Persistence
A Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 16, 2022
The Rev. Robin Teasley
Jesus told his disciples 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?" Luke 18:1-8
Persistence is a mosquito in your bedroom on a warm summer night. It’s the musician who practices a difficult measure of music over and over until it is perfect. It’s the basketball player who shoots from the free throw line hundreds of times until she can make the shot in her sleep. It’s the four year old who will ask why an infinite number of times until finally she understands why. Persistence is a little stream of water that patiently wears down huge rocks over time.
Jesus tells his disciples a parable about being persistent in prayer, as they are heading toward Jerusalem for his trial and crucifixion. He knows that they will need this skill; that they will need to be in constant conversation with God to get through the most horrendous week of their lives. He knows that if they will be persistent in prayer, they will not lose heart.
It all comes down to prayer as a way of life. This is not prayer in the sense that we see God as a heavenly vending machine, where we pray and then pull the lever to receive our heart’s desire. No. Prayer is where we go to connect with God, to pour out our hearts and then allow God to refill them.
Our prayer life sustains us even in the worst of times, and it keeps us close to God. Priest and author Barbara Brown Taylor explains how prayer works. "You are going to trust the process, regardless of what comes of it, because the process itself gives you life. The process keeps you engaged with what matters most to you, so you do not lose heart. Rather than thinking it's a matter of getting or not getting what we ask for, prayer keeps our hearts chasing after God's heart. It's how we bother God, and it's how God bothers us back." (Barbara Brown Taylor, "Bothering God", in Home by Another Way)
As we pray we develop persistence. We are given the strength to persevere in doing the next right thing in each moment, whether it’s getting out of bed in the morning or standing up for justice in the world. Prayer opens us to God’s transformation in and around us, even when the answers and the future are unknown. Being persistent in prayer gives us the time and space to ask our questions, to tell God those unresolved things in our hearts, and to trust that in God’s time transformation and justice will come to us all.
Hearing the parable about a persistent widow and an unjust judge, it might all seem futile, this idea of justice. And we might want to assign roles to the judge and the widow. Which one are we? Which one represents God?
And the people hearing Jesus tell this parable? Well, they would have laughed at the image of a feisty little widow thinking she could get what she wanted from the judge. Everyone knew that widows had no voice or agency, no one to care for them, and Jesus makes it clear this judge could care less. And yet, she was persistent. Persistent enough that the judge relented. It sounds unlikely and outrageous, but that is how things happen in the kingdom. The weak are made strong, and justice is served if we will we remain persistent in prayer and in faith. One commentary I read suggests that God is not the judge but the widow, persistently calling us to justice, call us to bring about justice. God bothering us, as Barbara Brown Taylor says.
The Immanuel community is the place where we come when we need help with persistence, the place where we are held accountable, where we are supported and encouraged, where we are loved when we feel most unlovable. Gathering here gives our lives meaning even when life overwhelms us. It supports us in these times, praying for us when we cannot, having faith for us when we find our own faith weak, and it’s here that we are equipped to proclaim God’s justice, to share the light of the Gospel in the world. These three things, prayer, persistence, and justice are all somehow connected.
Persistence in prayer is not simply words and abstract ideas. It can look like singing in the choir, serving on altar guild, or reading a lesson in worship. Being persistent can look like feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, or taking meals to the sick. It looks like tending the nursery, teaching the children, and inviting the neighbors to a feast. A feast of steak and oysters, yes, but even more so, a feast at this communion table, where Christ is present.
A faith community is persistent. When any one of us is absent, we are less than whole. Each person’s gifts are needed, so that when any one of us find ourselves in a place of suffering or in need of justice, we know we will be ministered to, lifted up in prayer, and given all that we need to persevere in faith. We need to pray, and our actions are answers to prayer.
The reason we exist as a church is not only for ourselves and our needs, but also to share the good news of God in Christ with the world, to be the hands of Jesus in our wider community as we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves; as we strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.
We begin our stewardship season this week, and it’s important to acknowledge that financial resources can help us to be persistent. God has blessed us richly in this parish for a very long time. I believe God would have us be persistent in ensuring that this faith community endures for years to come. There is much happening in the world that would rightly discourage us, that would cause us to lose heart. The Latin word for heart is cor. To have heart is to be courageous.
Our stewardship theme this year is Do Not Be Afraid, which is to say, do not be discouraged, do not lose heart. In the midst of all the changes and chances of life, inflation, wars, disease, and natural disasters, we are called to be persistent. We will pray always and not lose heart. We will pray with our words and with our actions, as we share the gifts we have been given and the hope that is within us, in this persistent place we call Immanuel, God with us.
Title Image: The Unjust Judge, Pieter de Grebber
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