Who Is God and Why Does He Care About Me?	7/25/2004	Click to Print
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time		Deacon Rick Lapierre
At the end of Eugene O’Neill’s play, The Great God Brown, the character Billy Brown lies dying and the woman who has become his mother-figure and friend comforts him with assurances of love and that everything will be all right. Knowing the life he has lived and the details of which he has revealed to the audience, he is especially afraid of the Last Judgment that he will face. “I don’t want justice,” he says emphatically, “I want love!” And the woman assures him that where he is going there is only love. And Billy dies saying the words, “Our Father, who art in heaven…” It occurs to me that, like Billy, we spend however many years God gives us in this life looking for Him. Even our un-churched brothers and sisters, while often denying the need for prayer and a spiritual life, embark on exactly that quest using phrases like, “quest for knowledge” or “searching for inner peace” or “the pursuit of happiness “ or even “that special thing we call love.” For example, I was reading in yesterday morning’s paper of how Madonna and other celebrities are embracing Kaballah, the study of Jewish mysticism, in their attempts to fill this longing that each of us has. The unnamed disciple in the gospel this morning has that same longing. He asks the Master he has chosen to follow, ‘how can I have this relationship with God that you and John the Baptist seem to enjoy?’ And in a simple sentence Jesus teaches him one of the most important tenets of our faith. That the mighty Creator God, whom the Jews hold in such reverence and awe that they will not even utter His Name, is really the parent who has brought us into life. And later Jesus will even refer to this parent, not with the formal title of “Father,” but with the familiar form of “Abba” or “Dad.” This Father is not all about justice and rules, but about love. Remember those early teenage years, when you were convinced that your parents were all about were rules and punishments? Let’s be honest, we didn’t see any love there. After all, we knew what was best for us when we were fourteen or fifteen or sixteen. All of that curfew stuff and having to clean our rooms was baloney, because our parents weren’t as smart as we were. With age, however, comes wisdom, and once we had our own children suddenly we could see the wisdom of our parents, and more importantly how their concern and care reflected the love they had for us. After all, which one of us who are parents would give our own children a snake instead of a fish, or a scorpion when they ask for an egg? Jesus almost seems incredulous that anyone would think that God, His Father, His Abba, would do something like that. But this is really the only instance in Scripture where Jesus gives us a formula, as He tries to teach us the reality of what He really knows. Prayer to Jesus is when He goes off and spends time with His Father. Prayer is about becoming one with the Creator God, who we believe is really three separate and distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the purpose of prayer, and if we take this to a logical conclusion, then all of our life, except when we turn away from God by sin, is prayer. Family life is prayer, work is prayer, study is prayer, and ministry is prayer. Jesus’ greatest prayer was not in teaching us those wonderful truths of the Our Father, but offering Himself as a Sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus shows us so clearly by His life of service, of sacrifice, that all indeed is prayer. Because it was precisely Jesus’ prayer of atonement, His dying on the cross, that made it possible for all of us here to have that special familial relationship with our God. And it is precisely that relationship with God that enables us to live the life to which God has called us. It is only in that oneness that we can somehow share with God that which will give us the answer to life’s challenges: the illnesses that strike the innocent, the broken relationships, the hurts and pains we see almost every day. When we rail against God at the injustices (or rather the lack of love) we see, the best image we can focus on is that our God is not aloof to our pain, but is the parent who hugs us and cries with us, since that is His nature. Jesus did not cure every sick person He came across, or solve every social problem He saw, but He did reveal the loving power of God to each person and each condition He met as He walked the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea. My brothers and sisters, prayer is life. That is the message of the saints who have come and gone before us. I would like to close with a prayer that was found on the body of a dead Confederate soldier during the Civil War. You may have heard it before, but it speaks of prayer as Jesus does. It goes like this: I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health, that I might do greater things; I was given illness that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for; and everything I hoped for. Almost, in spite of myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, truly blessed. Amen.