Word of Salvation – Vol. 31 No. 08 – Sep 1986
On Speaking Terms
Sermon by Rev. A. I. De Graaf on Lord’s Day 45
Readings: Gen. 18, Rom. 8:14-16, 26, 27.
Singing: P.H. 14, 94, 95, 292, 273.
It all sounds somewhat strange, when you really think of it, does it not? Showing one’s gratitude by going up and asking for more!?!
And then: that bit about God requiring us to pray: prayer as a COMMAND PERFORMANCE! Is that right? Must not prayer – of all things – be a nice and spontaneous act?
But all this strangeness is nothing compared with the utter strangeness of the thing itself! What does a little earth-worm of a man really do when he prays and claims to be ON TALKING TERMS with the Holy Ruler of all universe? And then claims that this Holy God even listens?! Listens with ATTENTION!?
Well, you could say that all of this is illustrated beautifully in our Old Testament reading from Genesis 18.
It starts with a God Who comes visiting this old cattle-and-sheep- farmer Abraham, has a snack at Abraham’s table, and allows this gentleman to serve him. As if He would need anything the old fellow could serve Him with!
Ah, but as soon as the farmer’s wife Sarah, misled by the common down-to-earth-ness of it all, thinks she can laugh sneakily at this Visitor and His un-believable news she is reminded of the wonder of it all: Who do you think This is, Sarah? Whom do you think you can laugh at like that?
But it all culminates in that discussion God has with Abraham about Sodom. Abraham knows only too well – insofar as we can ever really know that! – how holy is the Lord and how much dust and ashes he is himself. But in spite of that contrast, in spite of the strangeness of this situation, that he can discuss with the Lord of all the plans He has – continues talking, he keeps on pleading, even bargaining! And – amazing! – the Lord God appears to be seriously interested in Abraham’s point of view. Mollified – even slightly amused perhaps, but all the same His holy ears are wide open, and His full attention is riveted on what this old man has to say.
This old man whom He calls His child – whom He calls his friend! He inclines His ear… even when later on it appears that He knows better, that He knows best. He hears Abraham’s prayer. Does He answer it? Sodom is destroyed in spite of it all…!
Yes, but even though Abraham may never have known it in all his earthly days – God was working on the answer all the time, sending His angels who were working right then to get Lot and his family out of trouble.
GOD AND MAN ON SPEAKING TERMS
1. Listen first… and keep listening!
2. Commanded to pray… and yet prayer is “the breathing of the soul”?
3. Ask for what you cannot do without – and then finally
4. ON SPEAKING TERMS WITH THE ALMIGHTY…
1. LISTEN FIRST… AND KEEP LISTENING!
Yes, to keep on speaking terms with anyone, you have to listen to him… and keep listening. Otherwise you may end up talking to the wrong person! Or you end up talking… just to yourself! There are people today who say that’s all what prayer is: talking to yourself; a psychological stocktaking at the end of a day.
But the Christian knows better. He knows it to be a wonderful TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION. And since God is the Great One, His child and humble servant had better listen first! …and listen again!
When we hear God’s Voice in His Word we hear the voice of His holiness and His anger. His anger at our sinfulness and rebellion – Oh we hear that voice, as it were, muted, softly. Otherwise we would melt away under the scorching fury of His judgement. But the fact that God graciously softens the voice of His anger should not make us think that “all is right” and “anything goes”. Much prayer is ineffective and un-blessed because it does not listen enough. We devalue God to a Santa Claus who must run upon our crazy wishes. We make Him the rubbing-post of our frustrations, the one to blame for our faults: the one to go crook at, while it was we who have been messing things up.
No, when our Confession tells us that we only can come to God in prayer “acknowledging our need and misery, hiding nothing!” it is not telling us to forget that God in Christ has wiped all our sins away and invited us forever to call Him Father. But it is to make us remember – again and again – that we may come to Him only by a miracle!
Listen to His voice even when it sounds softly – and know who He Is and who YOU are: His child… but only by grace. He IS the sovereign! Not your servant! And so when we hear around us all those voices, and have all those voices within us, too; voices of anger, of grief, of protest, voices of frustration and doubt and unbelief, we can only talk to God when we carefully bend OUR ear to HIS Voice. Only then can we expect Him to bend His ear to ours. On speaking terms… that means: for your prayer life’s sake: Keep on listening!
