Sermon from September 17, 2006
This sermon arises out of a question: "Does prayer change God's mind?" The short answer is, "Yes; otherwise, why bother asking?" That's about the sum and substance of the sermon. The rest is commentary. If that's all you want, and you need to catch up on sleep, I understand. I could even understand that you might want to leave, now that you know the point of the sermon. I hope you won't; the commentary is interesting, and I suspect even the most pragmatic among us like to have deeper understanding.

I apologize for the somewhat flippant nature of this introduction. The question out of which the sermon arises put me in that frame of mind: "Does prayer change God's mind?" You know where that question comes from? If God knows what's going to happen in the future, then prayer becomes heaven's version of the lottery. On the other hand, if I say that God doesn't know something that's going to happen, or if I say that He will make up His mind after He hears us prayer, I'll be accused of heresy.

One way of thinking makes prayer seem phony. The other way of thinking makes theology seem horrible. Heads you win, and tails I lose. When I find myself in a situation like that, I am tempted to be angry or to be flippant. I don't show anger easily, so it was flippancy that greeted you in the introduction to this sermon.

Behind our question of the day lies an intellectual arrogance that overlooks the mystery of God. We see the same intellectual arrogance in another kindred piece of theology: God is all-powerful. Many an elementary school child has let the arrogance out of that intellectual balloon by asking, "Can God creat a rock too heavy for Him to lift?" That simple child's question reminds us that it is not enough to say, "God is all-powerful." The question opens up a region of mystery within the power of God. Is He all-powerful? Yes, but there may be self-imposed or inherent limits on His power.

Likewise, the prayer life of the Church opens up a region of mystery within the knowledge of God. Is He all-knowing? Yes, but there may be inherent or self-imposed limits on His knowledge. This region of mystery in the Land of the Trinity is posted with many signs that say, "Unknown," "Unknowable," "Impassable," "Turn back!"

Faced with these imposing road signs, I will not offer a dogmatic answer to the question, "Does prayer change God's mind?" Instead, let me initiate you further into the mystery of the knowledge of God from a famious chapter in Jeremiah 18:1-10.

God's Second Thoughts
I would entitle this episode "God's Second Thoughts." It begins in verses 1-4 with a common sight in Jeremiah's day. This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Verses 5-10 transform a common sight in Jeremiah's day into an uncommon insight into the meaning of Jeremiah's day. That transformation was and is the task of a prophet of the living God. We think about prophets as people with a crystal ball, who predict the future.

It is closer to the truth to say that prophets of the living God speak to their hearers so they can "discern (God's) purpose in their situation and respond to their situation in a way appropriate to (that) purpose," (Bauckham, Theology of the Book of Revelation, 7).

You can see what I mean in what Jeremiah did with what he saw at the potter's house in verses 5-10. Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it."

The passage is pertinent to our prayer theme. Verses 7-8 say, "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned."

God announces the coming destruction of a nation. It is a disaster He planned. Well, you would think that settled it. But it doesn't. There is fine print in the divine announcement, an exception clause that makes great issues rest on human choices: "If that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent." "I will relent." Those three words embody the compassion and humility of our God. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance – 2 Peter 3:9.

It works the other way too, as verses 9-10 illustrate. "And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." "I will reconsider."

This sermon started with the question, "Does prayer change God's mind?" The all-knowing ones assure us that God knows what's going to happen in the future, and they turn prayer into heaven's version of the lottery. We have reason to oppose this conclusion with those two statements; "I will relent" and "I will reconsider." A God, who speaks like that from the region of mystery in the Land of the Trinity, gives hope to ordinary people, who offer their hearts' desires to their great God.

Caveats
Having said that, let's be sure that we ordinary people, offer our hearts' desire to God, don't lose the senes of God's mystery. Let me show you what I mean in Luke 18:1-8. As verse one makes clear, Jesus told his disciples this parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

In verse five the unjust judge in the parable says, "Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!" We are tempted to read that and think, "If I just nag God, I'll get what I want."

But notice the punch line of the parable in verses 7-8: "Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. This parable doesn't offer a blank check for people who nag God. It promises justice to those who ask God for it persistently.

