Today’s Gospel lesson is all about prayer. It begins with the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray, and Jesus responds by teaching them what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. Even though Luke records a slightly shorter version than the one we read in Matthew chapter 6, it’s still the basis of the words we know and love, the words we’ve been saying as long as we can remember. Our Father, who art in heaven …
But in a very real sense, our Old Testament lesson for today is also about prayer. And not just about prayer itself – but about the kind of God – the kind of Father – we are talking to in our prayers.
In our Old Testament reading from Genesis chapter 18, Abraham is speaking to God – to a just God. Abraham knows that the one true God is a God of justice. God is talking about destroying two of the most notoriously wicked cities of all time, Sodom and Gomorrah. But Abraham asks, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? . . . Far be that from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked!” Abraham knows God would never do such a thing. Abraham knows that in that justice God will punish sin. Notice that Abraham does not try to defend Sodom and Gomorrah. He does not try to rationalize away their sin. He does not make excuses for them. In fact, he does not comment at all on their sin. Abraham is appealing to God for those who may live in Sodom and Gomorrah but who are righteous – not for those who have sinned. God will punish the sins of people, and Abraham knows it.
When we speak with our God, we should know just what Abraham knows. God hated the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Don’t try to rationalize away your sin by saying, “I’m not as sinful at the people of Sodom and Gomorrah” or by saying, “I’m not as sinful as other people I know.” Don’t make any excuses for your sins. Don’t try to make some lame defense. God is a holy God. He hated the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah and He hates our sins, too. He hates our pride and thanklessness. He hates our greed and selfishness. He hates our foul language and our lustful thoughts. He hates them just as he hated the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. His justice demands just the same for you and me as sinful people. But remember that Abraham pleaded with God for the righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. He knew full well God would punish the wicked. God did punish the wicked then, and he will punish the wicked now, too.
Remember when you were a kid and you knew you’d done what your father told you never to do? He was going to find out. You knew your mother would tell him. She told you that you should tell him, and you knew you had to. You knew he’d be angry and you were afraid, because you knew there would be punishment. But you also knew something else. You knew he loved you. He would punish you in love. He would forgive you. He would still love you. So you took a deep breath and told him.
Abraham knew the same about his God. He knew that there is another side to God. God is just, but He is also gracious. How well Abraham knew that! God had just affirmed the promise he’d made to Abraham, the promise that after decades of waiting, he and his wife Sarah would have a son in a year. God had forgiven Abraham before, too. God had heard Abraham speak to him before. He had listened. So now in faith Abraham speaks with God boldly and confidently. He pleads to God because he knows the heart of God. God is just, but even in His justice He shows mercy. So Abraham is bold to ask. He is not haggling with God – he is praying in faith to a gracious God to have mercy on his nephew Lot, his wife, his sons, his daughters, and their spouses. He pleads until he’s asking for only 10 righteous people. Only 10 out of two great cities.
Notice that God never loses his patience with Abraham’s prayers. He never stops him and He never rebukes him. Abraham says, “Oh let not the Lord not be angry, and I will speak.” The Lord is never angry with Abraham. He listens, and He answers according to His mercy, His grace, His love. The gracious God listens to his child Abraham speak and plead with him. God never tires of it. Never.
He will never tire of hearing you, either. He will listen with, yes, the patience of God. For He loves to hear from His children. You cannot ask too much or too little. You cannot come too often. You cannot try His patience with your pleading. He will listen. And He will answer – in His time and in His way.
Abraham comes in faith to a gracious God. God promises not to destroy the city for the 10, and He would keep his promise. He saved Lot’s family, the righteous ones, in those wicked cities from the hellish destruction that is still in evidence to this day. Today there is evidence that the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah lie at the bottom of the Dead Sea. It’s called “dead” because the salt content of the water is so high that nothing can live in it. Absolutely nothing.
You have a gracious God who has saved you, too. In His justice He demanded punishment for sin. In His justice He threatened you and me with death now and eternally. But in His justice He has shown us truly undeserved mercy. He acts to rescue you and me just as He did Lot and his family. The punishment of a just God is going to fall on this world. God himself never wanted it this way, but a just God must punish people for their sins. But here we truly see the heart of God. Here we see the gracious God. He acts to rescue you and me from a hellish destruction. He sends His Son to the rescue. His grace is so magnificent that He satisfies His own justice by punishing not you and me for our sins, but His own Son. That is what was happening on the cross. God was being a just God. In the cross we see the justice of God. Sin must be punished, so God punishes his own Son instead of you and me. His Son takes our place. His Son takes our punishment. His Son takes all we deserve. In doing so we are rescued from the hellish destruction of a just God.
In Jesus Christ we are the righteous ones. Jesus Christ’s righteousness is our righteousness. Because He was righteous for us, we are righteous too. On the day of our Baptism we were clothed with Christ. On the day of our Baptism we were clothed in Christ’s righteousness. When God looks upon us, He sees His Son. He sees perfect righteousness. Soon – on the Last Day – when God comes to execute His justice on the earth, He will rescue His righteous ones from that wrath and punishment as certainly as He did Lot and his family.
This gracious God has come to your rescue. This gracious God will listen to you as you come to him to confess your sins. When we come to our Father in prayer, we come knowing the holy and just God with whom we speak. We also know that like our forgiving, earthly father, we have even a greater, forgiving, heavenly Father. He loves to hear from us. He wants us to speak to Him.
To what kind of God do we talk? We talk with the just and holy God just as Abraham did. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness and threatens the same for all who live in sin. Abraham knew something else about this God. His very nature, His very being is love, an undeserved love that He wants to pour out on you and me, on all people. We know that. We have been on the receiving end of that grace, that undeserved love. We know it every time we look at the cross.
You know to whom you’re talking. He is your gracious God, who with all patience, love, mercy and kindness listens to you. You know you can come anytime. You know you can come about anything. You know it because you are looking at the cross. You know the God to whom you are talking. And He is listening – right now.
This sermon was freely adapted from a text originally appearing in Concordia Pulpit Resources.
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