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2002
6th January (pm) - Praying To A Large God
GENESIS 18:16-33

In the movie, Patch Adams, released in 1999, the main character, Patch Adams, played by Robin Williams, is an unconventional medical student who believes that humor and compassion are the most important tools of the doctor's trade. His idealism is shattered when his girlfriend, who has helped him set up a free clinic based on these two principles, is murdered by one of the psychotic patients. As Patch Adams stands on a high cliff pondering suicide, he has a conversation with God:

So answer me please - tell me what you are doing .... You create man; man suffers enormous amounts of pain; man dies. Maybe you should have had a few more brainstorming sessions prior to creation. You rested on the seventh day - maybe you should have spent that day on compassion.

As he looks down into the valley far below, again, considering the possibility of committing suicide, Patch Adams, says tragically to God, You know what? You're not worth it.

Have you ever said that to God? 'God, you are not worth it, because my life has not turned out the way I wanted it,' or 'God you are not worth it, because if you were a God of love, then why is their so much pain, so much evil, so much sorrow on the world?' Have you ever thought to yourself. 'Hey I can do better than God - what does He know?' Have you ever had that decidedly uncomfortable feeling about God, because you have just discovered that His ways are truly not your ways, and you do not want to know this God? But says renowned Christian writer, John White, If we close our minds to everything about God that makes us uncomfortable, we are going through the motions when we pray. We pray to a god we have ourselves fashioned for our comfort and not to God as he is. (p18/19)

In our relationship with God, we do well to remember that there are aspects of God, that do not sit comfortably with us. Abraham in Genesis 18, discovered a dimension to God's character which both scared him and challenged him. God was not just the God of Abraham's own personal needs - there is more to God's rule.

In this prayer of Abraham's from Genesis 18, we are reminded that in prayer, we pray to a large God, a God who while delighting in our prayers for our needs, also invites us in prayer to intercede for that which is frankly bigger than us. John White writes, Whatever else prayer may be, it is intended to be a sharing and a taking counsel with God on matters of importance to him. (p15) God welcomed Abraham's company and we are told that God asked himself, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? God decides not, and that day for Abraham, was the day that God grew larger.

But we also remind ourselves that in prayer we are invited to intimacy with God, God who no longer calls us his servants, but rather his friends. Remember what Jesus said to his disciples in John 15: I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. Abraham was God's friend, invited to share in and comment on God's plans.

The context of the story is the visit of the three visitors to Abraham and his wife Sarah. Abraham was the perfect host to these three visitors, who indicated that they were no ordinary visitors, and they proceeded to tell Abraham that his wife Sarah, who was eavesdropping on the conversation, would have a child by the same time the following year. This was a reaffirmation of what was already promised to Abraham. Sarah did not believe this and laughed at such a suggestion, but the chilling words, Is anything too hard for the Lord? puts Sarah on the back foot. This part of the story ends quite abruptly, as if to suggest that there was another reason for their visit or as we would say, they were killing two birds with one stone.

The three men got up and moved off in the direction of Sodom, with Abraham walking by their side. It was customary for hosts in such a context to walk awhile with their guests, one of whom has now been identified as the Lord. It is when they reach a point whereby they can look down on Sodom, that the Lord says, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?

Then the Lord informed Abraham that the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that the Lord has come in person to see for himself, if what they have done is as bad as is reported.
The implication being that if the sin is as bad as reported, then the Lord will bring judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. And here we see a dimension to God's character which should encourage us. While the evil of Sodom is evident for all to see, the Lord assures Abraham that his personal and intimate acquaintance with the situation is a prerequisite for justice. This is God acting on the evidence. We should never doubt God's justice, for God will act on the evidence in his appointed time.

What follows is one of the most amazing prayer times in the whole of Scripture. It is as if Abraham has been invited to the board meeting and now the chairman of the board has thrown the discussion open, and Abraham who recognizes his own standing before God, as dust and ashes, speaks.

Then Abraham approached him and said, Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare it for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing - to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the judge of the earth do right?

The Lord concedes the argument and Abraham pursues this line of thought and the Lord finally says, For the sake of ten [righteous people], I will not destroy it. Prayer time over. What on earth is going on here?

Abraham's nephew, Lot and his family lived in Sodom. Was Abraham pleading on their behalf? If so, why didn't Abraham just say, 'Lord, my nephew lives in Sodom - please don't destroy it'? This was not a prayer for personal needs to be answered. There is more going on in this prayer than that.

And again I will say it. Prayer is more than just our personal needs. It is as if Abraham needed a lesson that there is much more to what God is doing than what he is doing in and through Abraham and Sarah's lives. If prayer is just about ourselves then we are missing out. There are more important things in life than ourselves. Let me illustrate this from two other areas of life - worship songs and football.

Mike Pilavachi, the Pastor of Soul Survivor, a church near Watford, writes in the current issue of Christianity and Renewal magazine: I have been challenged recently about who is at the center of my faith and of my Worship... Here is the question that has challenged me recently. How many songs do we sing that are just about God and do not bring us into the story? How much is God not only the object but also the center of our worship? ... How God centered is my worship? Maybe I need to tell him a little less about myself and focus a little more on him. There are things more important than ourselves.

