Bargaining with God - Father Dave's Blog

“She made this vow: “O LORD of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.” (1 Samuel 1:11)

This story of Hannah’s vow touches a raw nerve in me. She is desperate, and in her desperation, she tries to cut a deal with God. She makes a solemn vow that if God will only get her pregnant with a male child, she will dedicate that child’s life back to God as a Nazirite. I’ve been there. I suspect we all have. Not praying for a male child perhaps but feeling desperate enough to try bargaining with God.

“God, if you will only give me the girl/the guy/a job/some money/a child/relief from pain/victory in my next fight (strike out that which does not apply), I promise I will put down the bottle and become a priest (or equivalent).”

I Googled “Bargaining with God” and found a whole series of pious articles and videos, all making clear that God cannot be bargained with. ‘The purpose of prayer’, I read, ‘is not for our will to be done, but God’s will’. Moreover, God is not going to being persuaded by our arguments because God knows more than we do and is never wrong. That all makes perfect sense, yet the Bible is full of examples of people wheeling and dealing with God, and some of them do it quite successfully!

Abraham haggled with God over the fate of Sodom (Genesis 18:16-32)
Moses changed God’s mind about killing off the Israelites (Exodus 32:9-14)
Jephthah cut a terrible deal with God, promising to sacrifice the first thing that came out of his tent if he achieved victory over the Ammonites, and ended up killing his own daughter! (Judges 11)
And then we have this deal cut by Hannah …

Each of these pious souls got what they bargained for. None of them seemed to have a passive “Thy will be done” type of faith. Like the widow that Jesus speaks of who harassed the judge to give her justice until he caved in (Luke 18:1-8), their prayers involved wrestling and fighting with God, rather than submission.

My mind has drifted to the story my dad told me about the time the Beatles visited the Maharishi Yogi in India in 1968. The Fab Four were learning Transcendental Meditation (TM) from the master, and how to rise above it all and ‘Let it Be”. According to my dad, there was a little Christian mission alongside the Maharishi Yogi’s palace, focused on rescuing young girls from prostitution.

Dad’s point was that these were two contrasting spiritualities on display there. One focused on accepting things as they are and rising above the pain. The second focused on fighting back, entering into the pain and trying to do something about it.

In point of fact, the phrase, “Thy will be done”, as it occurs in the Lord’s prayer, is not a statement of submission at all, but a call to action. The full sentence – “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10) – affirms our determination to see our world run along the same lines as God’s realm.

Should we bargain with God? The obvious problem is that we don’t really have any bargaining chips. What is it that we have that God might want? Hannah offered God a child and, indeed, that child went on to be one of Israel’s greatest leaders, arguably the greatest. What do we have to offer? Is it worth offering God ten years of my life in exchange for peace and justice in Palestine? What about 20 years? Actually … do I have that many to offer?

I’m back at the Serenity Prayer – “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” There is a time to accept things we cannot change. Even so, the reminder we get from Hannah is that things may not be as unchangeable as they first appear.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We celebrated another wonderful Eucharist last Sunday. Thank you, Rob Gilland and Father Mark, for joining me on the panel. I’ve included some snippets below, and encourage you to watch the larger broadcast if you missed it, or to check out the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page for a larger collection of clips.

This Sunday I’m very much looking forward to having Karyn Hemming and Andrew Madry back with me. Unfortunately, Father Ola and his whole family have been ill for the last three weeks so we won’t be benefiting from Ola’s input.

We have a very special guest joining us next week, but I’ll save that announcement for the next newsletter. In the meantime, I am on the lookout for more guests to do homilies for us. If you have anyone you’d like to recommend, let me know.

Please join us at noon this Sunday on TheSundayEucharist.com and on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn Instagram, Faithia and Streamyard. I’m also going to attempt to stream through the Faithia (formerly InFaith) platform this week.

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What’s On?

Friday 15^th to Sunday 17^th November – @Binacrombi. Please join me.
Sunday, November 17 – Our Eucharist from noon @ thesundayeucharist.com (or through Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Faithia or Streamyard).
Tuesday, November 19^th – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7pm
Thursday, November 21^st– Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7pm
Saturday, November 23rd – Boxing at Fadi’s Gym in Fivedock from 8.30 am

I am very thankful to God and to everyone who supported me in my boxing match last weekend. In case you didn’t hear, the fight went the distance, and I won on a unanimous points decision.

It was six long, hard rounds. I really didn’t expect my opponent, Tony Brazier, to last. He turned out to be as fit as he was tough, and a lovely man. A great experience.

So … I am now the NSW Professional Masters Light-Heavyweight Champion. The next question is how we leverage this to extend the work of the Fighting Fathers.

One option I am pursuing is to entice a high-profile boxer to come to Syria with me to stage a title defense in Aleppo. We would then use that platform to highlight the plight of the Syrian people, along with those of the broader access of resistance (Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and Syria).

The win last weekend does create new opportunities both for raising funds and for raising our public profile. We need both if we are going to make for reach change.

I wish there was an easier way of doing this. Sixty-two seems like the wrong age to be starting a career as a professional fighter. Even so, Hannah’s vow is strangely encouraging. She put everything on the line, asking God to give her what she most needed. I’m happy to put my all on the line too. Lord. Hear my prayer.

Your brother in the Good Fight,