Sunday, October 13, 2019


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. 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.’”[b] 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?”

Footnotes:

  1. Luke 18:1 Gk he
  2. Luke 18:5 Or so that she may not finally come and slap me in the face

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]

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.

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.

And so we sing:  “O Lord, Hear My Prayer.”  

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f51n-yb11dY]

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.

And so we sing:  “O Lord, Hear My Prayer.”

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f51n-yb11dY]

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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