Genesis 18: 20-32
Psalm 138: 1-3, 6-8
Colossians 2: 12-14
Luke 11: 1-13
Persistence.
What are we to make of God in these readings? Do we learn from Abraham that to get what you want, you have to haggle with God like some sort of celestial rug salesman? And are we supposed to nag God, in Jesus' story of the late-night neighbor? What are we saying about God in these examples?
Perhaps the better question is, what do these examples say about ourselves? Is it just possible that in the course of Abraham's back and forth with God, Abraham is coming to a deeper awareness of God's care and concern for every single person (which might be a stretch in a culture that had little notion of an individual, apart from their larger identity group)? Is persistence held up as a virtue that honors stubbornness, or as a way that helps us understand whether what we ask for is something we REALLY want, something we're really willing to stand up for, something we really NEED? Maybe in the process of being persistent, we are given the time and space to reframe and rename our request, to experience a conversion toward God's perspective that helps us to 'ask rightly'.
Whatever we decide these readings mean for us today, you are invited to look to the premier example of prayer that Jesus gives us in the Gospel, the "Our Father", and spend some time with each phrase seeing how these words can help shape your own prayer.
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