Luke 18:1-8 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
According to theologian Frederick Buechner in his book "Wishful Thinking," everybody prays whether we think of it as praying or not There is that odd silence we fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or … even very bad
The ahhhhhhhhhh! that floats up out of you as out of a fourth July crowd when the sky rocket bursts over the water
That stammer of pain… or tears shed at someone else’s pain
The bubbling of personal or shared joy
Whatever the words or sounds may be that you use for sighing over your own life or life as a whole
These are all prayers in their own way
These are all spoken not just to yourself but to something even more than yourself
Formal prayer takes many forms and is practiced at many different times in our lives:
bedtime prayers, here in Sunday worship, there are the prayers we say when we are afraid or desperate, the “grace” we sometimes say before eating, are but a few.
Jesus prays many times in the Gospels, and even provides a model for us in the Lord’s Prayer. But there’s more.
Jesus speaks further not just of the prayers we might offer, or the frequency and persistence of our prayers,
but here he speaks of the nature of our God who hears the deepest longings of our hearts.
According to Jesus, by far the most important thing about praying… is to keep at it. Keep praying— and don’t lose heart.
The images Jesus uses to explain this are all rather comical
As though Jesus thought it rather comical that he should have to explain it to us at all
There is the story that says… God is like a friend you go to at midnight to borrow a loaf of bread
The friend says in essence “Drop dead” but you keep knocking anyway until your friend relents and gives you what you want so you will go away and he can go back to bed (Luke 11)
Or this parable today about a crooked judge who refuses to hear the case of a poor widow, presumably because there is nothing in it for him, no way for him to profit
But the widow persists, she does not lose heart— until the judge finally hears her case to just get her out of his hair
This parable is as much – or more – about the nature of God than it is a “nice” little instruction on prayer.
And yet, and yet.
What is at the heart of Jesus’ exhortation to “pray always and not to lose heart”?
Be importunate- persistent- unrelenting Jesus tells us
Not, one may assume, because you have to beat a path to God’s door before God will open the door
But rather because until you beat the path maybe there’s no way of getting to your door.
Maybe not so much that you get God’s attention
But rather so that you have your attention on God
God wants you to have the desires of your heart… but without taking the time how will you know what those desires are,
without believing God how will you believe you can have them to even ask or ponder them
Whatever else it may or may not be, prayer is self talk
And self talk in and of itself is not a bad idea
It is a good thing for you to Talk to yourself about your own life, about what you have done and what you have left undone
about who you are and who you wish you were
about those you love and also about those you don’t love
Talk to yourself about what matters to you most, because if you don’t you may just forget what matters most to you
Even if you don’t think anybody is listening, at least you will be listening
Believe Somebody is listening— God is listening
But there is more to prayer
Prayer will move us within and without
Is it not within our power at times to be the answer to the prayers of others?
Are we not called, as individuals and as the church, to be part of the response, in particular to the prayers and needs of the powerless, the marginalized, the outcastes of society at any given time?
If we are not part of that response, in what ways are we like the unjust judge?
One commentator suggests that “To those of us who have it in their power to relieve the distress of the widow, the orphan, and the stranger but do not,
the call to pray night and day is a command to let the priorities of God’s compassion reorder the priorities of our lives.” (paraphrased from The New Interpreters Bible, Luke, page 339).
It seems that people of faith, in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament, and down through the centuries of church history and in the very life of the church today, often are tempted to equate righteousness with their prayer life rather than with their passion for justice,
Do not think I am calling you to a pious prayer life that does not change how you act and behave in the world
The prayer I am calling you to, that Jesus calls us to will have an effect on our participation in bringing in the Reign of God, God’s beloved community
That reign of God is the shalom that is the fullness of peace, healing and wholeness not just for a few but for all,
including the widows and orphans, the stranger at the gate and the unwanted person knocking at the door, the poor.
Yes Prayer will move us beyond ourselves
And internal prayer will make us live and be our prayers
They will cease to be just something in our head but something that moves our hands and feet and mouths to work for justice
Many who read the Bible know this, for God has been clear about despising our religious festivals and burnt offerings – whatever form those take today –if we do not act with justice toward the widow, the orphan, the poor, the oppressed, those who are hated, marginalized, excluded from the goods of life that God so abundantly provides, and expects us to share.
As Jesus ends the “nice” little lesson on prayer – or so it seemed at the beginning – with a jarring and ominous question,
“And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
we too wonder about our faith, our mustard seed faith that has the potential to move mountains or uproot trees,
and ask if we have indeed heard the cry of the widow and responded?
In doing so, we will have heard the voice of God, calling us to prayer, to pray always
and the call to true religion and true righteousness. Amen
