Two twelve-year-old boys, Bob and Mike, broke a window while playing baseball. They looked around to see if anyone had seen them. No one was in sight, except for Mike's little brother. They went over and offered him a piece of candy not to tell. He refused it. "I'll give you my baseball," Mike said. "No," said his little brother. "Then what about my new glove?" Bob added. "No!" said the little brother. "Well, what do you want?" they pleaded. With resoluteness, the little fellow said, "I wanna tell."
It's hard to negotiate with little brothers sometimes. It's also hard to negotiate with a hard-hearted judge.
Had she been a ballplayer, this widow in Jesus' parable would have been called out on strikes even before she came to bat.
Strike one: she's a woman. In the Biblical world where women were expected to know their place, she makes her own place. Strike two: she is a widow. Any status she might have had disappeared with the death of her husband. Like "any other woman in Jesus' time she had no one to intercede for her in the decision of the judge." (1) And, strike three, she is poor. Her opponent is a judge who "neither feared God nor had respect for people." (Luke 18:2) He was motivated by money and she had none to offer.
This judge is no charmer. We assume he was a Gentile for had he been a man of faith it would have been assumed that he cared for people. In the Biblical world view, one can't have regard for God without regard for God's people. This poor widow proves to be a hero for she has dogged persistence. She wanted the judge to hear her case so she keeps at him, badgering and pestering him until he hears her case just to be rid of her.
Jesus told this parable to emphasize the "need to pray always and not to lose heart." (Luke 18: 1) His point is not that God is like some godless judge who only answers prayer to be done with us! That defies logic! How could God be godless? The point is that if a persistent woman has her case heard by a lousy judge, then how much more likely will a loving God hear our prayers! Jesus teaches persistence in prayer.
Why is persistence in prayer so important? Surely it's because we easily become discouraged if we feel our prayers are not answered. Meeting persons who do "pray without ceasing" is a rare treat.
Two Orthodox monks were traveling with a group of tourists following the Journeys of St. Paul in Greece. Now these were unusual Orthodox monks because their monastery was in the Silicon Valley of California. The Silicon Valley is usually not cited as a hotbed of Orthodox monasteries! Fathers Stephen and Michael shared with their fellow passengers their calling as men of prayer. They said they often are asked, "Why don't you do something more productive?" to which they answer, "Isn't prayer productive?"
Think about it! We persist in what we believe in. We work out, convinced it will shape us. We study, convinced our knowledge will grow and we keep records, convinced the IRS will demand them! Is it possible that our inability to keep at prayer is because we are not convinced that prayer really makes much difference?
In his book, Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God, Tony Campolo offers three insights into what prayer isn't and four insights into what prayer is. For those of you keeping score that means there are seven points left in this morning's sermon! Hang in there!
The first thing that prayer is not is magic. Campolo tells of his then seven-year-old son preparing for bed. Just before going upstairs he said to his family, "I'm going to bed. I'm going to be praying. Anybody want anything?" (2) Who wouldn't like prayer to be like that--a shopping trip where we place in our prayer basket all we want God to do? And then, at the check-out lane, God could bag up all our prayers, load them in the back of our Buick and tell us to have a nice day! If prayer was magic, who could help but have a nice day?
We confuse prayer with magic. Magic is an attempt to manipulate supernatural powers so we can get what we want. Prayer is spiritual surrender so that we can become instruments of the divine will. That's really what the third commandment is all about. We know it as, "œYou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain," and often associate it with swearing and cursing, but it's more than that. Our New Revised Standard Version translates it, "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God." When we pray "In Jesus' name" we are praying that what we pray for is within the spirit of Jesus. God is not to be used. God is the ultimate end and not a means to some other end.
The second thing that prayer is not is reward for being particularly good or spiritual. God does not grant the prayers of "spiritual folks" while ignoring the prayers of "regular folks." In an imperfect world it's often the good folks who pay the price for being 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.
The third thing that prayer is not is totally understandable. We do believe in miracles. We've witnessed them and continue to pray for miracles, but also we have experienced the frustration of innocent and good people needlessly suffering. That tears us up! But we can take comfort in knowing that Mother Teresa felt the same frustration. No one has seen the innocent suffer more than she has, and I find myself in agreement with two of her statements. She said, "When I see God, He's got a lot of explaining to do." And she also said, "God would have a lot more friends if God treated the ones He does have a little bit better."
