These illustrations are based on Luke 18:1-8
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Sermon Opener - What Can We Count on from God? - Luke 18:1-8

Recently I received an e-mail message that was entitled “Things I Really Don’t Understand.” It had a list of questions for which there seems to be no clear-cut answer. Here are a few of them:

· Why do doctors and lawyers call what they do practice?
· Why is abbreviation such a long word?
· Why is it that when you’re driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on your radio?
· Why is a boxing ring square?
· What was the best thing before sliced bread?
· How do they get the deer to cross the highway at those yellow signs?
· How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?

These questions represent a lighthearted humorous reminder that there are indeed a lot of things in this life that we just really don’t understand.

There are so many things in this life that we just don’t understand… that we just can’t comprehend. For example, we don’t really understand disease. Why is a youngster perfectly healthy for 13 years of his life… and then suddenly just happens to be in a place where he suddenly encounters some germ or bacteria that invades his body and destroys it?

And we don’t understand accidents. They are so random and indiscriminate. You start out a day that is like any other day… and then something happens in a matter of seconds… and life is forever different. You can never go back beyond that accident.

On and on we could go with our list… of things we don’t really understand…

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What Will He Find...When He Comes? - Luke 18:1-8

Every pastor has been touched and troubled when there have been those in the congregation who suddenly have faced unemployment. Like an ambush from two sides, unemployment attacks us with the fear of financial insecurity on the one side and the loss of self-esteem on the other. Job searching can deepen both. In just such a moment I encountered Brian. He is a competent and creative person whose skills and personality cannot be long overlooked. "It will work out, Brian," I said. "God does provide." "I hope so!" he replied. From the inflection of his voice, I knew he did not "expect" so.

One is reminded of Lucy's encouragement to Charlie Brown in one of the Peanuts cartoons. "Look at it this way, Charlie Brown," she consoles. "These are your bitter days. These are the days of your hardship and struggle ..." The next frame goes on: "... but if you just hold your head up high and keep on fighting, you'll triumph!" "Gee, do you really think so, Lucy?" Charlie asks. As she walks away Lucy says: "Frankly, no!"

Hope is like that. We speak of it more often than we believe in it. Hope is not a strong word for us. It has more to do with "wishing" than "expecting." It has the sound of resignation, an inability to bring about, influence, or even believe that a desired event or goal might ever come to be. "Well, I hope so" has in its whimsical sound the same negation of the words that we hear in the sarcastic "Sure it will!" or "Well, I guess!" Hope, as we understand it, is not a word of excitement and expectation. It speaks of resignation and helplessness. "Well, I hope so ..."

How then can we understand the New Testament's strong use of the word? Repeatedly Paul writes about hope. To the Thessalonians he writes of the armor of God, including the "hope of salvation" as a helmet. To the Colossians he writes of the "hope laid up in heaven," and of the "hope of glory." Peter writes in his first letter that "we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, held in heaven for you."

Given our understanding of the word, shivers run up our spines as we think about it. "Is that all we have?" we want to shout. "Is 'hope' all we have after all? Just ... hope?"

1. A Hope That Does Not Disappoint Us
2. A Hope Deferred
3. A Parable Of Reassurance

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Until You Beat the Path

I believe persistent prayer is very important, even when such prayers are not answered in the ways we think best. It is important to be unrelenting in our prayers...not only because of the changes our prayers may elicit in God's mind, but for the changes such prayers can work in our own hearts and minds. As Frederick Buechner said years ago, persistence is a key, "not because you have to beat a path to God's door before [God will] open it, but because until you beat the path, maybe there's no way of getting to your door."

Buechner's comment set me to thinking that maybe there's more to this parable than we have sometimes seen. What if Jesus offered this parable not only as a call to prayerful persistence but also as a reminder to the church of the importance of securing justice for the poor and the oppressed in their midst? Alan Culpepper says, "To those who have it in their power to relieve the distress of the widow, the orphan and the stranger but do not [do so], the call to pray day and night is a command to let the priorities of God's compassion reorder the priorities of their lives."

Robert Dunham, Whose Persistence?

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Prayer Does Not Need Proof

Prayer does not need proof outside itself because its proofs are within. It is in the nature and function of man, like breathing, eating and drinking, and he practices it as part of his very being.

