Between Sundays for Week of October 17, 2022
Persistence is effective, and it can be easy to read this week’s gospel as if it’s a motivational message: persistence pays off!
But Pastor Hoffman invites us to ask about what are we persistent? Getting our way? Getting a better deal? Jesus invites us to be persistent about prayer. He tells a parable about our need to “pray always and not to lose heart” (Luke 18:1).
Why would we need to pray always and not lose heart? Because we live in a world where “the kingdom of God is among us” – as Jesus tells his disciples just a few verses before today’s passage – but it’s also a world where that kingdom remains hidden too often, available to us only through glimpses.
We pray as a way of becoming so connected with God that it’s as though we are putting on our “God-glasses” and seeing the world as God sees it.
Our persistence in prayer isn’t about getting what we want or even what we need. It’s about seeing as God sees, noticing the hurting and vulnerable, hearing the pleas of those who cry for justice, and moving towards those who are rejected and hurting. It’s about becoming more aware of and choosing to draw near to those places and bringing glimpses of God’s kingdom – God’s healing, God’s justice, God’s mercy – into the here and now.
Pray always and do not lose heart. Be persistent about staying connected to our God – be persistent in prayer, expecting God will show up, maybe even through our own hands and feet and heart.
Pastor Hoffman reflects on the ways that Jesus calls us to be persistent in prayer. Persistence in prayer pays off, not because we get our way, but because we become more connected to God. Through prayer, we begin to see the world as God sees it, and our hands and feet and hearts become the means through which God answers prayer.
Ponderings
“Like the persistent widow who doesn’t give up, and like our ever-present God who hears the cries of the weary, authentic prayer is faith in action. It is a constant believing and working for a more just and humane world that reflects God’s wellspring of mercy and justice.”