"Our Need to Pray Always"

Luke 18:1-8

A hospital chaplain tells about going into a patient's room.  Several friends had gathered in the room.  It was immediately clear to the chaplain that her presence was making everyone a little nervous and that neither the patient nor the friends quite knew what to do or say to a "religious person."  The patient tried to resolve the situation by saying to the chaplain, "Why don't you go ahead and say a nice little prayer before you leave?"  It was obvious to the chaplain that the patient didn't really want a prayer, didn't feel any particular need for prayer, so she politely wished him well and left the room.

Well, in our reading today Jesus told his disciples a parable "about their need to pray always and not to lose heart."  Of the four Gospels, Luke has the greatest emphasis on prayer.  Only in Luke do we see Jesus praying at his baptism, spending the night in prayer before selecting the twelve disciples, praying before he asks the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?", praying on the mountain before the transfiguration, and praying before the disciples ask him to teach them to pray.  So, according to Luke, prayer was essential to Jesus' life and ministry and a necessity for his disciples. 

Yet for most us, prayer is problematic. We have so many issues, concerns and problems with prayer.  In truth, remembering to pray might be similar to taking a daily vitamin. We think it's a good idea, we try to remember to do it, but if we miss a few days, it doesn't seem to hurt us any.  Last Tuesday, I led a discussion at Westminster Manor Retirement Center on this scripture.  When I asked the group about their attitudes, problems and practices of prayer, one person said, "Well, to be honest I do feel the need to pray when the times are tough—a loved one is ill, I'm facing surgery—times like that.  But when things are going well, it's harder to feel the need for prayer."  He probably speaks for many of us.  If the kids are healthy and staying out of trouble, if we have a soft bed to sleep in, food on the table and money in the bank—we may not feel an urgent need to pray.

Another problem with prayer is that we may question whether God really hears our prayers. Maybe you have prayed for health for a loved one, but the illness only got worse. We pray for peace, but wars continue to rage all over the world. This morning is Bread for the World Sunday, and you have an insert in your bulletin. Yes, we pray for the hungry, but the ranks of the hungry and homeless just seem to keep growing. So we wonder if we really need to pray, when so often prayer doesn't seem to make much difference?

For these and other reasons, it's so easy to lose heart when it comes to prayer. We lose confidence, and trust, and hope that our prayers will be heard and answered. We sometimes think that prayer is just a modern problem, but it's always been a problem.  It was a problem for Jesus' first disciples, and that's why Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not lose heart.

The parable Jesus told is a kind of mini-drama featuring two characters.  One is an unjust judge. If he were living today, he would not be a good Presbyterian elder type, not a church-goer.  He wouldn't be active in the Rotary Club or contribute a dime to the United Way. He just wouldn't care about people, or about justice, or trying to be fair. In a word, the guy was a lousy citizen and a no-good judge.

The other character in the parable is a widow. This poor widow is without political protection or economic resources. What hope does she have before this judge's bench? She does have one thing, though.  She has the ability to pester, and pester she does.  Pounding on the judge's chamber door, leaving messages with his assistants, giving him no peace. She is persistent.  In fact she's so persistent, that the judge finally grants her justice just to get her off his back.

So that's the parable Jesus told about the need to pray and not lose heart. But I'm still puzzled.  How does the parable help us understand our need to pray always—and especially how does it guide us in not losing heart?

Perhaps we need to back up a few verses so that we can put this parable in a larger context.  A few verses earlier, Jesus was asked the question:  When is the Kingdom of God coming?   Jesus' parable about the need to pray always and not lose heart is in response to this question about the Kingdom.  Recall that Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, the advent of a great reversal when the unjust, fallen world would give way to God's just, redeemed world.  Jesus taught the disciples that the Kingdom of God was among them now but its fulfillment still lay in the future. For Jesus, the need to pray is rooted in the reality and the longing for God's Kingdom. Seen in the light of the Kingdom of God, the parable of the unjust judge and the impoverished widow is a snapshot of the unjust world that Jesus longs to see changed.

The southern preacher and theologian Fred Craddock tells a story in which, in a large gathering of people concerned about certain unfair and oppressive conditions in our society, an elderly black minister read this parable about our need to pray and not lose heart. When he finished reading, he gave a one-sentence interpretation: "Until you have stood for years knocking at a locked door, your knuckles bleeding, you do not really know what prayer is."  Songwriter Bruce Cockburn expresses a similar sentiment when he says in the song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" you have to "kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight."  For Jesus, prayer is always kicking at the darkness, and longing for the daylight of God's promised kingdom.

Notice that the widow's story connects prayer with public action.  Her prayers for justice are accompanied by persistent acts.  She reminds us that we aren’t called to pray passively, hoping that God will change the world on our behalf. As the African proverb says, "When you pray, move your feet." If we pray for the hungry, we must also work to feed the hungry, lobby for change and refuse to accept a system that deals out injustice.  

"Prayer," writes Maggi Dawn, "is about refusing to believe that the way things are has to be the way they will always be, about imagining how the world could be, and gaining the wisdom and the energy to bring it about."

So in both our praying for change and working for change, we don't lose heart. We don't lose heart because God, Jesus insists, isn't like that uncaring judge in the parable.  In fact, God's character is the very opposite of the unresponsive judge. God loves us, cares for us, listens to us and promises to be with us always. 

Sometimes when I walk across the U.T. campus, a student walking nearby will pull her cell phone from her purse, punch in a number and put the phone to her ear.  Then I'll hear her say something like, "Hi, Mom.  Yeah I'm fine. I just had a moment between classes, and thought I'd call to say hi." I believe this student calls her mom because her mom loves her more than anybody.  Her mother is the one person in the world who really cares about what kind of day her daughter is having.  It's fun to talk to somebody who cares.

God, Jesus teaches, cares, really cares about us.  God is like a compassionate father, like a devoted mother who responds to our every cry. So pray and keep on praying; ask and keep on asking; don't take no for an answer. And rattle plenty of cages until the answer comes.