Samuel Johnson

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We Are God’s Answer to Injustice

Listen to me. If you are being bullied in school, God knows about it and God hates it. If you are being harassed in the workplace, for any reason, God hates it. If you are being taken advantage of--or if you are taking unfair advantage of someone else--there will be a day of reckoning. If there is anyone anywhere praying for God to intervene and put an end to their oppression, eventually that prayer will be heard and that which is wrong will be set right. That’s the promise of Scripture.

Now, where does that leave us? Let me tell you a story.

A young black man asked his minister why their people had to suffer so much poverty, hardship, and oppression. “Why doesn’t God do something?” he wailed.

“He has,” said that wise pastor. “He has created you.”

And so Desmond Tutu, now the archbishop of South Africa, became the answer to his own question.

That’s a good lesson for you and me. While we are waiting for God to bring in a perfect and just society, you and I are God’s answer to the injustice in our world. That’s what it means to take up a cross and follow Jesus. It’s not a comfortable position to be in. It’s not popular. But it is Christ’s way.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com

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And Then Some

James Byrnes, who was Secretary of State under FDR, said that the difference between successful people and average people can be summed up in three words. Here are the three words, "and then some." He said, "Average people do what is expected. Successful people do what is expected, and then some." Our widow did what was expected, and then some.

John Wayne Clarke, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Last Third): Father, Forgive Them, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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God Knows What I Need

A little boy knelt down to say his bedtime prayers. His parents heard him reciting the alphabet in very reverent tones. When asked what he was doing, he replied, "I'm saying my prayers, but I cannot think of the exact words tonight. So, I'm just saying all the letters. God knows what I need, and he'll put all the words together for me."

Now, that is not far from a proper way to pray! In seeking prayer we are looking for Christ's mind. We are not sure quite how to word our prayer. So we ask God to take our words and fit them into the correct prayer. We ask him to edit our prayers by cutting out the unnecessary, making corrections, and adding the necessities. We ask God to take our minds and make them his. We ask the Holy Spirit to pray through us. And when we seek in prayer like that, Jesus assures us in the text, we shall find.

Stephen M. Crotts, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost: Music from another Room, CSS Publishing Company

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Turn to Him in Prayer

I heard a pastor tell a story one time of something he saw back in the days of World War II. He was somewhere over in France, and he and a buddy of his were in a house. They happened to be cleaning that house. All of a sudden, the bombs started to fall just as they had begun to mop the kitchen floor.

He said he had a friend with him, a G.I., who was helping him to mop the floor. The floor was just covered with soap and water. When the bombs started to fall, this man tried to run. But the floor was so slippery he couldn't run. He kept falling down. Finally, he got his footing, and when he got to take a first real step, he stepped in the pail and got it stuck on his foot. That caused him to fall again. When he stood back up, he stepped on the mop, it flew up and hit him in the face and knocked him under the stairs. All the time the bombs are falling on that house.

He said this man was just struggling just to get out of that house and get to safety. In all of that bombing and chaos, he prayed and said, "O God, if you will just help me get out of this mess, I will get out of the next one all by myself."

Well, that soldier was right to pray in that situation, but he was wrong to say he wouldn't pray in the next one. You see, we are to turn every care into a prayer, every aggravation into a supplication, and every irritation into an invocation.

We are to pray when we are in trouble, but we are to pray when we are not in trouble. As a matter of fact, if we would give ourselves to more prayer we would get ourselves in less trouble.

James Merritt, Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.

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God's Timetable Not Ours

I heard a story which illustrates how we often confuse God's timing with ours. A country newspaper had been running a series of articles on the value of church attendance. One day, a letter to the editor was received in the newspaper office. It read, "Print this if you dare. I have been trying an experiment. I have a field of corn which I plowed on Sunday. I planted it on Sunday. I did all the cultivating on Sunday. I gathered the harvest on Sunday and hauled it to my barn on Sunday. I find that my harvest this October is just as great as any of my neighbors' who went to church on Sunday. So where was God all this time?" The editor printed the letter, but added his reply at the bottom. "Your mistake was in thinking that God always settles his accounts in October."

That's often our mistake as well, isn't it -- thinking that God should act when and how we want him to act, according to our timetable rather than his. The fact that our vision is limited, finite, unable to see the end from the beginning, somehow escapes our mind. So we complain; we get frustrated; we accuse God of being indifferent to us; we do not live by faith.

Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary Time, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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If You Just Hold Up Your Head

In a Peanut’s cartoon Lucy encourages Charlie Brown: "Look at it this way, Charlie Brown," she consoles. "These are your bitter days. These are the days of your hardship and struggle ..." The next frame goes on: "... but if you just hold your head up high and keep on fighting, you'll triumph!" "Gee, do you really think so, Lucy?" Charlie asks. As she walks away Lucy says: "Frankly, no!"

Hope is like that. We speak of it more often than we believe in it. Hope is not a strong word for us. It has more to do with "wishing" than "expecting." It has the sound of resignation, an inability to bring about, influence, or even believe that a desired event or goal might ever come to be.

Theodore F. Schneider, Until the King Comes, CSS Publishing Company

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Parable of the Crazy Old Lady

Frankly, don't we wish that Jesus had told this parable in a little different way. Couldn't he have gotten the same point across if He had told it something like this:

Verily, verily I tell you that once upon a time there was a good lady who lived next door to an atheist. Everyday, when the lady prayed, the atheist guy could hear her. He thought to himself, "She sure is crazy, praying all the time like that. Doesn't she know there is no GOD!" Many times while she was praying, he would go to her house and harass her, saying, "Lady, why do you pray all the time? Don't you know there is no GOD!" But she kept on praying.

One day, she ran out of groceries. As usual, she was praying to the Lord explaining her situation and thanking Him for what He was going to do. As usual, the atheist heard her praying and thought to himself, "Humph...I'll fix her."

He went to the grocery store, bought a whole bunch of groceries, took them to her house, dropped them off on the front porch, rang the door bell and then hid in the bushes to see what she would do. When she opened the door and saw the groceries, she began to praise the Lord with all her heart, jumping, singing, and shouting everywhere!

The atheist then jumped out of the bushes and told her, "You crazy old lady. God didn't buy you those groceries, I bought those groceries!' Well, she broke out and started running down the street, shouting and praising the Lord even more. When he finally caught her, he asked what her problem was... She said "I knew the Lord would provide me with some groceries, but I didn't know he was going to make the devil pay for them!"

Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com.

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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS NOT IN OUR EMAIL
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The Widow and the Unjust Judge - Luke 18:1-8

We all do it. The door of heaven’s House of Bread, the ultimate pastry palace, is standing open. But we keep trying to break in the back door of the local bakery.

A parable by a well-known rabbi tells the story of a moth and a fly.One day a moth and a fly were together near a window.The moth sat comfortably on the side peering out, watching as the fly relentlessly flew up and around and straight into the window.The stunned fly would fall, then get up and try again.On and on the fly tried to find a way through the window, and each time failed.

Finally, the moth said, "Fly, why are you doing that?Can't you see by now that it's not working? Right over there is another window that's open.Why don't you just go over and fly to freedom through the open window?""No," said the fly.“If I just try hard enough, I'll find the way out here.” So on and on the fly persisted, circling the closed window and slamming its body into it.

The moth became more and more certain the fly was out of its mind when the solution was so simple. Soon nighttime came. The fly lay exhausted on the window sill, while the moth just shook its head.Just then, a light came on near the ceiling of the room, illuminating an open door at the other side of the room. Without thinking, the moth flew up straight toward the light, fizzled in the heat and fell dead to the floor.

Why do we try so hard to do the things that thwart us and harm us, when God opens doors and windows for us if only we had the faith to enter?

“Persistence in prayer” is not, I repeat, NOT the message of Jesus’ parable in this week’s missive…

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An English Grammar Reminder

This morning, I want you to reach back into your Junior High school experience and remember something your English or grammar teacher taught you. For some of you that's going to be quite a stretch, because it was a long time ago. For others of you, that will be a very recent occurrence.

The concept I want you to pull up into your memory banks is the concept of a metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech in the English language where you use something totally unrelated to a particular idea, to describe that idea. Usually metaphors capture our attention, because in a few words, they accurately describe our emotions or the facts of a situation.

Let me give you some examples:

-"That person is about as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs."
-"I feel about as helpless as a trombone player in a phone booth."
-"You can't tell how much gas is in the tank by how loud the horn honks!"
-"Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than going to McDonald's makes you a Big Mac."
-But my all time favorite comes from the old TV program, "Cheers". Norm walked into the bar, and Sam the bartender asked him, "How's it going, Norm?" And Norm answered, "It's a dog eat dog world out there, Sammy and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear."

Then there are metaphors that use contrast to emphasize truth:

-Like the football player that stands 6'5" tall and weighs 300 pounds. His nickname is "Tiny"
-In the old Three Stooges comedies, the one guy who had no hair was called, "Curley".

