Pray with Bold Humility

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time (1 Timothy 1:5-6). Amen.

The Lord had come to visit Abraham and Sarah to give them the great news that by this time next year they would give birth to their long-awaited son (Genesis 18:1-15). The Lord, with two of his angels, visited Abraham in human form.

As his dinner guests get up to leave, Abraham politely walks and talks with them. The Lord allows Abraham to purposely overhear his plans for the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham was in a special relationship with God where God considered Abraham his "friend" (Isaiah 41:8). So, the Lord said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very flagrant, I will go down now and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has come to me. If not, I will know" (Genesis 18:20-21).

The two angels leave the Lord and head southwest toward Sodom, forty miles away. When the Lord says he will go down to see about the outcry he has heard about Sodom, he is ascribing human actions to himself to allow Abraham and others to better understand his divine actions. God wants everyone to understand that he passes no judgment without possessing the facts of the case. He does not act arbitrarily.

The outcry to the Lord could have been from the intense plea of travelers who had made the mistake of passing through Sodom and Gomorrah. It could have been the stench of sin that had risen to the highest heaven from these godless cesspools of immorality. Our family visited the hot springs of Thermopolis this week. There is a distinctive odor in the hot springs due to hydrogen sulfide gas. The stench of wickedness of Sodom was as repulsive on earth as it was offensive to heaven.

Abraham knows the reputation of the cities in the valley since he and his herdsmen moved their flocks and herds all over the area. Abraham's nephew, Lot, had also unwisely settled along the plains of the lower Jordan River, and eventually moved into the city of Sodom.

Abraham is concerned about his family in Sodom. So he prays for Lot by praying for all the righteous believers in Sodom. Abraham approached [the Lord] and said, "Will you really sweep away the righteous along with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep them away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? You would never do such a thing, killing the righteous along with the wicked, treating the righteous the same as the wicked. You would never do such a thing. The Judge of all the earth should do right, shouldn't he?" The Lord said, "If I find fifty righteous people within the city of Sodom, then I will spare the entire place for their sake" (Genesis 18:23-26).

Abraham respectfully argues God down – first with fifty righteous, then forty-five, thirty, twenty – until God agrees on the final amount of ten. Abraham sounds like a used camel dealer. [The Lord] said, "I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten" (Genesis 18:32).

Abraham is relieved. As wicked as the city is, surely there are at least ten believers within Sodom. Ten. That's the number of people on the population sign for Hiland between Casper and Thermopolis. But there weren't ten believers within Sodom. So, God destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, while having his two human-looking angels pull Lot and his family out of the city before its destroyed.

Look more at Abraham's bargaining. He prays six times for the same result. Each time lowering the number of believers that needed to be found to spare Sodom. He feels comfortable telling God exactly what he thinks. He has courage and audacity to speak to the Creator and Judge of heaven and earth. Abraham is bold because he is made in the image of God. He is a child of his heavenly Father through circumcision. He is a son talking to his Dad.

Abraham is humble. He admits he is nothing but dust and ashes. He knows Adam was made from the dust of the earth. He knows that when he dies, he will return to the dust of the earth. He is humble, knowing that he has no right to expect the Creator and Judge of heaven and earth to lower himself to take his prayers into consideration. Yet, he asked anyway because he knew that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love and mercy (Psalm 145:8-9).

How about you? How do you pray? If you are like most Christians, you probably don't pray often enough. You are not availing yourself of the power and promises of your almighty God. You probably aren't coming to God in the morning, afternoon, and evening with your prayers, petitions, intercessions, and thanksgiving, like St. Paul encourages in the Epistle lesson (1 Timothy 2:1).

When you pray, are you weak with your prayers? Are you asking only for little things? Are you coming to God's throne only after everything else you've tried has failed.

Are you proud in your prayers? Are you expecting God to answer only according to your plans? Are you forgetting your limited human knowledge compared to God's divine omniscient (all-knowing) knowledge?

Do you give up too easily with your prayers? Do you not like God's answers of "no" or "wait," so you stop praying? Have you forgotten all the instances where Scripture speaks of being persistent with your prayers? Do you recall how annoying it was when your kids kept begging and nagging you for something? And you don't want to become annoying by begging and nagging your God?

