XXI Pentecost – October 17, 2010 – Year C – Proper 24
“Pray always and don’t lose heart.”
According to the writer of Luke’s Gospel this was Jesus’ advice to his disciples: Pray always and don’t lose heart. Keep praying and don’t lose the courage of your convictions—don’t give up hope, whatever happens.
“Keep on keeping on.”
To illustrate the wisdom of this advice Jesus told them another one of his parables, another one of his very short stories.
By the time this story gets started, it’s practically over.
It concerns a judge, perhaps a town magistrate, “who neither feared God nor had respect for people”, is the way Luke puts it.
This judge is obviously not supposed to strike us as a terribly admirable figure.
It’s quite possible that some of Jesus’ listeners had had dealings with somebody as—what shall we call him? Immoral? Corrupt? Despicable? —as this guy clearly was.
At any rate, this judge finds himself up against a widow who pesters the life out of him about a case that is pending in his court until he finally rules in her favor just to be rid of her.
“Listen to what the unjust judge says,” Jesus tells his disciples. “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?”
What a weird story!
It doesn’t take long to figure out that Jesus wasn’t describing who God is when he told this story about the unjust judge, though he may have been describing the God some people like to believe in.
It’s so easy to mistake human justice for God’s justice.
Marcus Borg in his book, The Heart of Christianity, which we recently finished discussing for the second time in Adult Forum, points out that God’s justice is commonly misunderstood.
“Theologically,” Borg writes, “we have often seen [the] opposite [of God’s justice] as ‘God’s mercy’. …But seeing the opposite of justice as mercy distorts what the Bible means by justice. Most often in the Bible, the opposite of God’s justice is not God’s mercy, but human injustice.”
But if God is a just and merciful God, how come there is so much injustice in the world?
Because we live in an unjust world; that’s probably the right answer—truism or not, but it’s an answer that hardly satisfies.
No, Jesus wasn’t describing God when he told this odd little story about the unjust judge and the widow.
He was talking about reality; he was talking about the way things are.
People are quite capable of doing the right thing for the wrong reason, even the most unlikely people, people like the unjust judge, for instance.
Stranger things have happened.
So if good can eventually come from a situation where we know the cards are stacked against us—where we have literally nothing to lose, as was most certainly the case for the widow, then surely good will eventually come—and probably a lot quicker—in the case of a situation where God’s loving presence is felt and we have literally everything to gain.
All we need to do is to pray always and not lose heart.
Or, as today’s collect so aptly expresses it: “…persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of [God’s] Name.”
“Keep on praying and never lose hope.”
In a world where we can come face to face with the evils of racism, sexism, bigotry, greed, envy, hatred almost every day (whether it is in others we encounter these evils or in ourselves), these words of encouragement are words we need to hear.
We need to hear them because there are so many other voices out there that are only too willing to discourage us: Forget it”, they say, “it’s not our business; we’d better not get involved in something we may not be able finish. Hey, we’re only human!”
We need to learn from the example of the persistent widow, who had nothing to lose and, therefore, everything to gain; she did not rest until she had accomplished what she had set out to do.
“Proclaim the message,” we read in the Second Letter to Timothy. “Be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.”
We may be only human, but God has hopes for us that go way beyond anything we can begin to imagine.
“Keep on praying and never lose hope.”
So often it’s easy for us to take our relationship with God for granted.
“It’s no big deal,” we say, except that it is a big deal.
Our relationship with God is the biggest deal we’ve got going for us.
It’s worth taking seriously.
It’s worth holding onto with every ounce of spiritual energy we can muster—worth holding onto and giving in to.
Giving in—that’s the hardest part.
Because taking our relationship with God seriously will change our lives—no doubt about it.
And so often it’s the kind of change that we’re not always ready for.
In fact, oddly enough, being told that our lives will be changed not once, but over and over again doesn’t sound all that much like good news, at least at first.
It seems so much more sensible to fall back on our own devices and progress at a far more moderate pace, if, in fact, we progress at all.
But when our own devices fail us, as they invariably do, it is reassuring to know that, unlike the unjust judge, God doesn’t need to be pestered, God doesn’t need to be persuaded to take the next step with us; we don’t have to do it alone—which is reassuring, good to know, because when we take that step we’re going to find ourselves in unfamiliar territory, doing stuff we’re not used to doing, not necessarily knowing how we got there nor exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing.
(It may be difficult to explain what has happened to us to the curious bystander. “Because I think this is what God wants me to do,” may be an answer that will not necessarily satisfy.)
I got to thinking about how unsatisfying such an answer would be to the casual observer when Lucy was reading the item in Friday night’s BG about our Non-Food Pantry ministry to me in the car because there are all kinds of reasons we could come up with for why we shouldn’t be doing what we’re doing.
But we’re doing it anyway, and, as the article in the paper makes clear, whatever “divine disease” has taken hold of St. Andrew’s, there are folks outside who must be catching it, too; in fact, if it weren’t for their help we would be hard pressed to keep on doing what we are doing (even if we don’t exactly know why we’re doing it!).
Of course, that’s just one example, but as long as God wants us to do it or whatever it is that God wants us to do, we will find the wherewithal to do it (or the wherewithal will find us!), and one way or the other what God wants done will get done.
That truth alone—that what God wants done gets done—is worth praying about (or should I say, “praising” about?).
Our daughter Leah is getting to be quite a theologian (I guess that can happen to single moms!), and I was talking with her again on the phone last night, and she was telling me about the parents of the children she teaches who, along with some members of her church, had offered to help her and the kids move into their new place this weekend—something that would have been very difficult for her to do by herself.
“Sometimes the best way to pray is to stop praying for what you want long enough to thank God for what you have,” is what she said.
I’ll admit I’m a bit biased, but if that isn’t “persever[ing] with steadfast faith in the confession of [God’s] Name”, I don’t know what is!
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