A Sermon
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 21, 2007
Scripture Lesson: Luke 18:1-8
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Almost two weeks ago, as some of you know, I attended a training event held on the North Carolina coast at a retreat center on Oak Island run by the Southern Baptist Convention. It was the annual gathering of the Association of Intentional Interim Ministers, a professional organization of which I am part. The theme of the event was “Leadership and Change.” From Monday afternoon to Wednesday morning, we focused on this subject with the help of Ken McFayden, a Presbyterian minister and faculty member at Union Theological Seminary at Richmond, Virginia.
In the aftermath of the conference, I was doing some additional reading last week on the subject of leadership. Specifically, I read an article by Angie Ward entitled, “Can I Trust You? Strengthening the Three Legs of Trust.” She begins her article with a brief story about a young minister named Tom.
Tom was the founding pastor of Community Fellowship. The church was experiencing explosive growth, but at the same time Tom knew something wasn’t quite right. He was becoming the target of criticism by church leaders. They were losing heart in their pastor’s leadership. Administrative Board meetings were growing increasingly tense, and questions about Tom’s integrity were becoming more frequent. He said, “I just don’t understand. My Board is saying they don’t trust me. But I’m not dishonest, and I would never intentionally do anything to hurt my church because God clearly called me to plant Community Fellowship.”
The author of the article analyzed Tom’s situation this way. Briefly, she said that a leader’s credibility stands on not one leg, but on three legs. When any one of those three legs is broken or even wobbly, trust in the leader quickly erodes. These three legs on which credibility rests are character, competence, and communication.
Character is the most obvious component of trust. Character has to do with integrity, with a leader’s moral strength, an inner compass that determines how a person acts when no one else is looking. In spite of what some of the church leaders at Community Fellowship were saying, Tom was, indeed, a man of integrity.
Competence is the second component of trust. This has to do with the ability of a leader to get the job done well. Although Tom’s character was above reproach, he was weak in certain areas – particularly in the day-to-day execution of the church’s life. Frankly, Tom was unreliable when it came to getting done in a timely way what he needed to do and what others expected of him.
Communication is the third component of trust. An effective, trusted leader must be able to communicate well, that is, communicate honestly and frequently at all levels in the organization and along all the stages of a task or an issue. Tom was, at best, a spotty communicator. And that allowed doubts to surface in his congregation: “If Pastor Tom is not communicating about this matter,” people were saying, “what else is he withholding from us?”
In short, Pastor Tom, while being a man of strong character, was weak in some areas of pastoral competence and especially when it came to communicating frequently enough about important matters in the church. The result was that church leaders began doubting Tom’s character, even though his character was above reproach. What Tom had to learn (and eventually did) was that in his ministry two of the three legs of trust were wobbly, and those weaknesses1 endangered Tom’s ministry and the health of his congregation, because people were beginning to question his character.
This article was very much on my mind as I came to today’s Gospel lesson. In Luke 18:1-8 we have Jesus speaking to his disciples and telling them a parable, the parable being one of Jesus’ most characteristic modes of teaching. Luke introduces the parable this way, “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Without knowing anything more about the context, it appears that Jesus’ disciples were discouraged about something or other. To find out why, we have to read between the lines, or maybe only read carefully the lines that precede this text.
Let’s step back for a moment and look at the wider picture. The subject in this section of Luke’s Gospel is the kingdom of God, the very thing Jesus came into Galilee saying was now breaking into history right before their eyes. What most Jews of Jesus’ day, including his disciples, would understand by the term “kingdom of God” was quite simple – that God would actually become King over Israel and the world, not just in a spiritual sense, but in a political, social, and economic sense. They prayed for the day when God would throw out the Roman oppressors, establish Israel as the preeminent nation, and set up a system of governance that would insure plenty and well-being and peace and justice.
But as the days, weeks, months and years passed by, as generations were born and died, there seemed no end to Rome’s dominance, to Israel’s weakness, to wars and rumors of wars, no end to injustice, to poverty and disease. Believing Jesus was the one to bring about this kingdom of God, the disciples began to lose heart. So Jesus told them a parable to encourage them to pray always and not lose heart.
In this well-known and often misunderstood parable, there are two characters: a widow and a judge. First, let me say a word about the widow. In Jesus’ day a widow was the most vulnerable person in the community. She had no rights under the law. She could not inherit her husband’s property, for example. There were no social welfare programs for widows and, for the most part, no opportunities for independent employment. A widow’s only defense from being victimized was the local judge.
Unfortunately, the judge in this story is a man of deeply flawed character. He probably got his position as judge through some backroom political deal. This particular man had no business serving in such an important position in the community. Jesus says of this sleazy jurist that he was “a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.” In other words, he didn’t believe in God, and therefore didn’t respect God’s commands; and, what’s more, he didn’t care one whit about people.
I like the down-to-earth way Clarence Jordan, the Georgia farmer, New Testament Greek scholar and Southern Baptist preacher, tells the story:
One time in a certain city there was a judge who didn’t believe in God and didn’t give a hoot about people. In the same city was a widow, and she came to him repeatedly and said, “Please, hear my case against so-and-so.” He put her off for a long time, but finally he said to himself: “Even though I don’t believe in God and don’t give a hoot for people, yet because this woman has got it in for me, I’ll hear her case before she finally nags me to death.”