I think you get the idea. Metaphors paint vivid pictures for us through word pictures or contrast in order to emphasize the truth about something.

Well, in the parable we're going to look at this morning, Jesus uses two metaphors to teach us something about God. And He uses both kinds of metaphors that I've just described, to do that. In this Parable of The Persistent Widow, he uses contrast to teach us about the character of God, that’s the part about the judge, and he uses comparison to teach us about justice and prayer, that’s the part about the persistent widow.

Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com. Adapted from Rev. Tom Rietveld, Sermon: “Learning About Praying”

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I’m Going to Conquer Chicago!

Former heavy-weight boxer James “Quick” Tillis is a cowboy from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. Tillis still remembers his first day in Chicago after his arrival from Tulsa. Tillis says, “I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down, and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to conquer Chicago.’ “When I looked down, the suitcases were gone.”

There are too many times in our lives when we feel like James “Quick” Tillis. Times when it would be very easy to be discouraged - to give up - to lose heart. In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus is telling His disciples a parable to encourage them - to keep praying - to keep trusting God - even in the “Quick” Tillis times of our lives.

Stephen Muncherian, Oh, For One Good Lawyer!

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A People of Prayer

I know of a pastor who regularly uses his church directory to pray for the members by name. Although he didn't say it, my guess is that his prayers do much to change him and his relationship to those members.

Within the gospel of Luke, there is abundant encouragement to pray. There are examples of Jesus' praying - if he needed to pray, how much more do we? If nothing else, during the period when we are waiting for the kingdom to come, we are to be people of prayer.

Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes

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Let Us Pray

When the late composer Leonard Bernstein was composing his famous contemporary Mass — his rock, blues and jazz Mass — he said that he wanted it to be “an honest Mass.” What he meant was that he wanted the words and music of this Mass, this worship service, to ring true even to people who didn't see themselves as particularly religious, or churchy.

Well, as such, he knew that the most demanding moment in the Mass would not be “Credo,” “I believe.” Most people out there believe in the culture, at least believe vaguely, in God. The most demanding moment would not be Credo. It would be Oremus, “Let us pray.” Because to pray, to talk to God, we cannot hedge our bets about God, we have to move beyond vagueness and enter into a relationship with God.

Sure enough, in Bernstein's Mass, when it comes time to pray, a chorus begins to intone a traditional prayer of confession, but then a lone tenor voice soars up above the others to sing:

If I could, I'd confess.
Good and loud, nice and slow
Get this load off my chest
Yes, but how Lord, I don't know.

What I say, I don't feel
What I feel, I don't show
What I show, isn't real
What is real, Lord?
I don't know.
No, no, no, I don't know.

According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told his disciples a parable because they were having problems with prayer. Now Leonard Bernstein may have assumed that only contemporary, and non-religious people would have problems with prayer, but Jesus knew better. We all have problems with prayer.

Thomas Long, Praying Without Losing Heart

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Make My Landlord Fix the Furnace

In a certain city there was a corrupt bureaucrat who neither feared God nor respected people; and there was a welfare mother in the same city who kept coming to him and saying, "Make my landlord fix the furnace and insulate the walls. I can no longer afford to pay the heat bills and my children are freezing." For a while the bureaucrat refused to listen, but the woman kept coming to his office every day with her three children, and each day she would make her plea again. After several weeks of this, he thought to himself, if I don't give this woman what she asks, she will pester me to death. An order was issued, the furnace was replaced and insulation was installed in the walls.

The next day the woman was back in the bureaucrat's office with her children. She thanked him for what he had done and then she said, "Now let me tell you about my plumbing problems."

John E. Sumwalt, Lectionary Stories, CSS Publishing Company.

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Hoping To Goodness

Lucy planned a picnic for the next day. She says to Charlie Brown, "I just hope to goodness that it doesn't rain ..." Walking away, Charlie answers, "Hoping to goodness is not theologically sound." Charlie's right. "Hoping to goodness" is not sound. Fixing our hope upon God is.

Robert L. Short, The Parables of Peanuts, (New York, Harper and Row, Publishers, 1968), pp. 273.

