Several years ago Elise and I took our first multi-day trip on a motorcycle. We packed up the bike and headed east, bound for Cape Bretton Island in Nova Scotia. We covered 4,000 miles over three weeks. We developed calluses in places that I cannot describe on a Christian blog. It was a great trip, partly because we covered multiple states and experienced cultural shifts of language and custom along the way. One example is when we went to get breakfast early one morning on Cape Bretton Island. We had a long day ahead and wanted something quick so McDonald’s seem to be the obvious choice. Now we had been in Maine a few days earlier. I am a lobster fanatic so being in Maine we just HAD to find lobster. And we did. Great meal!! Lobster, clams, corn. Wait. Gotta wipe the saliva off the keyboard.
OK. Done. Now, where was I. Oh yeah, Micky D’s on Cape Bretton. So while we are ordering breakfast we look at the rest of the menu. To our surprise they had lobster on the menu, at McDonalds!! Well, as we looked further, we realized it was not lobster. It was a lobster roll. Kind of like a tuna fish sandwich only using lobster. But it was the name that got us. It was a McLOBSTER!! McDonalds usurps the state food of Maine!!
When we were visiting our daughter in Tanzania we found a Kentucky Fried Chicken. At the time I was surprised to find American Fast Food in another country. Of course, I now realize American fast food has been exported to every area of the world. I half expect to find a McYak in Mongolia. There are American T Shirts with typical US emblems, saying and sport figures in most corners of the world. Many people learn English by watching American movies.
The point I am trying to make is that over the last 100 years or so, The United States has been exporting its culture to most corners of the world. To the expense of much of the native culture and customs of these societies. And this I hope gives us all a sense of what was going on at the time that the book of Wisdom was written around 50 B.C. The author it is believed was living in Egypt at the time of the writing. The entire region, including the land of Judea (where Jerusalem is located), was emerging from the rule of the Greeks. The Hellenistic Greek period began around 333 BC and is believed to have given way to the Romans around 63 BC. 270 years of Greek influence on the Jewish inhabitants.
During this time there was not only conflict between the Greeks and the Jews, but also between Hellenistic Jews (Jews who wanted all to adopt Greek culture and abandon Judaism and its customs) and traditional Jews (who were struggling to preserve the faith of their ancestors). The Hellenists were considered to be apostates. Those who gave up their faith traditions to instead adopt the more secular practices of the current culture. And the Greeks were at least as efficient at spreading their ways around the world as the United States has been.
In today’s first reading the author is in the middle of trying to remind his readers who have drifted, or are drifting, over to Greek ways what God has accomplished for them, particularly when held in bondage in Egypt under Pharaoh all those centuries ago. How God sent the plagues to soften Pharaoh’s heart, culminating in the darkness that enveloped the land with the angel of death striking down the Egyptian first born. He also sent them Manna in the desert and healing from the serpents among the many, many miracles God delivered to aid His chosen people.
And in Luke we hear Jesus telling the familiar tale of the unfeeling judge who gets tired of listening to the pleas of the widow and finally gives in by granting her request out of fear of her “striking” him. Whenever I read this passage I am picturing the widow as someone like Muhammad Ali’s boxing daughter, Laila, wacking this judge upside the head (another American expression BTW). It seems as if Jesus is saying that if this unfeeling judge will relent and give in to persistent pleas, how much more will God listen to our requests?
But we know that God does not just sit there in His throne going, “OMG (another one of those sayings), enough already!! I heard you the first 6,000 times. Here, you can have what you want! Will you finally leave me alone?” Though I remember using this technique to get my first mini-bike from my parents. We also know that prayer does not necessarily change God’s mind. He knows what we need and what He is going to do about it long before we do. So why the need for persistent prayer?
I think prayer helps change us and those we pray for. Persistent prayer helps us over time to understand the will of God and what He has in store for us. To help us find the path that He has laid out for us. And the apostasy that befell those Hellenistic Jews? Do you think they would have been as likely to fall under the spell of the Greek culture if they stayed tuned in to the will of God through consistent and persistent prayer? I would say not. We do not as easily let outside influences sway us in directions God does not mean us to go if we stay in dialogue with Him. Let us never forget who we are…Children of God…and not let the world tell us otherwise.
Now I am off to head down the mountain to the closest McDonalds to have their new McVenison sandwich. And maybe I’ll have a “Doe” nut for dessert.
