19th Sunday after Pentecost

I think we can all relate to the story that Jesus told in today's Gospel. Someone tries to get something from someone in authority with others possibly looking on to see how things play out. My dog Holly knows how to play that game. If she wants a treat or a walk or maybe only some petting, she sits about three feet away and just stares at me. If that doesn't work, she comes up to me and puts her paw on my leg to get my attention. My husband watches this going on and laughs when I give in. Of course, there are times when he is the object of her attention because Holly is an equal-opportunity pesterer.

Children also know how to play the game. When a kid wants something, he begs and pesters and wheedles; if that doesn't work, he might cry or throw a tantrum. Totally embarrassing for anyone with the child if this happens in a public place like a store, a park, or during a church service.

And of course, adults, play the game, sometimes out of necessity. Please raise your hand if you've never butted heads with bureaucracy. We've all had hassles with red tape at some level. Most of us have been to the MVA at least once! It doesn't seem to matter what state we're talking about or what the department is called, going to the office that deals with motor vehicles is something that is dreaded and to be avoided if at all possible. But there are other organizations that can be difficult or troublesome to deal with: insurance companies, Medicare, hospitals, the personnel office at work, the church hierarchy, and so on and so forth. We're all familiar to some extent with the situation in Jesus' parable.

Our text divides into three parts. In the first verse, Luke tells us that the purpose of the parable which Jesus is going to tell his disciples is “about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” This is like giving away the punch line to the joke or the answer to a riddle before you tell it. So maybe this will be one of those rare parables that we don't have to go through some kind of mental gymnastics to figure out. The sermon will be short, and we can all go home early. Yippee! Well, don't hold your breath.

The parable itself is in the next four verses and has two main characters. The first one is a judge. Both Jesus and the judge himself say that he does not fear God or respect anyone else. In other words, he doesn't care about either of the two great commandments: love God and love your neighbor. He's interested in looking out for himself and his interests and that's all. He's being badgered by a woman who's seeking justice for herself from someone who has wronged her. This woman is a widow. She has no power and probably no money, either. Since she arrives at the court alone, it seems that she has no family or friends to support her. She's just about the lowest of the low as far as social status is concerned.

But she has one thing going for her – stick-to-itiveness. (Yes, there really is such a word, which dates back to the mid 19th century, and that's the way you spell it, although I'd like to put another hyphen after “it”.) Anyway, this widow constantly shows up at the judge's door or in his court to plead her case. She keeps on haranguing him and making making trouble for him. The only way to get rid of her would be to grant her request, but the judge is stubborn and refuses to do that.

Then one day he realizes that he's shooting himself in the foot. He says to himself, “I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” Now the phrase that's translated here as “wear me out” is much more colorful in Greek. It actually means “give me a black eye”. Just like in English, the phrase can literally mean giving someone a black eye by punching him, or it can figuratively mean damaging someone's reputation. Mark Allen Powell says, “The pivotal social value in the New Testament world (among Greeks, Romans, Jews, and everyone else) was honor – that is, the status that one has in the eyes of those whose opinions one considers to be significant.” There were many factors which contributed to honor that were beyond a person's control, for example, age, gender, and economic class. But there were many others which could increase or decrease honor, or even cause shame, the opposite of honor. The judge in the parable finally realizes that the widow is shaming him by continually making a fuss in public, so he grants her request because it's in his own best interests.

The last three verses of the reading point us toward the traditional interpretation of this story. Our natural inclination is to identify God with the authority figure in a parable. Here that would be the unjust judge. The relationship between God and the judge is not one of similarity but of contrast. It's an argument from lesser to greater. If even such an unjust judge can grant the request of the widow, God, who is just and merciful, will hear our prayers and answer them. In this interpretation the widow represents Jesus' disciples, who should “pray always and not lose heart”.

Should I say “Amen” and end the sermon now? I'm not so sure. Are any of you uncomfortable with this? I am. Although I understand the contrast being made, it still  bothers me to associate God with this scumbag judge. God is not at all like him. God does not need to be badgered into listening to our prayers or responding to them. God does that willingly. And I also think this represents only one aspect of prayer.