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A Long Flight

The first transcontinental flight across the country from New York, NY to Long Beach CA was completed by American aviation pioneer Cal P. Rodgers in an early Wright flyer called the Vin Fiz after a soft drink company that sponsored the trip. On September 17, 1911 he left Sheephead Bay at Brooklyn NY and arrived in California on December 10, 1911, 84 days later. Rodgers actual time in the air was 3 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes. The airplane was forced down by weather and mechanical failure more than 30 times resulting in “light crashes” to crashes that required major repairs. When Rodgers landed in Long Beach the only original parts on the airplane were the rear rudder and the oil pan on the engine.

I would have given up the first time I lost my wings.

Brent Porterfield, www.eSermons.com

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God Is Patient

The Apostle Peter - writing shortly before he was martyred - during a time when Nero’s persecution of the church was growing in severity - writing during a time when false teaching was tearing at the heart of the church - when believers were beginning to doubt that Jesus was returning - when the question of the day was, “How can we continue to trust God?” - the Apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter, “Don’t let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness - as we - living in this email you in a second, www world - who are constantly checking our stopwatches think about the passing of time - but God is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8,9)

Stephen Muncherian, Oh, For One Good Lawyer!

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Do You Call That Nothing?

The French Jesuit scholar Claude Fraguier pursued a case at law for 20 years that his friends continued to tell him he had no chance of winning. Finally and firmly a judgment was made against him. With the decision his friends reminded him of their counsel with the admonishment that he could have spared himself much sorrow if he had listened to them earlier. After such a long legal battle he was left with nothing.

He replied, “Every night before falling asleep I’ve managed to win this case. Do you call that nothing?” Fraguier is asking a central question, “Is hope nothing?” is persistence nothing? Even in the face of impossible odds. His answer of course is, “No.” Hope is sometimes all we have.

Brent Porterfield,www.eSermons.com

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Holding the Pistol of Prayer to God’s Head

Some years ago an article appeared in the newspaper concerning a man who announced he was troubled about world conditions, particularly about moral conditions in the United States. He determined to fast and pray until God sent a great awakening to correct the moral degeneracy of the day. He announced that he would keep it up even until death, if necessary, expecting God to move. The papers carried the story day after day. His strength began to fail and he grew weaker and weaker and finally was confined to his bed. Bulletins were issued each day following his condition. He was evidently a man of unusual determination, for most of us would have quit after the third day and settled for a good beefsteak, but this man did not. He went on with his fast until he actually died. The funeral was widely covered and many lauded his remarkable persistence.

I ask you: Was that really prayer? No, it was not! It was an attempt to blackmail God. This man was holding his own life as a pistol to the head of God and demanding all his money! He was insisting that God move on his terms and according to his time schedule. That is not prayer.

Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com. Adapted from Ray C. Stedman, Sermon: “Why Pray?”

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American Speed and Efficiency

Two qualities which we Americans value highly and in which we take pride are speed and efficiency. Think of how many products or services which all of us use that are built principally around one or both of these qualities.

Hundreds of thousands of microwave ovens have been sold, not because they make food taste better, but because it's possible to cook much faster in them. Since so many people lead such busy lives, anything that shortens time in the kitchen has an instant appeal.

A colleague told of meeting a woman from West Germany at a seminar on prayer in Princeton. She was marveling over one of our speedy and efficient inventions, the tea bag. She said that the Germans don't make teabags, and she found it a very convenient way to have a cup of tea. Of course, she then went on to mention that teabags didn't produce nearly as tasty a cup of tea as loose tea does.

Our banking procedures are also marvels of efficiency. A friend who served as a missionary in Malaysia always used to complain that it took him anywhere from 20-45 minutes to cash his paycheck because of the inefficient banking procedures. Instead of having each teller be a cashier as we do, the tellers and the cashiers were different people. The teller looked over your check, made sure that your deposit slip was filled out correctly, got the initials of one of the bank officers on the cashier's approval slip, and then placed it on the bottom of the pile of similar checks waiting to be cashed by the cashier who sat enclosed in a little cubicle. After standing in line at the teller's counter, one then went over and stood in line at the cashier's counter, and waited some more. Cashing a paycheck was a great lesson in patience each month, a quality that we Americans are notably short on.

Because of our cultural preference for speed and efficiency, our gospel lesson this morning has something to say to us that each of us needs very much to hear. The themes of patient waiting, of persistence, of faithfulness in the face of the seeming indifference of God to our troubles are addressed by this rather strange story in Luke's gospel.

The story of the "unjust judge" as it's often called, raises an age-old human question: why, if God is righteous, is he so slow in seeing that justice is done?

Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary Time, CSS Publishing Company, Inc

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Hope That Does Not Disappoint

Our being able to hang in there in the difficult times is determined by the nature of our hope. For Christians, it has to do with our holding to the promises of God, a holding that is determined by our confidence in the integrity of God.

There’s a story about an airport terminal. It was a sea of people, hurrying and pushing. It's always that way. But on this night it was especially so. A snowstorm snarled schedules in the air and on the ground. In the midst of the terminal, by herself, there sat a little girl who could not have been more than a first grader in school, six years old, maybe seven. She sat quietly. One might have expected tears, but her big eyes never closed. Wide-eyed she watched. Now and again she smiled. A security guard spoke to her softly, asking if he might be of help. "No," she answered, "I'm waiting for my daddy." She waited for more than an hour. Finally there was a huge smile as she recognized a snow-covered man coming toward her. "See," she said, "I told you he would come." There never had been a doubt. Never did her hope falter. She knew him in whom her hope was fixed. She believed in his love. She believed in his integrity. She knew no storm would keep him from meeting her. And she was not disappointed.

Our "hope that does not disappoint us" must rest always in God's love and his faithfulness.

Theodore F. Schneider, Until The Kingdom Comes, CSS Publishing Company

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Repeated Petitions

While serving as Presbyterian missionaries in Lebanon Ben and Carol Weir learned a great deal about prayer when Ben was suddenly kidnapped by Shiite Muslim extremists in 1984. He was held in solitary confinement, in cramped quarters for sixteen months. Carol wondered whether she would ever see him again. Carol wrote of her ordeal:

The months dragged on. There had been so many meetings, so much discussion without any change. I became more aware of what seemed to me to be the silence of God. What was happening to Ben during these long months? When would this nightmare end?

We ourselves had tried to stir the Reagan Administration to take new initiatives. We had made many private and personal appeals. I remembered the story in scripture of the widow who had knocked and knocked on the door of the unjust judge, the judge who cared nothing for God or man. Finally, because of her persistence, the judge responded. I felt like that widow, whose story had been told over and over for two thousand years. I was knocking on many doors in Washington. Would one door finally open for Ben's release?

Later I was to learn from Ben that he, too, had read that same Bible story during his captivity. He had interpreted it to mean that God does not object to our repeated petitions.

Perhaps God does not speak, but remains silent to listen for something in us. Perhaps God listens for openness and receptivity on our part to the creation of a new, fresh spirit.

From "Hostage Bound, Hostage Free," p.164

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Preparation G

Milton Berle understood persistence. “Mr. Television” during the 1950’s was one of the great entertainers of the 20th century on stage, in film, radio and finally as a pioneer of television. Here are a couple of his one-liners about persistence: How would the guy have felt if he quit after 6 UP? Or the guy that stopped at Preparation G?

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How Long, O Lord?

Remember the African-American slaves of recent centuries singing spirituals in the cotton fields of the South. They took up the cry of the Hebrews in Egypt, "Go down, Moses. Tell old Pharaoh, 'Let my people go.' "With persistence and patience they continued to pray and hope for freedom and justice. There were many times when they could cry to God, "How long, O Lord?" But at last in the middle of this century things began to change. African-Americans finally won a measure of freedom and equality in this country. They were granted the right to vote in places where that right of citizenship had long been denied; they no longer had to sit at the back of the bus. They were no longer barred from certain restaurants and schools. Of course, full and complete justice has not yet been attained by today’s descendants of former slaves. There will always be need for patient, persistent prayer and pressure in pursuit of justice. Faith in the faithfulness of God makes such patience possible.

J. Will Ormond, Good News among the Rubble, CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio

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Widows In Palestine

Widows had a difficult place in Palestine -- around the world, in fact. Normally, the wife of a deceased husband had no legal right to inherit her husband's estate, so when her husband died she couldn't take for granted living in his house on his land. If her deceased husband had no children, the estate reverted to her husband's male relatives on his father's side -- his brothers, his father's brothers, and then the nearest family kinsman. If she had grown children things would be easier; they would take care of Mom. But a widow with small children might just as well have to contend for property rights with her in-laws, and if they didn't happen to like her, things could be difficult. In some cases, she might manage the estate to be inherited by her young children as a trustee, but that was by no means a sure thing.