2. Prayer is called the “breathing of the soul”.
How can that be true when we are commanded to pray?
Don’t think that is so silly! I remember my Dad telling me about doing exercises. At 76 he keeps himself remarkably fit by exercising a lot, even push-ups! But he told me a few months ago – don’t forget to breathe! You can concentrate so much on the exercise that you hold your breath – and – he said: “I discovered that I was exhausted very fast!”! Yes – God makes sense when He tells us that to live the life of obedience a child of God needs the oxygen of prayer. Don’t forget to breathe.
God commands, for He knows that we are but dust. “Come on”, He says “come here to Me”. Tell Me – discuss it with Me! Didn’t I put you on talking terms with Me? Our religion may never be the religion of the spectator – not even the spectator looking at the cross! We are not merely to look at God, neither are we merely to send our DONATIONS to God, expecting Him automatically to give us joy when we fill in a fat amount on our pledge envelope slip. Psalm 50 speaks of offerings we may bring to God, but it goes on saying:
“Call upon ME in the day of trouble, and I will pull you out, says the Lord!”.
Neither are we just to send a servant to God to do the talking for us, however beautiful it may be that we can pray for one another. And however true it is also, that in times of deep depression and beset by sin or grief, a straying child of God may have friends who do the praying FOR HIM for a while – parents for a child, a husband for an ailing wife, like the four friends who brought their mate to Jesus, and Jesus, seeing THEIR faith, said: “Your sins are forgiven!”. Praise God this is true, but it may not stay like that.
You are not to send a servant – like the minister for instance – to God as if you pay him to do the praying for you: This in the long run is not good enough. Father asks: where is my child? I want to hear him myself! And if then we find praying hard – yes, if we find we do not know how to pray as we ought – (for prayers, too, ought to be well-mannered, fitting, reverent!) but if we yet try, we find the Holy Spirit in us is praying already: He is God praying in me. And the Son is the Instructor teaching us and giving us a model in the Lord’s Prayer. “Knock!”, “Seek!”, “Ask!” says this Instructor, because Father is interested in His children. When we offer Him anything at all, we are to offer Him ourselves, and come before His face, warts and all. “I was waiting for you…” He says. Yes, we must “wait for the Lord” but says the Bible, this too is a two-way thing: “I am waiting for you!” says God.
And then – thirdly we are asked to ASK…
3. ASK FOR WHAT WE KNOW WE CANNOT DO WITHOUT.
In fact: we are to ask God for whatever we think we need.
Ask HIM and not just anybody else. Don’t go elsewhere first, only to END UP at God when you find that other avenues do not work! Forgiveness and grace and joy… yes – but also that erring child, that difficult teenager, that girl you would want to marry, the loan for the house… but also that lost bunch of keys!
True, we often think we need the wrong things. In “The Lord’s Prayer” we are taught to see what we really need. But we may add literally everything to that when we come to God knowing Who He Is and what He can do. He does not want to be kept outside of our real life.
What father would like to be treated as an outsider who does not understand anyway, or, worse, doesn’t care. God does not want to be kept away from what is dear to our hearts. For, you see, anything you keep away from God, anything you keep God away from, has the strange and evil tendency to become an idol! Even perfectly good creatures can become idols that way, when you try to manage them, get them, enjoy them away from God!
God seeks to be on speaking terms with us and He invites us – us of all people – to be on speaking terms with Him. This is one of the tenderest things a mother – and a father – may teach their children: the open door, the privilege of prayer. To be on speaking terms with the Most High, that is thanks to Jesus Christ who opened the door and yes – IS the Door – one of the most striking features of a child of God. A redeemed child of God, never more walking alone.
Dust and ashes, said Abraham! Did he know! And yet: a child of the Great King. Discussing everything with God. And thus ruling the world from a little attic room, from a sick bed, from the driver’s seat of a car. Reading in the paper about people burning themselves because they’re overcome by the grief and destruction of sin and then straight away going to God when having read that: “Lord what do You think of this”? On speaking terms with the Almighty…! Yes it is truly a strange and wonderful thing. Maybe we ought to go a bit further, and call it a miracle. A miracle that may happen in your life for the sake of Jesus who became a Stranger for your sake. A miracle, through the Spirit who was poured out also upon you, to teach you to say “Abba”, Father.
Who said that miracles do not happen anymore?
AMEN.