Gen 18 & Luke 11
July 25, 2010
Patrick Preheim
Bargaining with God
I am mindful that it is exactly two years to the day that Stella Dyck died of cancer at the young age of 70. I mention this because the illness of a friend is one of those times that we find ourselves bargaining with God. God’s apparent silence in the face of innocent suffering and death has driven more than one person into atheism. On the one hand if God is not able to intervene in crises situations, why spend time praying to such an impotent deity. On the other hand if God is able to intervene in crisis situations and simply declines such an invite, it would point to a callous deity and why believe in a God like this? This conundrum has been the demise of more than one believer’s faith and I want to treat the topic carefully and faithfully. Between the extremes of an impotent or callous God is the story of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ points to another way of thinking about God in the midst of a crisis, the bargains we make with God, and the attitude with which we make them.
Recovery of the Jesus story is vital for us as we consider God’s engagement in our world. In general I think we have lost the art of prayerful intervention which is present in the biblical testimony. In general I do not think most of us actually expect God to act in our lives and the world. Rarely do things get so bad for us that we are reduced to beseeching God to help us or our community out of a serious bind. If these generalizations are close to the mark how shall we reclaim a Christian understanding of negotiation with God? Through story, of course.
To help us think about biblically about bargaining with God I will retell
some of the stories of the church. As I have worked with biblical bargaining
scenarios I have identified a couple of themes that reappear. For example, while
negotiation with God always involves deeply personal self interest the
implications of the bargaining are anything but selfish. The deal, if struck,
will positively impact all of society and the world itself. A second observation
is the deep humility with which people carry themselves in negotiation with God.
“Not my will but yours” is a recurring theme in biblical bargaining. There will
be other similarities that you may observe; make a note of them and we talk
after the service or next week. On to the stories.
To begin, how about the scripture passage from Genesis that we heard earlier?
What a fantastic story this one is! Abraham confronts God about the impending
destruction of Sodom. Sodom of all places! While not strictly advocating on
behalf of the Sodomites, Abraham has concerns that collective punishment will
take out his nephew Lot in addition to the unfaithful. Lot’s character is not
that great, but Abraham feels he deserves rescue. You claim to love
righteousness and justice, oh God, but is it right and just for you to destroy a
wicked city if there are 50 good people living there? “Well no”, replies God.
How about 45?, asks Abraham. “Well, that wouldn’t be right either”, God admits.
And then the auction is on: 40? Not if there are 40; 30? Not if...; 20? Not
if..; 10? Not if... Abraham bargains for Lot, but all Sodom is given time to
turn from their destructive path. For what person or city have we recently
advocated??
I like this story because it gives us permission to intercede on behalf of the 10 faithful who live among the suicide bombers of the Middle East, the 10 faithful in communist East Asia, and that branch of the family which has grown distant. Abraham reminds God, and all who use God’s name, that the divine way seeks preservation of the righteous and conversion of the wayward. I sometimes think that we have lost awareness of the good people who are in the midst of Sodom. I sometimes worry that I have become so self absorbed that I do not think about those good people at a distance who are stuck in the folds of a rebellious city or family.
I also like this story because at times I am a participant in a wicked system
and need intercession. Perhaps the justice of God has not rained down on me
thanks to the faithfulness of a few and the intercessions of others. Perhaps
creation has been bargaining with God on my behalf as oil has flowed
uncontrolled into the Gulf. Perhaps some of the 1st nations bargained with God
on behalf of my ancestors who privatized their communal grounds and slaughtered
the buffalo. I need to be grateful for the intercessions others have made on my
behalf and consider repentance and re-conversion. I need to consider the
intercessions I have opportunity to offer.
Hannah is another biblical character who bargained with God. The plight of
Hannah is how the book of 1st Samuel begins. Hannah is childless in a society in
which children are social security and seen as a blessing. She is regularly
mocked by another wife of the household who has lots of kids. And then there is
Elkanah, the out of touch husband, who tries to console Hannah by saying—“am I
not more to you than ten sons?” No way, you insensitive swine! Hannah goes to
the house of worship in Shiloh and begins dealing with God. “O Lord of hosts, if
only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me and not forget
your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give to him to
the Lord all the days of his life” (1st Sam 1:11). If God will give Hannah a
son, Hannah will give the son back to God. The New Testament expression of this
can be found in the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman. She desperately wants
her daughter healed. She reprimands Jesus when he refuses divine assistance
based on her nationality.