Ralph F. Wilson, The Widow and the Unjust Judge

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Keep Pushing the Button

A young man, who was obviously worried, stepped into an elevator to go to the second floor of a hospital where his father was in the intensive-care unit. Although the button labeled “2” was already lighted, he pushed it again and again. A doctor standing behind him said, “Pushing the button someone has already pushed is like reminding God you’re still there when he hasn’t answered your prayer immediately.”

As the man thought of his father in intensive care, it was comforting to know that God does encourage believers to continue to pray the same prayers until he answers

Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker Publishing Group

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Touch My Father’s Hand

When I was a kid in our little two-bedroom home, my room was next to Mamma and Daddy’s bedroom. But in those days it felt so far away when noises occurred in the night. I’d wake up and hear a squeaky floor and think “burglar.” I would feel the windows rattle and think “tornado.” And you know what I’d do? I’d get up in the dark and run to the other bedroom where Mom and Dad were sound asleep. I could tell where Dad slept because he was always snoring. I’d reach up and touch my Daddy’s hand and everything was all right. I didn’t have to say anything or even wake him up. That touch—the assurance that Daddy was there was enough to allow me go back to my room and go to sleep. That’s why we pray and don’t lose heart. That’s what prayer is—reaching out to touch God; to be reassured that God is still there; even if its pestering God and God pestering us back. And that’s reason enough to keep on praying...and not lose heart.

Dan Ivins, Don’t Lose Heart

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Humor: The Price of Doing Good

I like the story told of the man who was stopped by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter told him, "Not so fast. We've got a new policy now. You have to tell us that you've done a very good deed." The man said, "I have done a good deed. I once saw a gang of skinhead bikers picking on a little old lady. I went up to their leader, told him he ought to pick on someone his own size, punched him in the stomach and then kicked over his Harley." St. Peter was impressed, "That is a good deed. When did you do this?" The man replied, "Oh, about three minutes ago." Prayer is not a reward for being good. Sometimes the very best people pay for doing good.

Frank Lyman, Through the Storm, Through the Night

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Do We Drive Him Crazy with Our Prayers?

There is an old story about a tailor who visits his rabbi and says, "I have a problem with my prayers. If someone comes to me and says, `Mendel, you're a wonderful tailor,' that makes me feel good. I feel appreciated. I can go on feeling good for a whole week, even longer on the strength of one compliment like that. But if people came to me every day, one after another, hour after hour, and kept saying to me `Mendel, you're a wonderful tailor,' over and over again it would drive me crazy. It would soon get to the point where I wouldn't want to listen to them anymore. I would tell them to go away and let me do my work in peace. This is what bothers me about prayer. It seems to me that if we told God how wonderful He is once a week, even once every few weeks, and just one or two of us at a time, that's all He would need. Is God so insecure that He needs us praising him every day? Three times a day, morning, noon, and night? It seems to me it would drive Him crazy."

The rabbi smiled and said, "Mendel, you're absolutely right. You have no idea how hard it is for God to listen to all of our praises, hour after hour, day after day.

But God knows how important it is for us to utter that praise, so in His great love for us, He tolerates all of our prayers."

King Duncan, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com

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The Final Outcome Is Not in Doubt

Here's a critical issue for living. The final outcome is not in doubt! Life is not like an NBA basketball game where victory hangs in the balance until the last second and the crowd sits on the edge of their seats waiting to see who will prevail. In God's universe, good will triumph! The right will prevail! Justice is certain! However, It is only with the eyes of faith we can see the outcome. The letter to the Hebrews says, "...faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb. 11:1)

From the beginning of scripture to the end, there are good times and bad times for God's people -- there are utterly joyous times and bone crushing horrid times. The long haul outcome, however, is never in doubt to the eyes of faith.

John Jewell, Perseverance: Trusting God for the Long Haul

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When You Long to Pray

The story is told of a girl who watched a holy man praying at the river bank. Once the man had finished his prayer, the girl approached him and asked, "Will you teach me to pray?" The holy man studied the girl's face, and agreed to her request. He took her into the river. The holy man instructed her to lean over, so her face was close to the water. The girl did as she was told.

Then the holy man pushed her whole head under the water. Soon the girl struggled to free herself in order to breathe. Once she got her breath back, she gasped, "What did you do that for?" The holy man said, "I gave you your first lesson." "What do you mean?" asked the astonished girl. He answered, "When you long to pray as much as you long to breathe, then I will be able to teach you how to pray."

