21 God does not hear

The Lonely God

The God Who Does not Hear

For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat:

I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in:

naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison,

and ye visited me not (Matthew 25:42-43 KJV).

How does God work? When he makes a move to answer prayer, what does he actually do? We know what he can do. You could pray that God would give you something to eat, and when you open your eyes, you could have a steaming bowl of lentil soup and a loaf of fresh baked bread right there on the table. The soup could even have the right amount of black pepper sprinkled across the top. God could do that, but we know all too well that he does not. My question is, since that is not how he does it, how does he do it?

Jesus made what some people call “an unconditional promise” in the sermon on the mount. He said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

In context, Jesus is talking about food. “What man is there,” Jesus asked, “if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone.” So after all, if we human beings, who have a hard time being good, know how to give good things to our children, how much more should our heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him? It is a completely logical and sensible statement. So how come it doesn’t seem to work that way?

Jerome Murphy-O’Connor (2004) pointed to the “objective reality” of that statement and how the early Christians might have taken it. I found myself wondering the same thing, because if a woman prays for bread for her starving child, she knows objectively whether she got the bread or not.

I have often pondered the implications of answered prayer because I get so many prayer requests, most from people I don’t even know. For example, I could get a prayer request from a person who is applying for a given job and wants prayer that he would get the job. I could conceivably get another prayer request from another person applying for the same job, and I would have no idea there was a conflict. How might God answer those two prayers?

O’Connor pointed out something I had overlooked in the passage I just cited. It doesn’t stop with the encouraging statement that God will give us good things. It continues with a “therefore.” Here is what Jesus said.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:11-12)

How is the “Therefore” clause related to what has gone before? Here is what Jerome Murphy-O’Connor concluded:

“God uses intermediaries – our fellow men – who in some cases act like genuine Christians and in other instances fail in their duty. For Matthew, this explains why some prayers are answered, while others are not.”

While I am not sure I can endorse all of Murphy-O’Connor’s conclusions, I have to acknowledge that God, for his own reasons, decided long ago to use intermediaries. Once, God spoke himself from Mount Sinai, and neither the mountain or the people would ever be the same. Later, he sent his son who spoke to us. Apart from these two profound exceptions, God speaks and acts through intermediaries.

This is what Paul was driving at when he defended himself to the Corinthians. “Therefore seeing we have this ministry,” he wrote, “as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:1-).

Consider this. Paul had a choice. He might not have renounced dishonesty, craftiness, and deceit. God knows there are ministers who have not done so. And when they don’t, it is not God who has failed, but the minister. Paul continues:

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake (vv. 3-5).

And God also knows that there are ministers who do preach themselves. Paul’s contrast is deliberate.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us (vv. 6-7).

What a marvelous image that evokes. We hold the treasure of God in our hands, But we ourselves are earthenware pots. It is not the treasure that presents the problem, but the crock in which it is held. So yes, God does indeed work through intermediaries. That is how the Gospel is preached. Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore, and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:18-19).

What is not stated, but is nonetheless true, is that it is possible for us to fail in the task. Paul knew this all too well. “Though I be free from all men,” he said, “I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some (1 Corinthians 9:18-22).

And what happens if we don’t do our jobs? Implicit in Paul’s statement is the fact that he might have done otherwise. He believed that what he did made a difference in the lives of the people he served. Murphy-O’Connor makes the point this way: “For Matthew, the Golden Rule means: ‘If you wish others to answer your prayers, then you answer their prayers.’”

Now I don’t know whether he is correct in describing what Matthew thinks, but he says something here that deserves serious thought.

Only now does the absolute character of the promise of Jesus become intelligible: If people ask for what they truly need in a community of love, then the response will certainly be forthcoming. No woman desperate for food for a starving child will be turned away empty-handed if her neighbors are dedicated to meeting the needs of others. Her degree of faith or her moral character is completely irrelevant. Her need and that of her child are paramount.

The God who answers prayers is present within history in the person of Jesus, who after his resurrection continues to be present in the community: “I will be with you all days until the end of the age.” God acts through Christ who acts through the community.

When it comes to answering prayers, the members of the believing community are the hands and ears of God. If the community does not listen, God does not hear. The hands that offer bread to the starving are human hands animated by the self-sacrificing love of Christ. If those hands do not reach out, God’s will to give is frustrated.

While it may seem that Murphy-O’Connor is limiting God, I don’t think that is the intent at all. In a very real sense, God limits himself when he declines to take away our freedom to act or not act. Look at it this way. If a man comes to me to apply for a job, am I free to hire him or to turn down his application? If I don’t have that freedom then neither of us it truly free.

I think what he is trying to tell us is that God hasn’t gone deaf. Christians have become lazy. We ask God to give us good leadership and then refuse to vote. We know we have poor people in our own community, but we leave the care of them to the state and to God. We think we aren’t responsible, the state is. Or God is. We have other things more demanding to do.

We know from endless repetition that faith without works is dead. So we have no excuse for our laziness. And I will add to what is said to this extent. God hasn’t gone deaf, but too many Christians have absented themselves from the community of saints.

The work of the Holy Spirit is subtle. It does not normally multiply the loaves and fishes, but it may well suggest to us which side of the boat to fish on. When Jesus told Peter and his friends to drop their net on the other side of the boat, he could just as easily have filled the net where it was. Instead, he suggested they try something different.

For his own reasons God works through human instruments. Even when he works through the Holy Spirit, where does the Holy Spirit find something to get hold of? Archimedes said that if you gave him a lever long enough, he could move the world. But he would still need a fulcrum and a place to stand.

Where does the Holy Spirit stand and what is its fulcrum? The author of the Book of Hebrews suggests that the assembly of the saints is the lever by which the Spirit works: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:24-25).

So, a brother or a sister comes knocking at our door, hungry and cold. May we stand and bless him saying, “Go in peace, my brother, be warmed and filled,” and then close the door in his face? What good have we done him, James wants to know, reminding us that faith, without works, is dead (James 2:14-17).

Surely we would never say to a man, “Don’t worry brother. God will take care of you,” and then refuse to help, would we? Jesus’ most fundamental teaching to his disciples, went to this simple truth. It was even the seal by which others would identify them as disciples of Jesus: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

So, back to my original question: How does God work? How does he choose to answer prayer? Should it be surprising that we would be the instruments through which these answers flow? Should it be surprising if it turns out that the reason your prayers weren’t answered is because you were separated from those whom God would have moved to answer them?

And wouldn’t it be a terrible shame if our prayers were not answered because the Christian community was too lazy to do its duty?