So let's try looking at the parable from a different angle. What if we, Jesus' disciples, are the unjust judge, and the widow who persistently demands justice represents God? Does that work?

I think we all fit the description of the judge at least some of the time. We don't always fear God or respect people. We sometimes act out of our own self-interest, even when we do the right thing. This probably happens a lot more often than we would like it to or that we would like to admit. After all, we are still sinful human beings, and we struggle every day to live as children of God.

Like the widow, God is the one who persistently calls us and pursues us until our resistance breaks down. We see God doing this in Scripture. At the burning bush, Moses tried every excuse he could think of to avoid going back to Egypt, but God met them all. Think about Jonah who tried to run in the opposite direction until he found that he couldn't go far enough to get away from God. Or St. Paul, who was zealously persecuting Christians until God caught up with him on the road to Damascus.

And doesn't God pursue us? God's call to us is persistent, regardless of what we are being called to do. Like the judge in the parable, we sometimes don't want to listen. In our reading from the letter to Timothy, the writer talked about “people [who] will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.” If we're being honest, we have to confess that sometimes we have itching ears and hear only what we want to hear. We have our own agendas, and doing what God is asking of us often just doesn't fit in. We try to ignore it, but God doesn't stop calling. Just like the widow in the parable.

These two ways to look at the parable reflect the two aspects of prayer. Prayer is a way that we, like the widow in the traditional interpretation, share our concerns with God. If we only look at prayer this way, though, we can become disillusioned when our requests aren't granted quickly or when the answer we receive is not what we wanted. We may even decide that prayer is pointless because what chance do we have of changing God's mind anyway? In the Large Catechism, Luther warned that this attitude can lead to “the habit of never praying.”

But like all the best conversations, prayer is not one-way, but two-way. It's how God, like the widow in the second interpretation, speaks to us and changes us. Jesus prayed at crucial times in his ministry, for example, at his baptism (Luke 3:21); before he chose his disciples (Luke 6:12-16), and in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest (Luke 22:39-46). Prayer was a way for Jesus to stay focused on his mission as he was on his way to the cross. Similarly, it is a way for us to be centered on how we can be involved in carrying out God's purposes. Pastor Kurt Lammi put it this way: “Prayer isn't about us getting God to see things from our perspective. It's about God getting us to see things from God's perspective, and about moving us from a place of self-focus to one of outward focus and community.” Prayer opens our hearts to God and to others and helps bring us into line with God's program.

And what is that program? Well, what is the widow pleading for? Justice! In fact, justice is a theme that runs all the through Luke's Gospel beginning with the Magnificat in chapter 1. all the way to the end of the story. Theologian David Lose suggests “that that's what prayer is about: not simply asking for our personal needs to be met, not only holding up those we love and who are in need, but also that prayer is about asking for justice, about crying to those in authority until all are treated equitably.” God pursues us to work for justice in the world.

This past week we saw a victory in the pursuit of justice for Adnan Syed, who was convicted of murdering his former girlfriend. For twenty-three years, Syed's family, friends, and legal team, including his public defender, have sought to clear him. Finally, in March of this year, prosecutors agreed to new DNA testing which uncovered the possible involvement of two other suspects. As a result, Syed's conviction was vacated, and last Tuesday the charges against him were dropped.

This is a wonderful example of pursuing justice, but most of us won't ever have the opportunity to do something like that. Fortunately, there are many other ways we can work for justice and equity. It's as simple as looking out for the welfare of those around us; as bringing in a bag of food to be shared with those in need. Or volunteering in a food pantry, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter. Or tutoring those who need help learning a skill that we have mastered. Or helping those who have been impacted by storms, fires, or floods. Or looking at our own biases and trying to correct them. Or being informed citizens and voting. When we make ourselves available, God will use us.

May each of us long to pray, and learn to pray, and to persist in our prayer – not so that we can change God, but so that God can change us and help everyone to enjoy that fullness of life God intends.

Amen.