In a conversation with God, Abraham explores the range of God's mercy. When have I been surprised by the extent that God extends mercy to me, choosing to forgive me and welcoming me back to the fold?

"Teach us to pray," the disciples asked Jesus. Disciples of every age--including the people in church this weekend-ask this question. Prayer is probably the most basic way people relate to God. The readings this week are a school of prayer.

ASKING FOR HELP is a curiously difficult thing to do. Once we're no longer kids, we take a distinct pride in being self-sufficient. Back in college I remember signing a lease on a basement apartment for the summer. It was a bargain: only 12 dollars a week.

A recent series of commercials promotes good banking practices by highlighting bad ones. In one spot a little girl is asked by a banker if she would like a pony. When she says yes, she is handed a toy pony. As she plays with her gift, another little girl sitting next to her is asked the same question and also replies yes.

A young man I was on a retreat with once told this  story of prayer: "I was so angry at God because I had asked and asked him to help me stop doing drugs. And then before long I was getting high again. "I was angry at God and I was angry at my parents who told me that God would help me if I asked.

I like this weekend's reading from Genesis almost as much as any in scripture. It is so simply human and yet carries such a great message about God's mercy and forgiveness. But I must confess that I like it most of all because I truly enjoy that kind of bargaining immensely.

The Image of God as the harsh judge is consistently debunked in Hebrew and Christian scripture, so why does it persist? 

We turn in prayer to the one who teaches us to pray.

Obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims. Paul uses the language of debtor and creditor to describe how God, through Christ, forgives. It's as if God tears up the record binding us in debt for our transgressions. A Jewish prayer says, "Through your great mercy erase the writing that accuses us!"

If . . . a laborer [in Jesus' time] did not find work for several days, his family was destitute. In such circumstances the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer ("Give us today our bread for this day") takes on a poignancy many of us no longer experience. It is a prayer for survival. -David J. Bosch (1929-1992)