Sermon

Praying with persistence

Scripture Text:

Luke 18:1-18

Sermon:

My childhood pastor told a story once, that a man came to her and told her that he couldn’t pray, that he didn’t feel he had a right to pray.  She told him that there is no such thing as a “right” to pray, that we are always welcome to begin to pray, at any time.  He wasn’t sure.  So she told him that she would pray for him, to help him. I feel like I know more people like this man than like the persistent widow in the gospel. I don’t know about you, but my family taught me not to impose myself on others!  And I sometimes find nagging people like the persistent widow a little obnoxious, actually, but Jesus offers the persistent as someone for us to admire… she is a parable, he says, “about our need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

My brother and I love to tell a story about my cousin Taylor, who, on a family reunion when he was about five years old, would get up at 7 in the morning, leave the cabin where he and his parents were staying, walk a block or two to our cabin, and come knocking on our bedroom doors asking if we wanted to play “Uno”! (which is a cardgame.) Now, playing Uno at 7am wasn’t exactly the fun time my teenage brother and I were looking for, but we loved our cousin, there he was, and then, we were already awake anyway.  So, we played Uno with him, because he was persistent!

Bu persistence isn’t always cute.  I confess, I feel uncomfortable when I see people panhandling or standing with signs by stoplights, asking for handouts or for a job… but they are being persistent.  A bit less of a noble example: do you ever choose not to answer your phone when a certain person is calling you? Because perhaps they talk a lot?  Perhaps they’re a bit persistent?  Being a sports fan can mean being persistent; and people seem to either love or loathe Cub fans for their indomitable persistence.

Jesus invites us to be persistent in our prayers.  Jesus invites us to nag God!   Which for me is a bit hard to think about, because I don’t like to bother people, and I guess I have this idea that I shouldn’t bother God, either.  But God isn’t a cranky, unjust judge. There is no such thing as having a right to pray. And God doesn’t only listen to the prayers of certain people. There are not things we’re allowed to pray for, and things we’re not.  God knows what we need, God knows what we don’t need, but I think most of all God invites us to pray because God craves being in conversation with us.

I’ve noticed that lots of people I know, including myself, don’t tend to pray about our own lives, especially not in terms of the big picture of our lives.  It’s so easy to pray for things like, “Please please please God, don’t let me be late today!”  Or to pray to get through the day.  Or to pray that a meeting goes well.  Or to pray over the lives of other people: people who are suffering, people who need healing, people who have died.  These are all noble things, and it’s good for us to pray for them.  Remember, there are no rules about what it’s alright to pray for and what not.

But how do you pray to God for yourself?  How much do you talk over the big questions of your life with God?  How often do you offer up to God what you feel you need in your life right now? Last week, I mentioned that the writer Anne Lamott likes to pray each morning, “help me help me help me,” and each night, “thank you thank you thank you.”

Which are great prayers, but they’re not conversations. And they could be ways of holding back from really letting it all hang out with God – from really sharing what’s going on in your life.

Once, I listened to a friend of mine, who is a committed Christian, talk intently about some decisions she was struggling to make about her future.  And I found myself asking her if she’d asked God about it.  And she looked at me for a second and said, surprised, “No, I haven’t!”  As if she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of this.  As if, perhaps, she thought God expected her to figure it out on her own.

Sometimes I carry and carry something on my heart, sure that I have to figure it out for myself when God really is right there, waiting for me to stop a while and talk it out.

I often forget to just sit down and check in with God about what’s going on in my life.  It’s so obvious to me, why rehash it all in prayer?   But when I do remember, I’ve found that amazing things can happen.  Do you know, once I actually asked God to send me a letter to tell me what to do next in my life; and God did!  I got a letter inviting me to apply for a fellowship to study in another country.  I applied and was even a finalist, but I didn’t make the final cut. So, there’s something about telling God the story of what’s going on that can open up insights and opportunities I’d missed before, or if nothing else, makes me feel closer to God than I did before.  Maybe my questions still aren’t answered, maybe my struggles still aren’t solved… but you know, then again, sometimes they are.

Or, sometimes if I’ve prayed for something already once, or maybe twice, or even maybe a few dozen times, it seems like enough.  God knows what’s one my mind and heart, why do I need to keep bringing it up in prayer?  Why should I be persistent?  God must want me to be quiet and just wait, right?  But that’s not what this parable is telling us.

Be persistent with God.  Ask for what you need.  There is no such thing as a “right” to pray.  Share with God the troubles that are on your mind.  Share with God the deep desires of your heart – tell God what you dream about.  Ask again and again – and consider laying it all out there for God.  And you may find yourself coming to new insights, or something will change in your life that you weren’t expecting.

Don’t be afraid to be a nag, at least not with God. God loves you and wants to help you. Hold up your cardboard sign, don’t be afraid of waking God up early to play Uno, learn from Cubs fans, and don’t give up. Be persistent.  Pray always and don’t lose heart.

Amen.

Uploaded on October 17, 2010 in by RevHeidi

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