"Will
Faith Be Found?"
Luke
18:1-8
First
Presbyterian Church
The
Reverend Donald E. Ray
October
17, 2010
One of the treasures
at this past week’s rummage sale was a pair of bookends. The
wooden base was simple’ But what
made the set unique was the Teddy Bear on each one, sitting with their backs to
the uprights that would support books. Not
being bear collectors, we speculated they might be Boyd’s bears. Whatever,
they were cute, whimsical, looked a little “bookish.” I
could imagine that sitting on a coffee table, holding a collection of most
treasured volumes, it would be the bookends that would catch your attention even
before you turned to the books they held.
Those Teddy Bear
bookends are a kind of parable of the parable in today’s Gospel text. Unlike
many of the illustrative stories quoted from Jesus, Luke bookends this one.
Then Jesus told them a parable
about their need to pray always and not lose heart. (Luke 18:1) And
at the end of the parable; when the Son of
Man comes, will he find faith on earth. (Luke 18:8b)
The parable grabs our
attention. We probably all feel
victim of injustice in need of vindication at some time.
If what it takes in that arena where there is no fear of God nor respect
for anyone is persistence, we can do that. We
can make more and more noise, louder and louder until someone does what we want
just so we’ll let up and go away. And
then what we want to think is the moral of the story, if that is what happens in
the human realm, if we persevere in the same manner, crying to God we will
receive vindication, and speedily.
I have difficulties
with this parable that casts God just a step above what is commonly defined the
secular realm. “Pray harder, get
more people to pray” and we can get God to resolve the problem. Luke is writing to the
early followers of the Jesus way who were being blamed for wrongs they did not
do, had been excommunicated from the religion of their heritage, were victims of
merciless what we would call today, hate crimes. They
would have difficulty with this parable, too.
Beleaguered by the injustices in their world, their appeals unheeded,
they would not have bought the easy answer - just be persistent and you will get
what you want.
I’m not sure how
many times I read these verses from this morning’s text before it dawned on
me; the message is not in the parable, the “books” as it were, but the
bookends. One more reading and I
could feel the sad lament of the last line. When
the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth.
(Luke 18:8) It seems to dawn on the
writer that if the parable were taken literally, faith would not survive. If
people spent their energy clamoring for satisfaction for the times they had been
cheated or mistreated, there would be selfishness but not likely faith. If
justice could be received through persistence, then to expect that God will
vindicate speedily will certainly lead to discouraged rejection of faith when
injustices aren’t vindicated.
The other bookend; Jesus
told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. (Luke
18:1) There is here something of a
pivotal point in Luke’s Gospel. Before
it, the disciples want more faith, lepers want to be healed, Pharisees want the
Pray always. Through
the years, I realize I know less now how to define and describe prayer than I
thought I knew decades ago. I know
praying always is not, or at least not confined to saying daily prayers. Prayer
certainly doesn’t conclude with our “Amen.” Prayer
is not only our talking to God. Prayer
is not only our asking for what we identify we need, or others dear to us need.
In an earlier chapter
of Luke, Jesus says; everyone who asks
receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door
will be opened. Is there anyone
among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a
fish? Or if the child asks for an
egg, will give a scorpion? If you
then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke
11:10-13) Jesus makes a leap from
requests for fish and eggs to the Holy Spirit. That
I think is in effect saying, no matter what we ask for, we receive God. That
I think is prayer; that connection by which we live our life in God.
It is not that every
word is a prayer but that prayer is John’s, Word
become flesh - life. It’s not
that every breath is a prayer but that prayer is the breath of life. Prayer
is not reduced to the seeking of vindication for injustice but may be the arena
in which we become part of building justice. Prayer
may not lead to receiving vindication, but a forgiving spirit within that brings
healing.
In her
autobiographical book, Eat, Pray, Love, (I
found fascinating), Elizabeth Gilbert tells of her year long journey to
My
prayers are becoming more deliberate and specific. It
has occurred to me that it’s not much use to send prayers out to the universe
that are lazy. Every morning before
meditation, I keel in the temple and talk for a few minutes to God. I
found during the beginning of my stay here at the Ashram that I was often
dull-witted during those divine conversations. I
remember kneeling down one morning, touching my forehead to the floor and
muttering to my creator, “Oh, I dunno what I need. . .but you must have some
ideas. . .so just do something about it, would you?” . . .
I’m
sorry, but that’s a little lame. You
can imagine God regarding that prayer with an arched eyebrow, and sending back
this message: Call me again when you decide to get serious about this.” . . .
Prayer
is a relationship; half the job is mine. If
I want transformation, but can’t even be bothered to articulate what, exactly,
I’m aiming for, how will it ever occur? Half
the benefit of prayer is in the asking itself, in the offering of a clearly
posed and well considered intention. If
you don’t have this, all your pleas and desires are boneless, floppy, inert;
they swirl at your feet in a cold fog and never lift. So
now I take the time every morning to search myself for specificity about what I
am truly asking for. (1)
Not many of us are
likely to spend three months in an Ashram devoting half our waking hours to
prayer and meditation, but our prayer can grow beyond only petition for present
need, confession of the current error, thankfulness for the recent blessing.
A prayer written by
Reinhold Niebuhr, widely known after being adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous in an
abbreviated form:
God
grant me the serenity
To
accept the things I cannot change;
Courage
to change the things I can;
And
wisdom to know the difference.
In its original
writing continues Niebuhr continues;
Living
one day at a time;
Enjoying
one moment at a time;
Accepting
hardship as the pathway to peace;
Taking
as (Christ) did, this sinful world
As
it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting
that (God) will make all things right
If
I surrender to (God’s) will;
That
I may be reasonably happy in this life
And
supremely happy with (God)
Forever
in the next. (2)
Pray always and not
lose heart. Will faith be found?
If we are praying always, intentionally, that in the larger dimension of
living in God we find peace in each present moment’ we will be found by faith.
Amen.
(1)
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
pp. 176-177.
(2) Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
Copyright © 2010 First Presbyterian Church