"The Power of Persistence"
Luke 18:1-8; Isaiah 58
Our faith tells us that God is merciful, loving, and
powerful. But the injustice and
suffering we see all around us challenge that conviction.
As Matthew Skinner suggests, “The system is rigged. It always has been.”[1] And so, as Skinner points out, people of
faith have been complainers.
“Justice never prevails,” the
prophet Habakkuk complained to God. Job
lamented why God remained silent and apparently indifferent while he
suffered: “I call aloud, but there is no
justice.” [Habakkuk 1:4]
Describing
the abuses perpetrated by those who wield power, the prophet Micah said, “Their
hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and
the powerful dictate what they desire. Thus they pervert justice.” [Micah 7:3]
People of
faith complain—not because we’re whiney or grumpy. When we complain about injustice, we’re
insisting on a different world. We
remember that God created the world and called it good…and intends goodness. We ache to see God’s intentions for human
flourishing become realities. So we
keep doing what we can to help our hopes become a reality.
In the
gospel lesson we just heard, Jesus tells a parable about a widow who refuses to
put up with an unjust system. Luke says
the parable is about the disciples’ need
to pray always and not to lose heart.
“In a certain city there was a
judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept
coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’”
For a while this unjust judge
refused, but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no
respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her
justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”
This widow uses the resources she
has: her voice and her persistence. In time, her continuing advocacy for justice
eventually gets results.
Jesus said, “Will not God grant
justice to God’s chosen ones who pray day and night?”
In her society, the widow in the
parable would have been marginalized and powerless, but she did what she
could: she prayed always, persistently.
Rather than wishing passively for things
to be better, she advocates actively for justice, in her commitment to do what
she can to work for a better world.
Jesus
tells about the persistent actions of this widow to show us what Christians are
called to do. Our Christian faith
invites us to channel our frustrations with the brokenness of our society into
prayer, and then into prayerful action.
Our faith calls us into advocacy that demands a response from God and
from our society. As people of faith, as
individuals and communities, we are called to advocate for justice from those
who have the power to grant it. This
advocacy uses whatever tools are available.
Whatever it takes to get the system to change, even if sometimes it’s
only a little.
Right now
we’re in the midst of the ugliest political campaign I can remember. I know many of us are very troubled by the
lack of civility and how the mud-slinging has distracted us from the kind of
serious discussion of important issues of vital importance to our nation. It’s hard not to feel hopeless at times about
the polarization in our nation.
Elections are pivotal moments, with
outcomes that will last into the future, and there’s a lot of anxiety
around this. All the drama and debate
and rhetoric could distract us from our basic calling as followers of
Jesus.
In the midst of all this, we need to
remember that there is no perfect candidate.
No one person can solve all the problems. So it’s good news that we aren’t electing a Messiah—because we already have our
Messiah: Jesus Christ, whom alone we worship and follow.
All of the candidates have shown us
who they are and what their strengths and weaknesses are. So we need to pray for discernment, that we
may use our votes to support the candidate who is best equipped to lead our
nation through this time of great change and challenge.
No matter who wins the election on
November 8, we know that we are beloved children of God. We know that God is good, all the time. We know that God continues to call us to
embody God’s love in the world, and to work for justice and peace, to be
repairers of the breach, the restorers of our communities and our nation. We are called to work to promote the
well-being of our neighbors and especially those who are denied justice. This is true now, and it will be true on
November 9 and the days that follow.
Now and
every day we are called to be a servant church. When we are most faithfully being the
servant church, we’re feeding the hungry, calling on the sick and visiting the
home-bound. We’re serving those in the community who are
needy and hurting,
through friendship and practical kinds of help.
We’re standing with those who are marginalized, and with victims of violence and assault. When we’re being the servant
church, we share in Christ’s ministry in the world by generously supporting the
mission of the church with our tithes and offerings.
And—something
I’ve been thinking a lot about the past few weeks—we’re being a servant church
when we work to build bridges of understanding, when we work to bring about
reconciliation. I hope we’ll be praying
about this in the days leading up to the election and following. This congregation has committed itself to
peacemaking. So how can we build bridges
that cross partisan divisions and work toward healing?
Now and every day, we are called to care for those in
need. Today has been designated as Bread
for the World Sunday. Yesterday was
World Food Day.
We
who have plenty to eat are reminded that many people don’t, and that many of
those who are hungry or food insecure are children.
Bread
for the World reminds us that
nearly 16 million children in the United States, in one of the richest
countries in the world — that’s almost one in five — live in households
that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have parents who
have jobs and work hard, but whose wages aren’t high enough to cover the high
costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.So our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition, nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important.
A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years, in terms of intellectual development --not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities. Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest. Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year.
Locally, and in the short term, we are
helping to alleviate hunger when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program
through our Two Cents a Meal offering… when we support Church World Service…when
we support the mission of the Open Door or Focus Hope or volunteer at Gleaners.
But we also need to work on the systemic
causes of hunger. For a lot of
us, hunger and poverty seem overwhelming. But we don’t have to do it alone.
Bread for the World is a faith-based
education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years. The reason I personally support Bread for the
World is because they have a remarkable record of helping win passage of bipartisan legislation that
addresses hunger. As a result of this advocacy, children in the
United States receive vital nutrition. Emergency
food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa. Agricultural
development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow
enough food to feed their families.
If you want to help
Bread for the World with this important, persistent
advocacy work, you are invited to give them a donation. Or you could commit yourself to sending
letters to your elected representatives in Congress. I’ll post a link on the church Facebook page and
send one in an email to help you do this advocacy work if you feel led to do
so.
It took me between five
and ten minutes to personalize the form letter at the website, which was then
automatically sent to my congressional representatives. It’s a small thing, but it’s important. It’s a way to act prayerfully and faithfully.
As Teresa of Avila famously put it,
"Christ has no body now on earth but yours… no hands but yours… no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which God’s
compassion will look upon the world.
Yours are the feet with which God will go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which God will bless
others now."
We are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and
feet in the world.
When we respond to Christ’s
call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies
that allow hunger to persist.
We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to
bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who
are marginalized.
Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that
we will not have to do this alone. When
we call, the LORD will answer. When we
cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[2]
If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our
food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
Then our light shall rise in
the darkness.
This is a blessed promise and vision:
The LORD will guide you
continually,
and satisfy your needs in
parched places…
you shall be like a watered
garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be
rebuilt…
you shall be called the
repairer of the breach..
the restorer of streets to
live in.
So be it! Amen!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
October 16, 2016
Here's a link to Bread for the World. You are invited to contribute to their Offering of Letters to advocate with Congressional representatives to end hunger, with an emphasis on women and young children.
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