Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the Old Testament lesson from Genesis 18.
If you want to know what is on a person’s mind or on their
heart, listen to what is in their prayers. There you will find the most
intimate and personal thoughts, needs, concerns, hopes, joys, and praises of a
person – things that they carry to the Lord in prayer. When I visit people in
the hospital, the nursing home, or even in their own house, I always ask “What
should we pray for today?” I’ve stopped being surprised by the answers. Kathy,
battling breast cancer, didn’t ask for healing and strength; instead, she
prayed that her son might come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Eddie, with a
son in prison, wanted to pray for rain so his garden would grow and his cattle
would be fed so he could feed the three generations that needed his help, more
than ever. In those moments, intimate words and thoughts, and sometimes wordless
groans and moans, are delivered to the Lord.
You have a moment such as that in this morning’s Old
Testament reading from Genesis 18. It picks up right where we left off last
week, Abraham entertaining those angelic messengers under the tree of Mamre. I
would encourage you this afternoon to open your Bible and read the chapter in
its entirety. This morning, we are privileged to overhear a conversation, a
prayer offered by Abraham to the Lord God. This is an intimate conversation,
spoken from his heart to the ears of the Lord, offered in faith and in
confident hope that the Lord will hear and respond.
The angels warned Abraham of the Lord’s anger and coming
wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah: just the names invoke the
image of wanton, open sinfulness that would make Vegas, New Orleans, Singapore,
and Amsterdam blush in shame. So great, so grievous, so wretched was their sin
that the Lord has heard their debauchery from the heights of heaven and He has
descended to see it Himself. And when the Lord sees and when He hears, He
declares He will bring down fire and destroy the cities and everyone who lives
therein. And Abraham, as he stands on a hill, overlooking the valley housing
the twin cities of vice, he sees what is about to come as the wrath of the Lord
rolls toward the cities like a massive wall of fire.
Put yourself in Abrahams’s sandals for a minute. What would
you do? What would you do if you were standing there, having received this word
of warning from God Himself, and now you are about to witness the sheer
terrifying and awful wrath of God poured out on those who deserve it most?
One option is to turn away, to run away and hide. My oldest
daughter would say, “Not your monkey, not your circus.” After all, you are safe
and you are saved, so grab your wife, run back inside, tie the tent flaps and
tell her, “You’re probably going to hear something terrible but don’t worry.
It’s God just giving them what they deserve. So, what’s for supper?”
Another option is to grab your servants – you have plenty of
them, after all – arm them tooth and nail and go down there and be an
instrument of the Lord’s wrath. Our anger mingles with God’s, justifying our
vengeance, serving the Lord, delivering His vengeance and showing our
displeasure at what the neighbors have done.
Onward Yawheh’s soldiers, heading down to war, with our bows and
arrows, settling God’s score…
Depending on the day, depending on how I feel, I could see
myself doing one…or the other. How about you?
But Abraham, Abraham does the most amazing thing. He doesn’t
run; he doesn’t arm up for battle. He prays. He simply prays. Now, I’ll agree
that it’s the most unusual prayer. It’s not like anything you’ll find in the
front of our hymnals. It’s unlike any Psalm. It’s probably more courageous than
anything you or I would ever dare to pray, because it sounds more like a
business negotiation, a merchant bargaining for a bargain, than prayer. “Lord
God, if there are 50 righteous, faithful people in the city, surely you
wouldn’t destroy them along with all the wicked? You are merciful and gracious.
Far be it from you to sweep away the righteous and the wicked!” And the Lord
says, alright, for the sake of 50 I will not destroy the city. Abraham prays
again, “What if there are five fewer – what if there are 45? Will you destroy
the city with 45 righteous people?” The Lord agrees – for 45 he will spare the
city. Again and again Abraham prays, arguing for, leaning on, imploring for the
mercy of God: 40, 30, 20, 10, like a backwards auctioneer seeking an inverted
deal, Abraham pleads God to spare the city for the sake of ten righteous
people. And God agrees – for the sake of ten righteous, He will spare the city.
When there are lives in the balance, in human agony Abraham
implores God’s mercy and compassion. But notice, also, the faith of Abraham,
clinging to God that He knows through the covenant. When faced with this God,
the God of wrath and judgement, seeing the wrath of God, Abraham holds on to
the mercy of God, and He does it because He has heard another sound – not the
sound of man’s sinfulness, but the sound of the song of Zion.
When the Lord visited Abraham under the tree at Mamre at the
beginning of the chapter, the message was that Abraham, who had prayerfully
asked God for a son, would indeed have a son within a year. A Son of the
promise. And God promised that Abraham would be a great nation through that one
son. And, through that nation, all nations of the world would be blessed. Abraham
knows God as a God of mercy, so, standing on that hillside, with the sinful
world below and the wrath of God above him, Abraham clings to the mercy of God.
