Sermon—Oct. 16, 2022 (Sherwood Park Lutheran Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba)
Luke 18:1-18
The last time I was here we were shifting from the season of Easter to “Ordinary time,” or the season after Pentecost. Now, through our readings, we’re winding our way through the last few weeks of the season after Pentecost, and Advent is on the horizon. Our gospel reading today begins with Jesus telling the disciples a parable about their need to pray and not lose heart. He tells a story about a widow persistently pestering an unjust judge into giving her what she is owed. This is a complicated passage that may sound like a confusing way for Jesus to teach the disciples about God’s character.
But I wonder if it actually makes sense. Parables are stories Jesus told using familiar and contextually relevant images to teach a lesson. The characters of the widow and the judge represent the most extremes of authority and power in Jesus’ day. The widow represents the most vulnerable in society while the judge represents the most powerful. The widow is seen as the one who is most at the mercy of others’, and the judge is the one who calls all the shots and has the actual authority to make things happen. So Jesus uses these two extreme characters to teach a lesson that I think is intended to reveal to his listeners that being in relationship with God and being attentive to God’s presence in the world stretches us beyond the typical boundaries we draw.
Maybe today if we were to craft a story that puts similar extremes in relationship with one another we would talk about a child persistently asking Santa for something on their wish list. Or maybe we would talk about some other vulnerable or marginalized person or group organizing around an issue and challenging the structures and systems that are holding them back. And maybe that’s how a lot of us understand what it means to pray for God’s will to be done on earth. Some of us maybe see that God is the benevolent one who passes out gifts to those who deserve or earn it. Others maybe see God as the ultimate source of power and authority who aligns with particular causes based on a specific set of values and ideals.
I think Jesus is saying that God is neither of those extremes. God doesn’t respond to the persistence of God’s people out of frustration or obligation. Rather, God invites, welcomes and responds to the cries of God’s people out of love, mercy and compassion—out of God’s character. In the context of the disciples’ fears and anxieties about God’s judgment, Jesus offers a word of hope and comfort…God is not an unjust judge who needs to be convinced and badgered to bring about justice. God is bringing about justice because that’s what God does. You don’t have to worry about whether you’re ‘doing it right’ or when and how God’s will is being done. You don’t have to obsess over the specifics of who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out.’ God is bringing about justice because that’s what God does, and God invites God’s people to participate in that work…not out of fear or intimidation, but out of love, mercy and compassion.
So where does that leave us? How do we locate ourselves in a world where the needs and suffering around us seem insurmountable? How do we orient ourselves as community when our fears and anxieties about the future are so strong? Where do we anchor ourselves when the pressures feel like more than we can handle?
Jesus invites his disciples to not lose heart and to stay faithful in their prayer life…not because by praying they’re badgering God into action or response, but because prayer anchors and centers them in the ongoing presence and work of God in their lives and keeps them attentive to all that God is already doing.
Jesus invites his disciples to not lose heart and to stay faithful in their prayer life…not because by praying they’re badgering God into action or response, but because prayer anchors and centers them in the ongoing presence and work of God in their lives and keeps them attentive to all that God is already doing. That’s why he tells the parable in the first place. I wonder if the author of 2 Timothy had this teaching of Jesus in mind when he encouraged Timothy to “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it” as a way of navigating persecution and struggle. In an imperfect human system, persistence can bring about justice for the most vulnerable, but it has nothing to do with relationship or faithfulness. Discipleship is an invitation to a different kind of persistence…persistence in prayer, hope and trust in the ongoing work of God that will ultimately defeat death and promises new life for all of creation.
After worship today some of you may be sticking around for conversation and discernment about the core values and commitments of this congregation. Why do we take time to articulate who we are as a congregation and what we are about? Without a foundation of identity, purpose and values, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the anxieties about survival—which usually get expressed as a fear around attendance and giving. But when we can rearticulate to ourselves why we are church in the first place, we can encourage and support one another in being faithful in responding to all that God has done and is doing in and through us for the sake of the world. “Continue in what you have learned and firmly believe,” Paul reminds Timothy. Stay faithful and diligent in prayer, Jesus reminds the disciples. The One who spoke creation into being, who hears the cries of the vulnerable and marginalized, who became flesh and proclaimed a message of hope and healing to all, who endured death so that all of creation might know life…THAT One is the one who calls us into community. THAT One is the one who claims us as beloved. THAT One is the one who promises to hear our prayers and never gets tired of meeting us in our own pain and struggles.
THAT One is the One who invites us to the Table to be nourished by the body and blood of Christ. THAT One is the one who sends us into our communities with a word of hope for those who need it.
Having conversations about who we are, what is important to us, and what we are called to be about today is important. These conversations help us align our identity, resources and priorities. They help us articulate to ourselves and to our community how the good news of Jesus is forming and informing us in this season. But the work of transformation and renewal—personally, as a congregation and in our community—is ultimately God’s work. God is the one who transforms lives and heals brokenness. God is the one who calls, gathers, nourishes and sends. And as the disciples are caught up in concern about their part in what God is doing, Jesus reminds them to be faithful and persistent in prayer and not to lose heart. Whether this parable is about God, about us, or about us in relationship with God—which it probably is all those things in different ways—and whether we individually or as a community see ourselves as the most vulnerable ones or the ones with resources and authority, we are invited to faithfully, persistently, and patiently participate in what God is doing in and through us, trusting that God hears the prayers of God’s people and promises to grant justice to God’s chosen ones.
Amen.