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Sometimes when I walked into class my students would ask me a question like: “can we watch a movie today?” or “can we have class outside?” Or they’d ask a question to get me off track; anything to distract me from the lesson I had planned. And yet, even though I knew what they were doing, every now and then, I’d go along with it. I’d let them distract me as together we’d engage in whatever topic they asked me to consider. I knew they were working me a bit but the banter often ended up creating a bond that brought us closer together.
One of the more intriguing texts from the Bible comes in Genesis 18 when God is about to destroy the city of Sodom. Abraham engages God in a little back and forth banter. If you get a chance I encourage you to read the entire passage (Gen 18:23-33). Abraham asks God why he would destroy a city that might have some righteous people in it. He asks if God would consider sparing the city if he could find fifty righteous people. God agrees. Abraham then proceeds to ask if God would consider sparing the city if there were forty-five righteous people. God agrees that he will spare the city if there are forty-five righteous ones. And it continues on from there. Each time Abraham asks, God agrees to grant what Abraham is asking. Abraham asks if God will spare the city if there are forty righteous, then thirty, twenty, and finally ten. Back and forth they go, as together they engage as though bartering over an item in a city market.
What makes this dialogue intriguing of course is that God, by definition, is omniscient. God already knows how many righteous people are in the city- so why would he engage in such banter with Abraham? Why all of this back and forth if God already knows what he’s going to do?
What this story suggests to me is that we have a God who engages with his people; a God who, despite all his knowledge and foreknowledge, invites this kind of interaction. It seems as though God, despite his power and position, listens to us. Apparently, God is not an automaton who controls everything dispassionately from a distance. Rather, there seems to be a desire to personally interact with his people.
And this, I believe, is what we call prayer; communication with an Almighty who could very easily dismiss us and yet seems to value the opportunity to interact with us. And while we don’t always get everything we want in our prayers (neither did Abraham in Genesis 18) it’s comforting to know that we have a God who engages; one who is not coldly distant, but rather welcomes, even desires, that his students engage with him on a daily basis.
This week I invite you to enter into a little banter with the divine- a little back and forth- a little prayer, with the God who listens.
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