Sermon: July 27, 2025

"Do our prayers change God's mind?"

The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Genesis 18:20-32, Luke 11:1-13 

The Rev'd Cecil Patrick Perkins, Rector 

Transcript

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I speak to you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. Can our prayers change God's mind? Well, it's a question that has stirred human hearts and minds since the day God first walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the garden. And this morning, it lingers just beneath the surface of at least three of our scripture readings. In the lesson from Genesis, Abraham asks God to change his plan concerning Sodom, and astonishingly, God seems to go along with it. But this begs the question, if God really knows best, how can Abraham know better? In the psalm, David confidently declares that the Lord will fulfill his purpose for him. But in the very next breath, he pleads to not abandon the work of your hands. Well, what if abandoning David was God's plan? And in the gospel, Jesus teaches us to pray, your kingdom come, a clear call to surrender to God's will. But just a few verses later, he tells us, ask and it will be given to you. What if what I ask runs counter to God's will for his kingdom? These are the sorts of questions that we're thinking about today as we wade into one of the more difficult and maybe even unsettling problems we face as people of faith. The question, can our prayers change God's mind? If the answer is yes, what does that say about God? What does it say about us? And if the answer is no... What does that say about God? And what does it say about us? Well, for the next few minutes, I'd like for us to explore this thorny question together. And we'll begin by considering the nature and character of God and what that means for prayer. Then we'll turn to the passages that we've read and see if we can reconcile them with some of the things we'll learn about who God is. And finally, we'll reflect on what all of this means for the way that we pray. My hope this morning is that by the end of our time together, we'll come away with a clearer understanding and a deeper confidence in what it means to ask things of God. So let's begin by considering the nature and character of God a little bit. Before we can even begin to consider whether prayer can change God's mind, we first have to ask the question, who is God? A quite important question that we as Christians don't really ask enough. Well, this morning, let's borrow a definition from St. Anselm of Canterbury, who was one of the church's most foremost theologians. Anselm described God, and get ready for this, as that being than which none greater can be imagined. That's perfectly proper English, and it shows you why perfectly proper English can be so stuffy. God is that being than which none greater can be imagined. Though this language sounds lofty, the concept is pretty simple. If God really is God, then no other being can be greater. Because if a being is greater, then that being must be God. Do you see Anselm's logic here? Good. Anselm's concept has become foundational for much of our theological language about God. When we say, for instance, that God is all-knowing or all-good or all-loving, we are simply affirming what Anselm is saying, that God's qualities are supremely perfect. They are superlative. Nothing greater is possible. This is why when theologians speak of God's attributes, they often call them his perfections. It's because whatever God is, whether it be knowing, good, or loving, or whatever else, whatever God is, God is perfectly that. So after you've had your little theology lesson here right now, you're probably saying, what relevance does this have for our prayers? Well, quite a lot. If God is all-knowing, then God knows all things fully and not partially. Nothing surprises God. If God is all good, then whatever he desires is right. When you're God, what you do is right because you're God. And if God is both all-knowing and all good, then whatever God chooses must be the best possible course of action. Why? Because if you know everything and you desire what is right, then what you choose will reflect the best outcome. You wouldn't choose something that you knew wasn't best because you'd know better. You see how it works? Now, assuming that this is true, why would God ever change his mind in response to human requests? Think about it for a second. Now, there are some pop theologians who assert that because God is all loving, he grants our requests simply out of his love for us and his concern for our free will. You hear that a lot. But can this really be the case? If we ask God to let us drink a milkshake laced with anthrax, would he give it to us simply because he loved us? Could he still be good if he did? Now, those of you who are parents know this instinctively. Sometimes you have to tell your kids no for something that they really, really want. You would never let your child consume an anthrax milkshake just to avoid stifling their sense of agency because you know better. Well, you see what we're facing here. This is why some thinkers think that there is a tension between God's attributes. They would say that God's love pulls one way and his wisdom or goodness pull another way and that God is constantly facing this angst to try to figure out what to do. But let me tell you something. A God who is perfect doesn't have existential crises. God doesn't sit up in heaven and say, darn, I wonder what I ought to do today. He doesn't do that. A conflicted being cannot be the greatest possible being. So in other words, a God like that simply can't be God. Now, this morning, if you think I'm playing mind games here, you're exactly right. I'm trying to get minds going. I'm doing this for a good reason, because it's essential to understand that God and his attributes are not in opposition. God must be perfectly knowing and perfectly good and perfectly loving simultaneously. And any contradiction would imply deficiency. And a deficient being cannot be God. A God that has a deficiency is not the all greatest being. And I trust that you follow this, even if it makes your head hurt a little bit. So you can breathe now. Here's the point. But if we pray and ask God for something that he knows is not good and he gives it to us simply because he loves us, then he really is not worthy of the designation God. If he knows what is best and doesn't do it, he's being immoral. And what is love, honestly, other than desiring and doing what is best for someone? So, friends, let me say something just a bit provocative here. Much of modern progressive theology reflects a human desire for a kinder, gentler God. We don't want a God that looks like the one in the Old Testament that seems to be running around smiting everybody all the time. We don't want that. So we've listened to George Bush Sr. and said, we want a kinder, gentler God. We want a God who knows, desires, and judge perfectly. Yet, we want one who willingly defers to our human judgment. Think about it. Pause for a moment. If we truly believe that our thoughts, choices, and desires surpass God's, then we are tacitly admitting that we don't believe that God is