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"Always Pray, and Do Not Give Up"
Well, it is nice to be back in the pulpit here at St.
Luke’s. I did a little calculating and realized that
is has been 14 weeks since I last preached a sermon
here. That’s a long time. So, I thought I had better
introduce myself. I am Pastor Roberts. And, I actually
DO still work here.
But as you know, on Sunday mornings, I have been serving
at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sanford. I want to tell
you that things have been going very well there, and the
church has truly been coming back to life.
These past few months have been an important time of
relationship building. When we, the members of St. Luke's
and myself, first started attending there, nobody was
quite sure what to expect. We needed some time to get
acquainted and discover that we really are together for
the same purpose - To serve the Lord, and grow His
congregation in Sanford.
I was out in the neighborhood recently, and heard from
some folks who live around the church, that they have
noticed that there are some new things going on at
Redeemer. And that was exciting to hear. In the next
few months we are going to just keep on doing those
new things.
Through the strength and blessings of our multi-site ministry,
we are going to be stepping out into the neighborhoods
around the church even more intentionally. So, I encourage
your prayers and support. AND, I want to invite you to stop
by some Sunday and visit.
Alright, let's turn our thoughts back to the Gospel lesson
for today. This is actually a hard passage of the Bible. In
fact, I think it is possible that the parable Jesus' tells
in this Gospel, is responsible for more Christian frustration
and irritation than any of the rest of Christ's parables.
For example there is the man who tells this story: "When I
was 10 years old," he says, "I first heard the parable in Luke
18, where Jesus says, if you pray persistently enough and hard
enough, God will give you what you ask. I remember running
outside, standing on the driveway, closing my eyes real tight,
and praying over and over again: God, I want to fly like
Superman. And I believe you can do it. So I'll jump, and you
take it from there.
"I jumped four times-and each time landed half a second later
and half a foot farther down the driveway. I had believed and
I had asked, but I didn't receive. Well, I figured I hadn't
prayed long enough and hard enough. And so, for the next week,
every day I went out on the driveway closed my eyes, and prayed
over and over again: Dear God, I want to fly like Superman. I
believe you can do it. So I'll jump, and you take it from there.
“And do you know what happened at the end of those seven days?
Nothing. God did nothing.”
Have you ever felt that frustration? The frustration of praying to
God for something – praying hard, praying long – and getting nothing
but deafening silence?
Jesus is telling us, or at least He seems to be telling us today
that that the trick to getting God to do what you ask is to be
persistent, determined, relentless. And if you are persistent
enough, determined enough, relentless enough – you will get
what you ask for.
A very popular theologian says this:
“Prayer pulls the rope below and the great bell rings above
in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray
so languidly. Others give but an occasional pluck at the rope.
But he who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope
boldly and pulls continuously, with all his might.”
Well, this is one of the biggest crocks of nonsense I have
heard in a long time. What this theologian suggests is that
God will not pay much attention to you until you have worked
hard enough to earn His awareness.
How many poor Christians are there in this world, who have
been taught that the only effective way to get or keep God’s
attention is by making as much spiritual noise as they can
in their prayers, or in their worship, or in their lives of
faith? Many are mistakenly taught that, unless you are
spiritually active enough, unless you keep you faith ramped
up to a certain level, God is not going to notice you, or
spend much effort on you.
THANK GOD this is NOT what Jesus is teaching us today.
In order to understand what Jesus is telling us in this
parable, we must understand what He has just finished
saying in chapter 17. In the verses immediately before,
Jesus has been talking about His Second Coming and the
End of the World.
He has been describing the difficulties and deadly challenges
of being a Christian in a world that is increasingly falling
away from Christ. Jesus pictures a world that is becoming
more like Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus uses the faithlessness
of the world at the time of Noah to describe how things are
spiritually degenerating in our world, today – and, until
He returns.
THIS is the world in which we Christians must live. This
is our world where evil flourishes. This is our world where
drugs and despair run rampant. This is our world where
selfishness, greed, and crime are increasing daily.
This is our world where innocent lives are taken, and
the guilty survive. This is our world where pain, and
illness, and sorrow are inevitable. This is our world
where Christ is reviled, and disappearing daily from
our culture, our children, and our hearts.
In our hymnals, verse 6 of hymn number 724 hits this nail
on the head when it says:
Who(ever) clings with resolution
To (Christ) whom Satan hates
Must look for persecution;
For him the burden waits
Of mock’ry, shame, and losses
Heaped on his blameless head;
A thousand plagues and crosses
Will be his daily bread.
Now, from THIS distressing reality, Jesus tells the parable
today - not of some widow who is trying to extract some
personal whim or trinket from God. NO. The widow searches
for justice and vindication from an evil judge and an evil
world. She is a helpless creature, hoping for deliverance.
