Oliver Twist: one good story

March 2009

Oliver Twist is one good story. In so many ways it reminds me of my own story. Several movie versions have been made of Oliver. One scene in the movie grabs me every time I see it. Oliver, a boy of 7 or 8, is in an orphanage. He’s the new comer. Older children dare him to go ask for a second bowl of soup. Oliver takes his bowl, walks slowly to the Master of the orphanage, and with a daring in his eyes, yet with feeble voice, asks: “Please, Sir, I want some more.”

I have adopted this scene as a posture for my life. Often I picture myself as helpless Oliver standing before the Master of the Universe asking for more. For more of him, for more understanding, for more love and compassion, for more fruitfulness in life! This is the stance or posture or attitude of prayer.

Abraham took such a stance in prayer. In Genesis 18:22-33 we have a fascinating bargaining session going on between the father of faith and God. The scene begins with a standoff. Most translations read: “Abraham remained standing before the Lord” (22).  That Abraham stands before the Lord as one who is asking for a favor is the normal posture of prayer. Man serves God. Man bows down to God. This is right and proper as Luke 18:13 makes clear with the tax collector sinner who stands afar off crying “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

However, there is an alternate reading to this verse that is well attested. That means some of the original manuscripts have that alternate reading. The combined influence in the common alternate readings of this verse cause me to reflect more on this passage. Instead of the normal posture of prayer of man standing before God, the alternate reading has God standing before man answering for what he is about to do. Daring! Maybe even disturbing!

Dare we lowly creatures question God’s action plans? Especially when it comes to issues of justice as in this case. God was about to wipe the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah off the map of the world. Abraham objects to what he believes as an unjust action on God’s part. As a friend of God (Isaiah 41:8), Abraham feels he has the right to question God in this case. This is Abraham’s objection: What if there were innocent people in Sodom, would you indiscriminately destroy them with the wicked? God, your free use of power is disturbing.

Have you had questions like that run through your mind? I suspect, like me, you have.

Here is how the Message captures this alternate reading. “The men set out for Sodom, but Abraham stood in God’s path, blocking his way. Abraham confronted him [God that is], Are you serious? Are you planning on getting rid of the good people right along with the bad?”  Walter Brueggemann agrees with the Message Bible’s rendition of this verse. He makes the following observations. One, we have Abraham portrayed as a daring Man of Faith. He is bold in the face of assumed injustice on the part of God. But what is more fascinating is that God is a willing partner in such a bold prayer. It seems that God welcomes any posture of prayer so long as the daring is also flexible and compliant. An Oliver Twist stance if you please. Abraham comes to see in the bargaining with God that his assumption that God will act unjustly is not true. God allows Abraham to find 10 righteous people in order to spare the cities. Abraham relents his bargain making with God and returns to his posture of standing before the Lord.

Brueggemann says in Great Prayers of the Old Testament that “prayer that moves into and against the disorder of the world in passionate intercession is perhaps the deepest, most dangerous and most compelling prayer in biblical faith.”

I agree with Brueggemann. His applications of this prayer are:

1. The church must become a daring initiator with God when it comes to world needs. Do you have times in your worship experiences at church where you initiate with God a daring questioning about the state of the world? Time to start. Let the daring intercession begin! Mix the daring with a sense of humility. We dare question God for lack of justice in the world.  And we humbly acknowledge being part of the solution. We must plead with God in our misunderstanding of injustices in the world including in our own country (The prospering of the rich on the back of the poor).

2. The church must practice intercession for the country, city, or community where it exists. Abraham never mentions anything about his nephew Lot in his bargaining with God. In other words, his concern was with the whole city not just his own family.

We will find God an engaged prayer partner who sympathized with those who walk with him.

Send this Column to a Friend






Past Columns

Return to top