PENTECOST X 2013

• Hosea 1:2-10 and Psalm 85  • 
• Genesis 18:20-32 and Psalm 138  • 
• Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)  • 
• Luke 11:1-13

Landscape with destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah -- Joachim Patinir c.1520

This is one of those weeks in which it is rather hard to find the common theme that links the Lectionary’s ‘thematic’ readings. A common thread, perhaps, is ‘persistence’.  In the passage from Genesis, the fate of those notoriously wicked cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, is in prospect. Abraham, somewhat surprisingly, takes it upon himself to question God, and persists in extracting a promise that God’s justice will not allow Him to destroy the righteous few who happen to live alongside evil many. God finally concedes that if even a tiny proportion of Sodom’s citizens are righteous, then the city will be spared.

Persistence is also a feature of the Gospel passage. Jesus recounts a little episode in which a villager’s persistent knocking on the door of a neighbor finally produces the bread he needs to feed a guest who unexpectedly arrives at midnight. By extension, it seems, we should be willing to persist in knocking on God’s door, and making sure He knows what we need.

'Give us this day our daily bread' (photograph) Rudolph Eickemeyer

Yet, in the verses immediately preceding these, Jesus teaches his disciples a prayer that is strikingly simple, just five short sentences, only one of which is a request for material help – our daily bread. Is there some way in which its simplicity might teach us about truly persistent prayer?

The constant repetition of ‘the Lord’s prayer’ has been the practice of Christians from the earliest time. This itself exhibits a kind of persistence -- not the relentless persistence of a demanding child who will not take no for an answer, but a willingness to pray again and again, despite what sometimes feels like divine silence. Such prayer is grounded in the belief that God’s love is sure to secure the best for us. And perhaps, indeed, it is in the practice of prayer itself that we obtain the gift that Jesus actually promises us in this Gospel passage – the gift of the Holy Spirit.