The raw petitions of the Syro-Phoenician woman and Hannah both lead to dramatic
change in the world. The healed daughter becomes a living witness to the
inclusive ministry of the church to Gentiles—in Christ there is neither Jew nor
Greek we hear multiple times in the Epistles. The boy Samuel grows up to guide
Israel through political turmoil and is the one who anointed David king.
When we suffer social shame or personal longing it is good and right to bring
our desires before God, and we must not lose sight of the social impact faithful
bargains with God will have on our world. If you will give me additional years
beyond this illness, if you will aid me as this business gets started, if you
will heal my child---- I will give it back to you. I will give the years back to
you; I will give the employment opportunities and proceeds of the company back
to you; I will give my education, a relationship, this or that back to you. It
warrants consideration the number of Samuels waiting to be born. God desires our
earnest prayers. God wants to bless us. God wants our blessing to be a blessing
for others. Oh that we would be as faithful in our end of the bargains we have
made with God as Hannah was in hers.
As the books of the bible near the time of Christ the relationship between
righteousness, justice and suffering shifts subtly. The bargaining of biblical
characters like Job and Habakkuk often leave the reader wondering about God’s
sense of justice or righteousness. The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
reflects this shift. Before king Nebuchadnezzar consigns the three Hebrews to
the fiery furnace they make a little speech. “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need
to present a defence to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to
deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let
him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve
your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up” (Dan
3:16-18). The three Hebrews have no expectation that they will survive. Just and
faithful servants of God will get thrown into furnaces and they will die.
Survival is not a part of their bargain. The story of Paul and Silas rotting in
prison following a harsh beating is a N.T. parallel to the fiery furnace (Acts
16). Whereas we might toss about in the cell questioning the goodness of God,
they pray and sing hymns until mid-night.
From the vantage point of “the exile” and the early church there is
recognition that the young will die early, businesses will fail, relationships
may not happen, marriages will fall apart, people like Hannah may never become
pregnant. From their perspective suffering becomes a place to give testimony to
their God be it in survival or as they go down in flames. The bargain with God
has become the following: if I suffer faithfully you will give my suffering, or
my delivery, meaning. In addition to dedicating our successes to God, are we
willing to dedicate our defeats to God? This transition finds its clearest
expression in Jesus Christ and the cross.
In the garden before his arrest Jesus prays to God that the cup might pass from
him, but he concludes his petition with not my will but yours. This fits with
the pattern of the Lord’s prophets (cf. Luke 4:24; 6:22-23; 11:47-51; 13:33-34;
Acts 7:52). “Scripture and the story of Jesus are being read in light of a
presumed pattern of prophetic destiny that includes suffering” (Robert
Tannefhill, Luke; a biblical commentary in the Abingdon New Testament Series ,
p.356). The story of Jesus differs from that of other prophets, according to the
gospel accounts, in that he experienced resurrection. In his death he
demonstrated the death of death. This is irony. Robert Tannehill writes that “it
is ironic that rejection and shameful death are the means by which Jesus enters
his glory...Behind the human purpose to eliminate Jesus there was a stronger
divine purpose that could use blind opposition to thwart human plans. Thus, God
can leave the...Messiah exposed to human resistance, like the prophets before
him, yet in this way achieve an ultimate saving purpose...Recognition of the
ironic quality of the death and resurrection of Jesus in Luke-Acts does not
remove the mystery and the struggle of faith that the disciples faced. A God who
works by irony is a God who continually surprises....This God requires the
disciple to trust in God’s power and goodness when all the evidence points to
the triumph of evil (ibid., 356-357). The ironic victories of God moulded out of
the story of Jesus have happened over and over again since the resurrection of
Jesus. Time does not allow me to tell you the story of Servitor, Anna Hendriks,
Archbishop Luwum, Oscar Remaro, or myriads of nameless others. These bargained
with God in the same way as Jesus. I expect that they felt the same struggle,
and inevitably, the same exultation as Jesus.
Our biblical texts invite us to negotiate with God. We have opportunity to
intercede with God on behalf of good people elsewhere; will we take in interest
the good people at a distance? We have opportunity to petition God for
ourselves; will we, like Hannah, dedicate God’s gifts to the service of the
Lord? We have opportunity to embrace triumphs of God in death; will we accept
the lordship of Jesus in our losses so that the world might see additional
resurrections? These are tough questions and we are not left alone with them. We
have the community of faith and we have the living presence of Jesus for
guidance and support. This is of some comfort as we consider our bargaining with
God. Amen.