Indeed, the Grace of God Has Been Abundant
/I admit I have a little struggle with the First Reading from the Book of Exodus. What is it really saying about God and what happens when people pray to God?
First, a little context: the Israelites left the land of Egypt and are now wandering in the desert, and clearly they don’t know how to act. They’re worshiping idols and doing everything God told them not to do. As a result, God wants to punish them, but Moses “implores the Lord,” and God relents. This is where I struggle. The reading makes it seem like God wants to destroy people and Moses changes God‘s mind. First of all, I don’t believe in a punishing God, and second of all, I don’t know that the purpose of prayer is to change God‘s mind –for Moses or for us.
So, what is the purpose of prayer? Can it change God’s mind? Like, if something bad could happen, like a flight is delayed and could get canceled, can we pray to change the outcome? Or, in a more serious example, if a loved one is sick, can our prayer make them well?
A “yes” to these questions is a little problematic. If the flight gets canceled or a loved one gets sicker despite my prayer, does that mean I didn’t pray hard enough? Or does it mean that God didn’t want to answer my prayer? If I believe that I have to pray in a certain way to make God listen or that my behavior affects how God loves me or other people, or how God responds, what does that say about God? Who’s in control – me or God? What does it mean about my relationship with God?
So, what does prayer do? That’s kind of a big question, and as you can see, I have more questions than answers. However, I wonder if our other readings for today might have something to tell us.
In our Second Reading, Paul talks about his own faith journey. He describes himself as having been “a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant.” Early in his life, Paul didn’t know how to act either, but Christ sought him out and extended mercy and grace to him. Paul says, “Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” Before Paul knew Christ, he was ignorant and unbelieving, so he didn’t even ask for help. He didn’t even know to pray for it. But that’s the thing about grace – it’s often unasked for, a pure gift from God, so Paul received it despite what he’d done.
Our Gospel from Luke, too, is about grace and mercy. Apparently, Pharisees and scribes are complaining about Jesus‘s habit of hanging out with the ne’er-do-wells, the tax collectors and sinners. Jesus responds to their complaint by telling them three parables about lost things – a coin, a sheep, and a son. Each of these stories has its own wisdom, but they all involve losing something and rejoicing once it’s found. The coin may be an inanimate object, but it’s important to the livelihood of the woman who loses and finds it. And the poor dumb sheep that gets lost, well, in a way it deserves to be lost since it wandered off in the first place. If you really think about it, a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep alone to pursue the one that wandered off is a pretty terrible shepherd. How irresponsible is it to leave all the rest of your sheep alone to go get the one dumb one? It sounds ridiculous, but sometimes that’s what grace looks like. And that son who leaves his family to intentionally ruin his life, well, he rehearses is a little speech on the way home, but he’s not even sorry. He’s just hungry and out of money. Even so, his father gives him a warm, generous, over-the-top welcome when he returns, sorry or not.
In the context of these readings, the Israelites in the First Reading make a lot more sense to me. They’re just a bunch of lost sheep. They know better than to be lost, but still, there they are. I don’t think God ever wants to destroy the lost. In fact, as we see over and over, God always comes to get the lost ones – Paul, the subjects of the parables, the sinners Jesus hangs out with. God wants to find them, and that’s good news for us too. I don’t know about you, but I do have a tendency to wander off – literally sometimes and definitely figuratively. I want to live a good and faithful life, but for whatever reason, I sometimes move away from that goal. I make mistakes. I get lazy. And somehow God always comes to find me. Sometimes I pray for God to find me, and sometimes God just does that on God’s own, without me even realizing I’ve wandered off again.
When it comes to the Israelites, maybe it seems like God wants to punish them, but I think Moses knows better. As Moses prays for his own people, I’m guessing he begins to feel less annoyed and much more compassionate toward them. Prayer changes Moses. His conversation with God shows Moses how much he cares about his own people and how much he’s willing to do for them. Praying to God helps Moses to remember the covenant God made, and maybe it gives Moses the strength to keep moving forward, even with these annoying, idolatrous people. Prayer helps Moses to remember God’s love in the past and to experience God’s love in the present moment.
Does prayer ever do that for you – make you more compassionate, thoughtful, understanding of other people and their weirdness and misguided motivations? Does it help you to remember God’s love in the past and to experience it in the present? It does that for me. When I truly open myself, prayer reminds me of how often God has come to find me when I’ve wandered off. It reminds me of God’s love and care, of God’s promise to walk closely with me no matter where I’m going, even when I have no idea where I’m going. I don’t know if prayer changes God’s mind; I can’t presume to know the mind and heart of God, and God can do whatever God wants without limit. However, I know that prayer does change my mind. It changes my heart, too. It reminds me of God’s grace and mercy, unasked for but abundantly given, and it makes me extend grace a little more freely too.
For reflection:
How have you experienced prayer in your own life?
Have you ever felt lost and found? Have you ever experienced grace and mercy that you didn’t ask for? What was that like? What is God like?
What would you like to pray for right now? Maybe you could just take a little bit of time in prayer right now.
By Sister Leslie Keener, CDP
Sister Leslie Keener, CDP is the director of God Space, a community-building spirituality ministry in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. She’s a Sister of Divine Providence with a Masters in Ministry and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction and Retreats from Creighton University. She directs retreats, meets with people for spiritual direction, and serves as the vocation director for her community. She also serves on the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International. She enjoys music, dancing, and meaningful conversations.