17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time

Overview and Connections

Today’s readings explore conversation with God, with themes of persistence in asking and faith in receiving an answer.

Genesis 18:20-32

The Genesis narrative begins very broadly but quickly centers on the figure of Abram/Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. A brief overview:

Chp 12 Abram migrates to Canaan with Lot.
In chp 13 they part company.
In chp 14 Lot is captured and Abram rescues him.
In chp 15 God makes a covenant with Abram to give him land and descendants.
Ishmael is born in chp 16.
In chp 17 God institutes circumcision while also changing Abram’s name to Abraham and reaffirming the covenant from chp 15.

Today’s story is not about haggling or even about mercy. It’s a theological grappling with the nature of divine justice. What do we mean when we say that God is just? And to what extent can the righteousness of some offset the sinfulness of most? What is justice in this situation? None of these questions has an easy answer.

When thinking about questions like this, I always like to find a case on the margins. Consider this situation: the setting is a large household in the city of Sodom. There is a patriarchal father, a mother, sons, and daughters-in-law. Perhaps a few unmarried daughters. Grandchildren. Is everyone in this house guilty of the sins of Sodom? Probably not. But there are probably a few who are. What is justice for the loving mother whose sons are guilty?

This reading establishes an important theological premise that runs through scripture: God must act justly. Another important theological concept shown here is the willingness of God to accommodate humans. God “comes down” to Abraham in a form that Abraham can relate to, and God engages in dialogue. This is something else that runs throughout scripture, culminating in the Incarnation.

We teach that God is omniscient – all knowing. And yet, there are pieces of scripture that seem to call this into question. For example, Jesus said that no one except the Father knows the day or hour of his return, not even Jesus. This passage, as well, seems to test the boundaries of God’s knowing. It seems God has heard some things and has come down to “find out” the truth of it.

In interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham is likely considering his nephew Lot. Even though they parted ways in chp 13, they are still family. 1 Peter 2:6-8 tells us that Lot was a righteous man, but his surroundings brought him down.

One of the most serious sins in ancient cultures was abuse of a stranger, a breach of hospitality. Abraham makes an unlikely plea for a society that has abused strangers. His argument is that even a few just people can and should tip the scale of judgment for a whole society. In Jeremiah 5:1, it seems that God took a page from Abraham’s playbook!

Another potentially troublesome theological issue raised by this passage is the idea of corporate judgment. As a society, Sodom and Gomorrah would be held accountable as a whole, even though it was acknowledged that not everyone participated in the sin. In God’s initial plan to destroy the whole city, were the “righteous” ones perhaps being held accountable for their silence around systematic sin?

In v32, Abraham ends his questions with the number ten. Later in Jewish tradition, this would become the minimum number to form a community of faith.

Consider our current cultural context. It might seem that the wickedness of the many threatens to topple the possibility of the kingdom envisioned by the prophets, where good overcomes evil. Now, imagine a few truly good people that you know. Perhaps not saints in the traditional sense, but people who have good hearts and are doing what they can. Can you imagine a world where the good of those few overcomes the evilness of this present world?

Abraham speaks freely to God, but notice that it is God who begins the conversation. Where might God be inviting you into divine conversations today?

Abraham’s request is not that God spare the righteous and punish the wicked. Rather, Abraham asks God to spare everyone. Ponder this and consider how you would feel about asking God to spare someone who was guilty.

Colossians 2:12-14

Background of the book

This short passage deals with a range of issues: baptism, the efficacy of Christ’s work, and our freedom.

In v11, the author identifies baptism with circumcision, the only place in the New Testament where this connection is made. This verse is inseparable from v12 and creates a metaphorical connection between circumcision (the way into the old covenant) and baptism (the way into the new covenant). Our faith and God’s power are intricately linked to what happens in baptism.

V13 speaks of “uncircumcision,” a slang term used by Jews of Gentiles. This verse has close parallels to Ephesians 2:1-10. The author emphasizes the role of faith over the “work” of circumcision.

In v14 there is an image not used elsewhere in the New Testament: the idea of a “bond,” which was a certificate of debt. This is a legal metaphor, and the author envisions such a document nailed to the cross, obliterated, taken care of forever.

Baptism enacts putting to death the old life and entering the new. The sacrament of baptism happens once and indelibly changes us. But putting off the old and embracing the new is the work of a lifetime. Pray over what old things need to be let go of and what newness God is inviting you to embrace.