May each of us long to pray, and learn to pray, and persist in our prayer--not so that we can change God, but so that God can change us, and help us enjoy that fullness of life he intends for us.

Charles Hoffacker, The Voice of the Widow

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Lord, Help Us Treat You Well

Social activist Jim Wallis tells about one group of Christians who are doing their part to bring about God's justice. It’s Saturday morning. The food line has formed early outside the Sojourners Neighborhood Center, just one and a half miles from the White House. Three hundred families stand in line to receive a bag of groceries which is critical to getting them through the week.

Just before the doors are opened and all the people come in, all those who help prepare the food and get it together join hands and say a prayer. The prayer is often offered by Mary Glover. She is their best pray-er, says Wallis. She is a sixty year old black woman who knows what it means to be poor and knows how to pray. She prays like someone who knows to whom she is talking. She has been carrying on a conversation with her Lord for many, many years. She first thanks God for another day, “Another day to serve you, Lord,” she says. On that day, Wallis says he will never forget she prayed these words, “Lord, we know that you’ll be coming through this line today so, Lord, help us to treat you well.”

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.

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Dead Letter Department

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, and any requests made by the writer remain unanswered. How about you?

Do you feel like your prayers end up in some kind of dead letter department? Do you feel like your prayers never reach God? If you do, then this text is for you! Here in Jesus Christ's own words we are told how to address our prayers to God so that they will be received and answered. The parable of a cold-hearted judge and a pesky widow tells how.

Stephen M. Crotts, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost: Music from Another Room, CSS Publishing Company

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Persistence

A common phenomenon in nature is “the path of least resistance.” Electricity moving through a circuit will always travel where it has the “easiest” route. Cars are developed aerodynamically so there will be minimal wind resistance. Rivers always travel around a mountain because it is easier than going through one.

Frequently people are like that, too. It is easier to sit in front of the T.V. than to care for a neighbor’s needs. It is easier to get angry at your mate and let that anger diminish (or smolder) over the course of time rather than sitting down and working the problem through. Thumbing through a Reader’s Digest is much easier than a time of personal Bible study. And so we find that we humans are prone to take the “path of least resistance.”

But there is one difference between ourselves and electricity or a river. They will never have to give an account of what they have done. We will. Thus, perhaps we should incline ourselves to take the path of greatest persistence.

Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker Publishing Group

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Let Our Prayers Be Streams

I close with the words of H. Jackson Brown who wrote, "In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength, but through persistence. Let our prayers be streams which beat upon the rock of Evil."

Frank Lyman, quoting H. Jackson Brown

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Illustrations for 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

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Humor: Bible Literacy

A group of boys and girls was asked to sum up what they had learned from the New Testament. Here is a summation of what they had learned: “Jesus is the star of the New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

“Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn’t stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead. Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.”

You laugh, but many adults wouldn’t fare much better in describing the New Testament. You may have seen that list on the Internet of the eight signs that you are not reading your Bible enough:

1. The pastor announces the sermon is from Galatians . . . and you check the table of contents.
2. You think Abraham, Isaac and Jacob may have had a few hit songs during the 60s.
3. You open to the Gospel of Luke and a WWII Savings Bond falls out.
4. Your favorite Old Testament patriarch is Hercules.
5. You become frustrated because Charlton Heston isn’t listed in either the concordance or the table of contents.
6. Catching the kids reading the Song of Solomon, you demand: “Who gave you this stuff?”
7. You keep falling for it every time when pastor tells you to turn to First Condominiums.
8. And the No. 1 sign you may not be reading your Bible enough: The kids keep asking too many questions about your usual bedtime story: “Jonah the Shepherd Boy and His Ark of Many Colors.”

Adapted by King Duncan, original sources unknown, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.

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Changed from the Inside Out

God equips us for God’s service though scripture. Paul writes to young Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

How does the Bible rebuke, correct and train in righteousness? An old parable says it best.

An elderly man lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Tennessee with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early reading from his old worn‑out Bible.

His grandson, who wanted to be just like him, tried to imitate him in any way he could. One day the grandson asked, “Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?”

The grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water.”

The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house.

The grandfather laughed and said, “You will have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.

This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was “impossible to carry water in a basket,” and he went to get a bucket instead.

The grandfather said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You can do this. You’re just not trying hard enough,” and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See Papa, it’s useless!”

“So you think it is useless?” The old man said, “Look at the basket.”

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different. Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was clean.

“Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out.”

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.