Sermons for the Month
Having Heart
DATE: October 21, 2001
TEXT: Luke 18:1-8“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
"Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart." This verse of Scripture always makes me want to burst into song along with the Washington Senators in the classic Broadway musical "Damn Yankees" (always an appropriate production this time of the year, I might add.) In the show, the perennial last-place Senators who suddenly find themselves in a pennant race sing, "You gotta have heart…all you really need is heart…" "Heart" - that combination of courage, determination, perseverance, and all that other stuff coaches try to instill in their teams - Jesus says we gotta have it too. So, is that the message for this morning? "Keep your chin up…keep a smile on your face…we play 'em all just one game at a time…it ain't over till it's over…" Well, sort of…a cliché usually becomes a cliché, after all, because there is something to it. However, when it comes to the follower of Jesus, our ability to "have heart" is linked by Jesus explicitly with the practice of prayer. Jesus tells a story about a judge and one of his petitioners. This judge is, quite frankly, a scoundrel. He occupies his position not out of a noble ideal of service to the community, but has obtained it, probably by corrupt means, solely in order to enrich and empower himself. He admits it freely and shamelessly to himself, and probably, in a society in which he doesn't ever have to stand for election by the people, he allows his motives to be pretty transparent so that those who have occasion to deal with him will understand how the game is to be played. One day he is approached by a woman who wants to plead her case. Now, he has absolutely nothing to gain from her, and also nothing to fear. The Bible, reflecting the culture of its time, uses "widow" as a synonym for someone who is utterly lacking in resources, power, or influence. The only thing she had going for her was her persistence, her will to keep pressing the issue, her fearless badgering of the one who held her fate in his hands. Picture this woman showing up at court day after day as the judge keeps delaying the hearing of her case, hoping she'll get the picture and just drop it; but instead of "losing heart" and going away, she steps up her campaign. She leaves daily messages on his answer machine; she comes up to him outside his office demanding, "When is my case coming up in court?"; she finds out where he lives and starts picketing his house, a stereotypical white-haired little old lady chanting "no justice, no peace" as she marches back and forth in front of his door. At first he indulges her; she is, after all, just a harmless Little Old Lady; then she becomes an annoyance; finally the judge realizes that she's gotten the upper hand, and the only way to get rid of her is to buy her off with a verdict in her favor. It's become in his own self-interest to act on her behalf! Once Jesus has us chuckling at his story, he zeroes in on his point: "Now is this the way you're envisioning God? Is this the premise of your praying, that prayer is about coaxing Him, badgering Him, bribing Him into seeing things your way and granting your wishes? No wonder you get discouraged!" Come on now, Jesus says; you know how it works in this world, how even people who are motivated ENTIRELY by SELF-interest can be persuaded to act on your behalf. How could you doubt that the Lord God will do so? How could you ever question the fact that He who made you and sustains you and cares for you with an everlasting love is constantly active on your behalf? He knows your every thought and desire, knows your needs better than you yourself can discern them; and He is capable of doing nothing other than acting justly, righteously, mercifully, with enduring patience, and with total and self-giving love that endlessly, relentlessly seeks our good. So, when we're wondering whether God is really hearing our prayers, wondering if anything is happening as a result, if our prayers are accomplishing anything; when we wonder whether God will ever grant justice, peace, goodness, healing, guidance, and all those things we pray for -- Jesus suggests we might be asking the wrong questions. Jesus asks simply, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith?" Perhaps we might put the question as "When the Lord responds, are we listening? Are we ready to be a part of the answer?" The fact that we usually do not hear the voice of God vibrating against our eardrums makes it seem as if prayer is a one-way communication. That makes it all too easy to pray as if we were giving a "wish list" to Santa, in which case we are bound to be disappointed when certain items requested do not show up under the tree; or to send off prayers rather like those messages that scientists beam into space in the hope that they might possibly be received and responded to by extra-terrestrials, if there is really anyone "out there." Scripture suggests another metaphor. In the book of Genesis, chapter 32, we read a very ancient story from the days of Israel's patriarchs, a story of Abraham's grandson, Jacob, and a long, lonely night that he spent wrestling with the shadowy, mysterious presence of the Divine, emerging somewhat worse for wear, but changed forever by the experience. Have you ever had a night like that, tossing and turning and alone in the dark, going to the mat with God? To me, Jesus' story implies that that's O.K., that "prayer" at least some of the time OUGHT to be a fiercely-waged, sweat-soaked encounter rather than a polite list of please's and thank you's. And it's not because God needs persuading of something, like the judge in Jesus' story; it's because WE so much of the time need to be nudged, prodded, grabbed hold of, turned around, taken down and pinned before we're willing to get with God's program, which is absolutely and always the right one, the best one for us and for what God is trying to accomplish thru us. Prayer at its core is simply letting God turn our attention in His direction, honestly and opening sharing with him everything from our little momentary wants to our deepest heart's desires, from the smallest pinprick of worry to the raw agony of life's losses; from the daily struggle against our persistent personal failures to the long, dark night of the soul into which each of us wanders from time to time. Prayer is offering that up to God, and then letting God make of it all, and letting God MAKE OF US, whatever He will. We think we're hammering on God's door and shouting to get His attention, when all the while He's patiently tapping us on the shoulder, seeking ours. We're grabbing at God and shouting desperately "where are you? When are you going to DO something" and all the time, it's His strong arms that are holding us, waiting for us to get over our panicky spell and listen to His assurance that He's working it all out, not necessarily to our immediate liking, but always to our good. That's why "we've got heart." It doesn't have to do with our prayer technique; doesn't have to do with pestering God until He caves like a weary parent in the supermarket aisle and lets us have whatever we want. It has to do with the character of the One to whom we pray, the God who in Jesus is shown to be willing to get down and dirty with us, willing to go to the mat with us and beside us, willing himself to be bloodied and battered as we are, and to share with us His own strength, His faithful endurance, while He moves us toward the goal, toward the certainty of victory. And you know what? It ain't over 'til it's over, 'til God Himself says, "It is finished," so we do keep our chin up, we keep our eyes on the cross, we play life just as it lays, one day at a time. That IS our part in God's unfolding plan; and our prayer continues faithfully because we trust that His hold upon us continues with an eternal and abiding faithfulness. Just as a few weeks ago we heard about "lo-o-o-nger faith," so today what we are called to is "lo-o-o-onger prayer," a day-by-day, moment-by-moment connection with God, who is the source of all we have been, and all we will be. We pray today for His Spirit to stir us from complacency, to turn us away from our fears, to prompt us to prayer, and today and each day, to give us "heart." AMEN