Luke 11:1-13

Background of the book

Last week’s story of Martha and Jesus is at one level a story about prayer. Martha asks Jesus to do something and Jesus answers. The answer is no, but it is an answer! This story connects us to the material in chapter 11 on prayer.

We might begin by looking at the word prayer or pray. The English word derives from the Latin precar, which means “to obtain by entreaty.” This is perhaps what most people think prayer is – asking God for things.

The Greek word is much more interesting; the Greek word translated in v1 as “pray” is a compound word: proseuchomai. Pros is a preposition indicating direction. It means moving towards something, but it implies reciprocity – that something is also moving towards us. Our word exchange might better capture this. Euchomai means something like a request, but it can also mean a wish.

If we could define this Greek word without the baggage of 2000 years of language, we might say that in v1, Jesus was exchanging his wishes with God’s wishes. This implies so much more than just telling God what we want. It implies an active exchange where we are transformed, and perhaps God is transformed as well.

The Lord’s Prayer v1-4

Vv1-4 begin with what is generally called “The Lord’s Prayer.” We notice right away that Luke’s version is shorter and simpler. Mark and John do not have this prayer which we have come to think of as so key to our faith, at least liturgically. It’s interesting to compare Matthew and Luke’s versions, along with a 2nd-century version from The Didache:

Luke 11	Matthew 6	Didache (2nd century ~180AD)
Father,	Our Father in heaven,	Our Father, who art in Heaven,
hallowed be your name,	hallowed be your name,	hallowed be thy Name,
your kingdom come.	your kingdom come,	your kingdom come,
	your will be done, on earth as in heaven.	your will be done, as in Heaven so also upon earth;
Give us each day our daily bread	Give us today our daily bread;	give us today our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins	and forgive us our debts,	and forgive us our debt
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,	as we forgive our debtors;	as we forgive our debtors,
and do not subject us to the final test.	and do not subject us to the final test,	and lead us not into trial,
	but deliver us from the evil one.	but deliver us from the Evil One,
		for thine is the power and the glory for ever.

Luke’s version is very simple, and scholars tell us that his is probably closest to a prayer that Jesus actually taught his disciples, and what was handed on orally.

Matthew’s version is written to a Jewish audience. We Christians get our sense of liturgy from our Jewish ancestors, and it was likely the Jewish community that first began to use this prayer liturgically. This more liturgical version emphasizes the communal context – “our” father. You also see some flourishes here – not only may your kingdom come but may your will be done.

Bible commentator Joachim Jeremias said of this prayer, “Matthew addresses Jews – people who learned to pray in childhood and whose prayer is in danger of becoming routine. Luke addresses Gentiles who must learn to pray and whose courage must be roused.”

The Didache was a very early teaching document that gives us much insight into the early development of the Christian faith and liturgical practices. This version is built on Matthew’s liturgical version, and then adds the flourish “thine is the power…” That flourish is not used in the Catholic liturgy of Mass, but you will sometimes hear it used outside liturgical contexts, and it is common in Protestant usage.

V2 instructs us to affirm and emphasize God’s divine majesty. “Hallowed” is one of those King James Version words that we will probably never lose! On the one hand, this is asking that the rule of God be realized and made effective in the world. And it is also asking God to empower us as agents to bring that about: may your kingdom be made real, and may we be the ones who work with you to bring it about in the world.

In v3, we are to ask God to keep on giving us each day the basic needs of the day. Bread symbolizes what is life-giving and life-sustaining in most cultures.

V4 uses the plural: “send away from us our sins.” This is about the community. Forgive us as we forgive others may sound transactional, as though we expect God to forgive us because we forgive others. I think it’s more about reminding us of our obligation to forgive and perhaps making the connection that we can’t expect to receive what we ourselves cannot give.

Luke’s version ends by asking deliverance from the “final test.” Such a test would be something that’s the end of us, something that takes us down and undoes us. We ask God not to bring us more than we can bear; don’t bring us anything that’s going to completely undo us.

What does it mean to pray? vv5-8

Jesus first gives us a model prayer in vv1-4 and then expands on it. What does it mean to pray? To exchange my wishes with God’s wishes? In v5, Jesus begins this parable story of a nighttime encounter. To fully appreciate this parable, we need to understand a few things about its cultural context.

First off, village life in first-century Palestine was hard! People lived hand to mouth, and they depended on each other in order to survive. You were literally one disaster away from poverty, and helping your neighbor today might save your life tomorrow because your neighbor would help you. This is why hospitality was such an important thing – it was a means of survival. And it was not just hospitality to a passing stranger but hospitality to each other.

