Sermon Luke 18: 1-8 October 16, 2016 Parable Series
Stubborn Prayer
We
can no longer sit silent.
This text from Luke is a pivot point
for us. It reveals the Word of God powerful, strong, and unrelenting.
The widow
can no longer be dismissed.
She can
no longer be pushed aside.
Work for the Kingdom of God is
challenging, confusing, frustrating and ongoing. We find ourselves at a place
where we can no longer sit at the feet of Jesus and pray prayers with flowery
platitudes.
We stand shaking our fist and we scream
and we yell and we demand, “When are you coming to straighten out this
mess?”
“How long do we have to wait
for you Jesus, to return to us with your justice, love and reconcile the world
to yourself?”
We plead with feeble voices, “Where
are you?”
There are times we are angry, we are bitter, we are hurt in
many ways by words, by feelings of those who think and act differently from us.
We have lost loved ones, we have lost parts of our own
selves.
In the midst of crisis around the world we watch and wonder,
“where is God?”
In helpless voices we ask, “Where do we step in and stop
being afraid and where do we stand before those who block the way of doing what
is right?”
There are many reasons why believers have lost hope and
trust.
There are many reasons among believers (and those who don’t
believe for that matter) where faith feels dismantled.
Can you name where your faith seems dismantled? For those
around you, Do you where faith has disintegrated?
For places in your heart where has faith been disrupted?
Is there something burning to burst forth from your heart that
must be spoken?
Each of us has a widow voice within us.
We come before God with persistent cries for the young woman
who has lost yet another child and has empty arms and an empty womb.
We are angered at yet another death in the streets of police
officers and unarmed men. We are bitter at another factory closing and people
without work.
We are hurt by the public officials who fling words as if
they are immune to retribution. We hide behind social media and witness
accusations hurled across invisible wires by those who refuse to come face to
face.
We are infuriated at rebels who take the lives of children
and have no remorse.
We find ourselves banging on the door of God’s Kingdom
begging and begging for action on the part of God. (1) Our prayers, like the
widow’s, are persistent and stubborn-do something God! Show up for Pete’s sake
God-we are here! We beat ourselves against the gates of heaven to get God’s
attention.
~~~
This week we hosted a spaghetti dinner to raise funds for
the Coalition Against domestic violence. We seek to be light to the women of
abuse to find a way to leave the life that holds them hostage. We seek to speak
out so they can find their voice to speak out against their abuser. We have
made a choice to reconsider our silence (2) and as a church speak openly
in the community that words matter and that violence against women is NOT ok.
The world seems out of our control and so the widow voice
is all we have.
We come as she does before God-vulnerable, alone, without a
crowd to support us. The Old Testament and during the times of Jesus the faith
community was responsible for the care of widows and orphans. They had a
mandate from God to provide widows with all that they needed. And so here we
read about a widow before a judge, an unjust one to boot, who comes alone-no
faith community is present with her-no one has taken responsibility to care for
her and to remain at her side. And yet, she goes forth with audacity and unashamedly
before the judge to stubbornly make her request.
We come willing and with audacity
and with stubbornness before the One who can make a change, we come persistently
and consistently.
The widow voice within us
cannot let go.
This is the hopeful courage that resists the injustice in
our lives and in our world.
The Spirit fills the heart and bubbles it up with strength
to act when there is no strength. The Spirit acts within us to go beyond
ourselves.
And perhaps, that is the Good News for us today.
It is in our daily persistent prayers-“give us this day
our daily bread”-our stubborn faith that God will
provide-that God’s amazing love for us is a promise that brings it all
around-even if we have to wait-we will not give up. For the
Kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. The
Scriptures remind us, “For the Kingdom of God is within you.”
17:20-21
That’s all well and good you say to me, that’s only half of
the story, what about this unjust judge?
Is this judge an image of God?
How can we imagine such a capricious being? How can God be
so frivolous?
This judge says he has no fear of God or respect for
others. What does that mean?
Is he granting to this widow the answer to her request just
to keep her quiet;
to protect his reputation?
Is he giving her what she wants to keep himself from being
publicly embarrassed? Is it that she won’t leave him alone that people are
beginning to wonder about his ethics? How can God be compared to this
judge?
What have we learned about God as we’ve grown up? Nothing
like this guy, for sure! We’ve learned that God is faithful and loving.
God claims us as his children.
God’s love is so persistent for us that God chases after us
continuously with love for us even though we keep running away. Hosea.
God is relentless in love to the point that Jesus was among
us-God incarnate-persistent-stubborn-fully present.
Jesus who gave his life for us so we in turn can have the
fullness of life.
There is no doubt of God’s unfailing and sacrificial love
for us as we have been taught.
Perhaps then this judge who has no fear for God and no
respect for others
is how
we see God in relation to our unanswered prayers and
our frustration in a broken world.
Perhaps this
is how
we see the lives of the
faithful who pray and one prayer is answered and another goes unanswered.
Perhaps our witness of God, our experience
of God is of a being who has no respect and no fear.
Perhaps we feel that God is just
NOT fair.
That is exactly where the gospel writer Luke wants us to be
with this parable of Jesus. He provides us with the definition of justice
that Jesus proclaims: respect for others and the fear of God.
Which brings us back to stubborn prayer.
An unjust judge grants the request of a widow who puts
herself at great risk to receive a measure of justice.
Her stubborn persistence brought about change, no
matter how she felt about the judge.
No matter how we feel about God: just or unjust; we
can have the widow’s voice and come to God over and over again.
We have a widow’s voice within us.
Let us act with stubborn prayer, with unrelenting faith (the
faith that Jesus will find on earth) and publicly come before God seeking
justice for all. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” Amen.
Resources: Karoline Lewis (2); Feasting on the Word (1).