truly God. Think about it. In fact, we're claiming to be greater than that being than which nothing greater can be imagined. And in other words, this means we think we're God. I belabor this point this morning because it's essential for understanding what Scripture actually teaches about prayer. If God really is God, then we must read texts like the ones before us this morning with fresh eyes. Prayer can't simply be about changing God's mind. So assuming that that's the case, just what is prayer for? Well, let's take just a couple of minutes to reconcile our text with what we know about God. Let's begin with a Genesis reading. If it's not about God changing his mind, then what is it about? You hear about this haggling session that's going on in this passage between God and Abraham. If you read on beyond that, you find that God did not spare Sodom. Genesis 19.24 says that God rained down fire on the city, destroying all of its inhabitants, except for Abraham's nephew Lot and his family. It seems that God didn't find 10 righteous people there. There were only six. So what's the point of this text? Well, it's not like a lot of people of a particular persuasion would believe that God wanted to nuke Sodom and Abraham said, chill out, God, it's going to all be all right. That's not what was going on. God already knew how many righteous people were in the city because he is all-knowing. So this exchange with Abraham isn't about changing God's mind. It's about revealing God's mercy. Understand this. God was willing to spare an entire city, a sinful city, for the sake of ten righteous souls. That's the message here. God is exceedingly merciful, but Sodom was exceedingly sinful, and he didn't spare the city, though he did spare the righteous. What about the psalm? David begins with this striking declaration of faith, the Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Yet he ends with a doubting plea. He says, Lord, do not abandon the work of your hands. In this single verse, we find what seems to be a contradiction. We have a statement of strong confidence and one of profound anxiety. David seems to believe that God has a purpose for him, but he also fears being abandoned. Well, those of us who are Christians find that this tension is one that we often experience in prayer. We hold rather firm to what we believe about God and his promises, yet we still feel the need to ask. So in David, just as in us, faith and fear live side by side, even within people after God's own heart. So the point of this passage is not that David thinks God might change his mind so he prays asking God not to. Rather, David is struggling to reconcile what he knows with what he feels. That's half of the Christian life right there. His prayer is not about reshaping God's will. It's about being honest and human before a God who is all-knowing, all-good, and all-loving. Finally, let's turn to this gospel reading. At first glance, Jesus seems to contradict himself. He teaches his disciples to pray, your kingdom come, which is a petition implying that we should surrender our lives to God's will, to whatever God wants. And then just a few lines later, he says, ask and it shall be given to you. What? How can those things work together? To a casual reader, it might sound as if Jesus is saying two very different things. Submit entirely to God, but ask for anything you want. What do you do with that? Well, the contradiction here is only apparent. It's only on the surface. In truth, the two belong together. The command to pray, your kingdom come, doesn't oppose asking or seeking or knocking. It shapes and grounds it. God invites us to bring him our needs, our hopes, and even our most audacious requests. But he reminds us that we need to do so as those who know to whom we're praying. We're praying to a father who is all knowing, all good, and all loving. As the fuller version of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew makes clear, what we're praying is your kingdom come, your will be done. We're asking the Lord to have his will done, which means ultimately that our desires must yield at some point to God's will. So the point of the passage here is that Jesus empowers his disciples to pray courageously, boldly, not soft peddling the enormity of our desires. But he's telling us also to have reverence for and a trust in a God who honestly desires better for us than anything we could desire for ourselves. This leads us to a third and final point, reflecting on what all of this means for us. Well, after we've done a deep dive into the nature of God and into the three readings that we read this morning, let's circle back to the original question. Can our prayers really change God's mind? Well, the honest answer is no. And why would we want them to? We've seen that God's perfect knowledge, goodness, and love ensure that he always chooses what is best for us, even if we don't always understand how or why. I don't know about you, but if God gave me everything that I asked for, my life would be a train wreck. If anything, as one of my favorite theologians, Garth Brooks, once said, we should sometimes thank God for unanswered prayers. Now, some of you, though, at this moment are probably wondering, if our prayers don't change God, why should we pray at all? Well, let me answer with a story from the frozen north. Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, was a devout Catholic, and he went to Mass every day, and especially on game days. So one morning as he was leaving church, a fan asked him, Coach, do you ever pray that the Packers will win? And Lombardi said, Yes, I do. And the fan continued and said, Do you really think your prayers change God's mind? He really likes you better than the Rams or whatever. Lombardi said, they probably don't change God's mind, but they sure change me. Friends, this is the point. Prayer changes us. It doesn't twist God's arm because God doesn't have arms. It opens our hearts and reshapes our desires to align more closely with His. Prayer does transform reality. This is true, but it doesn't transform God's. It transforms ours. This is how we move from treating God as some cosmic Santa Claus To allowing our wills to be conformed to his. Before we finish, let's remember a line from the one reading that we haven't yet discussed this morning, Paul's letter to the Colossians. You'll remember the verses where it says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy, according to human traditions and the elemental principles of the world. Paul says this, and I remind you of this, is because oftentimes we as Christians give over to philosophies that are not Christian, that are based on elemental principles of the world. Very often, we approach prayer as if God was one of the deities that were described by Greek philosophers, one who could be swayed by saying the right formula or words. But friends, Christian prayer is far deeper. It is the spirit-led practice of being reformed from the inside out. So folks, as we leave this morning Let's pray boldly Trusting not in our power to change God But in God's power to change us And to bring about his kingdom on earth Both in the world around us But starting far closer to home Right in our hearts Amen.