Pondering Pastor

After my initial work earlier in the week, I’ve got some ideas forming as I begin to move into sermon writing mode.

Once again, the Gospel text: Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus 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.’” 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?”

The Old Testament Lesson is the story of Jacob wrestling with the “angel” in Genesis 32:22-31.

The Psalm is 121 “I lift my eyes to the hills …”

The focus of all three is clearly about prayer. Prayer is one of those topics that is a challenge to people. If you believe that God controls everything … why pray? If God doesn’t control everything … why pray? What good is praying, many people will ask … even very faithful people.

O. Hallesby’s book, Prayer contains two chapters on “Wrestling in Prayer”.

I really think that the parable of the widow and the unjust judge can be a distraction to the purpose of the parable. The Gospel writer says that Jesus told the parable about their need to pray always and not lose heart. People are more likely to be persistent when they feel they’ve been treated unjustly (by companies, or in relationships) than in prayer. How much more is God the loving father willing to bring justice than even an unjust judge who is worn down by persistence.

A lingering question that may form the basis of a sermon is “How can you pray when …?”

Mother Theresa struggled with the very same question. The book of her private letters reveals that her private prayer life was non-existent for long stretches, and that the only prayer she was engaged in was the corporate prayer of worship and her order.

As usual, I’ll be interested to see where I’m led this week as I prepare the sermon.

Pondering Pastor

This link takes you to the sermon

Why is it that each week when I look at the lectionary texts, my first reaction is to groan?

Sunday, October 21, 2007 - Lectionary 29C

Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus 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.’” 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?”

Initial Thoughts

Persistence is what moves the judge. Is God like the judge or not? It seems as though parts of the reading suggest that God is like the judge, moved by persistence rather than mercy. Other parts of the reading seem to suggest that God is more merciful than the judge, so if persistence can move the judge, how much more will God be moved by our persistence. Maybe this really is not so much about God as it is the need for persistence in prayer. But the challenge with that is that if we don’t “succeed” in prayer are we to assume that we weren’t persistent enough? There is not much that seems grace-filled in this passage. It all depends upon the persistence of the one making the prayer … not on the one hearing the prayer.

Luke is the only Gospel writer with this “parable”.

The focus of part of the passage is justice.  God gives justice.  I’ll have to do some more digging about what that means in this context.  Are faith and persistence related? How quick are we to lose heart?  I’m still troubled by the implication that if we are persistent enough we will get what we want … although it says that we will be granted justice, not what we want.

Once again, I’m glad that I have the better part of a week to wrestle with this one.

Pondering Pastor

The Gospel reading for Sunday, October 14th is the same as what is assigned to Thanksgiving Day, all three years of the Lectionary, Luke 17:11-19

¹¹ On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, ¹³ they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. ¹⁵ Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. ¹⁶ He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? ¹⁸ Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Familiarity with a text often breeds boredom and banal preaching. So the options are to either use a less familiar lesson (the Old Testament lesson is fun) or to really approach the Gospel from a very new perspective. So, as I begin to look at this text early in the week, I’ve got some choices to make.

Options after the jump …

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