You can see the same kind of thing in Luke 11:5-8. This is another parable about prayer. A man's friend comes to his house late at night to ask for bread. The man doesn't want to be bothered and repeatedly refuses the request. Verse eight tells what changed his mind. "I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs."

In the next verse Jesus gives His famous invitation to prayer: "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Again, we are tempted to read that and think, "If I just nag God, I'll get what I want."

But notice the punch line in verse 13: "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Jesus doesn't offer a blank check for people who nag God. He promises the Holy Spirit to those who ask God boldly.

Go back for a minute to verse 11. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?" God wouldn't do that either. However, suppose we thought we were asking for a fish, and in fact we were asking boldly and persistently for a snake. I suspect a lot of unanswered prayer is God's gentle way of protecting us from snakes.

Don't miss my point. If intellectual arrogance blinds us to the mystery of prayer on one side, then on the other side silly prayers can equally blind us to the mystery of prayer. Let us pray for justice. Let us pray for the Holy Spirit. In other words let's identify what is close to God's heart and learn to pray for that when we pray, boldly and persistently.

Prayer Stained with Emotion
Sometimes, what is close to our hearts is also close to God's heart. That kind of personal praying is not silly, and it may cover the range of human emotion. Of course, we can be self-indulgent about the way we pray, but the Psalms give us many models of how to bring the deepest emotions of the human heart before God in faith. It would be best to give you examples. Let's begin with Psalm 13:1-2.

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
     How long will you hide your face from me? (Ever say that to God?)
How long must I wrestle with my thought
     and every day have sorrow in my heart? (That's pretty raw emotion.)
     How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Verse five marks the turning point.

But I trust in your unfailing love;
     my heart rejoices in your salvation. (Raw emotion coexists with faith.)

Psalm 73:2-3 expresses what hundreds of thousands of people have felt, but perhaps they have never turned into prayer.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
     I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
     when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Verses 16-17 mark the turning point.

When I tried to understand all this,
     it was oppressive to me
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
     then I understood their final destiny.

There is one other emotion we have but seldom turn into prayer. Look at Psalm 58:6-8 that tells us how the psalmist prayed for his enemy.

Break the teeth in their mouths, O God;
     tear out, O LORD, the fangs of the lion!
Let them vanish like water that flows away;
     when they draw the bow, let their arrows be blunted.
Like a slug melting away as it moves along,
     like a stillborn child, may they not see the sun.

Did you ever wish such a fate on people who had wronged you? Did you ever tell God how good that would make you feel? Such language laces the Psalms. It places us between the rock of our not so lovely emotions and the hard place of our Lord's command to love our enemies. The gospel keeps us honest with God. The Psalms keep us honest with ourselves. We turn away from the Psalms at the risk of turning away from the truth about ourselves, and our integrity suffers.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
Many years ago, I came across something whose profound meaning grows with every passing year. "To live life to the end is not a childish task," (Pasternak, "Hamlet," Docto Zhivago, 523). As a corollary to that, we might say that to pray for a lifetime is not a childish task. Prayer challenges the intellectual arrogance of theology, and it challenges the presumption of silly prayers for silly things. God wants us to learn to pray for matters that are close to His heart. On the other hand, He never belittles our emotions but sees them as significant occasions for disclosing the truth about ourselves and also for trusting Him to see us through what causes our negative emotions.

When I was a teenager, I was deeply drawn to the ministry of the Navigators, a Christian organization, based in Colorado Springs. I had the opportunity to hear Lorne Sanny, the president of the Navigators speak to us college students. He quoted a scripture that I had never heard before, and I've never gotten over it. Seven times a day I praise you – Psalm 119:164.

It seemed then and it seems now a standing invitaiton to fill our days with praise to God. That's not easy for people like us, who live by the clock. Your response to the 31-Day Prayer Guide encouraged me to think it is more possible than I ever thought for BVBC to be a church of prayer. I love the thought maybe hundreds of us offer the same praise to God each day, and pray for the same concerns. I love it here, when we all silently and simply adore our great God. Let nothing deprive us of prayer and praise.