God’s Persistent Love - Luke 18:1-8
/Lectionary Readings for Sunday, Oct. 29, 2019
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104 and Psalm 19
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8
Good morning and welcome to Susanville UMC! If by chance we have not yet met, my name is Charles White and I’m your new pastor. Officially, I start Nov. 01 so today and next week are a bonus for me.
Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.
If you don’t remember anything else I say today, hang on to that.
It’s unusual to have a mid-year pastoral appointment. Unusual for you and unusual for me. As you will learn over time, unusual is one of many words that could be applied to my life. I’m quite comfortable with unusual.
I had prepared a message for today that was an introduction about me and how I came to be standing here today. It was a good sermon. But I can share those stories another day.
The lesson in today’s Gospel reading is simple and yet profound.
In the first verse Jesus tells us what we’re supposed to get out of this: “always pray and not give up.” Some translations say “not lose heart.” You’d think that would clarify it for us. But not according to a stack of commentaries written by scholars. Ph.D.s often dislike short, simple explanations. People seem to have a fondness for dissecting Biblical stories – especially Jesus’ stories. He seems to make them intentionally vague so that we must wrestle with them.
Between Jesus & the Ph.D.s., I’ll take Jesus’ interpretation: persistence. Always pray and never give up. We can understand this persistence in a multitude of ways. Before I go on…
One ancient interpretive technique that I love is this. When a parable contains unnamed people – anonymous characters – that is an intentional tool of the author to invite each of us into the story and consider how we are like that character.
So how can we understand Jesus’ push for persistence?
To start with the heavenly perspective, God persistently loves us.
20 years ago, I decided to quit reading commentaries about the Bible and actually read the Bible. I’m a slow reader and chose comprehension over speed – so it took me 3 years. My big takeaways were:
1 – People really don’t change. We seek a better life, we get it, we lazy and selfish, we suffer, we repent, and the cycle continues. Spoiler alert: that’s the Old Testament in a nutshell.
2 – Despite that predictable cycle, God persistently stays with humanity the entire time, constantly luring us to choose what’s best for us, and – thanks to free will – allowing us to make our own decisions, for better or for worse.
Why does Jesus – God in the flesh – want us to always pray? Because God created us to be in relationship with Him and prayer keeps us in communication with Her. Think about your best friends, the people you know the most about and always look forward to seeing. How well would that relationship work if you only spoke to them for a minute or two each week?
Prayer opens our hearts, minds, and souls to the Holy Spirit’s guiding.
Never Give Up
As for the “never give up” lesson, this is where social justice enters. The woman was begging for justice from her adversary. The judge didn’t care. Why should he? He leads a comfortable life whether or not she gets justice. He has power. She does not. But what she does have is persistence.
I encourage each of you to spend this afternoon and this week thinking about how you are or can be each character in today’s story. Where do you need to persistently seek justice? Where do you have opportunities to help others receive justice?
Finally, I’m standing here today because I am persistent. I would say tenacious. Some of my close friends would say stubborn. You and this church are here today because, over the past 140 years, you have persistently worked to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Susanville and beyond. You have persistently pursued your relationships with God and persistently looked for opportunities to share God’s love with others.
I look forward to persistently praying with all of you and persistently working with all of you in our ongoing effort to create and share Kingdom of God moments with the people of Susanville.
Amen? Amen!