Pentecost +19 C
October 20, 2019
“Honest to God”
St. Luke 18:1-8/Genesis 32:22-32
The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge
18 Then Jesus[a] told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”[b] 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Message
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Christ.
Jacob
was a swindler. He conned his brother,
Esau, out of his birthright and ran off to his Uncle Laban’s family to be safe
from his brother. There he tried to make
a deal with Laban to marry Uncle Laban’s daughter, Rachel. Laban tricked Jacob and got him to marry Leah
instead. Then Jacob bargained to have
Rachel by working 7 more years for her.
Then he sensed it was time to go home.
There he would have to face the wrath of Esau.
As
he approached home he got wind of Esau coming to meet him. Frightened and seemingly hopeless he put his
family on one side of the River Jabbok and spends the evening in prayer on the
other side of the river.
And
this is what happened:
24Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until
daybreak. 25When the man saw that
he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s
hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then
he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let
you go, unless you bless me.” 27So
he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28Then the man said, “You shall no longer be
called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and
have prevailed.” 29Then Jacob
asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my
name?” And there he blessed him. 30So
Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and
yet my life is preserved.” 31The
sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32Therefore to this day the Israelites do
not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on
the hip socket at the thigh muscle. [Genesis 32:24-32]
Persistent
in prayer, Jacob wrestled with this mysterious divine figure. Notice the wrestling with the divine ends in
a draw and Jacob demands a blessing. He
gets a new name – Israel – one who has striven with God. Then Jacob asks the mysterious beings for his
name.
Knowing the name means having control over the person or thing being named. He got an answer in the form of a question: “Why is it that you ask me my name?”
Jacob,
now Israel, calls the site Peniel –
which means ‘the face of God.’
Persistent
in prayer the outcome was not pre-determined but in relationship to the
stranger with whom he wrestles he exacts a blessing – a new name – and for the
rest of his years walks with a limp – a constant reminder of this encounter.
Persistence
in prayer is like wrestling with the Divine as we sing together:
“O Lord, Hear My Prayer.” [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f51n-yb11dY]
“O Lord, Hear My Prayer.” [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f51n-yb11dY]
Next
day Jacob, with his new name “Israel” encounters Esau and to his surprise, he
hugs him and they are reconciled.
Lest
we forget – God chose Jacob, Israel, to be a blessing for all. God’s intention is for all nations, all
creation to come under his loving reign.
Chosen
ones persist in prayer in order to participate in God’s loving rule for
all. We wrestle with God and are honest
to God about our situations and through such wrestling we are formed,
transformed and given a new name.
Jacob’s
story is the story of struggle, persistence, and transformation.
Turning
the cultural hierarchical system of the 1st Century on its head, Jesus tells a
tale of a widow and a judge. Widows were
vulnerable and often marginalized.
Judges were to be respected. Here
you have a reversal, and the widow’s persistence brings justice. Jesus encourages followers to persist in
prayer.
If
she had no sons, a widow was to be taken in by her brother-in-law and bear
children. (Deuteronomy 25:5) The concern
was more with continuing the family line then simply the care of the
widow. A widow like Naomi in the Old
Testament was vulnerable and marginalized unless they be taken in by a man.
The Story of Ruth is a story of persistence and conniving on the part of two women to have a safety net. And she persisted.
The Story of Ruth is a story of persistence and conniving on the part of two women to have a safety net. And she persisted.
So,
Jesus uses the most marginalized and vulnerable of his day to make a point
about prayer and persistence. Pestering
and persisting the unjust judge caves in and she gets justice. By contrast how much more will God listen to
and grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?
And
so we pester God – we cling to God’s promise and remind God of the promises God
has made to us and all of Creation – to make all things new.
Then
Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose
heart. There are times in life when we
lose heart…times when we sense that nothing will change…times when cancer is
not cured…and our prayers seem to go unheeded.
How do we address such times?
Dr.
James Howell, Lead Pastor of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte,
NC reflects on ‘losing heart’:
Twice in 2
Corinthians 4, Paul says “So we do not lose heart.” Evidently, Paul knew what
it was to lose heart. He knew how easy it can be to lose heart. The Greek
verb, enkakeo, means “grow
faint, get weary.” When you cope with tough challenges, when you strive to be
faithful to God in trying circumstances, you get tired. Understandably.
What an interesting
phrase though: “lose heart.” You don’t lose your heart – either the organ that
pumps blood and oxygen through your body, or that more metaphorical “heart”
that is your inner, loving, passionate self. If you “lose heart.” Your
heart is always there, but the temptation is to let it slide, in fatigue, into
doubt, cynicism, fear, anxiety, and hopelessness.
[Paul goes on to
say in 2nd Corinthians 4:] “We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to
us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not
driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”
Such
eloquence. So encouraging. The keys here are (1) “earthen vessels,”
which means clay pots that are broken. We who are broken are those God
dwells within. Then, (2) “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,
so the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies.”
All other religions
have a god high up in heaven. Only Christianity has a God who comes down
and enters into our broken, mortal condition. Jesus died – so our worst
losses, even death itself, are engaged from the inside, from painful personal
experience by God Almighty.
Whenever we suffer,
we do not do so alone, but in loving solidarity with Jesus, and hence with
God. And so we have good cause not to lose heart, not to be crushed, not
driven to despair, not destroyed.
Our
persistence in prayer comes through the power of the cross. Knowing that God was present to Jesus at that
moment and knowing that God was absent from Jesus at that moment – both and so
in the midst of loss we sense both the absence and presence of God – a strange
wrestling at the Jabbok.
But
the story does not end there. We persist
in prayer through the open tomb – that empty tomb. God raised Christ and as we wrestle with the
divine in prayer – God raises us and gives us a new name. We, too, may limp away as we carry in our
bodies the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested.
We
are to be open and honest to God and persistent in prayer.
God
answers the question “WHY?” Why did my
loved one die of cancer after I prayed and prayed? Why do my prayers go unanswered? God answers
the question ‘Why?’ with a who. That who
is Jesus the Christ – always at our side – not with answers but with God’s
love. For nothing can separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Amen
Permission to quote any part of the sermon
contact: kennstorck@gmail.com
Dr. James Howell has given permission
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