Pray Always

Scriptures:      Jeremiah 31:27-34, Psalm 121

                        2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Luke 18:1-8

In this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells a story with a theme that has inspired any number of movies – the little guy taking on the corrupt system.  Think of such divergent movies as Mr Smith Goes to Washington, or Gandhi, or Norma Rae, which dealt with labor issues, or Erin Brockovich, which dealt with environmental themes. Or moving to real life, we might think of student Greta Thunberg getting the attention of so many around the world about climate change and our need to move away from fossil fuels and more generally to find sustainable ways of living.  Agree with her or not, if you could imagine one of our middle school or high school students here in Bridesburg doing or saying something that went viral and commanded the attention of millions, I think we’d call it a considerable accomplishment.  In Jesus’ time as in our own, there’s just something in us that wants to see the little guy win for a change.

In Jesus’ parable, it’s a powerless woman – a widow – who is taking on a corrupt system, as personified by an unjust judge.   Remember that in Jesus’ society, widows were among the most vulnerable members of society.   By contrast, we’re told this judge is not only corrupt, but shameless – he didn’t care one bit about what people thought of him, and he surely wasn’t cowering before God either.  Likely he was the sort of coin-operated judge that would give the wealthy and well-connected the best justice money could buy, and would give to those unable to pay….nothing, nada.  A widow came to him seeking justice against her opponent, and he told her to hit the bricks, as he had so many before her.  But if he thought he was rid of her, he was sorely mistaken.  She came to him again.  And again.  And again.  And the parable gives us a glimpse into the judge’s mind as he says to himself, “I care nothing for God or people, but this widow just won’t go away, so I’ll give her what she wants so she doesn’t wear me out.”  The Greek behind the words translated “wear me out” actually mean “give me a black eye”.  So the widow’s persistence is like a fist to the eye for this judge….painful, and also hard to explain when the judge goes around with a shiner.  The phrase may have meant that the widow would give the judge a bad reputation.   And finally the judge gave the woman what she wanted, just so he wouldn’t have to look at her again.

Note how Jesus ends the parable.  He’s not saying that God is like the unjust judge.  Rather, he’s saying that if a widow’s persistent nagging can move even a cranky, lazy, corrupt judge who just wanted her to go away, how much can our prayers move God who is eager to be in relationship with us.  And relationship is the key.  In Jesus’ parable, the woman approached the judge only because he was the person who could give her what she wanted.  Otherwise, she wanted nothing to do with him, and he surely wanted nothing to do with her – he just wanted her to go away and leave him get back to his corruption.   By contrast, God wants to be in relationship with us, and we are created to be in relationship with God, even if we run away from that relationship sometimes. 

Luke writes that Jesus told this parable to remind his listeners “of their need to pray always and not lose heart.”  But what does it mean to “pray always”?  Am I supposed to spend my whole life on my knees?  We have families to care for, paychecks to earn. 

But what does it mean to pray?  Our prayers only made by folding our hands and bowing our heads?  Can our actions also be a form of prayer?   Beyond offering specific prayers, I believe the prayer of which Jesus speaks is an attitude of openness to connection with God, an attitude of openness to see God’s actions in the events of our day.   If offered to God, our family time, our paid employment, are also prayers.  Our letters to those in power, our petitions, our marches, can be offered to God as prayers for a better world. 

As we read Jesus’ parables, including this parable, it is sometimes helpful to ask, “Where am I in the story?”  And this parable has only two characters, or maybe three:  the poor widow, the unjust judge, and in the background, the God to whom Jesus teaches us to pray – and clearly we’re not God, so that narrows the question down to the widow or the judge.   We want to think of ourselves as being like the poor widow as we come here every week to pray – for healing of bodies, of situations, of relationships, of our world.  And here at Emanuel, we know about persistent prayer – our prayers for healing are often not just one-off prayers, but we pray for individuals week after week, and we’ve seen some amazing healings in our midst.

But I think that we can also be like the unjust judge, in that we can be dismissive when others seek justice for themselves or others.  A small personal example – I remember a number of years ago I was at a meeting, and someone raised the topic of student debt.   It was a young student, maybe a student at Temple, and she had this high-pitched, squealing voice, like fingernails on a chalkboard.  And my initial reaction – not spoken, but in my mind - was not particularly sympathetic – “Hey, kiddo, you have any idea how lucky you are to be in college at all?  You have any idea how many dishes I washed and what kind of crappy summer jobs I worked in order to pay for tuition at Penn State?  Suck it up, buttercup!  Stop whining!”  But over time – and especially when I went back to school to attend seminary - I came to learn how much the price of college tuitions had increased, far beyond the rate at which the minimum wage had increased – at many universities, washing every dish in the entire world ten times over wouldn’t bring in enough money to cover a semester’s tuition -  and how student debt was for many like a pair of handcuffs limiting peoples’ lives for decades after graduation.   Again, just a small personal example – but when we have those moments in which we’re tempted to ignore or ridicule some group’s struggle for justice – a petition, a letter-writing campaign, a march or rally, I’d ask us to take just a moment and ask if we’re not being like the unjust judge – not that any one of us has the power to decide an issue, but we all have choices as to how to use our time and energy, to focus on ourselves or to help others.

Perhaps the more difficult part of Jesus’ reminder is to “not lose heart”.   Luke’s gospel is thought to have been one of the later gospels to be written, and is thought to date to a generation or two after Jesus’ earthly ministry.  Jesus had not returned, and so the believers, who thought Jesus would return at any time, had to come to terms with the reality that both they and the world were going to be around a while.   What they thought was going to be a sprint to the promised land was turning into a marathon.  And they had questions and doubts – had everything they believed been a lie?  How could they move forward?  How could they maintain hope?  And in this parable, Jesus’ answer is persistent prayer. But he ends this section with that haunting question, “When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth?”

It's hard sometimes not to lose heart.  All of us here are living with one or another kind of challenge – personal health crises, sick family members, family conflict, unstable living situations, addictions in loved ones, mental health challenges – that just go on, and on, unrelentingly.   Or we may be dealing with legal or political situations that are stacked against us.  Like the widow, we want change.  It’s tempting to throw up our hands.  But Jesus calls on us to keep praying – with folded hands and bowed heads to be sure, but also with our words and our actions – for God to intervene.   And sometimes, the answer to our prayers may come from our neighbors, or even from ourselves.  We want God or some person in power to step in and fix things, but persistent prayer may change us enough to see that perhaps we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for. 

“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”  May Jesus find faith among us, and may we be faithful as we pray to God each day with our bowed heads and folded hands, with our words, with our arms and our legs, with our lives.  Amen.