That is the privilege of prayer. It is a privilege that we
desperately need today. Think of it. We are here looking down into the sinful
world around us. It doesn’t take long to hear it, the sin of the world, does it?
Turn on the radio, the TV, your favorite podcast. If you really want to be
brave, turn off all filters and risk an internet search. It’s easy to hear of,
to see the sin of the world. Sexual immorality, homosexuality, heterosexual
promiscuity is not only on the city streets and in sleezy hotels but in the
privacy of our living rooms thanks to www-dot-you-don’t-want-to-know-dot-com.
Businesses are oppressing the poor in the ever-ending desire for profits. Civic
leaders line their pockets while ordinary citizens dig deep and find coins that
go less and less far. We hear this, and we recognize it all for what it is,
great and grievous against both God and man. And, if we hear it, you know God
hears it as well and what it is like for his ears as we all have fallen so far
from the glory of His creation.
How do you live? How do you live as a Christin in that
world? Some run away, retreating into homes, into some sort of Christian
solitude, into church buildings, thanking God they are saved. Others – others
run into the battle with hatred. You see them, don’t you? They carry posters,
“God hates ______.” They get on busses, ride motorcycles, and shout the message
to the world that God hates them. Some run away; some run in.
And then there’s another way. There is another way to live,
you know. There is the way of Abraham. Remember - Abraham stands on the crest
of the hill before the Lord and with His wrath coming, Abraham prays. He prays
for the fallen world. That is a holy place. That is a holy conversation with
God, set apart by God for you. Think about it: when Jesus died on the cross, he
was there on the crest of a hillside outside the world and from there He could
see the whole, fallen world in front of Him and below Him. The sin of the world
was seen and heard, from Adam and Eve to the day He returns, and He heard the
outcry of the sin-stained world in the mocking words of the religious leaders,
“If you really are who you say you are, save yourself and come down from the
cross!”
But He didn’t. He didn’t come down from the cross because He
didn’t come to save Himself. He came to save you. He came to save this world,
this fallen world that you live in. And when Jesus was dying, He heard another
sound – the sound, not of God’s wrath, but the song, a faint strain of the song
of salvation of Zion. Jesus opened His mouth in prayer, “Father, forgive them.”
His Father heard, and He answered. Just as you are privileged to hear Abraham’s
prayer, you are also privileged to hear Jesus’ prayer. When you overhear that
prayer, you are taken to the heart of your Savor. God forgives you - not for the sake of 50
righteous, or 40 or 30 or 20 or even 10. God forgives you for the sake of the
One who is truly Righteous, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who bore the wrath of
God for you. There He was with the wrath of God above Him, the sinful world
below Him, and the entire wrath of God was poured out on that One Man so that
the entire mercy of God could be poured out on the world.
And the Lord Jesus calls you and me and His church. He calls
us to stop running away from the world in fear. He calls us to stop running
into the world with hate. He calls us to stand. Stand here with Him. Stand here
in Him. And join your voice to sing that song of Zion. Abraham sang it. Jesus
sang it for you. And now you have the privilege of singing the song for the
world.
So, what does that look like? Good question. It’s not like
God wakes you up one morning with a text telling you what’s going to happen to
those people over yonder. But, at the same time, it’s not as difficult as we
make it out to be. It’s not that we have to get up at 5am so we can spend 2
hours in prayer before getting breakfast, praying for this world and those
around us; or, that we need special prayer formulas and books and places to
pray. Actually, it’s much more simple than that. It looks like life. Tuesday
morning, you’re heading to Jumbo’s for Senior’s Day and you pass an accident on
the side of the road. Firetrucks, ambulance, police cars, all surround 8,000
pounds of metal that used to be two vehicles. Or Friday, you turn on the TV at
lunchtime to hear the news break in that there was a mass casualty event –
details are sketchy. Or in today’s prayers, you are reminded that there are
brothers and sisters who are suffering mightily for the sake of Jesus, even if
you don’t know the details. And, in those minutes, you think of those people
involved, and you think of your own family, and you find yourself longing for
the kingdom of God and the coming of Jesus to end the hurt and pain and senseless
destruction that we all-too-often create on this earth. And, in that moment,
you are given the privilege of prayer.
Now, I admit – it doesn’t sound like prayer, not like the
ones you learned as a kid, or the ones we pray formally in worship, and it
doesn’t even sound like Abraham. Instead, it sounds like fear and anger and
worry and frustration and sadness, all wrapped up into one gracious yearning
for God’s mercy in the face of sin we cannot take away. And in that moment is a
holy place and a holy conversation. And, in that moment, God’s kingdom comes in
a very small way. You, God’s people are alive, singing the song of Zion as best
they can with words that are more frustrated than sentimental , more grasping
than glorious. Gods people pray for His mercy and for His kingdom to come.
So, no matter where you are, when you are in that prayer,
you are near, very near, the heart of Your Savior. And that is the privilege of
prayer to Our Father.
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