FIRST READING Genesis 32:22-31
22The same night {Jacob} arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his 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 has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, 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 name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”
PSALM Psalm 121
1I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? 2My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. 3He will not let your foot be moved and he who watches over you will not fall asleep. 4Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep; 5The Lord himself watches over you; the Lord is your shade at your right hand, 6So that the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; it is he who shall keep you safe. 8The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in, from this time forth forevermore.
SECOND READING 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5
14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
1I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
GOSPEL Luke 18:1-8
1{Jesus} told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
DO NOT HANG UP ON GOD
I believe you’ll agree with me that this is one election season that all of us will be happy to see come to an end. The story is told of one of the candidates for president who was campaigning in West Virginia recently. Some of the coal miners weren’t especially happy about it when the candidate asked for their vote. “Vote for you?” one of them jeered. “Why, I’d sooner vote for the Devil!” “Fair enough!” called out the candi¬date, “But in the event your friend doesn’t run, may I have your support?”
Like them or hate them, that’s one candidate who wasn’t put off by a little opposition. And I guess that’s good. The mark of a successful person is that he or she doesn’t give up just because things aren’t going his or her way. I also like that the candidate has a sense of humor.
Sadly, today, there are a lot people who refuse to believe that Jesus has a sense of humor. For these poor souls, they see God as this stoic deity who never smiles and only wants to communicate in a stern indirect way. However, I not only believe God has a sense of humor, I think He also enjoyed adding a bit of a comedic twist when telling some of His parables. Take today’s gospel lesson as an example. (Luke 18:1-8)
The Parable of the Unjust Judge is partly comic monologue. The story begins with a probate judge who’s so ridiculously dishonest that he announces, “… I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone….” The Unjust Judge was nagged by a widow, however, who had every right to nag, because she’d been cheated by somebody in the community. A good judge would have helped the widow, but remember, this judge “neither feared God nor had respect for people.”
And because of the judge’s attitude, the widow made a project of picking at the Unjust Judge for justice. It almost makes you wonder if, anytime the judge stepped out of his house, she was there, demanding justice in a voice loud enough to be heard by neighbors and passers-by. Did she follow him along the street while he was on his way to court? Did she spend every night at his widow denouncing him to the community, and disturbing his sleep? I would even bet that she made life uncomfortable for the judge’s wife and kids, in order to pressure this uncaring man of the local justice system, into hearing her case. Think about it, it’s a story so out of sorts, that there must have been a few chuckles from the audience. And in Jesus’ parable, her persistence works!
At last the Unjust Judge relented, not from any desire to do the right thing, but, as he himself said, ” … because this widow keeps bothering me. I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” And by the time Jesus ends His story, I would imagine that there must have been some laughter.
The Parable of the Unjust Judge was a negative illustration, just as a tennis coach might demonstrate incorrectly awkward motions to his or her team: “This is not the way to play tennis.” Or a marriage counselor might give husbands and wives examples of what not to say in a loving relationship. As a negative illustration, the Parable of the Unjust Judge teaches us that God isn’t like the Unjust Judge. Instead God gives justice to widows, to orphans, to you and to me. However, God is more than simply a just judge, because He gives us far more than justice, God gives us unearned blessings which are far above “justice.”
During the Civil War a Confederate soldier was put on trial in a place where General Robert E. Lee himself was one of the military judges. “Don’t be nervous, son; you’ll get justice here,” General Lee said as he tried to set the soldier at ease. “That’s exactly what I am afraid of, General,” was the reply. We too would have reason to be nervous, if we could expect only “justice” from God. As a matter of Christian fact, however, we get new chances to pick up the broken pieces from our sinful failures – because of God’s endless mercy, we get to try again. And as a matter of another fact, we receive new opportunities and new gifts from God which make the Unjust Judge’s performance seem more harsh and unfair. The Parable of the Unjust Judge is also a lesson for our being persistent in our faith in God.
I read about a religious road sign that had been posted somewhere near Hoosic, New York, that said, “When God puts you on hold, do not hang up.” The widow in the parable was persistent; she didn’t “hang up.” Jacob, in our Old Testament reading for today was also persistent in his midnight wrestling match. His mysterious opponent said: “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:26-28)
In the story of God’s destruction of the wicked city of Sodom, Abraham successfully haggled God into a promise to spare the city if as few as ten righteous persons could be found. Abraham asked God, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:23-33)
Through his persistence, Abraham persuaded God to lower the magic number to forty, then to thirty, then to twenty, and finally to ten. But as it turned out, there weren’t even ten righteous people living in Sodom, so the destruction took place. But consider the concept: Abraham argued with God! Abraham dared to lecture God about what was right: “Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
In the Old Testament story of the Ten Commandments, Moses received the Ten Commandments on two slabs of stone, while he was up on Mount Sinai and the Israelites grew tired of waiting. In Moses’ absence, the Hebrew people worshiped a golden calf, and God was so angry about their idolatry that he told Moses, “Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them …” (Exodus 32:10). Like Abraham, Moses argued with God: “Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people” (Exodus 32:12b). The results? Exodus 32:14 says, “And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” Once again, “When God puts you on hold, don’t hang up.”