It would be unthinkable for a scenario to play out the way Jesus presents it in this story. Jesus will emphasize that with the next parable he tells.

We’re tempted to hear this parable in vv5-8 as saying that it might be hard to get God to listen to us and give us what we need. We might have to bang on the door in the middle of the night and hope against hope that god listens and acts.

I think what the story is actually saying, and what Jesus’ explanations in the following verses will confirm, is that it’s downright impossible for God not to hear us and give us what we need. This is stated in the context of extravagant hospitality. Not only does God hear and provide, but God does so extravagantly. There is, as always, an element of our action – being humble enough to ask. It is both/and.

In vv1-4, the primary image of God is Father. V9 will pick up that image again, but here in vv5-8, the primary image is actually friend and friendship. The idea of friend would have been an important metaphor for the early Christian community. Many early Christians left their family because of their faith. They left the power source in their family, and that was akin to leaving everything. Friendship among Christians became a source of survival.

In the parable, the man has a crisis. Someone has come for hospitality, and he is morally obligated to give it. The rules of hospitality say he must supply food, and it has to be more than enough food. Regardless of the hour. But he doesn’t have enough. We might think, just wait till morning; surely the guest will understand! But in that culture, not providing enough to a guest would have been an affront. Wars have broken out over less. This is a crisis.

Something else we miss here is the culture of honor and shame. The honor of the whole village is at stake, not just the man banging on the door. And because village life is what it is, everyone is going to know the dilemma. And because rules of hospitality are so strong, everyone in the village is now obligated to help. It’s an honor to be called upon to help.

V7 brings the twist that a parable always has. The friend replies I can’t help you. I won’t help you. Go away! The audience at this point is looking at Jesus with their jaws dropped. What???? No… that’s not the way the story should go. The audience’s expectation is that the friend would gladly get up in the middle of the night and save the village’s honor by helping his friend.

Jesus interprets the parable in v8 by saying you’re right – the man is going to help. And if he doesn’t help because of the friendship, or really because of the honor it brings, he’ll help for another reason. It’s translated here as “his persistence.” It’s not clear in the Greek what “his” refers to. And the word persistence is a rare word not used elsewhere in the New Testament, nor much outside it. But where it is used, it is always negative.

We think of persistence as an admirable quality, but this word implies being without shame or modesty. And that was anything but admirable in ancient cultures. Over the centuries of interpreting this passage, that lack of shame became problematic. Around the 5th century, the Latin translations began to use a Latin word that meant something more like persistence. As though translators couldn’t make sense of what Jesus was saying. Surely he couldn’t be praising shamelessness! But the Greek word is probably closer to the idea of shamelessness.

Wisdom sayings vv9-13

Jesus assures us that we can pray the “Our Father,” that we can ask for what we need. He further assures us that not only will God provide, but God will do so without malice or trickery. God can be trusted – this is part of Luke’s purpose, to show that God is a God who can be trusted.

V9 lays out a poetic statement on prayer. Rendered more literally, it might look like this:

Ask and it will be given to you
   Seek and you will find
      Knock and it will be opened to you
For everyone asking receives
   The one seeking finds
      And to the one knocking, it will be opened

V13 uses the word “wicked,” which Luke will use several times in coming verses. In the Greco-Roman world, the concept of “evil” or being wicked was often associated with chaos, disorder, and actions that disrupted societal harmony. In the Jewish context, this Greek word “ponéros” aligns with the Hebrew understanding of evil as anything that opposes God’s will and righteousness.

This is not meant to be a theological statement about the dignity of human beings. Luke is not saying that we are inherently wicked or evil. Luke was influenced by both Jewish and Hellenistic thought, and he used this word “wicked” or “evil” “ponéros” to describe the pervasive nature of sin and the spiritual battle between good and evil. This is the idea of original sin that pervades creation. Paul said I do what I don’t want to do, and I don’t do what I wish to do. That’s original sin or “wickedness.” We are caught in this, but, even so, Jesus says we know how to do good. We do! Imagine holding up this goodness in us – we know how to do good and sometimes we even excel at it – hold that up against God’s goodness to us. It’s a contrast – God’s goodness is just so much better. Even though we have goodness.

Application

First, we had the story of Martha and her prayer. Jesus listens but then says no. Sometimes God answers prayer with “no.” And then we had the model prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, which emphasized simply praising God and relying on God for everything. And then the idea of being shameless, not being too proud to ask God for what we need. But God can’t not answer our prayer. God can be trusted! God will answer our prayers!