Now, pay close attention to what Jesus said to his disciples after he told them the story: “Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.”
The point of the parable seems to be: If you just keep pounding away on God’s door, keep praying, keep nagging at God, keep bringing your needs before God’s throne, keep enlisting others to join you in getting God’s attention, keep pestering God until you get a hearing, then, sooner or later, God will respond. So never give up. Persist in prayer. Never lose heart.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard preachers explain the parable this way or speak about the importance of persisting in prayer (or should I say, pestering in prayer!). It reminds me of the time when Mother Teresa came to Washington trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams and his colleague who were in charge of a prestigious and wealthy foundation. The tiny, frail woman came to them seeking a grant for a hospital she was building for AIDS victims in India.
Before Mother Teresa arrived at Williams’ office, the lawyer had told his friend that he was not open to her request. He said, “AIDS is not one of my favorite diseases.” So, together, these high-powered lawyers decided to listen to Mother Teresa and then to send her on her way with a polite but firm “No.”
Well, Mother Teresa soon arrived at Williams’ office at the appointed hour. She described the building project and what it would take to finish it, and then she asked for a foundation grant sufficient to build and furnish the hospital for people suffering from AIDS in that part of India.
They listened patiently to Mother Teresa, but said “No.”
“Let us pray,” said Mother Teresa. She folded her small hands and bowed her head in prayer. Williams’ friend rolled his eyes as he looked over at his colleague, but they both bowed their heads. She prayed aloud, “God, work through these men to provide for the needs of your sick children.”
After this simple prayer of petition, she said, “Amen,” and then proceeded to make her request again, but the two, unmoved, hard-nosed lawyers were equally persistent, and they said to her politely, but firmly, “No.”
“Let us pray,” said Mother Teresa a second time. Again, hands folded, head bowed and eyes closed, she prayed aloud in the presence of the two lawyers, this time asking God to soften the hearts of these men in order that his work may be accomplished through them. And again at the prayer’s end she said “Amen,” and then proceeded to repeat her request for the funds with which to make her hospital dream a reality.
Moments later, before she had a chance to pray yet a third time, Attorney Williams looked at the feisty, little sister and said, “All right, all right, all right!” Then, turning to his colleague, he said with resignation in his voice, “Give me my checkbook.”
It wasn’t long before a hospital for people suffering from AIDS was built in India by the Sisters of Mercy, underwritten by the generous foundation grant Mother Teresa had secured. A true story – that hospital stands today as a witness to her dogged determination and persistent prayer.
A good story, but is this what Jesus meant to say with his parable? Was he telling his disciples (and us) that hard-headed, relentless, pestering, persistent praying finally works? Was he teaching that repeated banging on Heaven’s door with prayer requests would finally get God’s attention and move him to act and set things right? Was he comparing God to the unjust judge and us to the desperate but persistent widow?
No, that’s not what Jesus meant for his disciples then or now. You see, this is a parable more about God’s character than it is about our prayers. It’s not so much about us and what we are to do. Rather, first and foremost, it’s about God, about who God is, and about what God will do. Think of it this way. This is one of Jesus’ parables which moves from the lesser to the greater. In other words, by telling this parable Jesus was saying, “If this unbelieving and uncaring judge will open up his hand to a widow who persists in seeking justice, just think how much more will God, the Lord of heaven and earth, our Savior and Friend! So don’t lose heart. Because of who God is, because of his character, continue to pray and never lose heart!”
There are many things which make us lose heart, everything from trials and tribulations in our personal lives; to difficulties and challenges we face in our homes, churches, workplaces, and communities; to national and international problems which go on and on and seem to worsen no matter who governs, how much energy is expended, or how much money is thrown at them.
The problems we face in many areas of life are so immense and so unyielding that we question God’s competence to put things right as he has promised. And in spite of God’s desire to communicate with us by his Holy Spirit and through the Scripture, we fail to listen attentively and obediently, and therefore we wrongly assume he remains silent. And so, questioning God’s competence and his desire to communicate, we sometimes begin to wonder about God’s character, about his trustworthiness.
That’s why this parable Jesus told to his disciples in another place and time is a parable for us, too. Through it the Lord himself draws near to us today. He wants us to understand that our Father in heaven listens to us closely, cares deeply for us, and acts for our good.
How do we know this is true? What proof do we have of the good character and trustworthiness of God? Only this: that this is the God who came to us in Jesus, the one who loved us to the point of suffering on a cross on our behalf. Looking to Jesus we see the true character of God as steadfast love and mercy.
If this is the character of God, then when trials and tribulations come to our personal lives, as inevitably they will, we will take courage and remain steadfast in faith, hope, and love. If this is the character of God, then when times of stress and change come to the church, we will trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us and bring new life. If this is the character of God, then when problems in the world seem so impossibly large, complex, and unyielding, we will not give up, but continue to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God, praying with confidence: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Because of the character of God, no matter what happens, we don’t lose heart!
To the King of the ages,
immortal, invisible, the only God,
be honor and glory
forever and ever.
Amen.
