Trinity 18

Readings: 

• Luke 18:1-8
• Genesis 32:22-31

Sermon: 

These are 2 stories how people encounter and communicate with God. In Genesis we have Jacob, meeting with God through a vision and a wrestling match, and coming away changed.

In Luke we have a parable, a story Jesus told to make a point; in which he uses two characters, a widow and an unjust judge, to teach about prayer, the primary way to encounter God.

Widows in Jesus’ day had low status, would not have inherited their late husband’s estate, and had little means of support. Many ended up virtually destitute.

The judge in this story is cast as a contrast to God. He has no regard or care for anyone, whereas God loves and cares for all, and is present, interested and active in creation.

If even this uncaring, godless Judge can be persuaded to do the right thing, how much more can we be confident that God hears and responds to us?

I’m definitely not saying that the more we ask, and badger and plead with God the more likely our prayers are to be answered. No. It’s not about how hard we pray. And God isn’t remotely like this judge.

Jesus says: Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened. He teaches about faith, the simple faith of a child, the faith that’s as tiny as a mustard seed but can move mountains. And here he asks: “When the Son of Man comes will he find faith on the earth?

Faith is simple trust. Trust in the love of God and in the hope we have in Christ.

Nevertheless it can sometimes feel like Jacob’s wrestling match. When you’re struggling and suffering, or you pray and feel nothing, nothing happens, or you’re angry with God. This is part and parcel of the human experience.

Keep the channel open, keep the conversation going. Having been through some very difficult things in my life, I can say that throughout it all God has been with me, and kept me going. At times it felt like fighting, but God has kept hold of me, and brought me through.

At its core, prayer is conversation with God. This parable, and Jacob’s belligerence, show us, as Eugene Peterson says, that:

Prayer “isn’t…regulated by social class or distinctions. It is a conversation in which all men, women and children, widows and judges, kings and beggars, the literate and illiterate, poor and rich, the wise and fools, saints and sinners, are equals. They are all peers with equal access to God.”

All prayers are valuable and precious to God, all are heard. From the most tentative whisper to a heartfelt cry. Or a quick ‘help!’ When you find yourself in difficulty.

All are held. As Martin Luther said: ‘Pray, and let God worry’

Questions:

• What has been your experience of prayer?
• What do you think it means to have a prayer answered?