In spite of the mystery of prayer, we continue to pray. I pray for that which God is already fully aware of. God doesn't need me to present a list of who's in the hospital, whose marriage is in trouble or who's in financial crisis . . . yet I still keep letting God know all of this for it links me with God's creative energy. Maybe God needs to know God has plenty of friends! Is prayer some kind of crutch? Of course! But what's wrong with crutches? If you have ever broken a bone, then you understand the importance of splints and casts. These crutches hold our bones in place that God's healing might take place. So it is with prayer. Prayer holds us in place so that God's healing can take place.
Prayer is not magic, reward or totally understandable. Those are three things that prayer is not. But Campolo offers four affirmations about what prayer is. The first is that prayer always changes people, even when it doesn't always change things. As Karl Barth has written, "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." (3) When we center our hands in prayer we become the recipients of God's grace. Prayer always changes people. Every prayer evokes some change. No prayer is ever wasted. I heard of a church which was struggling with the difficult issue of homosexuality, but rather than hold a debate or panel discussion they made it the focus of their prayers. Two hundred persons showed up to sit in silent prayer until persons were spiritually led to share what was on their heart. The guidance of prayer led their hearts to be changed enough, that they could lovingly listen to each other, even if they didn't agree with each other. Prayer changes people.
The second thing that prayer helps us do is accept our lot. None of us can control what happens around us, but through prayer we can influence how we react to what happens to us. In prayer we find the strength to quit fighting that which can't be changed and start asking the better question, "Now that this has happened, what can I do?"
A few years ago, Tony Campolo was preaching at a church in Oregon, and he felt compelled to offer prayers for healing for those in his audience. Among those he prayed over was a man with cancer.
A few days later, this man's wife called Tony. She wanted him to know that her husband had died. Tony was discouraged by the news. But the wife added that Tony's prayers were not in vain. For the last few years, her husband had been bitter over his diagnosis. But after Tony prayed with him, the man found a measure of peace. His last few days of life were the happiest he had ever spent. "Tony," she said, "he wasn't cured, but he was healed." (4)
The third thing that prayer offers is assurance. Consider again the woman in Jesus' parable. All she wanted was the judge to hear her case. Isn't that the essence of prayer? We want our prayers heard. We want the assurance that God loves us and will stay with us through the dark moments as well as the good.
In Charles Dicken's novel, Bleak House, a sad little fellow named Little Joe, becomes ill with tuberculosis. Allan Woodcourt, a young physician, visits the lad. During the course of their conversation Allan asks the boy if he knows how to pray. The lad had no religious background whatsoever, and confesses he knows nothing about prayer. Woodcourt then asks Little Joe to repeat the Lord's Prayer after him.
The physician begins, "Our Father which art in heaven . . . "
Little Joe repeats the words and then stops. He seems unable to go on, but then Woodcourt hears him say over and over again, "Our Father." "Our Father." "Our Father." Then Little Joe sums up his feelings like this: "That is very good, Sir." (5) That is very good. Little Joe got the assurance that he needed. Prayer does that for us.
The last thing that prayer promises is that God intercedes when our prayers are inadequate. Scripture reminds us that we don't need to know how to pray, as long as we do pray. As St. Paul wrote, ". . . the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words." (Romans 8:26)
A marvelous example of the Lord's intervention occurred in 1932. A composer's wife died while she was giving birth. A few days later the baby also died. The composer was brokenhearted and sat at his piano, musing upon the hymn, "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone." That song asks, "Must Jesus bear the cross alone, and all the world go free? No, there's a cross for everyone, and there's a cross for me." As he modulated those chords, the Holy Spirit interceded. New chords and new words emerged. The composer's grief began to yield to faith.
And Thomas Dorsey wrote, "Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand, I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; through the storm, through the night lead me on to the light: Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home." Thomas Dorsey is the widow in Jesus' parable. He wants assurance, the assurance that he has an Advocate who listens and intercedes. Jesus is our Advocate. Before he ascended to heaven he said he would send his Holy Spirit. Our answered prayers, prayed in persistence, are testimony that the Holy Spirit, our Advocate, never deserts us.
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." Let us pray through the storm, through the night and never lose heart.
1. Neal F. Fisher, The Parables of Jesus, p. 119.
2. Tony Campolo, Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1997), p. 54.
3. Cited in "True Prayer" by Kenneth Leech, p. 68.
4. Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000), pp. 34-36.
5. Harold Kohn, Wide Horizons (Nashville: Tidings).