Homily for 17th week ordinary time year c. Readings Gen 18:20-32, Col 2:12-14, Luke 11:1-13

When I was younger I was taught that God answers prayers, but I as my teenage and beyond years began the thought became he did not answer my prayers. During this time, I believed if I asked for it God was just supposed to give it to me with no problem so that I could be happy.

With growing age came a little wisdom, since God does not necessarily answer prayers based on my wants, but on my needs. There is also the idea that in order for me to have a prayer answered I need to do something; such as act as he would want me to act.

While I have certainly had answered prayers, there were many of them, looking back on my life. They were not always answered in the way I asked them. We hear today about Abraham bargaining with God about the fate of Sodom. He pleads with God to save the city since even though there are many people who are acting against God, there may still be some within the city that are good people.

In today’s world we often wonder where have all the good people gone. We have terrorist acts being perpetrated all over the world that continue to kill innocent people. We have killing each other over drugs and money. We have racism and slavery still rearing their ugly head in many places around our country and the world to this day.

While we pray for peace and an end to bigotry of any sort what are we doing to assist in ending the violence and hatred we see. Prayer is certainly a good place to begin, but what else can we do. Abraham in his pleading and negotiating with God is asking for all of Sodom due to the fact that there are a certain number of good people in the city. We do not see an explanation of what this good person looks like but I think we all have a good idea what they do.

These are the people working toward peace and a civil, moral society eliminating the labels, bigotry and violence that is prevalent. They are not answering violence with an ever escalating violence. They are not separating people into different groups so they can feel superior to them, but they are peacefully trying to bring all sides to an understanding. Yes, we are all different people, but in our hearts we are all looking for the same thing, a peaceful world where we can live with no fear. A world in which all people regardless of their race, gender, culture, financial status or religion can live together and work towardthe betterment of all people. This is truly the world in which we all would like to live, where everyone has an equal chance at bettering their life. Abraham believes that this can come about if there are a small group of people who are working toward this ideal.

Today we also hear from Jesus how we are called to pray, we hear the words we are all familiar with and that we recite seemingly without thinking about them. We hear also that God wants to answer our prayers, we need to but ask. If we seek we will find, ask and we shall receive. What if we are the ones called on by God to be the answer to someone else’s prayer?

Jesus reminds us that if we are asked in the middle of the night to provide food or shelter to another we should be offering it. We should not be offering simply because we feel obligated, but because we see so much misery we are called to assist in ending it.

Paul reminds us in the reading today the Jesus was sent to take our sins away, calling us to be the people of God through the waters of baptism. We are cleansed of our sins and are called to a new life. This new life is one in which we are expected to assist others, not for our own sake, but to answer their prayers in life.

How many of us have ever thought that when we are assisting others that we are God conduit to answering that person’s prayer? By simply being there when they needed someone to talk with or providing a loaf of bread we may be answering the prayer of the person before us. This prayer they have been asking to be answered multiple times in different places and different ways. Their persistence in prayer in the end may be answered by you.

We may never know that we were the answer to their prayer, just as there were many in Israel and the world that did not realize the Jesus was the answer to their prayers for a teacher, healer and forgiver of sin.

I realize as I have gotten older that my prayers have been answered, not necessarily in the time that I sought or even always in the way I would have liked. Still they were answered, out of Gods abundant mercy and love they have been answered.

This mercy and love need to come to the forefront of the world today. I am not under the illusion that we will all be sitting around together and singing Kumbaya together, but if we can show mercy to those around us, evil will begin to retreat. We often see more progress in the world from non-violent methods of protest than from violent forms of protest. Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King accomplished many things by not answering violence with violence, or hatred with hatred.

Through our persistence in prayer and our actions to those around us, we have the ability to have our own prayers answered. There is also in prayer the reminder that as God forgives us our sins we are called to forgive those who have sinned against us. While this can be extremely difficult, remember as he was being crucified Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

All prayer is worthy of an answer and when we are persistent in prayer, and behave as we are hoping to be treated, then through that persistence and action prayers will be answered. There is this idea that a prayer needs to be answered exactly as we ask, but God may answer it in a way in which it will lead you down a different path than you are on. We need to be open to His answer, not ours, because through the Holy Spirit he will answer our prayers and evil in all its forms will be defeated.