It's one of my pet peeves. Some of you have probably heard my railing about it. Why can't something just be the price that it is? When you go to the grocery store, why is an item of food one price if you buy it with a special card and another if you don't have the card? Why can't a car just have a bottom line price? Why do we have to haggle and dicker. Why does one person pay $100 for an airline ticket and the next $400? To my mind, just figure out what it costs to run the plane so many miles and divide that by the number of seats and that's the price of the ticket. I tell you, I really had a hard time shopping in the Arab market in Israel. Nothing has a price---or rather every price is negotiable. You want to buy this necklace--$30. No that's too much-$20, well how about two necklaces for $40. You want the earrings too. That's another $5. You just want the earrings well then it's $25.
I get the same kind of goofy feeling from our Old Testament lesson for today. Here we've got Abraham, bargaining, negotiating, and wheedling with God. 50, how about forty-five, forty, thirty then. If you'll go thirty, how about twenty. Just let me try once more, if twenty how about ten. It is I am sure meant to be a whimsical story and I'm sure it would be down right humorous if it weren't that the destruction of a whole city was at stake.
In one way it disturbs me that the picture we get is that God doesn't have a bottom line but in another way I am eternally grateful that God doesn't have a bottom line. I am grateful because it means that there is and can be a genuine dialogue with God. It means that prayer isn't exclusively about reconciling us to some cosmic plan that God has already outlined but that God is including us in the ongoing development of the kingdom. Despite its whimsical depiction, the story has a real seriousness; because it reflects a picture of a God who can be swayed by human intercession and who can even give way to human compassion. This is not the only place in the Bible where the picture appears. The very name Israel was given to Jacob after wrestling all night with God. Israel means, "he strives (yisra) with God (`el)" (Gen 32:28). Moses is depicted as one who could be quite sharp with God, as in Exodus 5:22, where he says, "O Lord, why have you mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me? Exodus 32:14 does not hedge at saying that after Moses' intercession, "the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people." There are too many places where this principle may be observed to list them all, but at least a couple of New Testament ones can be given. One is the story of the Syro-Phoencician woman begging Jesus to heal her daughter as one of the crumbs from the master's table. The other is today's gospel in which Jesus appears to advise that his disciples should "bug" God, pester him until they got what they prayed for.
The implication of all this is that God has
regularly been led to widen the circle of divine compassion because
of the intercession of the people of God. God listens. God engages
with us in prayer. Certainly not, we are to understand, as equal
partners. The best prayers happen when we know both the power
of God and our own total dependency on God as well.
"There is an old prayer the Breton fishermen used to use
which seems to sum it up exactly. As they would cast off from
their shores along the coast of France and face the sweep and
toss and swell of deep waters, this seemingly neutral statement
was their prayer: `O, God, Thy sea is so great, and my boat is
so small.'" Real prayers begin with this basic knowledge
and faith.
Real prayers begin with a basic trust in the mercy and goodness
of God. David H. C. Read writes, "The way some people say
`God's will be done' gives the impression that God's will implies
something at least unpleasant and uncomfortable and at worst something
absolutely catastrophic... It suggests human life is in the hands
of a savage deity and the worst thing that could beset us is to
be victim of the will of God." But if we believe, as we must
in a loving, gracious God we say those words "Thy Will be
done" not with lifeless resignation but with real hope and
possibility.
We say them realizing that we do not know all
or see all, that God exists beyond our simple understanding. An
Old Jewish legend begins: Rabbi Joshua Ben Levi was a jut man,
without fault. So when he prayed that he might see the prophet
Elijah, God granted his request. Seeing the prophet before him,
the rabbi spoke: "Allow me to accompany you on your wanderings,
to see what it is you do for God's cause. For my heart longs to
see God's justice and rejoice in it."
"Rid yourself of your longing, for you will neither grasp
what I do nor be able to bear it," Elijah answered him.
But Rabbi Joshua replied, "Do I not know God's justice, and
can I not recognize his workings?" and he begged until the
prophet permitted him to follow, but warned, "Take care not
to question why I do as I do, for the moment you ask, you wandering
with me will end."
So they went and wandered the bright, green earth, back and forth
the whole day. At evening they approached a small hut, from which
a poor peasant emerged. He hurried to meet the two wanderers and
invite them into his dwelling. Once inside he bid them sit down
while he fetched water so they could wash. His wife set before
the wanderers' fresh milk, bread and fruit.
When the prophet and the rabbi wished to sleep, the man spread
out his own blankets for them and he and his wife lay down on
the cold, bare dirt of the of the hut's floor. Rabbi Joshua's
heart was glad at the hospitality of the poor man and he thought,
Elijah will surely reward him through God's justice. But when
morning came, Elijah got up and killed the cow, the poor man's
sole possession. Rabbi Joshua stared in shock at the prophet,
who only looked past him with stern eyes, so that the rabbi did
not dare say a word in question. The two went on leaving the two
peasants to lament their loss. The prophet and the rabbi passed
the day wandering the length and breadth of the bright green earth.
As the sun dipped low they entered the gates of a large beautiful
house and approached the owner to ask if they might rest under
his roof. "Why should I bother with you beggars? He scoffed
"You can sleep in the stable." They settled down beside
the animals, their hunger unsatisfied, their dusty feet unwashed.
Anger stirred in Rabbi Joshua's heart, and he thought, Elijah
will not let this hardhearted man go unpunished by God's justice.
But Elijah awoke at dawn, and went into the stable yard, where
a dilapidated wall leaned precariously. The prophet straightened
the stones so that the wall stood firm again, with no threat of
collapse. Now Rabbi Joshua tore his garments and called out, "I
tremble before you! Is this God's justice that the devout suffer
pain while the evil receive love? If so, woe is me, for my heart
has lost God, whom it served. Elijah towered over him. There was
power in his voice as he rebuked the rabbi: "You worm! Why
do you babble about God's justice with your earthly tongue? Did
I not tell you that you would not be able to bear what I do."
But Rabbi Joshua flung himself down on his knees and beat his
head against the earth and cried out, "Tell me why you have
done all this, or I shall die!"
Elijah replied, "You are a righteous one without fault! And
you have no greater trust in God?"
Despairing, Rabbi Joshua kissed the dust at Elijah's feet. Then
the prophet said, "Yes now I will explain everything to you.
The poor man whose cow I killed was guilty of some sin. But because
of his Godliness God did not want to afflict him or his wife.
Instead he took the cow. The man whose wall I straightened--beneath
its stones a treasure lay hidden and, had he made the repairs
himself, he would have discovered it. The treasure would have
served to harden his heart more and increase his evil.
Then Elijah spoke to the rabbi for the last time: "Stand
up, oh man! Our journey together is ended. What you have seen
you will see wherever you wander on the earth. But when you see
wicked people living in happiness while godly ones live in pain,
let your trust in God be great and humble. Who are you that you
should know the ways of the All-Wise one? So be silent before
God's righteousness which is beyond your grasp.
Elijah turned away for him and disappeared. But Rabbi Joshua lay
still, praying to God.
Amen.