How can Abraham talk like this to God? Abraham is a child of his heavenly Father. He can say things to his Dad that strangers cannot say. And God welcomes it.

God wants you to talk to him like this, too. He isn't looking for distant worshipers, people who are afraid to say "boo" to him. He's looking for people who will trust him as a child trusts a good father.

On your own, you are a stranger before God. Your inborn and active sins have estranged you from your Maker and Creator. But Jesus Christ came into our world to reconcile you to God, to make you God's child in Holy Baptism, to redeem you to make God your Father. Jesus has come to be our Mediator, to restore the broken relationship between sinful children and their holy heavenly Father. "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time" (1 Timothy 1:5-6).

Jesus mediates for us. He perfects our imperfect prayers. He humbles our prideful prayers where we are only asking for ourselves. He emboldens our weak prayers where we come too shyly before God. This is why we consistently end our prayers by praying "in Jesus' name."

Jesus motivates us to pray early, late, often, regularly, and persistently. God does not see repeated prayers as nagging or begging. Jesus taught his disciples the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. St. Luke writes, "Jesus told them a parable about the need to always pray and not lose heart … ‘Will not God give justice to his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night? Will he put off helping them'" (Luke 18:1, 7)?

Jesus challenges in our Gospel, "Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened" (Luke 11:9-10).

Through the redemption and reconciliation accomplished by Jesus on the cross; through the mediation and intercession of Jesus as our Great High Priest, we can now approach God's throne of glory with our prayers. Just like you should not be afraid to ask your dad for anything, you should not be afraid to ask your God for anything. Jesus teaches, "What father among you, if your son asks for bread, would give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, would give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, would give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Luke 11:11-13)

Like Abraham, we are nothing but dust and ashes. We approach God with proper humility, fully understanding that as sinners we have no right to be heard by a holy and just God. We certainly have no right to expect him to answer and grant what we have asked for. This is why we end our prayers with humility, praying like Jesus, "Not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42).

Like Abraham, we are the blood-bought children of God. We approach God boldly like a child approaches his or her dad. The waters of Baptism have washed us clean and made us holy and righteous believers in his sight. Now we are confident that we can bring our repeated prayers and persistent petitions to God for any request – big or small.

One of the first shut-in members that I visited when I became the pastor at Epiphany in Racine was Rose Wirt. When I visited Rose twenty-one years ago, she would call me "Kiddo." She meant no disrespect. I looked a lot younger than. I was a lot younger then – twenty-one years younger to be exact. Rose told me I was the age of her grandchildren.

One day when I visited Rose in the nursing home, she told me she had to repent. She felt guilty because she had told God in her prayers what she wanted him to do. She said, "Kiddo, I told God that I'm tired of living and I want to go home to heaven. I shouldn't tell God what to do."

I told her, "Rose, God wants you to be bold in your prayers. It's OK if you tell him that you're tire or lonely or miss your husband, so you want to go home to be with Jesus. It's a beautiful prayer when you tell God what you think, as long as you pray with humility, ‘Not my will, but yours be done, Lord.'"

In that way, Rose, you, me, and other Christians can be like Abraham praying with bold humility.

It's good to have a relationship with your physical father, your spiritual father, and your heavenly Father where you feel comfortable to say what's on your heart, to tease, to be open, to be honest. Hopefully, your children can speak to you as fathers knowing that you love them. Your children can take the conversation into uncomfortable directions because they know you won't take offense. They feel safe with you as their father. Abraham, felt safe with God. He trusted God to take his asking the right way—and to show mercy to him and his nephew.

What about us? We, too, are in a close relationship with God. We are his children by adoption through Jesus our Savior. And so, when we need to, we can come boldly into God's presence, asking for what we need. You are not a stranger in God's presence anymore. Through your faith in Christ, you are now family. You belong in God's presence. Act like you belong there. Be bold when you pray. Claim your blood-bought identity. You are not irritating God with your boldness. You are honoring his invitation and promise.

Fellow sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, what are you praying for right now? Ask! Seek! Knock! Approach God's throne. Pray with bold humility. Amen.

"I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened" (Luke 11:9-10). Amen.