Bloody Knuckle Prayer

Luke 18:1-8

October 21, 2007, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rev. Dr. Thomas Long, the Bandy Professor of preaching at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta begins a sermon on our gospel reading with the following story:

When the late composer Leonard Bernstein was composing his famous contemporary Mass-—his rock, blues and jazz Mass—he said that he wanted it to be “an honest Mass.” What he meant was that he wanted the words and music of this Mass, this worship service, to ring true even to people who didn't see themselves as particularly religious, or churchy.

Well, as such, he knew that the most demanding moment in the Mass would not be “Credo,” “I believe.” Most people out there believe in the culture, at least believe vaguely, in God. The most demanding moment would not be Credo . It would be Oremus , “Let us pray.” Because to pray, to talk to God, we cannot hedge our bets about God, we have to move beyond vagueness and enter into a relationship with God.

Sure enough, in Bernstein's Mass, when it comes time to pray, a chorus begins to intone a traditional prayer of confession, but then a lone tenor voice soars up above the others to sing:

If I could, I'd confess. Good and loud, nice and slow Get this load off my chest Yes, but how Lord, I don't know.
What I say, I don't feel What I feel, I don't show What I show, isn't real What is real, Lord? I don't know. No, no, no, I don't know.

We are encouraged to pray often. We are encouraged to pray honestly, but as Bernstein intones, it is so hard. Often I stand here and say we need to be in prayer, we need to do it daily, but you and I both know we don’t do it like we should. And the reason is there are times, perhaps even most of the time when we don’t know if anybody is listening. As John Adams sings in the musical 1776:

Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?

We wonder if God does hear us. And, as Jesus points out to us in a rather dramatic way in the parable, it is a matter of faith, it is not a matter of how we pray, or the words we use. Let’s look at the parable and perhaps you’ll see what I mean.

To begin with, most of the modern translations have really toned down this parable. They have taken the stridency out of it.

A widow in ancient Judaism was to be taken care of by her deceased husband’s brothers. Now either they had not taken her in, or they were not giving her the money she deserved. Jesus does not say, but that would have been understood to be the background of the parable. The judge answers to no one, God or humans. We don’t know though if he is getting pressure from the brothers not to give in to the widow, or if he doesn’t believe women deserve justice, or if he just simply does not want to be bothered by the whole thing. Again Jesus does not give any background. The word translated in the NRSV into “wear me out” in the Greek literally means to “strike under the eye,” or “give a black eye to.” So this widow is close to coming to blows with the judge over his refusal to give her justice. Let me share with you the parable as it is told by Eugene Peterson in his paraphrase The Message.

^1-3Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, "There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: 'My rights are being violated. Protect me!'

^4-5"He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, 'I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won't quit badgering me, I'd better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I'm going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.'"

^6-8Then the Master said, "Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won't step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won't he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?"

How many times have we prayed a prayer expecting what we pray for to happen? More often than not, if it happens, great. If it doesn’t, well I tried, I’m not even sure God is there to hear it. In many ways western believers have trivialized prayer. As the Rev. Mark Sargent, a Methodist pastor in Atlanta writes:

To listen to some in the world today, prayer is easy. To listen to some, prayer is the way we get our spiritual goodies. Or to listen to others, prayer is the way we get our material goodies. Or for others, prayer is the answer place, where God clearly addresses all of our questions and places our souls forever at ease.

However prayer is mostly about deep important things in life, things that don’t get answered right away. It is about asking why there is injustice, and then demanding justice. Prayer is about being in relationship with the one we call God, even when we feel distant from God. It is about asking God to be God and bring about the Kingdom here on earth. It is about demanding God’s kingdom, we say it every Sunday – Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. It is about praying that prayer with heartfelt and heart-rending intensity. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Fred Craddock tells the following story about a group of ministers he was a part of one time. There was a “gathering of a group of people concerned with injustice and oppression in our society. An elderly black minister at that gathering read this parable, and in one sentence summarized the whole thing. "Until you have stood for years knocking at a locked door, your knuckles bleeding, you do not really know what prayer is."

You see, the thing about this kind of prayer is that you cannot say it in a vacuum. There has to be the one praying it and the one listening to it. That is the faith Jesus is talking about. It is a faith that will beat a path to God’s door, which one would not do if there was no door there to beat a path to. It is hard in our western world, because we are used to expecting things to happen now! But this is about praying, and waiting, and praying and waiting, and praying and waiting. Job knew this kind of prayer, he demanded an audience with God to put forth his case, and he finally got it, but it didn’t come easy. Do you think the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane came easy to him? I don’t imagine that that was the first time he prayed that prayer, God let this cup pass from me. That prayer started back when Jesus began to see the handwriting on the wall. According to the author of the Gospel of Luke “in anguish he (Jesus) prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” Sounds like bloody knuckle praying to me.

The widow told the judge – “Give me justice!” “Give me justice!” The widow wrote letters to the judge “Give me justice!” “Give me justice!” The widow caught up to the judge outside of the Broadway theater amongst the crowd of people, “Give me justice!” “Give me justice!” The widow walked into the restaurant where he was eating by candlelight, “Give me justice!” “Give me justice!” If that judge will finally give justice, how much more will your God give you justice? God will not drag God’s feet like the judge. But will the Son of humanity find that kind of persistent faith when he returns?

That’s the question. Are the knuckles of your prayer life calloused, or bloody, from the pounding? I know mine are not.

Amen

© 2007 Rev. Dr. Thomas T. Peters