Sermon preached by Fr. Tom
at St. Thomas Episcopal – Plymouth
October 20, 2013
Twenty-second Sunday of Pentecost – Proper 24
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
This is a troubling story in today’s Gospel. First there is “a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.” We don’t like to think that there are judges like that – there are of course.
Then Jesus said that a widow came to that judge to get help – to get justice. This judge, who didn’t care about God, people, or anything else, refused to help. But the widow kept coming back, again, and again and again. Finally, the bad judge got so tired of seeing her that he did what was right. It wasn’t that he wanted to help. He just wanted to get rid of the pesky old woman, and the best way to do that was to give her what she wanted.
So you are thinking you find this disturbing, but it ends well. It turns out there is more to it. Jesus tells his disciples, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.”
“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 continual coming.”
So Jesus tells us to listen to this bad judge, who gives the widow justice –– but only to get her off his back. And then Jesus says:
“And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will (God) delay long in helping them? I tell you, (God) will quickly grant justice to them.”
What does that mean? Does it mean that God is like that bad judge? Does it mean that God doesn’t care anything about us, but we can probably arm-wrestle him into helping us if we pester him long enough?
No, that isn’t it at all. The idea behind this story is that, if even a bad judge will help a pesky widow, then we can count on our good God to help us. In other words, God is not like that bad judge. God is better than the bad judge – much better. God loves us, so we can be sure that God will help us.
Sometimes God does not answer our prayers right away or He does not answer them the way we would like. Today’s Gospel is really about our continuing to be faithful and continuing to pray even when nothing seems to be happening.
That’s not easy, is it! It’s not easy to pray and to keep praying even when nothing seems to be happening.
Prayer is communion with God, and it can enrich our lives. If it’s better to be a “911 Christian” than no Christian at all, it’s even better to be an everyday Christian – a Christian who prays regularly. God loves to hear from us –– the more often the better. That’s part of the message of our scripture today.
But it’s not easy to remember to pray when things are going well. It’s not easy to keep in practice.
Did you ever think of praying to keep in practice? Madeleine L’Engle did. In her book, The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, Madeleine relates telling her mother that she had prayed badly in church that day – and that she didn’t feel very good about her prayers at home either. But she knew that she needed to keep praying, because if she didn’t keep praying, she would never experience “real prayer.” She said, “You know what happens when I don’t have the time to play the piano for a week or so – my technique falls apart.” And then she says,
“If I don’t struggle to pray regularly, both privately and corporately, if I insist on waiting for inspiration on the dry days, or making sure I have the time, then prayer will be as impossible to me as the C minor Fugue without work.”
Isn’t that a wonderful insight! Prayer is like playing the piano. If we don’t practice, we’ll never get good at it!
When I coached lacrosse, I used to tell the guys that practicing something until you get it right is not going to win games. We needed to practice until we could not get it wrong.
But maybe we might think of prayer this way. Prayer is like being with someone we love. It’s good for families to eat dinner together. It’s good for us to talk to each other as we sit around the table.
And that’s also why it’s good to spend some time with God every day.
We have two dogs. One is old and wise. The other is youthful and impulsive. They both know that I don’t like them to bother the family when we are eating, and they lie a safe distance away. But they don’t nap. They watch carefully in case something drops. By carefully, I mean they could not be more focused. They have nothing else on their doggie minds besides a stray crumb.
In a lot of ways, I wish I could pray like those dogs watch for crumbs. It is really easy to be distracted or go through the check list mechanically. I don’t want to pray like that. I want to be completely focused. The fact is that I need to practice more. I need to practice until I get better. I don’t think I can practice until I can’t get it wrong, but I want to try.
Our Gospel lesson today comes from the Gospel of Luke. The Christians of that day were suffering from persecution. That’s why Jesus closed the parable with these words. He said:
“And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus will come again to usher in the kingdom of God in its full glory. He is wondering whether Christians would be there to welcome him. Would he find faithful Christians – Christians who had endured – Christians whose faith remained constant through thick and thin? Would he find Christians like the widow who kept on praying even when things seemed to be going bad – or would he find Christians who had gotten discouraged and given up?
We have all had reason to be thankful to God for the blessings he has given us. I have been preaching on thankfulness for a the past few Sundays. We aren’t always thankful though. We have all had reason to be angry with God for denying something – health, wealth, love – the things we really wanted.
Like it or not, that’s the way life is. In Matthew 5:45, Jesus said:
“Your Father in heaven… makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”
In other words, we have all had opportunity to think God is not being fair.
Teresa of Avila, a 16th century nun had her feast day this last week. I read her bio and thought about her a little this week. She famously found herself mired in the mud on one of her journeys. In her frustration, she cried out to God:
“If this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few!”
But Teresa kept the faith. She continued to work for Christ. Later, she wrote a poem. She said:
“Let nothing upset you.
Let nothing startle you.
All things pass.
God does not change.
Patience wins all it seeks.
Whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone is enough.”
Teresa was like the widow who kept coming back – and who finally found the joy she was seeking.
I pray that we will be like that widow – and like Teresa – and like the millions of saints through the years who have let their faith triumph over adversity.
My take away this week is that we need to pray like we have to play the piano or practice lacrosse if we want to be good.
We need to be that dog who is focused on that crumb.
You have heard the joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall – practice, practice, practice. That is how we become better Christians too.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen