Pentecost 22 – 16 October 2016 – Year C

Pentecost 22 – 16 October 2016 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation is written in the 18^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 – 8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. ³ In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ ⁴ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? ⁸ I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

I love sport; in particular Rugby League is my passion. Whilst I barrack for the Brisbane Broncos, I am riveted to any game that goes right down to the wire. Scores neck and neck, players straining to get that final edge over the opposition. The 2015 and the 2016 NRL grand finals were games that were decided in the final minutes. In both cases the victory went to the team who never stopped trying. In both cases the direction from the coaches was “it’s an 80 minute game, keep going right to full time and never give up.”  It’s great for young people to play sport, there are so many life lessons to be learnt in the process.

In our Gospel reading text, Coach Jesus urges us members of Christ’s team today to “never give up.”  Painting a parable where a widow’s incessant asking ultimately persuades an uncaring judge to grant her request, Jesus teaches us to ‘Pray, pray persistently; never stop praying.’  Imitating his parable’s earthly judge, but in a different manner; with a different motive, our Lord will answer our persistent prayers – Jesus will give us God’s justice.  Providing a positive response for his warning question about our condition when he will come again at the end of time, our Lord will work in us a Spirit-given faith that will never fail.

Describing a judge we never want to encounter in our courts today, Jesus offers no legal lessons.  Exercising power for his personal gain, this judge is not godly, not trying to please the Lord; nor is he trying to please men.  Decisions will be based solely on the question, ‘What will be best for me?’  When a widow – a ‘helpless’ woman who has no relatives to appeal her predicament – pleads, “Grant me justice against my adversary,” this judge refuses to even hear her case.  What benefit can she offer him?  Undaunted, this widow brings her case to his court again and again and again.  Irritated by her unrelenting request – as a continual tapping by a harmless little hammer starts to dent his hard heart – this judge finally delivers justice.  Note Jesus’ explanation.  This self-centered soul gives a widow what she asks from an adversary not because it is the ‘right’ thing to do – not because he is properly applying the law of their land — but only because this judge wants the widow to stop pestering; stop nagging him.  When an ignored widow refuses to fade into the woodwork, if she will not ‘give up’ in disgust — not stop ‘eating up his time’ & testing his patience – unless he hears her case, an ungodly, uncaring judge grants her request.

What will we learn from our Lord’s story?  To endlessly ask; to pester people until we finally get what we want in this world – a tactic our children seem to automatically master; an approach ‘supposedly mature’ people too often appear to apply in our world?  No.  Persistent prayer – not nagging – persistent prayer is Jesus’ point in his parable.  When we are attacked by all types of evil adversaries, as believers will be in a wicked world, Jesus tells us to pray the Lord will administer his justice.  Jesus teaches us to never stop praying our Lord God will work his will in our life.

Will our prayer be heard?  Will our case be considered?  Absolutely!  Unlike an uncaring, completely self-centered judge pictured in his parable, our Lord cares what happens to us.  In fact, Jesus unselfishly loves us so much he personally steps in to improve our lot in life before we even begin to ask his assistance.  “When we were powerless,” Paul explains, “Christ died for the ungodly…”  Again, stressing God’s gracious time-frame.  “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us…”  Inspired apostle Paul emphasises the source and recipients of salvation.  “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.”^{[ROM 5]}  What a wonderful truth!  Before I recognise my guilt, before I realise my self-serving lies and egotistical anger earn eternal death; before I am ever led to repent of my sins, Jesus’ sacrificial death as every soul’s Saviour won God’s forgiveness for me!…for you!

God’s justice, I pray we understand, is unlike any judgment any honest or dishonest earthly judge may administer.  In God’s eternal courtroom, we will not get; (or would we want to get), what we deserve.  In God’s courtroom, we will graciously get what God wants to give us.  Why?  As God judges us, as God hands down his eternal sentence for us, he does not look at our actions nor listen to our words or thoughts.  God only looks at a flawless life Jesus lives as our perfect replacement; God simply looks at an innocent death Jesus dies as our sinless Substitute.  Based on Jesus’ life and death as our Saviour, God declares us ‘righteous’…God judges us ‘forgiven!’  God’s justice is our justification.  “All have sinned; all fall short of the glory of God” – Paul emphasises as he plainly outlines God’s gracious plan for each of us – “all are justified freely through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood…to demonstrate his justice …to be just & be the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”^{[ROM 3]}

Unlike the widow’s anonymous judicial antagonist, I pray we understand that another human being is not our real adversary.  Our own sin, our own sinful self truly troubles us.  Praying – always praying for Jesus’ justice – we ask the Lord to increase our awareness of God’s grace; increase our confidence in and increase our reliance upon God’s full and free forgiveness for every one of our sins.  Praying – always praying God will work his will in our life — we actually ask the Lord to change our attitudes and actions.  We pray the Lord lead us to respond to God’s gift of salvation by letting our Saviour’s forgiving love guide our interaction with all the other similarly sinful souls we encounter in our life.

When we personally approach the end of our earthly life – when some illness starts to steal our physical health or when old age inevitably makes our body ache, makes once easy movements most painful – when we no longer feel needed; when we feel forsaken or seem to have become a burden for our family and friends, will we still follow Jesus faithfully?  Will we continue to confess Christ is our Saviour?  “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  Will Judge Jesus, our Saviour, find faith in our heart?

Friends, our answer to this critical question can only be found in one place.  Not in our sinful human heart, but through the Holy Spirit who uses God’s gospel truth in Word and sacrament to give us faith – the Spirit who compels us to call Jesus my ‘Lord’ and to confess Jesus as our ‘Saviour’ – the Spirit, using God’s Word and sacrament, will not let faith fail. 

Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is teaching us; always urging us to “not give up praying,” for our Lord repeatedly promises, “God will keep you strong to the end, so you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God, who called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”^{[1 COR 1]}  Again, “The faithful Lord will strengthen & will protect your from the evil one.”^{[2 THES 3]}  Once more, “the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, God will himself restore you & will make you strong, firm and steadfast.”^{[1 PT 5]}

Amen.

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen