Fr Raphael Vereshack
16-04-2005, 03:54 PM
I thought it would be proper to start a new thread as the topic here is changing a lot from the original theme. And since we seem to be addressing the issue of prayer & the mercy of God I thought it would be a good title.
Prayer is an attempt to participate in the mercy of God. But there are times when His mercy works in a way directly counter to what we may wish.
An example of this is one of the Old Testament readings from Genesis from this past week when Abraham prays continuously that God have mercy on Sodom. This is a well known and beloved passage from Scripture with Abraham pleading with God, "if only 50 are found righteous"; and then going all the way down to ten, "for the sake of ten I will not destroy it," God says.
First of all there is the theme of God's mercy. Although it appears that Abraham pleads with God so that He show mercy is this really so? Could it really be that God was not going to show mercy until Abraham appealed to Him? Or (sometimes we think about this when we pray)- if no one was to pray for mercy on someone then would God not show mercy? Obviously there are serious problems with these ways of seeing what prayer is- almost as if we are trying to convince God to show mercy- for this would mean that we are the merciful ones and not God! So it is better to say that God always shows mercy- but this mercy is revealed in different ways- and we are through prayer trying to participate in God's mercy.
But the fact that Sodom was ultimately destroyed touches the theme of who or what not to pray for. Abraham did pray for Sodom and this was accounted as being righteous as far as the request went. But it must have been that not even ten were found righteous in Sodom. And there is one further important fact alluded to later on. As the angels are leading Lot and his family out of the city they say, "for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it." (Gen.19:13)
In other words the mercy of the Lord is shown in many different ways some of which may be quite contrary to our own wishes. And this ties in I think especially with what Owen & Theophilus have written. What if someone has gone against the Holy Spirit and domineered over others to oppress & slaughter them? What if such people defile the name of God and either are completely oblivious to Him or even set themselves up as "gods" to be worshipped and obeyed in their own right? Are not then the "outcries against such people great before the Lord?" So they also are praying for God's mercy but this clearly went counter to Abraham's original plea for mercy on Sodom.
In Christ- Fr Raphael
Prayer is an attempt to participate in the mercy of God. But there are times when His mercy works in a way directly counter to what we may wish.
An example of this is one of the Old Testament readings from Genesis from this past week when Abraham prays continuously that God have mercy on Sodom. This is a well known and beloved passage from Scripture with Abraham pleading with God, "if only 50 are found righteous"; and then going all the way down to ten, "for the sake of ten I will not destroy it," God says.
First of all there is the theme of God's mercy. Although it appears that Abraham pleads with God so that He show mercy is this really so? Could it really be that God was not going to show mercy until Abraham appealed to Him? Or (sometimes we think about this when we pray)- if no one was to pray for mercy on someone then would God not show mercy? Obviously there are serious problems with these ways of seeing what prayer is- almost as if we are trying to convince God to show mercy- for this would mean that we are the merciful ones and not God! So it is better to say that God always shows mercy- but this mercy is revealed in different ways- and we are through prayer trying to participate in God's mercy.
But the fact that Sodom was ultimately destroyed touches the theme of who or what not to pray for. Abraham did pray for Sodom and this was accounted as being righteous as far as the request went. But it must have been that not even ten were found righteous in Sodom. And there is one further important fact alluded to later on. As the angels are leading Lot and his family out of the city they say, "for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it." (Gen.19:13)
In other words the mercy of the Lord is shown in many different ways some of which may be quite contrary to our own wishes. And this ties in I think especially with what Owen & Theophilus have written. What if someone has gone against the Holy Spirit and domineered over others to oppress & slaughter them? What if such people defile the name of God and either are completely oblivious to Him or even set themselves up as "gods" to be worshipped and obeyed in their own right? Are not then the "outcries against such people great before the Lord?" So they also are praying for God's mercy but this clearly went counter to Abraham's original plea for mercy on Sodom.
In Christ- Fr Raphael