“Righteousness and Peace”
“Righteousness and Peace”
Year C Seventh Sunday after Pentecost July 24, 2022
Genesis 18:20-32, Psalm 85, Luke 11:1-13
Pastor Andy Kennaly, First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
What is love? Better yet, what is unconditional love? Unconditional love is love without conditions; love that is, regardless of the situation. In our meritocracy world of late capitalism, productivity is key, and earning or deserving is based on merit. This social contract says that if you do a good job, you are rewarded. If you do a bad job, shame on you! Shame, honor, reward, punishment: these have nothing to do with unconditional love. If love is based on these, then it’s conditional, pass/fail, like a contract that can either be upheld, or broken and violated.
More than a contract, unconditional love is a covenant. This relational, sacrificial self-giving is intended to strengthen love. Covenants have qualities, such as unity, promise, and forgiveness based on grace, on gift. This has nothing to do with deserving, or earning, or working, although upholding a covenant can take effort. This effort is embraced for the larger purpose of advocating for the unity. Sometimes in the covenant of love, our efforts fail, and we put ourselves completely in the hands of the other, in God’s hands, who will carry us because God’s love is; it is unconditional.
This morning we read some very amazing scriptures. Luke shares the disciples’ request that Jesus teaches them how to pray, even though they have been witnesses to Jesus praying, and they wait until he finishes the prayer he’s engaged with in that moment. One would think they would hear him pray, then be able to simply copy him. Why they ask to be taught, like John teaches his disciples, may mean a couple of things. One is that Jesus prays in silence. The disciples don’t hear anything because Jesus doesn’t use words. It’s harder than you think to teach someone how to sit in silence to commune with God’s Presence. Perhaps this is why Jesus gives them words.
We call this the Lord’s Prayer, but Jesus doesn’t need it. He’s teaching the disciples. It would be better called, “The Disciples’ Prayer” because they are the ones who need this teaching. These are not magic words, and the church is pretty good at idolizing these lines as if they are meant for repeating over and over again as they way to pray. But Jesus is teaching more than a way to pray. He’s sharing about God’s character and the nature of unconditional love.
I’m not going to go line by line and unpack what they might mean. More generally, as the New Interpreter’s Bible reflects on this, we see that, “The greatest stimuli to prayer are the awareness of our need and absolute dependence on God and our knowledge and experience of the character of God. Only those who know their own need and the love of God as a heavenly Father will be able to pray truly. The sayings in this unit, consequently, speak explicitly of the Fatherhood of God while implicitly casting the one who prays in the position of a beggar or child in need.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, Abingdon Press, 1995, pg. 238). This is why those stories follow, to expound on what kind of heavenly Father God is. They express the covenant nature of our need for God as we ask, seek, and knock, and our trust that God is in relationship with us through this journey. In praying these words, we learn the character of God as Father, not in a power position or one that coerces, but as generosity, compassion, care, and faithful activity on behalf of God’s children.” (New Interpreter’s Study Bible, NRSV, Abingdon Press, pg. 1875) Trusting this kind of father, we are safe to acknowledge our own need. This prayer then is not the words; it’s trust, recognition, and humility; these are dynamics that create prayer. This is what Jesus teaches. A stance, a relationship, the qualities of faith.
The other scriptures are similar. Abraham and God discussing judgment not on the basis of harshness, but by ongoing relenting, on providing leniency based on a few on behalf of the many. This reminds me of the emerging Integral, on recognizing that we are in the middle of some sort of transition or change, that what has come before doesn’t work anymore, but what will work hasn’t been revealed fully, or at least not recognized. But we can trust that, like a catalyst, it only takes a few to recognize Integral and the new. While we can’t control the process, we can trust it as it unfolds. We trust because of the character of God and the recognition of our own need.
In Psalm 85 the dynamic is similar. God “speaks peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.” We hear that “steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.” In other words, this is covenant language of unconditional love. This is a vision of unity, of everything in proper relationship as intended, as God creates.
In the week ahead, pay attention to ways you can acknowledge your need for God. Examine your image of God and explore the unconditional love of God in this image. Try different types of prayers, like verbal ones, and embodied ones like walking, and silent ones like Centering Prayer. See what it is in your day to day living that raises your awareness of God’s ongoing Presence.
As we do this, may we trust that we are part of a catalyst that leans into relationship with God as we ask, seek, and knock, trusting God hears our prayer. And may God be glorified, now, and forever. Amen.