The Privilege of Prayer

The Parable of the Persistent Widow
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.’ "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!’ " And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

I want you to play a short word association game with me. How it works is like this: I say a word and you say the first word that comes into your mind. It’s very simple. Let’s do a practice round.
“DOG”
Good. Let’s try another one.
“JUDGE”
Okay, last one.
“PRAYER”

I played this game with some of my friends and you might be surprised by some of their answers… then again you might find you have the same one.
When I asked what the first word was that came to mind when I said the word prayer some of my friends said “GUILT.” Some just felt they didn’t pray enough. Maybe it’s because they used to pray more than they do now and they’ve gotten too busy…I don’t know.
Some friends said, “FRUSTRATING.” They pray and pray and pray, but it feels like no one is listening…
A couple of friends said, “INDIFFERENT.” They just didn’t have any strong feelings about prayer. It wasn’t something they thought was important in their life…
Now This next answer may surprise you, but it was actually the most common response from my seminary friends. Many said, “AFRAID” or “FEAR.” Often seminary students and pastors are the default pray-ers when there is a group. And for many this is their biggest fear – spontaneous prayer for a group at an event. You may have felt this – you get nervous, you wonder what you are going to say, you know everyone is listening to every word, and you feel clumsy as you think about the others in the group that pray so beautifully, passionately or naturally.
Another answer I got from friends when I said the word prayer was, “PRIVILEGE.” Maybe you feel the same way – for you prayer is a humble honor you have to be able to speak directly to the Holy One.
What ever your response I’m sure you are not alone. That’s one thing I learned as I tried this little experiment – prayer elicits a lot of responses. (PAUSE)
This morning’s scripture lesson has something to say about prayer. Luke says that Jesus told this parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge, “to show them [his disciples] that they should always pray and not give up.”
The common interpretation of this parable is to say that as the unjust judge heard the widow because of her persistence, and not because of the merits of her case, so then God will hear us if we persist in our requests. We find a strong endorsement in the story for our prayers of repeated petition.
I find there are a few difficulties with this interpretation. It is a bit strange and unorthodox to identify God with the unjust judge: identifying God with someone who has no concern for justice. (PAUSE) And it is a bit strange to promote an understanding that prayer is answered because of our nagging God into action without any concern for the content of the prayer itself… that if we beg, and pester, and keep it up long enough God will get sick of hearing it and give us what we ask for just to shut us up. If we go with the common interpretation of this parable as allegory – that something in the story represents something else – then God is the judge who doesn’t care about us.
That is not the God I know. (PAUSE)
The God I know is deeply interested in our prayers because God is deeply interested in us. The most important thing in the cosmos is what is going on in the lives of God’s children – those God created and breathed life into. (PAUSE)
No one’s voice sounds sweeter to God than your voice. (PAUSE) That is all the motivation we need to pray. We don’t need to be motivated to pray so that we wear God down, but we need to pray because we matter to God and, hopefully, God matters to us. That’s the privilege of prayer: God cares deeply for each of us and God wants to hear from each of us. The privilege of prayer is being able to pray with confidence about big stuff… small stuff… stuff in the morning, afternoon, or at night… God hears – and wants to hear – us whenever we pray.

