St. Luke chapter eighteen begins with two parables being told by Jesus about prayer. In the first parable, which is our text for today, we read about a widow who seeks justice from a judge in a certain town against her adversary or enemy. We do not know what exactly is the issue of contention between this woman and her adversary but it is highly likely that it was a matter in court. Some scholars believe that the widow may have been at risk of losing her property to this adversary. It seems to me that the widow has two adversaries in the parable to contend with. First there is the one who she has in court and secondly, the judge himself who has simply disregarded her complaint, giving her absolutely no hearing at all. If this was happening today, you would be forced to wonder if the judge and the widow’s adversary were friends or close acquaintances or at the very least there was some good history between them. The fact that the woman is a widow too also reminds us of Luke’s focus on those who were by their position or circumstances among the most vulnerable and disregarded in society. A widow was from Old Testament times one of the persons that God held in special regard along with orphans and foreigners. (See Deut. 10:18, Deut. 24:19, Deut. 27:19, Exodus 22:22) The fact that the judge is heartless and unsympathetic adds to the widow’s predicament and benefits her adversary. There is simply no justice or fairness. The constant refusal of this judge also leaves this widow in a permanent state of uncertainty and anxiety about an issue which was obviously extremely important to her. However, despite the odds against her the widow is persistent. She will simply not give up. You may be wondering how this parable relates to us today. What message can we take from this parable individually, and as a church on this day when we commemorate our 151st anniversary?
First of all this was a parable about persistence.
This was the fundamental point that Jesus was teaching the disciples from this parable. We learn from the story that the situation may seem irreversible or impossible or irretrievable, but one should not give up. This church exists today because many of our predecessors including those who were the founding members of this congregation were determined to maintain a presence in this part of the world through the times when things were good and the times when things were bad. There must have been many times when things looked like it made no sense to keep the church doors open but they remained steadfast and here we are as a church today. For the Christian persistence is the key to being God’s representatives in the world. The Christian recognises that there are formidable and seemingly impossible challenges to the work of Christ in the world but it is imperative to not give up. This is why the Christian must have the gift of patience. This makes us understand that some things may take considerable time to bear fruit, but it is our responsibility to stick to the task at hand. The Christian who demonstrates a life of patience and persistence is the life blood of the church. As we gather today, we must ask ourselves whether we at Wheatley United Church are known as a praying church family. Today the church faces all kinds of intractable challenges that are not going away. The finances of the church remain a major challenge. Maintaining this magnificent but old structure is extremely challenging.Above all else, retaining and getting new members and younger members has been a constant challenge for as long as most of us can remember especially at a time when people seem to be getting less interested in religion and church as the years go by. These are not unique to Wheatley. Nearly every older Protestant denomination is suffering from the same problems and many have found it feasible to close their doors and many have got to the point where as far as they were concerned, they simply had no future and no choice but to close the church doors. How is Wheatley meeting these challenges? Are we being as persistent in meeting these challenges as this widow was or are we feeling worn out like the judge in the parable was? Do we feel that keeping these doors open at this time makes any sense anymore or is it best to throw in the towel and give it all up and save our energy and perhaps our sanity as well? Let us think carefully about these as we look to what the future of this church will be.
A second point from this parable is about the issue of justice for those who have been deprived.
The direct issue being addressed in the parable was the failure to get justice by this widow against her adversary. In this case both the judge as the representative of authority and the adversary were obstacles to the woman’s cause. I could not help but see in this text one of the possible answers to our church’s future. If the church is to survive into the next fifty years and beyond, we must be a Church that advocates for the rights and the welfare of the underprivileged, the minority, the dispossessed, the oppressed and all who are marginalized. These are the people who are not regarded as important because they don’t seem to have influence and are not connected to the powerful and the famous and the wealthy in the society. In other words, we must be a Church that advocates for the rights of those who have been marginalised, deprived or dispossessed in whatever way that they have been so treated. Justice is about doing what is right or seeing to it that people are treated in a way that is right and in a manner that is ultimately fair and just. In the New Testament the word ‘righteous’ is often used for this characteristic that is a central part of the Christian’s DNA. The failure to treat people and groups justly, or as we Christians would say, righteously, is a bigger problem than many of us think in our world. Much of the world’s problems and conflicts have their roots in the unfair and unjust treatment of one another by us human beings. In light of this, we must ask ourselves, what is the role of the Church and by extension all of us as Christians. For many, the church itself has been historically a part of the problem as we have often used biblical interpretation to oppress and suppress minorities in our society and judge others who do not look like or behave like the majority in a given society or culture. Too many people see the Church as connected to the upper social classes and interested only in the welfare of those who are in the upper classes economically and socially and as such it turns a blind eye to the needs and the cries of the vulnerable and the oppressed. Too many of our churches are probably losing members and the interest of people because they do not seem to advocate for what is important to the least in society. In a nutshell, the Church is no longer seen as relevant to the needs and issues of the modern age. Every church or in a broader sense any body that claims to represent Christ or claims to be the living essence of our Lord Jesus Christ must be an organisation or a body that is passionate about justice in all forms whether it be social justice, economic justice, climate and environmental justice. All of these are close to the heart of the Creator of all things who we have come to know through the saving work of His son, Jesus our Lord. Wheatley United Church must discern for itself how it lives into its mission as a church of justice especially for the deprived and marginalised in its own environment or context.
Thirdly, the church must be a church of prayer.
Prayer is the chief means by which believers communicate with God. Prayer is central to the relationship and deep spiritual bond that any Christian will have with God. This is why in this parable Jesus saw the need to teach the disciples about persistence in prayer. It is especially important because not every prayer is answered in the way people would like or within the timeline that most of us desire. As a result, for some people, prayer can seem to be a frustrating and even futile experience. But prayer isn’t primarily about getting what we want and indeed a lot of times we don’t get what we want or desire or even think that we need. Prayer is primarily about building a relationship with God. Similarly we don’t communicate constantly with a person or with people just because of what we can get from each other but because of the relationship that we would like to have with that person or those people. It’s the same with God. We build our relationship with God when we are in constant communication with God, not just because of what we need or want but because you love the relationship you have and want it to get stronger and deeper. It really isn’t that complicated. This is how we live and relate to our family and friends all the time. God desires no less of us but God actually demands more from our relationship with him because of who He is. This is the greatest and most important relationship that we humans can ever have with anyone else. A church therefore is as strong and as healthy as its relationship with God is and it is only through deliberate and meaningful prayer time both corporate and personal, that we can build that relationship with God. I fear that too many of us have been treating the matter of prayer rather flippantly or just half-heartedly. As such, we don’t really feel connected to God as we should. This tells how weak as Christians we are and we can see it in the ineffectiveness of our witness and the eventual demise of many churches. Here at Wheatley, we have reached 151 years because undoubtedly our forebears were committed to prayer. We must continue in their footsteps by ensuring that our personal and corporate prayer life remains central to our christian walk. If we want to be a Church of justice that remains relevant to the community at large, then we must be persistent in our efforts for the sake of the gospel and we must persist in being a church that prays both as a body of believers and as individuals in our own contexts and experiences.
May God continue to inspire us, give us the courage, and bless us, to be His instruments of love and peace and justice in the world starting right here in this community and wherever we gather as people of God. Amen.