The
Holy Spirit, the Word, and Prayer
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the March 11, 2017 Sabbath School Lesson
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek
and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door
will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8, NIV
During the few decades I worked for the State of
Washington, the buildings I worked in had kitchen/lunch room areas. They would
usually contain one or more refrigerators so that the workers could bring their
lunches and snacks and keep them cold until needed. They would also contain a coffee
machine to help keep the workers alert for their tasks. There would also be one
or more microwave ovens to reheat food for lunch, and running water for those ubiquitous
cups of ramen noodles. Several vending machines for salty and sweet snacks
would line the walls of the room as well. Some of the offerings were more
popular than the rest, and often when a person would go anticipating their
favorite snack, perhaps a Snickers bar, that section would be empty. But if all
went well, they could put in the correct amount of money and out would pop
exactly what was desired.
The rest of the kitchen functioned the same predictable way.
With the microwave, if a person set the timer for the amount of time indicated
in the instructions for the microwavable meal or the ramen noodles, a tasty and
warm meal could be expected. If the coffee machine was filled with the right
amount of coffee and water, within a specified amount of time, a steaming hot
beverage could be expected.
We get used to these processes in life. We follow a set
program of instructions, and we get an expected result. If that doesn’t happen,
we recheck the process to make sure we did not err in following the
instructions. If there was no error and the expected result did not materialize,
we then label the machine as “out of order” or broken. Someone then needs to
fix it. The coffee machine or the microwave needs to be repaired or replaced.
Sometimes the vending machine would get that Snickers bar stuck between the
storage area and the discharge chute. When that happened we might try shaking
the machine to dislodge it, but if that failed we may be forced to wait until
it, too, was repaired.
We don’t like it when things don’t work as expected. We
like an orderly world where everything and everyone can be depended upon. In
spite of this expectation, machines break down and people break as well. Often,
it is in these moments of brokenness that we learn a lot about ourselves and those
around us. Sometimes, in spite of brokenness being a random but expected occurrence,
it is so hard for some to deal with that they also become broken by the
experience. They may never forget what happened, referring back to it for the
rest of their lives. This may seem as an overstatement in the case of a
Snickers bar, but if the person was diabetic needing that bar to deal with a
bout of hypoglycemia, the experience could be life threatening. Or if a person
flubbed a major presentation because they were up all night the night before
preparing it, and no coffee was available to restore alertness. If they could then
not hammer down all the details in their presentation, they would not likely forget
easily if the meeting went poorly as a result, especially if they were demoted
or fired as a consequence. Not surprisingly then, we place a high value on
everything working when we follow the process prescribed.
Perhaps this is why we relate to God in a similar
manner. We want to believe that if we follow the process, we will get the
result. Therefore, when we don’t get the result expected, we handle our
relationship with God the same way we handle our relationship with the office
microwave. We first seek to find out if we did everything right. Have we been keeping
all of the Decalogue?[i] Have we been paying enough
in tithes and offerings?[ii] What is wrong with the
process? The verse at the top of this page tells me I can expect to receive if
I only ask. Why is it not working?
At this point, someone might share what John said in his
first epistle about the request being in accordance with God’s will.[iii] This might bring us back
not only to the process but what was the expected result from the prayer
process. Was that result in accordance with the will of what God would want? If,
like Janis Joplin, we were asking for a new Mercedes Benz, then maybe we will
decide that God did not see that as beneficial for us. But what about if our
prayer was for someone who was sick or dying? If that prayer was not answered,
would that mean it was God’s will for them to die or to suffer? How do we reconcile
the will of a loving God[iv] with unanswered prayers
to heal? Maybe we can place the blame for this on our lack regarding the proper
process, but what if the process is not flawed? Will a person following the
correct process always have their prayer for healing answered? Perhaps another
question might be, is it possible to ever have the process entirely correct for
a sinful person? And since we all are sinners,[v] is the idea of expecting a
certain result flawed from the outset? If that were the case, then the Bible
telling us to pray[vi]
would make no sense. No, we are instructed to pray even though we are sinners.
Therefore our sins cannot be the problem. This brings us back to the issue of
God’s will. Does God really desire illness, suffering and death? If that were
the case, why would John, the Apostle, pray for someone’s health and prosperity?[vii]
Maybe the real problem is that we don’t know the answer,
but we still want to be apologists for God. In our search for perfection of
process, we are also implying perfection of understanding about a Being we
really know very little about. We have some understanding of basic principles
like love and compassion, and this may lead us to feel that we have God all
figured out, “in a box” as it were. But when we run up against justice and the
problem of sin, we begin to stumble if we only see “God is love” in our box and
nothing more. For instance, how do we reconcile that love with the elimination
of mankind from the face of the earth in the flood, preserving only Noah, his
wife, his three sons, and their wives? On a smaller scale, where do we find God’s
love in the beheading of John the Baptist? Did no one pray for John while he
was in Herod’s dungeon? Or was it God’s will for this child of the wilderness
to end his life in a dark and dank dungeon cell? It did not seem to be because
of John’s lack, for Jesus praised him highly.[viii]
Could it be that the greater problem here is because we are so used to orderly
processes that produce an expected result, we are uncomfortable with a God that
does not conform to that understanding? As often as we try to contain our understanding
of God within that box, the box keeps leaking, and what it leaks out are
questions that are often unanswerable. Maybe we are a little like the person
who finds the Snickers bar stuck halfway to the dispenser tray. We try to
figure out what happened and may shake the machine a bit to see if that
resolves the problem, but in the end, it is still stuck and we have to wait for
the repair person. There are some problems we can neither fix nor explain. We
may therefore be left to wait for the Parousia when the Repairman is scheduled
to return. Even then, in spite of the repairs, we may not fully understand. One
of the most certain attributes of God, who transcends not only our ability to
analyze Him and categorize Him, but everything beyond that as well, is His inscrutability.
Perhaps, in the light of that, it is OK for us to honestly state, “I don’t know
the answer,” when faced with these challenges to our understanding. For those
who wish to have a neatly packaged God who will never challenge them with
anything beyond the container they keep Him in, that may be unacceptable. But
for those who can accommodate themselves to living with uncertainty, praying
without regards to the result, praying because we are admonished to, God may
reveal far more wonders over time than can ever be held by that box, explanations
notwithstanding.