David Batty, currently of Leeds United, who are currently top of the Premiership, was playing for Newcastle United when in 1998 he missed that penalty against Argentina in the World Cup, that meant England were out of the World Cup that year. In his autobiography David describes the aftermath of that match. David Batty is not the type of player to dwell on much. Unlike me, he doesn't get excited at the prospect of just watching Leeds United play. After the penalty miss, David Batty writes: I phoned Mandy [his wife] and my mum and dad and her parents to reassure them that I wasn't the devastated wreck of a human being that some folk seemed to think I should have been. Mandy was more interested in the fact that this meant I'd be coming home the next day and wanted to know exactly what time I'd be arriving. David Batty has learned that there are more important things than football and his commitment to his family is the evidence of that.

In prayer there are more important things than ourselves. For in prayer we are dealing with the Judge of all the earth. Abraham suddenly found himself having to deal with a dimension of God's character he never before had to deal with - God's holy wrath and justice against the evil in the world. But more than that, Abraham was invited to be a part of God's plans, and to have his say in regard to God's plans. One can easily get the impression in this prayer of Abraham that he was wheeling and dealing with God, in the same way Del Boy might wheel and deal in 'Only Fools and Horses'. But not so.

Abraham's concern was for the people of Sodom, living people, warm of flesh and quick of movement. It seems that Abraham objects to the sweeping away of the righteous along with the wicked, based on the premise that it would be unjust of God to treat the righteous and the wicked alike.

But the clue to understanding this prayer dialogue between Abraham and the Lord is found in the rest of the passage where the Lord says to himself; Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.

Abraham's family will act as a channel of grace. Their presence as a righteous minority in a wicked world will still God's hand of destruction. But the issue is not necessarily the question of 'destroy or acquit'. It may involve the question of 'now or later'. When does God decide that enough is enough? When does God decide that no more time will be given? For Sodom and Gomorrah time ran out in the very next scene, in the very next chapter.

When does God decide that the righteous minority in our world have done all that they can to make an impact? You see, here is that most uncomfortable dimension of God's character that we have to reckon with - God is the righteous Judge of all the earth, and when we pray to God, we pray to the God who will come and judge the earth. We are living in the context of judgment.

The issue for Abraham is not one of pleading for the righteous of Sodom, rather it was one of understanding the justice of God, and Abraham was desperate to understand the justice of God.

'Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven' is a most dangerous prayer. But we pray it absent-mindedly, as a cop out, as long as God's will does not challenge our hopes and dreams, does not contradict our own self-made notions of who God is, and what we imagine he is supposed to act.

We cannot put God in a box. We cannot have God on our terms, or just for our needs. There are more important things in the world than you and me and all the petty things with which we fill our minds. There is God's concern for justice and righteousness - are we concerned for God's justice and righteousness in a wicked world? It is not ultimately the fate of Sodom that is important in this story, it is the character of God, and his faithfulness to himself. The issue is about the honor and glory of God's name in a world he has created but which has rejected him.

And when we pray, we are dealing with this God, and the honor and glory of his name in a world he has created but which has rejected him, in lives, in your life and my life, which he desires to know and in them be glorified, but which can be apathetic and just go through the motions. So in your prayer life, who is it that you are praying to?

That day was a watershed day for Abraham. He became a child of a larger God. J. I. Packer, author of 'Knowing God' says that this is the responsibility of every Christian. In an interview given to 'Leadership' magazine some years ago, Packer stated:

[Theology] helps me appreciate the greatness, goodness and glory of God - lifting up the sheer wonder and size and majesty of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.... Focusing on the greatness of God, though, enlarges the soul. Paradoxically, it makes you a greater person by making you smaller person.... I have tried to infiltrate happiness-oriented minds with the thought that God might beI visit a small congregation in PCI, who are struggling, yet who have in their midst faithful people, committed when the odds are stacked against them. In a large congregation we are spoiled, because we can become so self oriented, so self reliant, that our picture of God can be determined by the four walls of this congregation.

We have to always be aware that God is bigger than Ballyclare, bigger than the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, bigger, but not aloof or ignorant of our needs, but this same God invites us to be part of his work in the world, he invites us to be his friends and partners in the work of the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore our prayer lives are not intended to be centered on our petty needs and woes. Sure they have a place on God's agenda, but so do many other things. Abraham and Sarah were left with 'this time next year you will have a son' and events moved on to that of a greater scale.

Praying to a large God helps us to keep things in perspective - helps us to avoid becoming so focused on ourselves that it becomes unhealthy. To pray 'Your will be done ..' is a reminder that the agenda for world issues is drawn up in heaven and we are called to humbly recognize that it is the Lord who is in charge, not us.

Abraham discovered that day, that while in God's plans his life was important, because of the promises of God to him, yet his life was not as important as God himself, his character and his integrity as the Judge of all the earth.

Abraham learned that day that God was the God of justice and his justice would prevail. What is it that we have to learn about God, that we too may become children of a large God? Perhaps it is to see that God will judge the earth, and those whom we know, who are not following Jesus Christ, will, like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah be swept away.

Abraham learned the cold hard reality of God's justice, yet he also saw the tenderness of God's mercy in that God was prepared to see if Sodom could be turned, if any righteous influence could be brought to bear on this city of people, warm of flesh and quick of movement. The cold hard reality of God's justice would prevail, but not immediately.

John White concludes: Abraham had grown into a larger man with a greater God. Prayer had changed him. God's purpose of inviting him to the board meeting had been accomplished. Whether Sodom was consumed or not, the universe was on a solid footing. The Chairman himself drew the meeting to a close and left Abraham to the wonder of his new discovery.

What experiences in our lives are leading us to the wonder of discovering a larger God?

AMEN!