Persistent Prayer

October 21, 2007     Proper 24 C

Jeremiah 31:27-34             Psalm 119:97-104

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5         St. Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable on the necessity of praying always and not losing heart. A widow pleads before a corrupt judge for vindication against an opponent. Irritation rather than compassion finally moves the judge to help her. The only way to stop her complaining is to give in to her pleading.

And this is a corrupt judge. How different it is with a good and bountiful God, who has given us life. It is God's desire to help us when we call out by night and day; God is eager to answer our cries for help. Thus Jesus asks his hearers, "Will God delay long over them, do you suppose?"

But delay, by and large, is unfortunately what you experience. You wonder if you are even heard. Heaven seems at times to be wired like those labyrinthine voice-mail systems. You keep getting the runaround. You keep hitting the same buttons, hearing the same evasions.

The word for "widow" in Hebrew means "silent one" or "one unable to speak." In the patriarchalMediterranean world males alone play a public role. Women do not speak on their own behalf.

A widow who has lost her husband and spokesperson to death is in an even worse condition if the eldest son is not married.

Younger widows were considered to be very dangerous and were urged to remarry. One of the major concerns in the early Church was determining who truly is a widow.

Because widows were not included in Hebrew laws on inheritance, they became common symbols of the exploited and oppressed. Prophets like Isaiah (1:23; 10:2) and Malachi (3:5) criticized the harsh treatment they received, and throughout the Bible widows are viewed as being under the special protection of God (Jeremiah 49:11; Psalm 68:6; James 1:27).

Because the widow appears alone in this parable, we can assume that she has no male family member who can appear on her behalf. She is truly alone and therefore in a very vulnerable situation. At the same time, she is desperate. Being already deprived of everything of value in this society, what else does she have to lose? Her life?

The first verse of the Gospel sets the tone. The story is addressed to the disciples lest they grow tired of watching and praying. The judge of the story is a person known in the community as a person who is to care especially for the "widows." The widow is seeking the just execution of her rights. The judge pays little attention to her banging at his door until he figures out that she might break down the door and literally "give him a black eye." So he gives in.

The last verse is the important one for the disciples and for us to hear. "But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

This is not a story about praying until we get what we want. It is an encouragement to pray so that we might wait and watch for all of God's comings and goings. It is about the aspect of faith that goes beyond believing in God as a dogmatic truism. It is about believing that the loving God cannot not be loving.

We do ask the very good question about why should we pray at all. Is there a mystical number of askings and we tire God out and bingo, here it is! Is there a certain set of words which trips the benevolent bucket?

Perhaps Jesus meant the story of the widow to represent the state of humanity itself, suffering in the wound of time. The very condition of our fallen creaturehood needs some final healing. All temporary cures, all wars won, all peace treaties are just signals. There is no earthly final therapy, no definitive earthly victory over death, no endless earthly peace.

The object of our belief is a God free of space's limit, of time's transience. It is the God who called us "very good" and abides in that judgment beyond all the evidence we provide to the contrary. It is the God who made our outstretched arms his own in the crucified one, who even in crushing loss said, "Into your hands I commend my spirit."

What is required of us is to pray always. Our very being must be a prayer, a petition. What is asked of us is that we never lose heart; our very existence must become an act of trust. What Jesus is asking of the disciples is a faith that combines with hope.

We are generally pragmatists. We put in time, effort, words, works, thought, creativity and expect, yes, demand results pdq! This is not faith, it is business. Apparently God is presently out of business and into personal and communal relating.

Why are we called to pray? We pray so that we can experience our central human truths. We are not God. We are limited. We desire union, peace, and joy. We love being human until we experience needs, losses, injuries, and fears.

We are invited to kneel right down in the midst of it all and have faith, which is not always pragmatically available and not to our liking. We pray to announce our dependencies and our truth that faith, hope, watching and waiting are those things that Jesus is asking for of the disciples.

Persistent prayer is what we are called to do, not because it wears God down like the corrupt judge, but because it continues to put us in our place. It continues to remind us that we are people dependant upon God for all that we need, even our very lives.