This parable is talking about God's people - you and me -
living in an unjust and corrupted world. This parable is
talking about the big-ticket things of salvation, hope,
life, and heaven.
"And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones,"
Jesus then says, "who cry out to Him day and night? Will He
keep putting them off?"
The persistent prayer that Jesus is talking about here is the
prayer of staying focused upon Christ and His cross in this
dying world. It is the community of God's people in worship,
who petition Him for forgiveness on behalf of Christ. It is
the prayer of God's people to remain faithful in the face of
an evil and deadly world that is fast coming to an end. It is
the prayer of the people of God who cry out to Him for hope
and salvation in their sufferings.
The last sentence of this passage explains what the constant
prayer of God's people is: it is faithfulness. Jesus says,
"However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on
the earth?"
This rhetorical question of Christ points us to the constant,
persistent prayer that should be on the hearts and lips of
every Christian: to remain faithful, trusting in Jesus,
in the face of the suffering, and evil, and struggles, and
sorrows of this world.
This is, truly, what Christian worship is all about. We look
to Jesus, and always pray - and never give up praying - for
forgiveness and faithfulness. We pray, knowing that God
constantly pours out His forgiving love upon us. We pray,
knowing that the suffering and death of Jesus Christ has
guaranteed that God's gift of forgiveness will never run
dry. It is a well of Living Water that, as Jesus said in
John 4, "will become in [you] a spring of water welling
up to eternal life."
Whenever we gather in worship, we gather as a faithful
community of God awaiting the return of Christ. Our worship
is a miniature of heaven. Here we gather as God’s beloved
people. Here Christ actually and physically comes to us in
His Word, and Baptism, and Supper. Here as God’s holy people
we abide in God’s love and celebrate Christ’s victory over
sin and death. People, heaven starts here.
Now… to remain in this faith, to survive this worldly life
and arrive safely in heaven above – THAT’S our constant,
never-ending prayer.
Sometimes it seems that God is slow to deliver us. Sometimes
it seems like He puts us off. Sometimes it seems like the
world wins, and we lose.
We watch family members get lured into damaging ways of
life. We watch them drift farther away, and we are unable
to do anything about it. We watch cancer or illness invade
the lives of people we love, and we can’t stop the pain. We
see death strike, slowly or suddenly. And we find ourselves
standing at the graveside, hollow and broken inside.
But it is here – it is here in worship where God calls us
back to be strengthened and renewed. He reminds us that
there is no danger, or pain, or poverty, or evil, or death
that can conquer us.
Worship is our fortress. God’s Word is our life. Holy Communion
is God’s embrace, and salvation and heaven is our constant
worship prayer.
And our worship forms a new prayer. It is the prayer that
others would come to know the hope and joy, the courage and
strength, the life that God gives us in Christ. Others, like
family members, friends, and neighbors.
I watched God at work answering this prayer a few weeks ago
in Sanford. A 6 year old girl, named Megan, came to our
Vacation Bible School. It was an interesting challenge
and joy, because Megan had never really heard about Jesus
before. Since then, she has been coming to our Sunday
school.
She lives directly across the street in some rather low-income
apartments. Her parents don’t come to church, so Megan walks
across the street by herself to come to Redeemer.
About a month ago, Megan decided that she wanted to stay
for church. I discovered this, as I was standing in the
back of the church, and I saw this little 6 year old girl
sitting all by herself in a pew about halfway down the aisle.
Her little head was barely visible over the back of the pew.
She was busy setting her Sunday School lesson and craft down,
and getting herself situated for church. This little girl,
sitting all by herself, going to church. No six year old
should have to go to church by herself, but that won’t
stop God, so there she was.
THAT was one of the most over-whelming moments I have ever
experienced in my ministry. Here God was – taking this little
girl by the hand – and leading her into worship and Christ’s
love and forgiveness.
I walked up to Megan and invited her to sit with the Wilkins
family, members of St. Luke’s, and their two girls, who were
seated across the aisle. We are going to make sure Megan never
has to sit by herself in church again.
Dear people of God, pray for that little girl named, Megan. Be
persistent and do not give up. Pray for her faithfulness, because
the odds are against her. Pray for her parents.
Pray for the people in your lives who are like Megan or her
parents. God is at work, in and through those prayers. Have
no doubt. Keep praying for your friends or family members.
Pray for your faithfulness and strength in whatever you
are facing.
It may seem like nothing much is happening. But, God IS
working. And He is working quickly, because the time is
short. THIS is what Jesus is teaching us, today. Be
persistent, in these things “always pray, and do not
give up.”
Amen.
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