So what was that all about in today’s first reading? Did Abraham really have that conversation in which, like a merchant in an oriental bazaar, he haggles with God and, through a mixture of flattery and self-denigration, knocks the price of Sodom and Gomorrah’s survival down from fifty just men to only ten? Well, that’s a question which reminds me of an interview Terry Wogan did many years ago on his early morning programme on Radio 2. It was on Christmas Eve, and he was in Bethlehem, in the church of the Nativity. I have never been there, but those of you who have will be able to picture the scene as the two men stood at what pilgrims are told is the very spot where Jesus was born. And as they chatted, Wogan asked his guide if we could be sure that this really was the place where it had all happened. At which point the poor man simply burst out laughing. ‘Only a Westerner,’ he said, ‘could ask that question. It’s what you Westerners always want to know. You all think so literally. But for the oriental mind, such a question is of no importance whatsoever. We in the East’ he went on, ‘could not care less if this is the exact spot or not. What matters to us is another question entirely, which is: what does it all mean?’
And in saying this of course, the man was identifying one of the biggest problems we have with the bible. The bible was written, not by Westerners, but by people from the East, and to make sense of it we have to learn to move beyond the question ‘did this happen?’ ‘did Abraham really haggle with God the way the passage says he did?’ and move on to the much deeper question of what the passage is about. It’s a different mentality emerging from a culture very different from our own, and until we come to terms with that fact and adapt to it, we will always struggle with Scripture both in the New and in the Old Testament. So what does it mean?
Well, in a world dominated by religion rather than faith, where people lived in fear of their gods, grovelled before them, and would never have dreamt of addressing them the way Abraham does, today’s story, is a prophetic foretaste of what Jesus was to say to his disciples centuries later: ‘I do not call you servants any more, but friends.’ It reminds us that the relationship we are called to have with God is one of intimacy and friendship, that he is not a harsh God lording it over us and instilling fear in us, but a God whom Jesus in today’s gospel passage teaches us to address as Abba, the word we know small children used in those days when speaking to their dads. And yet how many of us really believe that? How many of us experience the intimacy and friendship God longs to have with us? And even if we wanted it, how would we go about finding it? Well, those are the things I would like to reflect on now and to help us do that I invite you to think what your answer would be if someone asked you if you knew God in much the same way as they would ask you if you knew a friend of theirs call Bob Smith. There are, of course, a number of possible answers to this question and I invite to consider a few of them.
The first answer is this. ‘Yes, I’ve heard of Bob, but I’ve never actually met him’ This is the answer millions in today’s world could give when it comes to God and I invite you to ask yourself if, at any level at all, it could be your answer too. We have all heard if God. Otherwise we would not be here. But have we ever actually met him?’
And the second possible answer is this: ‘Yes, I’ve met Bob once or twice, he goes to the same church as I do, but I don’t really know him and we’ve never had a proper conversation.’ There are all kinds of people on the fringes of our lives whom we vaguely know and with whom we sometimes exchange greetings. We may even pay them a visit at Christmas. But in reality, they are virtual strangers to us. So could this be the way you relate to God?
And a third possible answer I invite you to think about and see if you see any sign of yourself in it is this: ‘Yes, I know Bob well. Actually we grew up together, but in recent years we have gone our separate ways and we don’t see each other very often now. He was at our wedding and even came to our first child’s baptism. I often think of getting in touch with him again, but you know what it is like. Life is hectic and somehow I never seem to get round to it.’ This kind of thing happens with so many people in our lives and the same question applies. Could it describe in any way your relationship with God? Another version of this third answer, of course, is this: ‘Yes, Bob and I used to be friends, but we had a row years ago and haven’t spoken since. I still feel angry at him and as far as I am concerned nowadays he might as well not exist’
And so to my final answer, which is this: ‘Bob Smith. Of course I know him. How could I not know him? I’m married to him. We first met when I was only a child and as the years passed our friendship deepened and grew. We drifted apart for a while in our teens and I went out with one or two other people, but in the end I fell in love with Bob and we have been happily married since. The relationship has not always been easy – we’ve had our moments - but Bob’s love has never wavered and I could not imagine life without him now.’ So could this be you, and if it is not, would you like it to be? Because, this, you see, is the kind of deep intimacy and life-long friendship God longs to have with each of us?
But is it what you want? Do you find the idea attractive? Is this the kind of relationship you would like to have with God? Because if it is, all you have to do is ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. It’s called mature, personal prayer. All you have to do is turn up and God will do the rest.
BIDDING PRAYERS
One of the greatest obstacles to the Second Vatican Council’s dream of a Church with the bible at the centre of its life is the difficulty we have understanding the passages we read each week. They come from a different period in history and a different cultural background, and the danger is that, because we can’t always understand them, we dismiss them as not worth reading. But the bible, properly understood, is the Word of God and we ask that same God to lead us to deeper understandings of its contents.................Lord hear us
The bible is filled with evidence that God is calling us to a relationship of intimacy and friendship with himself. The prophets constantly speak of it. The gospels are filled with it. The whole history of Christian spirituality confirms it. And yet we continue to resist, preferring gods who frighten us, gods who judge us and find us wanting, to the God who longs to share his own life with us. And so we pray for the grace to move beyond the idols we have created and come to the intimacy the bible speaks of..........Lord hear us
Many in today’s world speak about God, argue about God, write books about God, appear on television programmes about God and even give sermons about God, without actually knowing God. They have heard of God but have never actually met him. But God is not an intellectual idea to be discussed or argued over. God is a living being who loves us with an everlasting love and longs to make himself known to us. And so we pray that the world of our time will finally come to realise this.............Lord hear us
It is possible to spend our whole lives attending church and never meet God. We can spend our lives inhabiting the shallow world of religion and never know that the infinitely deeper world of faith even exists. We can have ears that never hear and eyes that never see. We can hear the Word of God and remain untouched by it. We can receive the body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion but never become more like him. And so we pray that this will not happen to anyone here today........Lord hear us
In today’s gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray. And so we ask him to do the same for us. Prayer is not something which remains the same over the whole of a person’s life. It develops as we ourselves develop and what suited us at one time will not suit us at another. One of the surest signs of God at work in us, in fact, is that we find we cannot pray the way we used to. Often it is a sign that he is calling us to something new, and we pray for the grace to recognize any sign of this in ourselves..............Lord hear us
In creating us and giving us the great gift of freedom, God has taken an enormous risk. His deepest desire is to enter into a relationship of friendship and intimacy with each one of us. But he cannot force us into this relationship. Love has to be freely chosen. If it is forced it ceases to be love. All God can do is plant deep within us the capacity for such a love, stir a desire for it in us through the power of the Spirit living in us and wait for us to respond. And so we pray for the grace to do so......Lord hear us
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