Sunday, July 28, 2019 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Back in the 1990’s there was a store on Orchard St. on the Lower East Side called Sox & Suspenders.
Before my first visit, I had been equipped by a good friend with some important insider information: the insider info was if I was the 1st customer of the day, I’d get a discount by haggling over the price
So there I was one morning before 9am, & as the 1st customer I told the owner I wanted black sox.
The owner quoted me a price of “$2.50” a pair; I kept on looking over the selections & said “nah!”
And the owner came right back & said, “Well, what can I do for U today?” and bold as brass I said,
“I’d like 5 pairs of black socks for $5, including tax.” He looked at me with my insider information, & said with the tone of familiar pretend resignation in his voice: “all right, let’s make a sale.”
The same principle is at work with Abraham in the 1st reading from Genesis. Abraham has insider info about God. And it’s clear in Abraham’s exchange with God: Abraham knows who he is, & who God is.
God is divine, & Abraham is a creature, and God interacts with us on & provides for us mercy & love.
But the comedy part contains the Important Insider Information. Abraham reminds God of how good and forgiving God is, the way a manager or a parent coaches people, and reminds others of how good they really are. And while there might be some people who are shocked at this dialogue of haggling between Abraham & God, Abraham our father in faith knows he can dialogue directly with God without fear.
Jesus picks up on Abraham’s lead, w a BIG difference: it’s no longer Important Insider Information: it’s info for everyone to use. So when some disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he could have given them any number of ways: Today’s shorter version of Luke’s Lord’s Prayer is like the express train to St. Matthew’s local:
it summarizes what Jesus wanted his disciples to have in their hearts. & it is familiar to us:
The OF contains four basic types of prayer we use: petition, adoration, contrition, & thanksgiving.
When we remember that we are both God’s creatures AND God’s cherished/chosen children, we’re able to pray both to God & in union with God, who gave us the power to pray in the 1st place.
Sometimes at Mass, the priest will conclude the lead-in line to the Our Father, “we dare to say!” why? Because when we say “thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” those are orders we’re delivering to God, & it’s pure arrogance to say to God .
But U&I know well that when we are intent on prayer, praying doesn’t change God: it changes US
When my mother’s mom was dying of cancer years ago, I promised God the sun, moon & stars,
I forgot that the sun, moon & stars were created by God & were not mine to give to God.
What did I do? I promised God I’d say these prayers, make these devotions, and visit those shrines.
Two weeks later, the doctors caring for Grandma told me she was in a coma & would not be coming out. What happened then? As Grandma got sicker, the words & feelings of our praying shifted:
So we changed our prayer: it was no longer that we didn’t want her to leave us in death; rather we saw that Grandma in her coma was trapped between heaven & earth, & asked God to free her.
Our prayer shifted from praying for someone sick, to someone who was dying & on her way home.
That was the prayer that was answered, the prayer in tune & in sync with how God called her.
As we ask the Blessed Trinity to fill our hearts and minds with God’s truth vs. substitute fiction, and as we pray the Our Father and receive the Eucharist with mature faith in God’s power, we may be a blessing to God’s church and world.
