[Genesis 18: 20-32, Luke 11: 1-13]
They clambered onto the Dandenong bus: a young couple with two boys, about six and two years old. They might have been Hazari refugees. The six-year-old looked around solemnly, observing everything, but the two-year-old was resisting everything his parents asked. He wriggled from his father’s lap and tried to run to another seat while the bus was cornering violently, quite unaware that his small body might be thrown to the other end of the aisle.
At that age, we are discovering that we have a will of our own and can control our own body to some extent, and exert power over others by saying “No!”. Parents have the delicate task of containing and directing that emerging will without damaging the child. Then as we grow we soon learn – even in kindergarten – that other people have wills too and make their own claims over things; on their own space; and on their share of the elders’ attention. The clash of wills can hurt us, but as we learn these sometimes-painful lessons we are fortunate if we know that other wills embrace us with love.
Later in our growing we find that in this vast universe there may be spirit-powers greater than any human will. Every culture has a myth of a Creator-God. They are myths because the reality is beyond our comprehension, even when it communicates with us through prophets whose words are preserved in our scriptures. We can only imagine God in terms of our limited senses, although God far exceeds all our powers. When we try to relate to God, we naturally use the same techniques that work with other humans. In earlier cultures people thought that gifts, blood-sacrifices and eloquent pleas would placate the One who made volcanoes, earthquakes and lightning: the One who controls life and death.
This reading from Genesis shows a crude view of God, who needs to go down to Sodom in person, to find the truth about what he has heard is going on there. Then Abraham starts to bargain with God to save Sodom from destruction. Like a nomadic chieftain haggling over cattle, Abraham whittles down the price from “fifty just men” to one fifth that number. At least the writer knew that God was approachable, at least by Abraham who had been called to be God’s trusted friend.
The author of the Genesis myth seems to have been starting to grasp the beautiful truth that later prophets proclaimed more clearly: that the will of the infinite God is not only sympathetic to us humans, but loves us intimately. In one of many instances, Isaiah heard God say of the people, hopelessly confused and disoriented: “…you are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you”. (Isaiah 43:4)
In today’s gospel passage Luke shows Jesus telling us that relating to God is easier than we could ever imagine. God is closer to us, and more generous, than loving parents are to their children. Using the “Lord’s Prayer” we can ask for help with the most intimate and difficult things: the daily food we need; being forgiven for the damage we cause to our sisters, brothers and planet; and most difficult of all, forgiving those who hurt us.
If our still-developing will is tempted to ask, greedily, for things that our senses feel are important, Jesus lifts us to an infinitely higher level. As we talk with God, the gift that we receive is God’s self joined to our self. “…how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?”
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Finding The Treasure 
Comments on: "Do we need to haggle with God?" (2)
Peter,
your comment on the Genesis author slowly grasping the idea of God’s love , presence and response is still something many Christians are still trying to grasp today . It was echoed in the Melbourne Archbishop’s comment how he along with many of us still bargain and negotiate with God as they three authors of the first Book worked out what the First Covenant meant for them . Keep up the good work which helps many in our networks who are struggling between ” no religion ” but searching faith
Thanks for your encouraging words, Wayne.