Preacher: Christie Dahlin

Scripture: Luke 18:1-8

A couple years ago I was the pastor of a church in Boise, Idaho, just a mile away from the Idaho state capitol building. 

Local politics in Idaho are on the very conservative end of things. During the state legislative session I would gather with a multi-faith group every Wednesday on the capitol steps. 

We would stand there with rainbow flags, 

Clergy wearing stoles 

Holding signs that spoke to justice, and peace, 

And we would stand in silent prayer for 30 minutes 

As people walked and drove by, 

as state legislators left the building for lunch breaks 

Sometimes we would get honks of support, 

Sometimes people would stop and ask us what we were doing. This rhythm of joining in silent prayer with others energized me and filled me with hope. 

While unjust laws continued to come out of the legislature. 

Just the act of saying we are here and we will keep showing up. It felt like it mattered. 

I thought of these prayer vigils as I read the parable from the gospel of Luke that we just heard. 

A persistence to keep showing up in prayer. 

This has a couple unique things about it. 

One it is only found in Luke’s gospel. 

And another is that it starts out telling us what the intention of the parable is, which isn’t very common.

As it says in verse 1: Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 

Or as other versions say, the necessity of prayer and to not be discouraged. These words alone feel helpful in our world today, 

But then we get this parable, that starts out with a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. 

It is to this judge that the widow keeps coming to, asking for justice against her accuser. 

She has come to be known as the persistent widow because she keeps coming, she keeps asking for justice, demanding that her voice be heard. She persists even when the system is not working for her. 

And the judge starts getting annoyed of her coming repeatedly, and finally gives in, not because he had a change of heart, 

but because he is tired of her bothering him. 

If we just stopped reading there, we could say something about the importance of being persistent. 

Of using what power we have to keep showing up against unjust systems. To listen to the voices calling out for justice and to join in. 

Which many across our country did yesterday, joining in the no kings protests, 

But the scripture doesn’t end there and as verse one says, this parable is about prayer, so the question is what is it saying about prayer? 

I appreciate that in the verses that follow Jesus makes it clear that God doesn’t respond to us like the unjust and stubborn judge, 

that if we just bother God enough God will give us what we pray for. That is not the image of God that I hold or believe is true. 

But I equally struggle with the verses the follow, 

“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.

I struggle with these verses because it implies if you pray enough or in the right way God will answer your prayers. 

Which in my experience hasn’t always been true and isn’t a very helpful or hopeful view of a God who loves us and is with us. 

This all leads me back to standing on the steps of the capitol building in Boise. Praying within myself, may peace and peace and peace come over and over in my mind and heart. 

While unjust laws kept coming through the legislature, 

while people I loved were being hurt by these laws. 

It may seem like we were trying to be the persistent widow and our demands weren’t being answered, 

but as I often feel in regards to prayers and faith, 

there is a whole lot more mystery going on. 

I sometimes miss or forget this mystery because I get too caught up in wanting to ensure that I am not promoting a theology of God being in control of everything and you just have to be faithful enough. 

The reality of the mystery came to mind as I read a reflection from Mennonite Pastor Joanna Harder that I so resonated with it, 

As she said, 

“I also think that in my resistance to that theological extreme, I have sometimes missed out on the blessing of approaching God with the longings of my heart and watching in faith as God responds to my prayers. Prayer is a mysterious thing. I do not understand it. I do not know why God sometimes answers “yes” and sometimes answers “no.” But I do know that it is better to participate fully in the mystery of prayer than to distance ourselves from God because we don’t understand it.” — Joanna Harder

It was better for me to show up with others, to be reminded I was in community, to show others that there were people that cared about justice and peace, to have 30 minutes to cry out to God in my anger, sorrow, hope, and longing, it was better to do all that than to simply give up hope that God isn’t acting. Because as Luke’s gospel states, 

Jesus cares about the necessity of prayer and how it can help us to not lose heart, to not be discouraged. 

Just the act of prayer can change us, 

can shift our own views of a situation 

and maybe that is part of what Jesus is inviting us to remember, To keep our faith in the mystery present all around us. 

As Wes Granberg-Michaelson says about this parable, “I think it’s Henri Nouwen who once said, “Prayer is detachment from the fruit of our actions.” That’s worth internalizing. We act, we plead, we witness as best we can as followers of Jesus. But then we trust, rather than try to control. I expect this is something Jesus was 

trying to suggest in the picture of this widow who just kept pleading, with no realistic expectation of whether or when the justice she sought would be won.” 

Maybe the invitation is to lean into the mystery of prayer. 

Accepting that we don’t know, can’t know the why? 

Maybe the invitation is to ask ourselves, What is my image of God? How is that shaping my theology, my prayer life, my response to suffering? And when we reach our breaking points, may we be invited to stubborn prayer, to persistence prayer like the widow, 

To crying out to God, 

And to remember that God is with us, 

weeping with us, 

Jumping for joy with us, 

Sitting in the questions with us. 

Within the suffering and pain,

We are invited into compassion for ourselves and each other, to lean into the mystery of prayer. 

May we find the voices crying out for justice and join in, through our words, prayers and actions. 

May we channel the persistent widow against systems of power that are causing harm. 

Joining in prayers for justice and peace to come. 

Trusting that God is moving and weaving in ways we may not see or understand. May it be so. 

Benediction 

May you go into the week ahead with the invitation to be persistent, To lean into the mystery to prayer 

Remembering that God is with us, 

the Holy Spirit is weaving in mysterious ways 

May you go with Christ’ peace. 

Amen.