Let’s leave behind the common interpretation and look at the parable again…
The woman in the parable is a widow. This is important. Theologian Sharon Ringe says, "A common theme in the Hebrew Bible – the Old Testament – is the need for people-particularly those in authority-to fulfill God's own purposes by caring for widows and orphans.” This theme of care for the widow weaves its way from the beginning to the end of the Old Testament. The specifics of the woman's circumstance do not matter. What matters is that she is among those whom any respectable judge would be seriously obliged to help.
But, as you noticed, this is no respectable judge. Jesus points out that this judge neither fears God nor has any respect for people. Not even a deserving widow is going to get a good hearing from him.
But, this is no ordinary widow. This woman is bold and brash. She keeps demanding her justice even though her chances of success are slim to none, saying, "Grant me justice against my opponent.” And for a while, the judge refuses. But, finally, he relents, saying, "I have no fear of God. I have no respect for anyone. But, doggone it, I'm going to do what this woman asks, because she keeps bothering me, and I don't want her to wear me out by continually coming.”
The Greek word translated "wear me out" literally means to "strike under the eye" or to "give a black eye." (PAUSE) "This woman is going to give me a black eye if I don't give her what she wants" is the judge's way of saying that her unanswered requests for justice are a visible mark to everyone in the community of his failure as a judge. And while the judge doesn't care about anybody else, I can bet you – like nearly all elected officials – he cares what everybody else thinks about him. And so in order to avoid the black eye, he gives in and grants the widow’s justice.
Now, like I said before this parable is not an allegory. God is not like a crusty old judge who doesn't care. The form of the parable is from lesser to greater. If a judge who does not care will do this for a widow, then how much more will God, who loves justice and does care, do for God's people?
If this parable says anything about prayer it is this: It is saying to us – especially those of us who are in danger of becoming discouraged because our prayers appear to go unanswered, "Don't lose heart. Trust in God. Be confident in God. God is faithful. God will deliver. God will keep God's promise. God is trustworthy. Wait for the Lord. And as you wait, wait trusting, not despairing." (PAUSE)
Now there is a catch as we interpret this parable – typically Jesus used parables not to encourage us, but to teach us something, something about God or God’s Kingdom. So maybe this parable isn’t so much about prayer as it is about who God is. (PAUSE) The parable is not only about a widow. It’s about a judge. If this sleazy judge will open up his hand to those who seek justice, how much more so will God. That’s a statement about God’s character, about who God is… Think of prayer, not as asking God to do this or that for us, but rather as asking God to be God, to be who God is.
This parable is a story, not so much about the effectiveness or value of prayer, but about the character of God, the trustworthiness of God. The judge revealed his sleaziness. God reveals God’s goodness.
Today we are starting a six-week series on prayer. It’s not a how-to series. It’s about opening our hearts to God. That’s what prayer does – it enables us to open ourselves to God and discover who God is. That is the privilege of prayer. It is in prayer that we get to know God. The privilege of prayer is getting to sit down and have a chat with the Creator, hang out with the Christ, get to know God. When you are in genuine conversation with someone – especially someone you have a relationship with – you are just you and they are just their self. That’s prayer – you being you and God being God – and talking.
I know this first-year grad student who calls her Mom every night. You might be thinking, “She really needs to grow up and get a life,” or “That mom needs to cut the apron strings,” or “boy that sounds like a co-dependant relationship.” But when I asked this student, “Why do you call your mother so much?” she replied, “My Mom is the only person I know who cares, really cares, about what kind of day I’ve had. It’s so much fun to talk to somebody who cares.” (PAUSE)
At the end of this message we are going to take some time to pray on our own and then we’ll close that time with the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Before the Lord’s Prayer asks God to do anything like give us bread, or forgive us our sin it says something about who God is. It starts: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...” This is our model for prayer. We wouldn’t even bother God about bread if we didn’t believe that we are God’s creatures and that our Creator cares for us.
In praying we show our confidence that God hears, and cares, and acts. When we pray for something as mundane, as essential as “daily bread” it is making a rather amazing statement of faith in the goodness of God. Prayer is our way of letting God be God, of letting God care about bread, and rain, and peace, and forgiveness.
Prayer isn’t primarily asking God for things, even things so basic as bread. Prayer is the courageous determination to let God be God. We pray. We get an answer to our prayer. Sometimes the answer is “No.” But God is revealed to us, in prayer, to be something other than we imagined, something other than a great cosmic vending machine, or apathetic judge.
Sometimes it’s tough to pray because we lack the guts to risk an encounter with the true God in all God’s stunning otherness. Thomas Merton calls "pure prayer” the prayer that is no longer focused on the self, the prayer that's no longer even focused on the prayer, but pure prayer comes through days of seasoning and has come to focus one completely and utterly on God. (PAUSE)
A friend from one of my previous churches works for the telephone company, in the area of customer complaints. She has a tough job because she must represent the demands of the company, and at the same time, she must try to be open and caring about customers.
She told me about a person who called her, complaining about some grave problem with her telephone service. My friend said, while this was a bad problem, it did not come under company guidelines. In other words, it was the customer’s problem, and not hers.
The customer, a widow, living alone by herself on a fixed income, persisted.
My friend said, “During the conversation, she at last said something that really got through to me. She said, ‘I’ve always loved and respected the telephone company. Since I was a young child, coming home alone, my mother always told me, ‘If you have any problem, just call the telephone operator and she will help. I trust the phone company to do what is right.”
My friend said that a light went on in her brain and she realized that this was not merely a complaint about bad service. It was a discussion about the character of the company. Was this a company that cared, a company that valued its long-term relationship with a customer, a company that could be trusted? My friend reached out and solved the woman’s problem.
Something similar, I think, is going on in this parable on prayer. Jesus says, “If even an employee of the big, impersonal deregulated, phone company will ultimately be true to the good character of the company, how much more so will your Father in heaven be true when you persist in your determination to let God be God.”

And may it be so for you.
Amen.

Let’s take some time to pray – to be with the one who is loving and caring and desiring to hear your voice. Just be yourself and have a chat.
After a few moments I’ll close with the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.
Amen.