Year C

Luke 18:1-8

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Searching For the Mind of Christ

If you have seen the musical Fiddler on the Roof, you will recall a famous scene in which Tevye turns to his wife Golda—the woman he married years before in a marriage arranged by their parents—and asks her in song, “Golda, do you love me?” “Do I what?” Golda sings back. “For 25 years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, shared your bed, raised your children, and now you ask, ‘Do I love you?'” “I know, Golda,” says Tevye, “and I’m grateful, but do you love me?” They go on for a while with this back-and-forth exchange in the song, but by the end of it they’ve come to the conclusion that, yes, the two of them do love each other, deeply.

When they look at all they’ve been through together, it’s the only logical conclusion. Tevye and Golda are in love. We can’t practice prayer — or the faith that undergirds it — in a few brief moments of half-hearted requests. We’ve got to demonstrate the same persistence, sustained over time as Tevye and Golda and as the poor, desperate widow knocking on the judge’s door. This odd little parable in Luke gives us the key to all of today’s readings: they are all about faithful endurance.

The exiled Israelites ripped from their home, forbidden access to their sacred temple both by physical distance and the devastating fact of its destruction, thought their God had abandoned them. We heard Jeremiah tell the people last week to put down roots in Babylon, seek the welfare of Babylon and pray for their captors. Today we hear Jeremiah’s song of deliverance and his assurance that God had not abandoned them. They are reminded of God’s faithfulness and that they are to persevere and remain faithful because a new day is dawning. A bright future is in store for the exiles; they can rest in this promise, for God will be faithful.   

Faithfulness is the hallmark of Timothy’s ministry. The steady tradition of right belief into which he was born is to be the thread that holds his community together. He had the luxury of learning the Scriptures and now he is to pass on that gift to others. The challenge to “continue in what you have learned” is to encourage Timothy in the face of suffering. He is to “be persistent,” persevere and faithful in good times and bad. The most encouraging part is that he is not in this by himself. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, he is surrounded by people of faith and sound tradition, and he must continue in what he has learned. The foundation for his faith is scripture, inspired by God to be used for teaching and for carrying out his ministry.

Then there is the gospel, a classic example of perseverance and blessing. Luke sets the story in the context of Jesus’ challenge to his disciples not to lose heart and to remain constant in prayer. Jesus had just warned them about the frantic days prior to the coming of the Son of man, days comparable to the time of the Flood and the judgment of Sodom. Jesus spoke with such urgency, they had to be concerned about the future, and for those first century hearers of this parable, persecution was a constant issue; they wanted to know why their prayers were going unanswered.

No doubt you have heard about the postal service’s “Dead Letter Department.” That’s the place where mail goes when it is not clearly addressed or has insufficient postage and the sender’s identity cannot be determined. There the letter is opened and its contents examined for clues to the sender’s identity. If the return address cannot be determined the letter is destroyed. It never reaches its destination. I bet if I asked you to raise your hand if you ever felt that your prayers ended up in some kind of dead letter department at times, never reaching God, there would be a good number of us. Today, in Jesus’ own words we are told that disciples are not to lose heart but to come to God persistently asking, knocking, and seeking God’s will for our lives in and for the world.

To illustrate his point, he tells a story about a widow who wouldn’t give up until she got what she wanted from an unbelieving and uncaring judge. The contrast is set up between the judge, who has all the power on his side, and the woman, who doesn’t even have a male relative to do her pleading for her, and so is at the bottom of the pecking order. This poor widow would not have even been able to inherit her husband’s estate; leaving her to be utterly dependent on the generosity of others. By sheer persistence, she gets what she wants. Those hearing this story that day would have been amused at the thought of a widow persuading a powerful judge to finally do the right thing. But, the judge doesn’t really care about justice at all, he just wants the woman to be quiet and go away.

Of course we understand that what God knows we need and what we think we want are not the same sometimes. That we will not always going to get our prayers answered. So how can this parable be meaningful to us who ask persistently? Jesus seems to anticipate our dilemma when he wonders aloud whether when he comes again anyone will still have faith. He insists that God is nothing like the unjust judge and we are not meant to equate ourselves with the woman or the judge, but to see two different attitudes. On the one hand, there is judge, who is lazy and faithless. He does what is right this time, but who knows what will happen next time.

If the next person is less persistent the judge is not committed to doing justice, only to living a comfortable life. The woman, on the other hand, is determined that right will be done, and she is not going to give up until it is. She asked for justice and that is what God grants is justice. Which of these two attitudes, Jesus asks, will he find among his followers when the Son of Man returns? Will they have given into convenience and the desire for a quiet life and drop the demands of the gospel or will they still be faithful?

We are reminded that the life of faith is not only about being persistent in telling God our needs and concerns, we are also to be persistent in acting on behalf of all who suffer because it is in keeping with God’s will for justice. Jesus says, “God will not dely. God will help. God will grant justice.” If the Son of Man is to find faith on earth, we must understand that our prayers are not so many unanswered pleas; rather they are our participation in the coming reign of God. By praying and not giving up hope, we live in the surety that God has not abandoned this world. Living in hope, we work, in whatever ways we can, for the justice and peace that is coming.

Victory does come to Israel, the elect. Victory comes to us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet, the suffering goes on and on, and it seems that the judges have not heard our cries but God does not turn a deaf ear to us. Paul says to Timothy. Continue, abide, ask, seek, in prayer, in scripture, in fellowship, in obedience, “so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” The parable is not a commitment that God will give us whatever we want, unless what we want is in line with the character of God-just, holy, merciful, responsive-this determines the answer to persistent prayer. Prayer is searching for the mind of Christ and then praying in it. And when we seek in prayer like that, Jesus assures us today, we shall find.