Jesus Himself admired the persistence of the Canaanite woman. When she asked for healing of her sick daughter, Jesus at first ignored her. Then He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In essence, Jesus was saying, I was sent to God’s chosen, not to Gentile-Canaanites like you. Then He tested her resolve further by saying, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” And to His pleasure I’m sure, she responded, “Yes, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” “To this Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.” (Matthew 15:21-28)
We don’t know why Jesus was so harshly out-of-character with the Canaanite woman. There are different explanations, but I prefer to think that Jesus knew she had faith and He wanted to test that faith to encourage others. No matter the reason for the apparent harshness, the point is that Jesus admired her persistence. When Jesus “put her on hold” she didn’t “hang up.”
For those who have done some reading on Martin Luther, you know that he suffered from depression and doubts all his life. He comforted himself by saying, “I am baptized.” And again, “I dispute much with God with great impatience, and I hold him to his promises.” Yet even after all these examples of arguing with God, most of us are still more comfortable just accepting God’s answers to our prayers and learning to live with them. We refuse to even contemplate wrestling with God, to lecture God, to try to force God to change His mind. Has it ever occurred to us that God might simply be testing us? Do we still fail to grasp the concept that we have a relationship with God and that means we can have input into the conversation?
There are certainly times when we need to follow Jesus’ example in the Garden of Gethsemane: “… not what I want but what you want” (Matthew 26:39b). Because we know that God isn’t an Unjust Judge. And then there are times when we can quietly follow the widow’s example of persistence in the parable, by praying the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
If you have memorized Luther’s explanation of the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, you’ll remember these words: “God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all; but we pray this petition that He would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Of course, we also know that daily bread is more than mere food for the body, it includes everything that belongs to the support and needs of the body such as food, drink, clothing, goods, family, friends, work, faithful government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor and the like. When we consider all that’s included in daily bread, it may mean that at times we need to discuss certain aspects of daily bread with God, not simply accepting the answer that He gives.
But what about those times when God doesn’t seem to be answering us when we pray? What should our attitude be toward prayer when God seems to put us on hold? We should, of course, pray for what we want and need — and then take time to listen for God’s answer. We need to continue praying as Daniel did when God revealed that a great conflict was coming. Daniel prayed for 3 weeks before he received his answer. In Daniel chapter 10 verse 12 God’s messenger said to Daniel, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. Then in verse 13 the angel continues, “But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. So we need to understand that sometime there’s more going on than simply God not answering our prayers. We need to remain persistent in our prayers.
A teacher from the Alban Institute told a group of pastors that we church people are reasonably good at praying good prayers with beautiful words and good thoughts. However, we mistakenly consider the prayer ended after we have stopped talking and said “Amen.” In essence, we think that we’ve handed God a one-way radio, so to speak, with God’s end being the receiver only. The teacher then went on to instructed the class to observe ten minutes of absolute silence — eyes closed and minds empty of busy thoughts. No background music. No words spoken. Just silence.
By the end of the ten minutes, there was a feeling of some serenity and more peace. There were no visions of heaven, but they did have the feeling that God’s will could be better understood — if we just took more time to listen. Maybe that’s our problem, we refuse to allow God the time to answer. If we did, we just might have an opportunity to discuss that answer further with God. However, there’s likely a second reason that people today don’t pray as they should. In what has been described as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, people simply don’t understand what it means to be in a relationship with God.
According to a Princeton school of Divinity professor, a person who falls into the ranks of what is considered to be a Moralistic Therapeutic Deist, is someone who believes 5 things. First, these people believe that God exists, that He created and orders the world and that He watches over us. No problem here. Second, the Moral Therapeutic Deist believes that God wants us to be nice to each other. Again, not a real problem. Third, and here’s where things begin to go sideways, they believe the central goal in life is to be happy. I say that here’s where things begin to go sideways because the focus of the Moral Therapeutic Deist is on the self, not God.
Fourth, the Moral Therapeutic Deist believes that God isn’t involved in our lives except when they need God to intervene or when they need help. And even when God does intervene or help, they’re not very complementary of how God responds to their demands. Again, it’s as if we’ve handed God a one-way radio so that God’s only option is to listen and grant our requests. We never give or expect to hear from God. And finally, the Moralistic Therapeutic Deist believes that all good people go to heaven. According to people who believe this way, as long as we’re good, nothing else is required of us.
The problem is, there are many in our churches today who believe this way and when asked, they insist that this is what the church teaches and believes. If this is true, I don’t know what church these people attend but I hope that no one here believes this way. God created us to be in a relationship with Him and we must admit that for any relationship to work it requires effort. God is always ready and willing to listen and respond, but what about us? Are we ready to do as God asks, to obey His commands, to be His disciples and to be a part of that relationship? For Olive Loftin, that relationship begins today, in Baptism.
Olive is but a small child, so she needs to be taught what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. That’s why, that during the Rite of Baptism, we’ll be asked to be faithful in bringing her to God’s house. To teach her the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Creeds. We’ll pledge to place in her hands God’s word and as she grows, to provide for her instruction in the Christian faith so that in the covenant of her Baptism, and in communion with the church, she may lead a godly life until Jesus returns.
No, God isn’t like the Unjust Judge. God is good to us. In Baptism, God forgives us our sins and invites us into a relationship with Him. However, that relationship isn’t a one-way street. For communication to take place, for a relationship to be successful, we need to be willing to work at, and be a part of, that relationship with God. Sometimes that may mean that we need to be patient, to be open to God’s will for us, to understand how our prayers are answered. But it also means that we have the opportunity, at times, to discuss God’s answers and as His chosen people, we might even get the opportunity to change God’s mind.
Amen